Speaking of things in sidewalks…
Speaking of things in sidewalks, I have a poser for my readers.
I live on a typical Villeray side street, with light poles in the sidewalk at reasonable distances apart.
One of these lights has been out for a long time, creating a pool of darkness on my side. The immediate neighbourhood has a Facebook page, and neighbours have noted that emailing the borough and calling 311 hasn’t worked.
I also emailed them and got the same mysterious reply (in English!) that others have received in French: “Unfortunately, we cannot follow up on the request for the reason below: This request is under the responsibility of an organization other than the city. For more information, call 311.”
This light pole is placed in the sidewalk, same as all the others on the block. The pole is the same model as the rest, it isn’t inside the property line and there are no obvious anomalies in the layout there.
We can’t figure out why one lamp would be under someone else’s responsibility and, if so, who it could be.
What do we try next?
carswell 11:02 on 2023-09-03 Permalink
How frustrating! Did you or any of the other neighbourhood Facebookies actually call 311? Someone at the city must know under whose jurisdiction the streetlight falls. If not, try escalating to the media? A La Presse or mocking JdeM article might prompt action.
Nicholas 11:25 on 2023-09-03 Permalink
Some cities own their lights and some cities have lights owned by Hydro. It seems Montreal owns them based on some news articles, but even if this one light is owned by Hydro, Hydro will not take a request to fix it from the public: it has to come from the municipality. carswell makes a good suggestion; emailing your elected officials may also help.
Kate 11:27 on 2023-09-03 Permalink
I think the next thing would be to email the councillor. The light pole is not the one closest to my place, so I’ll suggest that to the person who initiated the discussion, whose address is right beside the dead light.
Thank you both.
dhomas 14:13 on 2023-09-03 Permalink
What’s worked for me is opening a request on the Montreal app on my phone. When the request is closed (often without any corrective action), I call 311 and ask for a follow-up. They usually have notes and what happened in the handling of the ticket. They also usually take action this way.
Chris 14:59 on 2023-09-03 Permalink
The system is pretty Kafkaesque sometimes.
Some public garbage bins at a plaza near me are often overflowing, literally full, with trash falling off the top onto the sidewalk. Calling 311 will get them emptied that one time, but it never gets fixed systemically. Yesterday, a city worker was emptying a nearby trashcan, I approached her, thanked her for her work, and told her about the overflowing ones 30 metres away. She said: “and you want me to do someone else’s job?” I was confused. She explained her job is to empty *park* trash cans, not other ones. That’s a different department you see. So despite being 30m away, working for the city, having a truck, gloves, shovel, and garbage bags, she just wasn’t having it. It’s the kind of stuff that makes people hate unions.
Ian 15:29 on 2023-09-03 Permalink
Part of that is how this city works. Same reason traffic cops just give tickets, yiu can practically anything else in front of them and they don’t care.
Other cities have unions too, but you don’t see the same bureaucratic siloing from city workers elsewhere.
DisgruntledGoat 15:52 on 2023-09-03 Permalink
Thanks for posting this, I love slice-of-life city content and its inherent absurdity!
Kevin 17:23 on 2023-09-03 Permalink
This isn’t just Montreal- I have encountered the same “not my job, and not my job to find out” regarding lamp posts in other cities.
I concluded the only way to find out who was responsible would be to chop down the post
Tim S. 20:21 on 2023-09-03 Permalink
@Chris: I once asked a parking agent driving down my street to ticket a car parked too close to an intersection. She couldn’t: she only ticketed cars blocking street cleaners.
To be fair, rather than blaming unions I might also ask what constraints the bosses might be putting on the workers: emptying a trash can 30 meters away might take five minutes, which doesn’t seem like much once but repeated a few times might mean they won’t finish their allotted tasks within time. On the other hand, building in a margin of error for little extra tasks can be seen as inefficient when repeated across the entire city workforce. So I dunno.
DeWolf 22:54 on 2023-09-03 Permalink
It’s not unions and it’s not Montreal. Part of reporting on civic issues in Hong Kong meant understanding how different government departments could constantly pass the buck.
Leisure and Cultural Services Department: “Oh that’s not our problem, it’s the Lands Department.”
Lands Department: “No actually that’s the Marine Department.”
Marine Department: “We have no record of what you’re talking about. Check with the Home Affairs Bureau.”
walkerp 08:28 on 2023-09-04 Permalink
You can call Hydro-Quebec about the pole.
Kate 10:51 on 2023-09-04 Permalink
DeWolf: I bet it was the same in ancient Rome, if not in Mohenjo-Daro or Cahokia.
walkerp: I’ve advised the person who initially posted – whose address is beside the dead street light – to try Hydro-Quebec, but keeping in mind Nicholas’s warning that this may involve two bureaucracies…
Meezly 12:31 on 2023-09-04 Permalink
I just reported two long-standing potholes in my area using the city’s online service. It was very simple, but required that I take a photo (fair enough). Will see how it goes!
Looks like there are a plethora of problems one can report online, ie. cleanliness, broken streetlight, etc. if one doesn’t like using the phone.
DeWolf 18:30 on 2023-09-04 Permalink
I’m a big fan of the Montreal app. It has never failed me. Every time I report a pothole, or a pile of randomly dumped garbage, it gets fixed. Sometimes it takes a couple of weeks for the potholes but they’re always done.
Mark Côté 10:04 on 2023-09-05 Permalink
There’s a tree growing in an alley next door that has branches extending well into my (landlord’s) property. It’s great shade but has a slowly dying branch right above my deck. The landlord told me that the city won’t do anything about it because this alley, which provides access to rear driveways to other houses, isn’t owned by the city but instead some sort of numbered corporation. There shouldn’t have been any trees planted on this alley, but I guess some long-term nearby owner either planted one or let a wild one grow. Apparently finding anyone responsible for dealing with this tree has been very challenging.