Exo is tired of having trucks smash into its Westmount overpass on Greene Avenue, meaning trains need to halt while the structure is inspected. They’re adding a device to deter collisions although a sketch of what exactly “de vastes poutres” look like would be interesting.
I also wonder whether they’re considering adding something like this on Guy Street, where truck drivers have also been known not to read the sign saying 3,7 m.
Photographer Brian Merrett has died. As told in this obituary by Linda Gyulai, his work was key in the preservation of several of this city’s architectural treasures.
It seems strange to provide an obituary to a photographer that doesn’t include any links to his work and just one photo …
Here are a few from the McCord: https://www.musee-mccord-stewart.ca/en/blog/brian-merrett-presence-past/
Good link, Ian. Thanks!
Photojournalists are gods, in my books.
So much of our historic memory is completely reliant on photojournalism.
I’ve always been guided in my photography to tell a story with the picture, and a good photojournalist can capture the essence of a situation with one image. Then the editor of course gets to choose which story to tell, which is something else completely.
Several hundred supporters of Palestine gathered at Dorchester Square on Sunday and marched west along René‑Lévesque.
terrorists vs terrorists.
keep this shit out of north america
Am I supposed to pick one side to be able to continue posting here?
I care about Montrealers first, Canadians second, Worldwide garbage a distant third. And by distant I mean I absolutely don’t give a shit. I’m absolutely disgusted by these people showing up for a protest about this conflict and not for our own local issues. Send ’em back where they belong!
denpanosekai, I posted the item simply as a report of an event in town, as I often do with protests and demonstrations. I don’t think I implied a side nor does anyone have to take any position to post here.
My view: terrible things have been done on both sides, but we’re not going to sort it out on a blog about Montreal.
Don’t think for a minute that the Hamas attack wasn’t orchestrated (actively or passively) by Russia, China, and/or Iran in order to distract from Ukraine and Taiwan (including diverting arms and financing away from those conflicts) and to ruin the Saudi-Israel cooperation. Say what you want about the treatment of Gaza and other Palestinians, but this is very clearly a manipulation by others. Just sayin’
Also: yay religion!
@denpanosekai for somebody who “absolutely doesn’t give a shit” you certainly have a lot to say on the subject.
Err, “Send ’em back where they belong”? Easy there, cowboy, those are the precious Montrealers you claim to care so much about.
Yes, Chris, we know you hate religion. And that this is yet another opportunity to show that you hate religion. It’s getting tiring.
EmilyG it is indeed tiresome that these religious zealots continue their crusade, they and their ideology deserve to be opposed.
But the Middle East strife is about territory, and only secondarily about religion. The history there is based on the UK making a promise and a decision about a piece of land to which they had no legitimate claim, and this is the fallout. They’re not fighting about theology.
Montreal has a number of public art works devoted one way or another to peace, and the idea that if we all try to get along perhaps we will live in a better world.
https://artpublicmontreal.ca/en/?s=peace
Imagine trying to build a bike path along the Israel-Palestine border.
Orr, that search comes up with some odd results. I wouldn’t’ve considered the Edward VII statue on Phillips Square a peace monument, nor the statue of St Joseph at the Oratory.
It’s a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia over oil diominance fuelling this – no pun intended.
Atrocities by whomever aren’t excused, but it’s worth noting that war funding is usually about geopolitical power, not religion, especially in this modern era of asymmetric wars.
In the end Israel will never give up punishing the Palestinians for existing after the Israel/Arab war of 1967, and the Palestinians will never give up resenting the Israelis.
The BBC had an explainer on why they don’t use the term terrorists.
headline: “Why BBC doesn’t call Hamas militants ‘terrorists'”
And it’s not because they are “defending them.” Words matter.
More than 100mm of rain has fallen on the city since this storm system arrived. And more is expected.
Sweet rainbow over Mile End just now, a nice reprieve from the storminess.
https://pixelfed.social/p/Greynotgrey/616752650020992930
Lovely, Ian. Thank you.
I’ve seen a sweeeet rainbow over Verdun. And also several flooded streets!
Double-rainbow over the Ile-des-Soeurs bridge earlier with stalled REM trains under them!
when you look closely at a double rainbow, you will notice that the second rainbow’s colours are in reverse order from the first rainbow’s.
Tht’s a very interesting fact that I hadn’t observed, thank you! Refraction is cool 🙂
Global talks to an Urgences‑Santé paramedic about the rising drug overdose problem in the city.
Blork 18:16 on 2023-10-08 Permalink
I blinked when I saw “more than 120 delays” of 30 minutes or more last year, thinking “Whaaa? Trucks are hitting that thing several times every week? But then I realized that they are likely counting number of train delays not the number of actual truck crashes. So for example, if one truck crash into the overpass delays 10 trains, that single crash counts as “10 delays.” But still it seems like a lot!
Ian 19:08 on 2023-10-08 Permalink
They should just ban trucks on that road, problem solved.
Or put up dangling chains and plates like the Atwater Tunnel so the trucks can get a heads up before they wreak havoc on the infrastructure.
Kate 20:03 on 2023-10-08 Permalink
Ian, the item says trucks are banned on Greene, but they use it anyway.
Ian 20:07 on 2023-10-08 Permalink
My bad, I meant they should enforce it 😉
Traffic slowing like bulb-outs and lane dividers would be especially useful here as trucks in particular would have a hard time maneuvering through it – but so would a couple of cops just sitting around ticketing every truck that is on the street, just like they lay speed traps at the end of every month. Once people know what to expect they won’t try to take the shortcut anymore. Some traffic slowing would then act as (hopefully) sufficient disincentive for any truckers that didn’t realize that they shouldn’t try to drive oversized trucks under low bridges.
Chris 22:22 on 2023-10-08 Permalink
Even simpler, a couple hundred bucks for high quality cameras, open source license plate scanning software, a connection to the government licence plate database, and presto: automatic tickets for trucks going where they shouldn’t.
Ephraim 23:07 on 2023-10-08 Permalink
You mean something like the infamous https://www.youtube.com/@11foot8plus8/videos which was raised to 12 foot 4 and still has idiots hitting the bridge. You can sit and watch AC units fly off the top, trucks opened like it’s a can opener and more!
Chris 23:25 on 2023-10-08 Permalink
Ephraim, not sure who you’re replying to, but if it was to me: no, I mean detect all licence plates (with cameras and software) and give tickets to *all* trucks using Greene, as they are supposed to be banned.
Nicholas 10:17 on 2023-10-09 Permalink
The local paper says they have documented 18 strikes in the past three years, as residents email them photos all the time (but there are probably more). The article from September has photos of what exists today but said it was unclear about details of what the infrastructure would be, though I think it’ll be like what they installed at the bridge Ephraim links to (the only solution that works). This solution shouldn’t stop trucks getting hit nor them blocking the street, but it will protect the bridge. But seeing how drivers will ignore anything and everything to drive where they want, there’s no way to stop them from driving into some hard structure, so better it damage a protective structure than the bridge.
Chris 10:46 on 2023-10-09 Permalink
>But seeing how drivers will ignore anything and everything to drive where they want, there’s no way to stop them…
But we can fine them, even up to the cost of repairing the damage they cause.
Ephraim 14:54 on 2023-10-09 Permalink
@Chris – No, not to you, personally. It was to the point that driver’s just don’t read. To be honest, I think that most people are so inundated with information today that people just turn off that part of the brain and we need to function at the point of asking if people are functionally illiterate willfully. They miss the most obvious signals because there is more data in a day than people used to process in a lifetime.
jeather 17:20 on 2023-10-09 Permalink
The good news is that intersection has been closed for a while and will stay closed for a while because of all the construction.
Nicholas 09:26 on 2023-10-12 Permalink
There are more details of the upgrades on Westmount’s website.