The Gazette got Adam Gopnik to speak up against the tuition hike.
Updates from October, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Pointe Claire’s plan to raze the remaining forest near Fairview for a condo project could threaten 35 species.
DeWolf
Isn’t the CF proposal to develop the mall parking lot? Forgive me if I don’t trust anything Tim Thomas says, he will do anything to protect Pointe-Claire’s environmentally destructive single-family sprawl at all costs.
The woods should be preserved but they aren’t under imminent threat, this is just cynical posturing by a reactionary mayor.
su
I seem to recall the involvement of Ivanhoe Cambridge (real estate arm of our pension plan) in the town house phase of this project. The townhouse phase would be where the forest externality now is.
Ian
@su you are correct in your recollection. Cadillac Fairview is also involved. As in most development the main drivers are insanely wealthy real estate management outfits.
@DeWolf I can tell you haven’t been to Pointe Claire lately. There are actual (gasp) apartment buildings there. Not everyone owns a car. There are even (shudder) not-wealthy people. It’s not all smoke trees and SUVs despite what qatzi would have us believe.
DeWolf
Yes, I’m aware that apartment buildings exist in Pointe-Claire, just as there are single-family homes in downtown Montreal. Doesn’t change the fact that most of its streets don’t have sidewalks and its mayor is actively fighting against the redevelopment of an enormous parking lot into high-density housing.
Pointe-Claire’s median income is $92,000, about $32,000 more than Montreal. These aren’t working-class folks.
Ian
… but there are working class folks that live there, and lower class enclaves. Ignoring them not only makes their lives harder but also adds to the general classist fallacy of urban planning..
I teach in the west island, I can assure you there are areas of Pointe Claire that rival The most desperate areas of Lachine.
I’ve had P-C students drop out because they couldn’t reliably have bus fare.
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Kate
A judgement was handed down Monday on the activities of Sylvie Dagenais, initially a secretary at the CHUM, but who attained a position where she, along with her husband and son, were able to skim $1.7 million out of the coffers of the CHUM cancer research fund. She was caught and charged in 2019.
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Kate
A power failure brought the orange line down Tuesday at 4:30 pm and it’s expected to come back around 6:30 pm.
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Kate
The city is banning heating and cooking by gas in all new buildings.
Mozai
Not just greenhouse gas emissions, there’s been concerns about carbon monoxide and excess nitrogen dioxide w/ asthma.
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Kate
Michel Vautour, who kidnapped a teenager in Outremont in 2020, has been declared a dangerous offender and will be locked up indefinitely. The kidnapping, which was thwarted by the resourcefulness of the victim, followed previous convictions for sex crimes. Authorities feel Vautour is a high risk for reoffense.
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Kate
The fire department’s project to inspect the city’s older buildings is to continue. Not surprisingly, inspections were kicked into high gear after the fatal Old Montreal fire in March. The project is called “Opération VULCAIN” although this item doesn’t say whether this is an acronym.
Item ends with a warning about the fire hazard caused by lithium-ion batteries.
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Kate
Some residents and merchants in St‑Henri near the site of a new safe drug consumption site and homeless shelter are not happy, especially since it’s very close to an elementary school. They held a protest recently.
Ian
Imagine when they find out that people do drugs all over the place.
I thought having a centre wouldl be considered a good thing as it takes the drug use off the street. I guess I’ll have to brush up on NIMBY logic.
Chase
Ian, unfortunately these safe injection sites bring the dealers right into the area.
https://nationalpost.com/feature/inside-the-battle-over-unsafe-injection-crime-and-murder
Kate
Not sure what I think, because I don’t know what the social work types actually see.
Does the presence of Cactus attract drug users (more than the average distribution of them, I mean) to a certain area? If that’s the case, is it not likely that this new centre will also create a hot spot of drug users around that area?
Ian
I was listening to the CBC (which I trust more than the National Post as they are a reactionary right wing outrage mill) and even the SPVM, not noted for being touchy-feely leftist types, think having safe consumption sites is a good idea as it take users off the streets.
That said, anyone who thinks there aren’t already users & drug dealers in St Henri lives in a very thick bubble of privilege, lol.
Ian
…also worth noting this site is meant for smoked drugs, it is not a safe injection site. Even the Gazette messed that up reposting outrage quotes from locals scared of finding syringes in local parks.
At least do basic research to temper your NIMBYism.
Kate
Ian, I recall one report saying this facility is different from Cactus in that it will allow both injected and inhaled drugs. Can you link to something clearly stating it’s not for injectables?
…Seeing “supervised injection and inhalation site” mentioned here and there.
Ian
To clarify, as I understand it, the “drop-in” aspect is the supervised consumption centre on the first floor meant for smoking drugs specifically. The Centre isn’t being super clear about it to be fair, as there will be safe injection allowed on site although it seems like that is meant to accomodate tenants, some of whom are simply homeless, while some are homeless and using drugs, some of them using injectable drugs. The line is blurred since some people smoke the same drugs others shoot up, but even so there is no safe drug-smoking space even though the majority of street addicts smoke their drugs.
The pearl-clutchers are making it sound like the safe injection site downtown, which is a totally different situation and space.
In any case it’s not like there aren’t already drug users in the area. Anyone walking from Ste Catherine to Notre Dame along Atwater at any time of day or night will see clear evidence of it.
Blork
Please note that this “site” isn’t just a little room somewhere where a few people can smoke their crack. This is an entire 36-unit apartment complex for housing un-housed addicts. No mention of whether or not there is any supervision or attenuating rules or whatever. Just a legal 36-apartment crack house NEXT TO A SCHOOL.
This isn’t NIMBYism. Regardless of how you feel about this kind of building, it should not be built right next to a school. Full stop. In other cities with similar buildings they are at least 600 metres from the nearest school (according to the Global report), not just over a chain-link fence from the playground.
I’m trying to imaging what the living conditions in and around a 36-unit apartment building specifically built for active drug addicts will be like, and I cannot conjure a positive image. (Remember: this isn’t a building for addicts in recovery; it’s for addicts who are actively using.) That doesn’t mean such people are disposable, but FFS there’s a way to deal with these situations and this isn’t it.
Blork
Follow-up: reading the article Ian linked to causes me to clutch my pearls a bit less firmly, but it still does not seem like the kind of facility that should be right across a chain-link fence from a school playground.
Nicholas
Blork, 600 m from a school basically means it can only be in industrial areas, suburbs or a small slice of downtown (unless being near colleges doesn’t work). I just went to look at various boroughs around downtown, and basically everywhere is within 500 m of a school. People also want them away from parks/playgrounds, which would eliminate much of what’s left. Maybe the new Cité du Havre development could work, but otherwise we’re looking at far from services (Marché Central, Angrignon, suburbs).
It’s also not just over a chain-link fence from the playground nor right next to the school. The building is between Atwater and Greene, next to the Petro-Canada. The school is two (short) blocks over, on Rose de Lima, which is the side the school playground is on. The entrance to the daycare at the school is on Bédard, which is one (short) block away. Less than a block away, across Greene/the pedestrian plaza, is a public park with a playground.
This is very close to a school and a playground, I understand that. Maybe it’s not the best place for it. But we do have a moral obligation to help both people without homes and people who are addicted to drugs and it has to be somewhere. The city could establish a standard exclusion zone (50 m? 100 m? 200 m? from schools? and parks? and community centres? and daycares? and…), but it will quickly make most of the city vanish from maps of potential locations, and then many sites will just not be suitable or available, and then there will still be complaints from people near the remaining sites. For all the stories we see about places for homeless being destroyed, at least we have one story in the opposite direction.
walkerp
Who gives a shit if it’s next to a school? The kids will learn about life when they are neighbours with people struggling with addiction. Do a real risk analysis and you will see that our old friend cars are a far greater danger for our children than a bunch of sad addicts.
I’d also like to see some real journalism and data on what the entire neighbourhood feels about it, not just the loudest voices whose messages appeal already to the click-generating fear that is the addiction of most editors.
Blork
Nicholas, we’re both wrong. I was going by the CTV video, which definitely shows the building right across from the playground (see inset in image below). But it’s not a chain-link fence and there’s a very narrow street there too.
But it is MUCH closer than your description implies. Literally a stone’s throw. While the school’s address is on Rose de Lima, its playground is on the other side, which brushes right up against the new building. (The map shows it as a park, but if you go there you see it is clearly the school’s playground.)
See image: https://blork.org/pix/st-henri.png
I’m not going to say any more about it because it’s not my neighbourhood so it’s none of my business. But I do think there is such a thing as a not-good location for things. For example, you could argue we have a moral obligation to provide half-way houses for men who are getting out of jail after assaulting their intimate partners, but would you put that next door to a women’s shelter? Would you put a clinic for recovering gambling addicts in the basement of a casino?
MarcG
It’s a public park that the school uses as a playground because their actual playground is a parking lot. The exact same thing happens near where I live – they use the park for recess and even phys-ed classes.
jeather
The park is locked up for school use only on school days, though. (Not that an adult — or a child — couldn’t bypass what is essentially a low fence, but it isn’t open for public use when it is a playground for a school.)
jeather
I have been to other parks where schools go to hang out or have recess but are open for public access during school hours (the park on Circle road comes to mind).
MarcG
That’s interesting, I wonder if it’s a new policy? How do they fence of the 2 large openings on each side? https://maps.app.goo.gl/93fuuAEJvQM2w48V8 https://maps.app.goo.gl/QJSqmHXPsPiFJqqv8
jeather
They locked on low, portable fences to the rest of the fence. (I once tried to go there with kids on an EMSB ped day that wasn’t a CSDM ped day, they had different gym classes out there.)
You can see an example here when it wasn’t locked but the fence was there: https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.4794102,-73.5784067,3a,75y,316.3h,88.92t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sWIpfapbhCSacyeASXLQcHg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
My memory is that one of the signs also specifically says that but I could be misremembering.
JaneyB 11:05 on 2023-10-26 Permalink
He’s such a wonderful writer. His book ‘Paris to the Moon’ about his sabbatical in Paris was fantastic – subtle observations on culture and life, always thoughtful and often hilarious.