The mayor wants to see the current head of the OCPM dismissed from the position and its funds frozen. Similar from CBC.
Updates from November, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Well-known mobster Gregory Woolley was shot dead Friday morning in a parking lot in St‑Jean‑sur‑Richelieu. There hasn’t been any arrest.
An item from May 2022 warned Woolley that he should be careful, because the house next door to his in St‑Jean was shot up, presumably in mistake for his. But he stuck around.
Update from TVA: Woolley was killed while with his wife and their newborn baby, neither of whom were hurt.
More from TVA: The old “code of honour” is said to be slipping, killing a man in the presence of wife and kid having once been considered an outrage. And what consequences might this loss of a mob strongman have on the city?
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Kate
The Gazette has a piece about how West Island officials want another north-south traffic corridor, adorned with the claim that it “would help alleviate traffic on existing main arteries.”
All traffic studies show that it would have the exact opposite effect, but it would keep some people happy till it jammed up like all the others a few minutes after being opened.
Nicholas
“With the REM and with the increasing need for moving people environmentally, and encouraging people to use public transit, it would make sense [to build more roads]” is one of the funniest quotes I’ve read all year. Good job, Pointe Claire mayor, keep that precious wooded area next to a REM station natural by ensuring it’s surrounded by parking lots and arterials, not dense development.
Ian
To be fair when the work on the île-aux-tourtes and jacques-bizard bridges are finally done it will improve flow from off-island a lot, both leading directly to the REM terminus at Sainte-Marie.
I can’t really imagine how a new highway from île-Bizard to Pointe-Claire through Kirkland is going to achieve anything other than more development opportunities for Broccolini … which may actually be the entire point, like building the Ste-Anne station north of the 40. I’m beginning to think that the REM is doing more to contribute to sprawl than anything.
Blork
Yeah. But — arguably — if the REM takes an area that is already sprawled and densifies it, then it’s not really sprawl, is it? After all, we need more housing, and the city center is already pretty full. Sprawl would be if the REM went out into farmland and countryside and caused it to build up with housing, but if you’re just densifying a suburb then it’s sort of the opposite of sprawl.
Now back to our topic…
Jim
Blork- the REM defintely is encouraging sprawl – the Ste-Marie station is past the last major part of the suburbs north of the 40. Everrything north of it is currently green space, including some farmland. Watch that all slowly disappear over the next 10 years. Same thing on the south shore – have a look at what’s on the the south side of the Brossard terminus – nothing but soon to be previously green space.
Ian
Exactly. The vast majority of the population west of St Jean is south of the 20. West of St Jean the REM runs north of the 40.
DeWolf
Except most of the land north of the 40 at Ste-Anne station is part of the Grand Parc de l’Ouest, including the farmland. There aren’t many development opportunities near that station, but there are many around the other West Island stations.
Ian
There’s lots of land for sale around there and lots of new developments. The mayor of Ste Anne was vocally supportive of increasing the tax base by developing out that way. There are lots of new developments along Ste Marie from The Ste Marie Exit to the ecomuseum.
Anyway all you have to do is look at a map and you see the grand parc (of course) excludes the Ste Anne industrial park, and all the land east, south and northwest of it all the way to Pierrfonds besides a preserved corridor along Ans de L’Orme. St-Jean to Kirkland is already built up and the plan I’m sure is to do the same as far as tehy’re allowed to the west.
anton
Well, the REM wasnt exactly planned to mitigate traffic in the West Island, due to bad station placement – they’re not integrated with the north south blvds, so won’t strengthen them as bus corridors. I tried to pencil the problem at the Bape back when and propose one possible alternative, see slides 13-22 on this presentation.
bumper carz
As the areas near the REM stations densify, there will be more and more pressure to remove some of this low-density sprawl along the West Island’s ruined waterfronts in order to build proper natural parks.
It won’t be easy to expropriate these properties because they often have multiple-acre lawns that will cost the government a lot of money to appropriate and then return to parkland.
Of course, if flood control demands that it be seized… Floods could end up creating Montreal’s nicest suburban parks. Perhaps tax incentives (doubling taxes on waterfront properties in order to fund expropriations and house re-location) could be used?
Faiz Imam
One the only reason for the existence of st-anne station is as a way for off island commuters to access the REM, as others have said its surrounded by protected green space and will never be built on.
Also im very impressed by the fact that there is very little parking around that station. There was a opportunity to make it Brossard station V2 and built a thousand parking spots, but instead it will be bus focused.
Using buses to get off island residents to the city is a huge win.
Ian
Qatzi, ste Anne doesn’t have multi acre lawns. It’s a little town, built right to the water. Your weird préjudice is making you spout nonsense again.
Faiz, you are mistaken. The Ste Anne station is not surrounded by protected green space. It abuts the Ste Anne industrial park and there are new developments already just across from the ecomuseum and more going in between Kirkland and Morgan.
PO
Somewhat unrelated to the conversation above, but I’m still sad that no one ever thought to extend the REM to cross south and have a stop at John Abbott / Macdonald and maybe even terminate closer to downtown Ste-Anne. Those are both ripe with a population that would have been well served by frequent service toward the east:
McGill students who hop between campuses
McGill students who live downtown but commute to Macdonald daily (there are a lot)
West island students who otherwise all drive to John Abbott
People without cars in Ste-Anne (there are plenty)
People in Ste-Anne who commute into downtown but need more frequent service than the Vaudreuil line
Student population what wants to party downtown on the evenings and weekends
Large elderly population who don’t drive
People living closer to downtown who want to make a tourist trip to lovely Ste-Anne
Anyone in Ste-Anne needing to get to the airport (the 211 and EXO trains don’t really get you there)They could have built either of those stations without a single parking spot and they’d have been busy regardless.
How I wish they’d just brute-force a pair of tracks along the current Vaudreuil-Dorion EXO corridor and put a new REM like along that corridor…
MarcG
PO: I think your observations illustrate well that the REM wasn’t built to serve the present reality but rather to create a new one.
Kate
PO and MarcG: I moved your comments here because they were originally posted to the Gregory Woolley item. I think this one was what you both intended.
Ian
For qatzi, Sainte Anne de Bellevue isn’t some ticky-tacky mid-century modern suburb, it was founded in 1703 and incorporated as a municipality in 1878.
Worth noting, besides Sainte Anne’s actual residents, there’s also Macdonald high school adjacent to John Abbott/Macdonald campus, with about 1000 students plus teachers, administration, and support staff.
John Abbott College has 6500 full-time students and 2000 part-time students, over 300 teachers, plus administration, support staff, and security.
MCGill’s FAES has undergradutate and graduate students across 10 academic units with 6 research centres, as well as support staff, administration, and security.
Let’s say 10 000 people coming to Macdonald campus every day. Imagine if we could make public transit more convenient and reliable than cars. It would transform the area dramatically. All this talk of new highways would be moot.
Kate
Footnote to Ste-Anne: François Legault’s ancestry has been there since 1800 and possibly earlier.
(I set out to figure out whether Legault had some indigenous ancestry, as he has claimed, but found nothing that seems likely.)
Nicholas
The current mayor of Pointe-Claire is not suggesting building this road to densify, as he specifically ran against the last mayor in 2021 to stop the densification that mayor was pushing. If you look at the area southwest of Hymus and St John there are thousands of units, some done, some not yet started but permitted. Some are so new you can’t see them on the satellite but can on street view, or vice versa. The new mayor immediately put a pause to everything not already permitted, and he and the new council are loudly opposed to densification. The road is because he’s sad that sometimes for a few minutes at rush hour he has to wait more than one light cycle to get through the intersections on St John. And as Kate says, the induced demand from the new road will just make everything worse.
That whole area is actually doing pretty well. The 485 provides great service to Lionel-Groulx until 8 pm weekdays, and other buses provide a decent network. The REM being at Fairview makes sense, both as a big anchor (and bus hub) and also because, theoretically, if they actually ran frequent service on the Vaudreuil Exo line most people to the south of the 40 would go there. Unfortunately transportation planning is backwards in this province and country, but Pointe Claire and other areas nearby could really thrive if people just let it.
Ian
“The 485 provides great service to Lionel-Groulx until 8 pm weekdays”
LOL it takes an hour …and only runs until 8pm.qatzelok
@ Ian: “Sainte Anne de Bellevue isn’t some ticky-tacky mid-century modern suburb…”
**almost chokes on cucumber sandwich**
No it certainly isn’t.
Did you know that “Blainville” is actually an Anishanabe word that means “fake history.”
Neither did I.Ian
Oh heavens, qatzi. Get out of your mother’s basement & touch some grass, you’re being pathetic.
Nicholas
Ian: “LOL it takes an hour …and only runs until 8pm.” Oh really, which bus run takes an hour? The dozen I just checked take 30 to 45 minutes between Lionel Groulx and St John and Hymus, depending on the time of day and direction, and I’ve often done it 5 minutes faster than the schedule. After 8, like I said, it stops and you need to 211 and change at Dorval Circle or St John to one of a number of buses (201, 202, 203, 204), and you’re probably looking at 45 minutes to an hour unless you get a good connection. The STM has really improved West Island service over the last decade or so, even as other bus service has regressed. Maybe if you responded about this the way you did about St Anne (i.e. doing more than a cursory reaction and actually checking your facts) you would have learned something today.
Ian
I travel from Mile End to Ste Anne 5 days a week. Admittedly, i was thinking of LG to the Ste Anne terminus.
In any case bus service that ends at 8 pm is only useful for commuters, and even then only people that work regular day shifts.
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Kate
The city promised to build its own animal pound more than ten years ago when scandal broke about the practices at Berger Blanc, to which a lot of boroughs contract for stray animals. It’s still in the process of creating this pound, now promised for 2026. But, in a familiar refrain, costs are rising.
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Kate
The orange line is down between Henri‑Bourassa and Beaubien because of water leaking into the tunnel between Sauvé and Crémazie.
The yellow line got off to a slow start Friday morning, but is running normally now.
Uatu
The REM also had a couple of outages this month. This should be enough evidence that more transit funds are needed
jeather
It might have been officially down only on the east side there, but it was stopped for 5-10 minutes on the west side, too.
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Kate
Weekend notes from CityCrunch, TVA, Sarah’s Weekend List, CultMTL.
Highways to heck this weekend.
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Kate
La Presse discovered that the city is refusing to replace burned‑out lightbulbs in its municipal buildings, citing budget
restraintsconstraints.However, city hall is cancelling the automatic indexation of salaried officials’ pay for next year, also to save money.
Ian
Citing budget restraints, or budget constraints?
Two very different meanings …Kate
Constraints, I suppose.
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