La Presse’s Émilie Côté is doing a series on what’s happening, or has happened, to the city’s old cinemas. This week she looked at the condo conversion of the Snowdon Theatre.
I missed blogging last week’s – Le Château on St‑Denis at Bélanger, which now has both a church and a trapeze school inside.
Weekend notes from CityCrunch, Sarah’s Weekend List, CultMTL.
Controversial radio personality Doc Mailloux has died after a long career culminating in a notorious stint on radio. He was 74.
So, in this case “controversial” (CTV’s term, not Kate’s) is lame media speak for racist, malpractitioner, sexist and generally vile person?
Urbania has a curious portrait.
Curious bordering on creepy. But thanks!
Good riddance.
Carswell
Other media use the same term, and apparently enough people like this person that there was a petition of support when he lost his medical license.
Haters gonna hate.
I don’t think it’s being a “hater” to recognize this guy for a mysognist, racist quack – being popular doesn’t make you not responsible for your own words and actions.
I was obliquely referring to Doc Mailloux’s supporters as haters.
I’ll try to be more clear in the future.
The city has announced it’s soliciting proposals for a social housing project on the southern section of the Îlot Voyageur. The project could include as many as 700 units.
It’s a tough area. It would be nice to see more 3 and 4 bedroom apartments in the area specifically because you have students, who will want to share to make it more affordable. Building some modular buildings, so it’s more affordable. Could they build some intentionally designed rooming houses on St-Hubert for social housing? It’s connected to the metro, so desirable that way. But the panhandling and drugs from the park are problematic. Also the area has a number of hotels… could the city authorize a large hotel on part of this land, which is connected to the bus station and trade it for a hotel’s land and building that is elsewhere? There are 2 or 3 hotels on St-Hubert… if they built a brand new hotel, metro connected on Berri, the city could get hotel/land on St-Hubert and convert the hotel to a rooming house.
The owner of the Passé Composé restaurant in the Village has closed his business, planning to move elsewhere. Neither of these items puts a name on the owner, but says social media posts have complained of fire, theft and vandalism, and coping with syringes and excrement around the area.
A man was charged this week with inciting hatred toward an identifiable group. Houssem Hammami is alleged to have made anti‑Jewish statements on social media.
In tangentially related news, the city has rejected the idea of stationing armed security at Jewish schools.
Urgences-Santé received a high number of 911 calls Thursday, falls on ice being blamed for the surge.
Government issued N95s and crampons. There, I just solved the ER crisis.
Are you attacking my freedom to wear sneakers and no mask? You monster!
You joke but my wife went for a walk the other day and was yelled at by someone in a car who was apparently very concerned that she was overdressed for the weather. These snowflakes can’t even handle seeing other people be comfortable, let alone safe or cared for.
A study from the GPS company TomTom has found that, during rush hour, cycling is almost as fast as driving because of traffic jams. But this isn’t new news.
Cycling downtown is way faster if you blow through the reds all the time 😉
During peak rush hour, walking can also be just as fast in many cases.
Walking is certainly faster than taking the bus in the downtown core during rush hour.
I live in Plateau and I had a job in the banking district; I’d usually take the Metro, during rush-hour, but one day I timed myself walking home and it was the same length of time. Maybe because of how often I had to wait for the next train because the one pulling into the station was full.
@Mozai Just curious as to what’s considered the banking district these days. Are you referring to the old district (St-Jacques in Old Montreal)? The head offices and other major buildings are more scattered these days: Royal Bank in PVM, National Bank on Boubou, Scotia Bank on Sherbrooke, Desjardins in the Quartier des spectacles, CIBC on Dorchester Square and dog knows where Laurentian Bank has got to.
The Laurentian Bank has been withdrawing itself from physical existence. When I moved to Villeray there was a nice solid bank building at the corner of Jarry and St‑Denis, originally a City & District location. Then that branch closed (the space stayed empty for a long time, and is now a bakery). I was shooed over to a branch in Little Italy, which moved once, and then, one day, when I was in the area and wanted to use their ATM, I discovered it had vanished without trace, without informing its customers in any way.
Now if I want to talk to anyone about bank business I have to schlep over to a spot on Papineau, in a direction I never go for any other reason. It’s not really a bank branch – they have some small offices for discussing things privately with clients, and a big room with people on phones. Nobody handles anything as dirty as cash.
Laurentian Bank is on McGill College. Which is where many financial service companies are located.
@Thomas You’re right (1981 McGill College) but it took some digging to find out. For a long time, that was the Laurentian Bank building but it dropped the branding a few years ago during one of the bank’s bouts of cost-cutting. At the time, LB also downsized and moved some of its departments to other buildings; I’d assumed head office had gone too. Thanks for informing me otherwise.
@Kate Back in the ’90s, when they were one of my clients, I considered switching to them. Then they closed the CDN branch (now the Première Moisson between Queen-Mary and Jean-Brillant) and, a few years later, the Van Horne (Outremont) branch. Not long ago, they sold the Parc-Laurier branch to BMO. So there are now no branches easily accessible to me and, as you note, no ATMs in the metro stations anymore. The institution’s original name (changed in 1980) was the Montreal City and District Savings Bank; that wouldn’t work now!
A proposal to build a tramway instead of an elevated REM, at half the price, is being proposed to the Quebec government by the ARTM.
I’m surprised it’s half the price. I would expect it to be a quarter the price.
Mon ami, it’s Quebec – it should be three times the price.
$13 Billion instead of $36 Billion is closer to a third the price, right?
And for this price we get 31 kms of tram track and 28 stations
And Paris is getting 200 kms of new track, and 68 Metro stations, for just about $51 Billion?
I’d love to hear Frank Lego explain the why and how we get so little for so much
Fair enough, one third.
carswell 21:28 on 2024-01-12 Permalink
Le Château also has a restaurant in its southeast corner.
dhomas 22:39 on 2024-01-12 Permalink
I’ve been to the trapeze school for a birthday party for one of my kids’ friends. It was cool, but also a bit sad. Much of the architectural artwork is covered, lost, or damaged. You can sorta see in one photo where they drilled holes in the art deco ceiling mouldings to put the anchor supports for the trapezes. It was still impressive, though. I took a 360 degree photo with my phone while I was there.
Kate 23:22 on 2024-01-12 Permalink
carswell, yes, you’re right. It used to be Aux Derniers Humains, but there was a bizarre stabbing attack there some time ago and the location has changed hands a few times since.
Kate 17:26 on 2024-01-15 Permalink
dhomas, can we see the picture? You can send it to me and I can post it here. Unless it’s already online?