We now have 10 cases of measles in Quebec, and public health is encouraging vaccination. But the same people who refused the Covid vaccine are likely to ignore this one as well.
Adding: Public health even has a list of places where people may have been exposed.
A new building with affordable apartments and a community space is being constructed in St‑Michel. The lede says 43 apartments but the explanation mentions 27. I wonder what will count as “affordable” by the time this building is completed.
Updated to add: A canny follower on X points out that the location is near the border with Montreal North, and 25 minutes by bus to the future Pie‑IX station on the blue line – so not a terrific location for anyone needing to commute.
No need to wonder (from the article):
Les locataires pourront aussi bénéficier du Programme de supplément au loyer Québec de la Société d’habitation du Québec (SHQ), ce qui leur permettra de débourser 25 % de leur revenu pour se loger. Cette aide additionnelle, répartie sur cinq ans, est assumée à 90 % par la SHQ et à 10 % par la Ville de Montréal.
Interesting that this is a project run in partnership with the Old Brewery Mission, which will select residents:
Pour la sélection des personnes qui bénéficieront des 27 logements, le PDG de MOB, James Hugues, a expliqué que des candidats seront d’abord référés à la Mission par des organismes de soutien. “On va faire des entrevues avec des centaines et des centaines de personnes à l’intérieur du réseau Mission Old Brewery, mais aussi les réseaux des partenaires.”
It’s at the corner of Pie-IX and 56th, so right on the SRB. It’s only 11 minutes by bus to the future blue line station. 25 minutes gets you all the way down to the green line.
So we can all agree that for now, until the blue line is built, it’s not a terrific location for anyone needing to commute.
To get from Pie-IX and 56e to McGill metro takes about 40 minutes by SRB + metro, according to Transit app. Not too shabby. Probably take you longer by car during rush hour.
Even after the Blue Line extension is built, it won’t really help anyone needing to go downtown. It really depends on where you need to commute to.
The extension of l’Assomption Boulevard will inevitably destroy part of the boisé Steinberg – but what can you do, you’ve got to build bypasses.
Man, that area is depressing. I remember going to the paintball place there as a teen, and nothing has changed. They’ve got a metro station and the area is filled with a handful of large warehouses. And I can’t imagine we need more roads here.
I don’t understand how the boisé is affected very much. If the boulevard is extended in a straight line it will run along the edge of the wooded area. At most one line of trees would be removed, affecting less than 5% of the so-called “natural’ area. That would also involve expropriating and removing part of the very large and low building that’s currently at that location (it houses a metal shop and an artisinal brewery and a few other businesses).
Maybe they want to save that end of the building and deke around it? That would result in eating up about 20% of the “natural” area but would also mean all those trucks would need to do a weird zig-zag at that intersection. But hey, if it saves appropriation and demolition money then I guess that’s how they’ll do it. :-/
A so-called “natural’ area is an area left to natural processes long enough to rewild itself as a thriving ecosystem which includes flora and fauna. Many residents tend to value such settings for the tranquil contrast ( bird songs, scent of fresh vegetation, the hum of insects in meadow grasses, rustling leaves shady coolness etc.) they provide to the growing bustling “development” of their neighborhoods.
That sounds nice, but I’m not sure it applies here. For one thing, there are no residents near that space; the closest residences are half a kilometer away across grim industrial spaces. And those natural sounds and aromas are likely drowned out by trucks, vehicle exhaust, and light industrial smells, even when you’re in the park. As to the “natural processes,” the park is cleaned every spring by those not-so-local locals, and then left to unnatural processes over the summer such as urban camping, drinking, late night partying, etc.
That doesn’t mean I’m against preserving the space. Not at all. I just don’t think we should romanticize it and make it sound like some sort of untouched natural meadow.
Facebook group has some good photos and history https://www.facebook.com/boiseSteinberg
Does anyone here have any links to what the actual plan is? I see nothing in the couple of media links, and nothing in the FB group. It would sure help people understand what’s going on if we knew the actual plan.
There’s a lot of variation between the best-case-scenario I describe above where they extent the boulevard in a straight line (resulting in 5% or less loss of the park space) and the worst-case-scenario of “park will be destroyed!” that some people think will happen.
Looks like a pretty bleak and underused space. I know people have romantic ideas about “wild” spaces in the city but I’d prefer us develop in the centre of the city with good transportation connections which is likely already contaminated over pushing the city farther and farther out onto good farmland or wild forested areas.
The MUHC hospital and Sacré-Cœur will be getting helipads.
You’d think if you build a fancy billion dollar hospital you’d make a helipad on the roof, if only to future proof it. Building it after the fact will be more expensive, but yeah now SNC-Lavalin doesn’t have to foot the bill.
Even the heart institute doesn’t have a helipad and is also being extended/renovated, you’d think heart transplants would benefit from it.
Maybe we get trauma helicopters too in Quebec. There was a test a long time ago, but they were never implemented. If you don’t have them you don’t have to pay for them, huge savings on the public health costs.
See the CBC report from January: Quebec is still the only province without a helicopter ambulance system. What’s the holdup?. And retired paramedic Hal Newman has done a great job of tracking and explaining the gaps in Quebec’s pre-hospital care atThe Last Ambulance.
The owner of Turbo Haüs on St‑Denis is angry that a temporary bar was placed outside his bar during Nuit Blanche. The Apik event, which uses the slope down St‑Denis from Sherbrooke as a snow slide – I don’t know how they made it work this year – was responsible, but so was the street’s SDC, which has cobbled together a weak excuse. You would think the primary purpose of the SDC would be to protect and support the businesses in the area, but apparently not so much.
The owner is Sergio Da Silva, and his bar was the one fighting a noise complaint a few months ago.
There’s a thread about this on Reddit in which a bunch of angryphones are somehow arguing that this is a conspiracy by a corrupt city council that wants to shut down Turbo Haüs because it’s run by an anglo.
Sounds like Apik got greedy and the SDC decided to screw over its own members in exchange for a cut of the liquor revenue. You’d think a merchant’s association would be like, hold on, we’ll get a liquor licence but how about we let our members sell booze on the street instead of a corporate vendor?
Either way, somebody’s making money, and it’s not the local business. More rent-seeking behaviour but this time from the SDC.
My money would be simply on an oversight, one hand not seeing what the other is doing. No need to get all conspiratorial.
I wasn’t thinking malice, just stupidity. But stupidity can do damage too.
Fair enough, but I can also see why teh bar owner is furious. It’s a hell of an oversight.
Definitely a good time for Hanlon’s Razor: Never Attribute to Malice That Which is Adequately Explained by Stupidity.
¿Por qué no los dos?
jeather 16:08 on 2024-03-04 Permalink
I know someone who had no proof of vaccination as a kid, tried to get one, and had to have a big argument with the centre until they finally were given a booster (or first shot), so hope you get lucky about the nurse.
MarcG 17:15 on 2024-03-04 Permalink
A couple of fun facts:
> Measles complications are more likely in people with weakened immune systems
> There is evidence that Covid weakens the immune system
MarcG 17:18 on 2024-03-04 Permalink
Forgot:
> Measles is airborne like Covid and has been reported to survive in air for up to 2 hours, so a good respirator (N95) is your friend
Ian 19:21 on 2024-03-04 Permalink
Also remember that if you do get measles, you will ahve to get all your shots all over again because of immune amnesia, which last 2-3 years after a measles infection.
“One of the most unique—and most dangerous—features of measles pathogenesis is its ability to reset the immune systems of infected patients. During the acute phase of infection, measles induces immune suppression through a process called immune amnesia.”
https://asm.org/articles/2019/may/measles-and-immune-amnesia
walkerp 21:46 on 2024-03-04 Permalink
So should we be getting a booster shot?
Chris 08:39 on 2024-03-05 Permalink
walkerp, normally you get your booster in childhood. Check with your parents or vaccine booklet.
walkerp 08:51 on 2024-03-05 Permalink
I definitely got mine in childhood but that was 50+ years ago. It’s still good?
MarcG 10:19 on 2024-03-05 Permalink
The resources I looked at say that having 2 doses provides ~97% protection for life for most people. Herd immunity, which unlike Covid is possible with measles, would obviously help since not being exposed to it in the first place is 100% protection, but we don’t have in Canada.
Daisy 13:02 on 2024-03-05 Permalink
I had measles 10-15 years ago, as an adult. I was vaccinated as a child but only 1 dose. None of the doctors or Public Health suggested I should be revaccinated.
jeather 13:16 on 2024-03-05 Permalink
The reality is that the oldest people who were vaccinated are in their 50s and we do not do random titer sampling so we don’t know for sure if immunity is lifelong given that there is little circulating disease to remind our antibodies.
The cases are unrelated to each other and only 3 are travel related, which is bad news.
Walkerp, if you grew up in Quebec and your parents followed the standard government vaccine schedule:
born in the 60s or earlier: presumed immune because you got the disease
born in the 70s: you got one dose, as was the standard, and they sometimes will give you a second dose and sometimes say that the single dose is fine
born in the 80s: you got two doses
Ian 13:31 on 2024-03-05 Permalink
I was born in 1969, but gre up in Ontario. We actually got the MMR vaccine at school back then.
walkerp 20:58 on 2024-03-05 Permalink
Thanks, everyone! I think I’ve got it figured out. Quebec-Sante just published a list of places where there was a possible contagion.
Why do we always have the most diseases in Canada?
Kate 22:06 on 2024-03-05 Permalink
Thanks, walkerp. Scary list that includes the metro’s blue line and orange line. In other words, everywhere.
MarcG 09:39 on 2024-03-06 Permalink
Lisa Iannattone compares how measles was treated in 2019 vs today.