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Updates from March, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• Kate 20:54 on 2024-03-29 Permalink | Reply  

  La Presse’s Maxime Bergeron joined a pair of special STM constables on a visit to the metro stations where homelessness and drug use are most visible. He also explains a change in how neighbourhood police now respond to metro issues on their patch.

  Alongside these pieces is another item by Henri Ouellette‑Vézina about the need for more psychosocial resources to help those with mental troubles or drug dependence or both.

  But the problem also comes down to keeping the metro system clean and safe for users, or ridership will continue to fall.

  (On thinking about the neighbourhood police angle, I’d be curious to know how much downtown policing is now devoted to issues in the metro, since seven of the eight most troubled stations are in Ville‑Marie.)

   

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• Kate 18:23 on 2024-03-29 Permalink | Reply  

  The two young men who died in the car crash in Rosemont on Thursday, and who are thought to have shot at two other vehicles in the Plateau and in Rosemont that night, were 14 and 16 years old and already known to police. Their motive isn’t clear, although this item says the two drivers they shot at were middle‑aged men with no criminal history who seem to have been chosen randomly as targets.

  Updating with further La Presse investigation: the two kids may have been responding to a dare as part of a gang initiation.

  Ian is discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Ian 13:28 on 2024-04-01 Permalink

    Gang initiation was my first thought. Attacking innocent randos is a classic.

• Kate 16:37 on 2024-03-29 Permalink | Reply  

  Work will begin on Monday at the Lucien L’Allier Exo train depot and continue for one year. There’s a sketch of how the platforms are meant to look when it’s completed; meantime, passengers will connect to trains at Parc or Vendôme metro stations, or the Montreal West train stop.

  qatzelok, Kate, P, and 3 others are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • GC 16:54 on 2024-03-29 Permalink

    I haven’t ridden that often, but a little bit of shelter seems like a good idea.

  • bob 17:08 on 2024-03-29 Permalink

    A year. It took a year to build the Empire State Building.

  • Kate 17:48 on 2024-03-29 Permalink

    Two things: as far as I know, the ESB was a new project, it wasn’t a retrofit, with all the constraints involved. And also, standards for worker safety were nothing like they are now, which is a factor it’s easy to forget when considering how quickly certain older projects were able to materialize.

  • Blork 17:57 on 2024-03-29 Permalink

    Presumably they’re going to scrape it down to the bare bones and rebuild everything, including the tracks and track beds. At least I hope so, if they’re scheduling a year for the work! And yes, putting in shelters is a very good idea.

  • P 01:01 on 2024-03-30 Permalink

    I can appreciate that there is probably more to the project, structurally/infrastructurally, than we can imagine. But a full year just does not sit right with me. Constructing the Empire State Building is probably not a great way of comparing it, but reserving an entire year for even a total rebuild of that space is just so… indulgent.

  • Kate 10:45 on 2024-03-30 Permalink

    Maybe there are stages they have to do at certain points? They may not be working flat out the whole time. You have to let concrete dry.

  • qatzelok 20:49 on 2024-03-30 Permalink

    I’m disappointed that this project wasn’t delayed until AFTER the new West Island REM is completed in a year or so, thus allowing commuters to make other arrangements to go directly downtown.

• Kate 09:30 on 2024-03-29 Permalink | Reply  

  Weekend notes from CityCrunch, La Presse, CultMTL, Sarah’s Weekend List, Montreal Secret.

  The Papineau-Leblanc bridge will be closed all weekend and there are likely to be other road closures.

  What’s open and closed for the weekend.

   

• Kate 09:10 on 2024-03-29 Permalink | Reply  

  A man is in critical condition after a stabbing in Lachine overnight.

  And now he’s a homicide statistic, eighth of the year.

   

• Kate 09:06 on 2024-03-29 Permalink | Reply  

  Pierre Ny St-Amand will stand trial for the bus attack on the Laval daycare last year.

   

• Kate 08:53 on 2024-03-29 Permalink | Reply  

  Police are looking for an exhibitionist who’s been seen in both the McGill and UdeM libraries and is accused of groping women and flashing.

  The CBC trigger warning strikes me as redundant when the headline already indicates that the report is about incidents of sexual assault.

  Blork and GC are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Blork 12:33 on 2024-03-29 Permalink

    The CBC trigger warning is redundant, but it is likely there as a matter of policy, not editorial judgement, so redundancy is not even considered.

    I’m curious about the timing. These events took place last summer, so why are they just reaching out to the public for help now?

  • GC 16:31 on 2024-03-29 Permalink

    I’m curious, too. Maybe they were only reported to the police recently?

  • Blork 17:59 on 2024-03-29 Permalink

    Maybe. More likely it’s just low priority (especially since there hasn’t been a reported event since last September) so it languishes in the backlog and only now and then does someone put in a few hours’ effort.