As most of us will have noticed, the city is doing some road and sidewalk plowing but isn’t going to break out the snowblowers, depending instead on the warmer temperatures coming to melt the whole thing off.
Incidentally, I see that Monday, eclipse day, is predicted to be sunny and 13°. But the snow melt is going to make parks a muddy prospect for sky watching.
Sud-Ouest borough installed some expensive “intelligent” trash cans but plans to replace them with regular trash cans when they break down. Other boroughs have also installed a few, but La Presse found that nobody is using the selling feature: they send a signal when they’re full. The boroughs have been emptying them on the same regular schedule as other trash cans.
Makes me think of that vacuum based waste system promised for the Quartier des Spectacles in 2010ish era. Did that thing ever work out?
I remember that too, and it did not. It was too unwieldy an idea and too much of a potential money pit even for the Coderre era, which is saying something.
The ‘selling feature’ isn’t the signal that they’re full, it’s their ability to compact trash in the can, which allegedly allows them to hold 5X as much garbage as a regular bin. The signal is functionally useless – boroughs will always stick to their pickup schedules (though one borough at least is not emptying bins that are no more than half-empty). If deployed broadly, the compactor function could mean significantly reducing pickups, which presumably would pay for the premium these things command (they seem to be about $7500 each). The early indications from the other boroughs are all positive.
I think the QdeS system was supposed to automatically remove the waste from the bins, which always seemed too good to be true. These, on the other hand, seem more useful.
Joey, good point on the compacting. I wonder how long they last till they break down.
What happens to the juice?
Artisanal biodiesel
Self-powered?
Denis Coderre claimed on radio this week that Valérie Plante would not be running for mayor a third time. She has contradicted this statement.
Coderre has also announced he has a new girlfriend, but this happens periodically. He presented his new blonde Mélanie Savard in 2021, and another new blonde, Wina Sioui, in 2022.
Why in the world would we care if Coderre is dating? I have no idea what Plante’s relationship situation is, which seems fine for a mayor.
It’s so cringey, but we know Coderre loves as much attention as possible.
We may not view Denis Coderre as a celebrity but he obviously does.
Work is about to begin on a $4‑billion upgrade to the airport and its approaches.
Complaints to 311 about illegally dumped trash are on the rise and the environmental spokesman quoted here talks about a lack of civic responsibility. Nobody links the tendency to the rise in renovictions. If you’re thrown out of your apartment, you’re bound to have a certain amount of irreducible junk to get rid of. You may chuck it out, or the landlord might have to – either way, it ends up on the street.
Also airbnbers tossing out their trash (as per instructions) whenever. That said, comparing 2023 to 2022 and 2021 without acknowledging the pandemic is fishy. What did 2019 look like?
Good point about the Airbnb people.
There’s also reduced garbage pickup in many areas.
A man was shot dead in Laval and a car was torched in Bellerive overnight. (Mostly I put stories like these on the incident map these days.)
Some schools are closed and some people are without electricity as the spring blizzard continues.
My mother just got back into her house 2 weeks ago in time to lose power again.
By some miracle, I haven’t lost power (yet). But I’m sitting here trying to work and every couple of minutes it sounds like the house is caving in because the maple trees in the back yard (taller than the house) are full of heavy, wet and icy clumps of snow, and every breeze launches a snowball assault onto the roof and windows. So loud! Glad I don’t have any video meetings today. What an odd snowstorm.
My clothesline is thickly coated with snow, and that’s never happened before. Icicles, yes. But not actual snow.
It’s a heavy, wet snow that accumulates easily on trees. Our poor lilac tree had a couple of big branches break off this morning and was quite weighed down. I had to go out and shake some of the snow off.
Thanks for the reminder, Meezly. I went out and shook the snow off the clothesline. It was half ice and probably pretty heavy, so it was a good idea. It’s not easy to fix if the cord breaks.
The sports centre at the Olympic stadium is to close for four to six months for repairs after the fire last week. Olympic hopefuls will need to train somewhere else.
I for one am glad the Olympic complex has chosen self-immolation and believe we should respect its wishes.
It gets mentioned in the article’s last paragraph.
@fagstein reposted from CBC reporter Devin Heroux
“A massive development in the Canadian swimming world.
The Olympic and Paralympic Trials set for Montreal’s Olympic Pool are no longer. And plans are underway to find another pool.
Five weeks away.”
The Institut National du Sport du Québec is actually kinda nice and not very expensive. Because of this, space is always quite limited. For example, my kids’ swimming class was filled within 1 minute of registration opening last time. I felt like I was trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets. It’s the section that’s at the base of the tower, not in the actual stadium.
I’m quite disappointed that it will be closed for so long.
It is a loss, and I’m sorry your kids have lost their classes, dhomas.
I haven’t seen any explanation how a sports facility entirely made of concrete could have had such a bad fire, but I suppose it’s wise not to allow people exerting themselves to breathe in a lot of post‑fire toxins.
Also haven’t seen any reason why it went from being closed for a week to several months. Suspect they may have decided to put in some upgrades while it’s being repaired.
Having had just about the smallest, most contained house fire ever (everyone was fine, damage was minimal), the timeline doesn’t surprise me. I’ve learned that there is no such thing as a “small” fire. The building may be concrete, but inside it has drywall and plastic and furniture and paper, etc., and the smoke gets in everything.
Here’s what they sent as an explanation via email:
“les travaux de décontamination nécessaires afin de pouvoir rouvrir le Centre prévoient que celui-ci devra demeurer fermé pendant plusieurs semaines minimalement, notamment dû à sa superficie et à la complexité des lieux à décontaminer. Les équipes de décontamination doivent en effet nettoyer plafonds, lanterneaux (puits de lumières au-dessus des bassins), vestiaires, revêtements de sols et murs, ainsi que tous les équipements, avant de pouvoir rouvrir le Centre sportif dans des conditions sécuritaires.”
Blork 18:14 on 2024-04-04 Permalink
Much to my surprise, the company contracted to plow my driveway plowed it this morning even though the contract is only valid to April 1.
Chris 18:53 on 2024-04-04 Permalink
Maybe you’ll get a surprise bill too.
Blork 10:53 on 2024-04-05 Permalink
I doubt it. We only pay them once per year, at the beginning of the season. Given they had almost nothing to do this year, I think this was a “good will” gesture, and it worked because it means I’ll have no hesitation to use them again next year.