On its free adoption day Sunday, the SPCA placed at least 100 animals with new owners.
La Presse also has a piece this weekend on the environmental footprint of pets. I asked my cat how she’d feel about switching to vegetable protein, and now she isn’t talking to me.
The Plaza Hutchison building that stands opposite Parc metro station was bought by the city four years ago, with a promise to convert it into 40 new social housing units. But since then, nothing, and this piece says the building is starting to fall apart.
At the time the city’s intervention was considered a coup. But it only came after the businesses and places of worship mentioned in the piece, but also many community groups, had been turfed out by a developer. So not only did the neighbourhood lose many affordable commercial spaces, it failed to gain anything back. Borough mayor says other levels of government have not stepped up to contribute funding.
Classic failure of bureaucracy.
That said, given how many new developments there are trying to get out of including social housing in their builds, why not allow them to fund the existing backlog of social housing conversions? There are TONS of places the city owns that can’t be used because they’re not up to code. It could be an easy win/win.
Failing that, couldn’t they at least let the community groups back in to use the space? It might even help calm down the craziness in the park across the street, which is turning into a pretty wild freezone at night.
The city has collected $26 million from developers who opted to pay a fee instead of including social housing. (I could be a bit wrong on the number but I’m pretty sure it’s right.) That’s not nothing and I wonder why the city is just sitting on it. It’s possible they are waiting to use it to buy more land, but they could also earmark it to get projects like this off the ground. It would be enough for Plaza Hutchison and maybe even one or two other small developments.
Of course there might be some bureaucratic issue that prevents the city from directly financing housing. Normally they need an NGO or some para-public organization like the OMHM to get funding and put together a proposal before they give them the property for free.
They also have lots of social housing that has fallen into disrepair and needs to be renovated before it can be used again – this would help lessen that pressure, too. There are lots of places the money could go, with no new purchases of property necessary.
What do we think the problem is?
I have a hunch it’s bureaucratic perfectionism and mission creep. Yes, any new offerings need to be up to code, but bureaucracy pushes things past a useful event horizon.
I’ve cited it before, but when they were renovating the swimming pool in Sir George Etienne Cartier Park in St‑Henri, it started with necessary remedial work on the pool, then it moved to designing a new pavilion, not just with changing rooms and lockers, but meeting rooms for the community and other facilities, and the whole process was expected to take a long time, and put the pool out of use for at least one and possibly more summers.
I haven’t had any reason to pass by there lately, and Streetview’s images around the park stop in 2020 so I don’t know whether it was ever completed and put into use.
Something similar happened around the Théâtre de Verdure in Lafontaine Park. Plans for its renovation got more and more complicated and potentially costly until someone put a stop to it. Eventually it was rebuilt, because the original structure really was crumbling, but omitted some of the more high‑tech features that had been proposed.
Thing about bureaucratic perfectionism is that every step of the way has its justifications and champions. In the case of Plaza Hutchison, what we need is 40 units of various capacities, heated and ventilated, and provided with functional bathrooms and kitchens. We don’t need them to be an architect’s dream project. They don’t all have to be one hundred percent accessible to the disabled (some should be, of course). There doesn’t have to be a high‑tech gym or meeting rooms. People need shelter. They need a place to eat and sleep and hang out. But it can never be allowed to be that simple.
Seems pretty clear that the city was willing to spend the initial six million bucks or so to acquire the property but were expecting either the federal or provincial governments (or both) to come through with the rest. That hasn’t happened so there hasn’t been any progress. We can fault the city for the strategy, but I don’t think we can realistically expect them to come up with the rest, given how tight the city’s fiscal situation is.
And when I say that the city shouldn’t be in this business, everyone thinks I’m crazy. There are enough REITs, Who have entire teams to manage buildings, plumbers on call, electricians they can call, exterminators on contract that can manage buildings and we could work out a profit margin for them to manage buildings. They have no interest in buildings falling into disrepair, like the city has repeatedly done. Just let them do what they do profitably, but with social housing. The way they do this in some other places, you subsidize the monthly rent, but let the professionals manage what they are already professionally doing.
All this aside, it seems weird that it isn’t being used as a community centre for now since it was already serving that precise purpose more or less.
They may have turned off the water and made other changes that render the premises unusable, if they were intending to gut and remodel.
I imagine most community orgs wouldn’t be interested in all the hassle that comes with moving if the new space isn’t permanent or even long term – presumably the city is not in a position to offer long leases and would want to be able to hand things over to a developer ASAP once there’s a funding commitment from another level of government. Realistically these things take time and nobody would be tossed out on a dime, but the appeal would be limited.
Fair enough; once burned, twice shy.
The Journal’s Bureau d’enquête started digging into the expenses submitted by Martin Imbleau, CEO of the Port of Montreal between 2021 and 2023. This is a federal position. They found, for example, that Imbleau had dinner 36 times in one Old Montreal spot, running up a tab of over $10,000. The argument that sometimes the role involves intensive schmoozing has some validity, but the federal government has promised a tighter control on the purse strings in future.
The Journal even shows scans of some of the receipts.
QMI also later reported that Imbleau has paid back some inadmissible minibar expenses but these were relatively insignificant amounts.
Responding to demand, the city has provided composting containers to Jean‑Talon market. Unsold produce goes to community groups, but inedibles will now go to composting rather than the garbage.
Great idea, but I hope they thought it through. Otherwise it could end up being a massive stink and vermin bomb.
I’m pretty sure the market folks know about storing food (and food waste) properly.
In theory, yes. But this sounds like a city initiative. Or at least a city responsibility. The proverbial grey zone where it’s not clear who’s in charge of what and chaos ensues. Hopefully not. Check back in a year’s time.
Back in 1954 there was a boating accident on the Lake of Two Mountains that killed 12 children from the day camp of the Negro Community Centre. A new memorial has been placed naming the kids, some of whose relatives are still alive to remember the accident.
A shelter operated by and for Innu people has opened downtown. It’s the first one here to be created and run by Indigenous people.
yasymbologist 22:37 on 2024-07-14 Permalink
She can also use some of those yummy fat squirrels out there in the parks to further cut down on her carbon pawprint
Ian 16:34 on 2024-07-15 Permalink
I don’t know if they could take down squirrels but my cats have been helping reduce the boom in the neighbourhood mouse population. Maybe it was that it got warm early but it seems like we have twice as many mice as usual …
Kate 20:37 on 2024-07-15 Permalink
I’ve never known a cat who could catch a squirrel. Both can climb a tree, but only the squirrel can get back down headfirst, a major advantage.
My old hunting cat used to catch mice and pigeons, but he never bagged a squirrel.
JP 20:40 on 2024-07-15 Permalink
We probably do…have 2x as many mice. I took the bus from Ahuntsic on Saturday afternoon and saw 2 mice on my way to the bus stop in the middle of the day. In 25 years of living here and taking the bus…I’ve never seen that. Got off in Park Ex and on my walk over…saw another mouse run from the sidewalk into some grass on Birnam. I just don’t ever remember seeing them so openly around.
Tee Owe 13:45 on 2024-07-16 Permalink
I had the unpleasant experience of listening to a squirrel being killed by a cat – not nice – it can happen
Ian 17:01 on 2024-07-16 Permalink
Given the vocalisations of each species in angry situations, I can imagine it.