The mayor defended the city’s inaction on unoccupied buildings Monday, saying they didn’t always get out the bazooka. It’s not made clear whether they even issue warnings.
Updates from August, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The impending strike at CP is likely to affect Exo lines 11, 12 and 14 as of Thursday: the Vaudreuil/Hudson, St‑Jérôme and Candiac routes.
Uatu
Candiac exo train commuters will be bussed to the rem. Hope nothing breaks down lol
Nicholas
Their comms are terrible. I messaged them early Monday on social media, as there’s nothing on their website or socials, asking if trains will be running. They responded, essentially, “Don’t worry, we have a plan.” Still nothing today, even though La Presse had some details yesterday (CP closed, CN open). Even just a “We don’t know yet” would be nice, but there’s no reason they should have talked to La Presse but aren’t flooding their info channels about a complete shutdown of their most popular rail lines.
Kate, it’s not completely clear if it’s a strike or lockout or both. The union said CP issued a 13-day lockout notice on Aug 9, and then the union issued a 3-day strike notice on Aug 19. They also said CN issued a 3-day lockout notice on Aug 19, without mentioning a strike notice. La Presse notes both are occurring, which I don’t fully understand how that’s possible. But it was clear that the railways were planning a lockout for weeks, as they were progressively shutting down the network for over a week; the railways claimed they had to because a strike might happen anytime (with three days’ notice) and they couldn’t leave things stranded in the middle of nowhere, and the union claims the railways want a lockout to make the government force binding arbitration. It’s definitely unclear, but as someone who’s had both parents locked out but the media said they were striking, I have a personal bugaboo about correct terminology. 🙂
Kate
Thank you for this, Nicholas. I will make myself more alert to media terminology around these matters. …although in my defence I observe that La Presse writes “la grève des transports ferroviaires” in the item I linked.
Nicholas
No worries, La Presse made the original error. And it is confusing, as neither the company or union is being clear.
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Kate
CTV has set up a temporary studio on Nuns’ Island after its premises were damaged in the water main break.
The mayor says the water main break could have been worse, but I think the city’s going to get slammed as it comes out that the deterioration of the pipe was already suspected.
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Kate
La Presse has a whole dossier Monday comparing major grocery chains that offer delivery, and how wasteful they are with packaging.
MarcG
When I order from Metro I choose the “cardboard box” option and then reuse or recycle them. The article states that they tested this but then I don’t see any mention of it afterwards.
daniel
If you read it on the web — vs. the app — it’s hard to find the store-by-store breakdowns. At any rate, their experience does not match mine with Metro delivery, from which we receive very few plastic bags. Perhaps depends on what you order.
MarcG
Wow the interface is terribly designed. You have to click on the sub-articles under the main article header in order to read their results for each store.
The thing with this article is, they’re not really comparing grocery deliver to buying in store, since most of those plastic bags would be used in both cases (e.g. bag for broccoli, meat in styrofoam container with plastic wrap, etc).
Blork
Careful with those cardboard boxes. Cardboard boxes are essentially the public transit system for cockroaches.
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Kate
Water still dominates the news Monday.
TVA says the water main that broke on August 16 was set to be inspected this October. CTV alleges that city officials knew the pipe was in dubious condition. Global reports that repairs to the pipe could take weeks.
Radio‑Canada says the water systems of both Montreal and Calgary badly need updating, and CTV reports on the possibility of permeable pavement to allow cities to soak up heavy rainfall.
CBC asks whether the hidden rivers of the island could offer clues about the city’s topography. It’s real human arrogance to think you can build on low land where a river used to be and expect never to see any consequences.
Parts of town are now plagued by piles of moldy furniture and other junk from the storm on August 9. Île Bizard took a pummeling that day.
bob
True fact: the River St. Pierre used to run under the Lachine Canal.
Maps in the 1890 Atlas of Montreal have a high water line marked along the shore of the St. Lawrence.
MarcG
On this map from 1815 it looks like there used to be a river where the Ville Marie is now, with plans to build a canal there. And here’s a cool map from 1825 that shows the newly built ‘La Chine Canal’, and the completed canal mentioned previously, along with a bunch of other rivers that no longer exist.
MarcG
There’s a street near me in Verdun named Rushbrooke that seems like an odd choice until you look at older maps like this one that show there used to be water along running there.
MarcG
Rushbrooke (with the e at the end) actually seems like an English surname so maybe it’s just a fun coincidence that Sir William Jeffrey Johnson Rushbrooke owned the land near the River St. Peter.
Ian 20:45 on 2024-08-19 Permalink
Fierce “we tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas” energy, much like AirBnb, fighting gentrification, re-allocating the police budget …
Kate 08:55 on 2024-08-20 Permalink
It’s not an excuse, but this reminds me of the report in June about the city’s shortage of building inspectors. If you don’t have the manpower to look into the problems on the ground, you can’t take steps toward fixing them.
That’s a charitable view. The other angle is the reverence our society feels for private ownership. If you own a building, it’s yours to do what you like with, even let it burn down or collapse into the street.