Events for the Marathon will close various streets from Friday evening through Sunday.
But so many bridges will be closed that we’ll all be trapped!
Updates from September, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Some downtown businesses are adding barbed wire to their back entrances to keep homeless people off their property. The mayor says that they are within their rights to do so; Ensemble, stymied by being challenged to say that she’s wrong, falls back on blaming Projet for homelessness and its problems.
su
This homelessness crisis really kicked into high gear when housing development (ie Griffintown, Lachine Canal, St Henri) took off, post 2008 derivatives crisis.
Why is it that the more habitat is built the more people are homeless?
Why is it that developing public owned lands- ie Lachine Canal ( Canada Lands) has resulted in an increase in homelessness and barbed wire barricades?walkerp
I think the homelessness and the development are both symptoms/outcomes of a system that strongly favours capital and is designed to move wealth from public to private hands. And then specifically, decades of low-interest rates and the evolution of real estate from home and domestic equity builder to global investment vehicle. Developers build housing to meet the demands of the international market and the moneyed classes while airbnb eats away at rental and low-income stock.
So the increase in homelessness is not a result of the growth of habitat. They are happening side by side.
su
Thanks Walkerp
Those ultra low interest rates have wreaked havoc in so many bubbly ways all over the planet.walkerp
They really have. I am not sure we have Elon Musk without them. Behind a lot of so-called business genius in the 21st century is nothing more than capital and low-interest rates.
Marc
Mass immigration is fuelling the housing crisis, which fuels the homelessness crisis. Thanks Justin.
Kate
↑ This Marc is not MarcG who often comments here, which ought to be obvious from the view he espouses, but I wanted to make sure it was clear.
Ian
Don’t worry, we know MarcG isn’t a xenophobic cryptofascist.
Gentrification and unregulated new development is why we have a housing and homelessness crisis, Marc.
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Kate
Excellent piece from Christopher Curtis on CAQ mismanagement of Quebec’s economy.
walkerp
Nailed it!
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Kate
A man was found dead on the Metropolitan a week ago, and the SQ is looking for witnesses. He’s believed to have fallen from the Acadie viaduct; the TVA version clarifies that a vehicle hit the man after he was down, but the driver didn’t stop.
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Kate
Since the rentrée, the Brossard parking lots for the REM are full to bursting and even people prepared to pay for parking (two thirds of the spaces are free, one third go for $10 per day) aren’t always able to find a spot. Various ideas are floated here but no immediate solution proposed.
Ephraim
Hmm, just spitballing, but if you put a bunch of students in the parking lot, asking people what part of town they drove in from, what time they left, why they’re taking the REM and what time they come back and tracking it, so you can see where buses are needed, has come to anyone’s mind…
Uatu
Parking at la Prairie, candiac etc means that you’re now in Zone c which means needing an ABC pass so you’re basically paying for parking again.
@Ephraim – they can’t be bothered. It’s all for show and once the ribbon cutting and photo ops are finished it’s forgotten. Also the service is suffering. My exo bus has been delayed because lack of drivers due to vacations or new hires who don’t know where they’re going or bus breakdowns. This also doesn’t take into account orange line delays and rem service interruption. It’s especially frustrating when you’re on your feet all day and I’m seriously considering driving again.
Ian
Why it’s almost as if the REM’s purpose is not to improve transit for existing populations, but create new opportunities for property developers.
Out in the west island everyone commuting to Ste Anne is super excited to take a half hour bus from the new Ste Anne stationto actually get to Ste Anne.
Orr
My idea:
2 or more people in the car: free parking.
1 person in the car: not free parking.
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Kate
Sometimes while skimming the news, stories in two different sources come together with a clang. Thursday morning, La Presse is reporting that families close to the Ontario border are “illegally” sending their kids to school on the far side, although Quebec is unable to say how many. Why do families do this, you ask? Some Ontario schools provide better services for kids with special needs, but also kids can freely study there in English, which is denied them on this side of the border.
Meanwhile, Le Devoir’s investigative journalists find that Quebec has quietly clawed back millions of dollars meant to go to schools for lunches, tutoring, library books, and cultural outings and extracurricular activities in high school. I wonder why parents choose not to send their kids to these deliberately impoverished schools.
walkerp
So depressing. I know the Liberals and the PQ also suck each in their own special way, but the CAQ really have to go.
James 10:06 on 2024-09-20 Permalink
I’ll be running the 1/2. Been training for the last 4 months.
Getting a bit nervous!
DavidH 11:47 on 2024-09-20 Permalink
Good luck!