Monday is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, although Quebec ignores it. Some notes on federal services that are closed.
Updates from September, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A man who worked to help Pierre-Yves Beaudoin evict people from a building adjoining La Tulipe in 2016 speaks to Urbania about his regret at taking on the job.
Blork
Man, what a piece of work that guy is.
Side note: is it just me, or is that Urbania piece the most meandering article on Earth right now?
GC
Interesting to also read the JdeM article from back in 2016. I honestly don’t remember this story from eight years ago, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t read it then. It made me curious if it was discussed here, but the archives only seem to go back to 2017. I suppose 2016 would have been the older site, Kate?
(I don’t remember when, exactly, I started reading this site, but I feel it was at least by the 2013 election…)Kate
GC, this recension of the blog begins in October 2017. I do remember posting about the Coop sur Généreux previous to that, but the archives between February 2010 and October 2017 are not accessible to me or to anyone, and probably never will be.
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Kate
Twice as many buildings are shown in flood-prone areas on new Montreal Metropolitan Community maps as shown on previous maps, although this piece doesn’t specify when the older maps were released.
EmilyG
The map is here: https://evouala.cmm.qc.ca/application/run/1373/embedded
Kate
Thank you, EmilyG.
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Kate
The STM has decided to banish ads from oil companies that attempt to greenwash their activities. Will they also remove car ads?
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Kate
La Presse’s Maxime Bergeron reports on a small, very organic beauty salon in the Plateau, where the owner takes great care to exclude anything toxic and to obey the rules, and yet she’s under constant harassment from neighbours who have invoked a series of inspections on her, and have left open the possibility of further measures.
jeather
I have to say that, toxic or not, I would hate to live above a salon that uses a bunch of essential oils. I very cleverly chose to live somewhere that isn’t above a commercial location.
But they don’t say that the salon has been there for longer than the neighbours and imply the reverse, and whatever “I don’t use chemicals” bullshit she is peddling (organic nailpolish, like everything, is made of chemicals), she is definitely using things that smell, and many volatile organic compounds can be smelled quite strongly however low the concentration is.
Robert H
All right, jeather you’re not buying it. Perhaps you think Alexandra Simard is cynically exploiting the La Presse article to portray herself as a struggling, hardworking small business owner beleaguered by hostile, nitpicking nimbys. Or maybe you’re the cynic?
Anyway, she’s right when she says that small businesses contribute greatly to the attraction of the quartier. I’ve seen this sort of conflict in Boston, Washington D.C., and Chicago among other places and I can say it’s inevitable. As a veteran of urban living, I can say that If you move to a dense, central, convenient neighbourhood of row housing, party walls, and rear alleys, sprinkled with shops and threaded with major streets, there will be noise, there will be smells, messiness, drifting voices, sirens, music (including thumping bass) and a general low background hum of traffic and thousands of folks up to who knows what.
People learn to put up with what they don’t like because of the things they do like about a place. That’s why one of my siblings loves her far-flung suburban, car oriented bosky retreat and why I love my spot in town. I’m not saying you or Salon Primerose’s neighbours forfeit your right to complain. I’ve done my fair share. But I do feel that people, especially new arrivals, need to temper their expectations with realism, understanding, and goodwill.
dwgs
Also, we’re all made out of chemicals.
jeather
I’m not buying anyone who claims they make nailpolish without chemicals, no. But since the complaints started as soon as she opened her salon, it does sound like the salon owner was the new arrival.
I don’t think she’s exploiting anyone, I’m not sure she’s breaking any laws (she moved the illegal vent, and mostly she seems to come across as trying to follow the rules), but the article is very much on her side and painting the neighbours as newly arrived NIMBYs who could not possibly actually find the smells of her salon very unpleasant (or worse). Note that they didn’t actually talk to the neighbours — were they there before she was (I think yes)? What are the problems? Can you actually smell her products in their apartments? Do any of them have, I don’t know, migraines that are set off by this? This is an incredibly one sided piece. And sometimes there’s only one reasonable side, but I’m not sure this is one of those times.
I live in a triplex near the Ville Marie; I am aware of the pros and cons of living in a dense urban environment and the attractions of small businesses.
Ian
I used to live upstairs from a hair salon, my place smelled like hair bleach. I talked to the salon, they claimed there was nothing to be done. I sealed up the cracks in the floor with plumber’s foam (a good job, i removed all the excess and stained it to match), put down rugs, and bought a powerful air filter with organic chemical filters on my own dime. Didn’t smell a thing after that. After all, I DID move in upstairs from a hair salon…
Some people are too precious to live among others.Orr
@dwgs Step back a bit further and we’re just made of stardust.
Lucky, lucky bits of stardust.
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Kate
Dockworkers have begun a three‑day strike at two of the port’s terminals.
carswell 16:48 on 2024-09-30 Permalink
CEPSUM, the Université de Montréal sports centre, recognized the holiday and was open only during holiday hours (11:00-18:00)… on Friday.
Don’t know what the reasoning is but the decision seems mildly disrespectful, like a tacit admission that the holiday is really just an excuse to give staff — none of whom is, AFAIK, indigenous — time off.
Ian 17:25 on 2024-09-30 Permalink
Yes of course, and Remembrance Day is disrespectful to verterans unless you’re a veteran.
Did I do that right?
carswell 17:56 on 2024-09-30 Permalink
No.
impossibus 19:45 on 2024-09-30 Permalink
My kids’ francophone public school holds special events on this day for the past two years , the principal encourages children and staff to wear orange and teachers share educational resources on residential schools even in Grade 1. So at least the government’s schools don’t (all) ignore it. I’m not sure the initiative comes from the principal or le CSSMB.
Nicholas 23:34 on 2024-09-30 Permalink
A friend noted that veterans lobbied against making Remembrance Day a holiday so that kids were in school and could participate in events; we always had a moment of silence at 11 or 11:11, and sometimes an assembly. They didn’t want it to just be another day off that people forget about, a long weekend to go the chalet. We know that’s not the reason of the current government, but it’s an interesting perspective.
Daisy 09:50 on 2024-10-01 Permalink
We had Remembrance Day off when I was a kid in another province, and we still had an assembly to observe it the day before.