Ensemble is pressing for free parking downtown in the lead‑up to Christmas, but Christian Savard argues on X that it’s bad for business, because making drivers pay keeps them moving.
Updates from November, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A body found by city workers in Île‑de‑la‑Visitation park at the end of last month has been identified as Kevin Mirshahi, 25, described as a cryptocurrency influencer. He was kidnapped in Old Montreal on June 21.
A woman was already charged with Mirshahi’s murder in August. How they could do that with no body found, I’m not certain.
walkerp
She kidnapped Mirshahi along with 3 of his friends, took them to her house and tortured and murdered him and then let them go. Not necessarily in that order, but they found the 3 friends at a bus stop in the west island and they directed them to her house. So presumably they witnessed enough that the crown could arrest her.
Just wild. One more reason to avoid cryptocurrency.Meezly
I guess Île‑de‑la‑Visitation park is large enough for a body to go undiscovered for almost 6 months.
Kate
There are some forested bits in the section that stretches downstream. Seems odd that nobody’s dog noticed a thing, but I guess not.
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Kate
One of the items on my annual news cycle list is that winter’s coming and there won’t be enough places in the shelters for the homeless. This year is no exception.
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Kate
The city has made 67 sites available around town for construction by cooperatives and nonprofits, with a view to the creation of 160,000 residential units by 2050. There’s a map which shows available spots, also projects that have already started.
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Kate
The federal labour minister is ordering binding arbitration in the lockout at the Port of Montreal and a similar labour standoff in British Columbia.
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Kate
A SPVM spokesman tells Daniel Renaud that the war of restaurant extortion gangs we saw over the summer has been put on hold since the Old Montreal fire on October 4 killed a woman and her daughter. Of course the cop takes credit here, but it seems cops also think such a killing attracted too much police and media attention, so the gangs are cooling it down for the moment.
Once again, the theory of chaotic gangs filling the void left by more organized crime is brought up, but there’s no clear answer. Styles in crime change over the years like everything else.
rob
Are the cops actually admitting that they didn’t do anything about the violent extortion until someone died? That’s their moment for action?
yasymbologist
If the SPVM keeps getting better at raking more budget in than containing street crimes, maybe one day local restaurant owners have to hire their private security guards. So at the end of the day we will see the new mafia resto filling the void of organized crime, and future waiters will ask if you also need a mirror after ordering a coke in a posh downtown restaurant.
Kate
rob, the SPVM were also stirred to action in 1995 when a biker bomb killed 11‑year‑old Daniel Desrochers, who was hit by shrapnel as he passed near a vehicle that exploded. So it wouldn’t be anything new.
Nicholas
Kate, I was going to mention the same case before I saw your comment. Plus ça change….
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Kate
The STM has closed the entrance to Atwater metro at the corner of Cabot Square for the winter. It otherwise becomes a homeless shelter, and would need constant cleaning and patrolling.
Some community workers aren’t happy, but STM honcho Éric Alan Caldwell holds that the metro is a transport system, and isn’t there to offer shelter that others are failing to provide.
jeather
That’s always been a pretty horrible/risky entrance. Not sure where the entrance to use is when Alexis Nihon is closed, was there one on de Maisonneuve near Dawson?
Kate
The article says the STM regards that one on de Maisonneuve as the primary entrance.
jeather
Based on bus stops, that’s a full out lie about the “primary entrance”.
Kate
I agree – it’s a lot more recent than either the Cabot Square entrance or the one via Alexis Nihon, and it’s even finished on the outside with bricks to match the Dawson building. It doesn’t feel like a primary entrance, but when the mall is closed, it’ll be the only one, all winter, and a block away from the bus termini on the square, as you point out.
…I have to wonder how this de Maisonneuve entrance is expected to be immune to the problems that the Cabot Square entrance has. People looking for a winter refuge are capable of walking one block and turning a corner, no?
Uatu
The de maisonneuve entrance is easier to patrol. The metrocops just have to take an escalator up to see what’s going on as opposed to having to walk through Alexis Nihon down the hallway and up the stairs to the Cabot square entrance.
Nicholas
The Cabot Square entrance is weird, because you have to walk through the mall to get to it from the metro. The STM controls it because it has the bus loop there, but without direct access to the metro it’s always subject to the mall’s opening hours.
And having spent a lot of time at Atwater, the de Maisonneuve one really is the primary direct entrance (not the primary entrance). Dawson, Alexis Nihon and Westmount Square are directly connected underground, so that is much, I’d guess most by a fair bit, of the traffic, but for buses very few people actually get on or off at Cabot Square. If you’re transferring to a bus, then for the 104, 138 and 144 you’re better off catching it at de Maisonneuve and Atwater, it’s a much, much shorter walk (and will soon have an elevator). For the 63 and the 90, better to go through the mall and catch it on St Catherine, West of Atwater. Closer for the 24 too. And the same for transferring to the metro. And you go faster (less time on the bus), and get to use escalators. The only buses where you’d plausibly use the Cabot Square exit are the 57, 108 and 150, but it’s usually faster to cross the street, because the tunnel under Cabot Square, which is very narrow, has stairs. Further, transferring from the Green line to those buses is usually better at another station, like Guy/Charlevoix, Lionel Groulx or whichever downtown Green line station is closest to your destination rather than use the 150 on René Lévesque. (Much more common for bus to bus transfers, which won’t use the tunnel.)
In the thousands of times I’ve used that station I’ve never, not once, used that tunnel to connect to a bus, only because I was curious too see what it was like. I’m not saying it’s not useful for some people in some cases (helpful if it’s cold, and helpful if you can’t stand a long time and want to wait for a bus leaving from there to get a seat rather than wait in line at the second stop closer to the metro), but I’d be surprised if 5% of Atwater metro passengers use that entrance.
We all know why this is being done, and I have sympathy for that (which is, I’ve heard from multiple people over the years, part of the reason people don’t like using that entrance). But it’s of minor transportation usage.
rob
Couldn`t they just hand over juridiction to Alexis Nihon? Maybe an arragement with the city can be made to assist their mall security.
The passage to Westmount Square also closes following Westmount Square`s hours.jeather
FWIW when I regularly used that metro, that was the entrance I used. It was creepy and felt unsafe, but it was daytime, and it was 25 or so years ago, and nothing more than catcalling ever happened to me.
But that map sure looks like the main exit is indeed Cabot square, and though it’s less walking overall for some stops, it’s more outdoor walking for a lot of them.
I suspect people don’t use the entrance for the reason it’s being closed, not because it’s inherently a less useful entrance.
Kate
It was the exit people used to get to concerts at the Forum, years ago. Dealers hung around hissing “‘ash, acide, mescaline… ‘ash, acide, mescaline…”
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Kate
Canada Post workers have given a 72-hour notice to strike.
Nicholas
The article notes that the crown corporation “had issued [past tense] a formal lockout notice to the union, adding that unless new agreements are reached, the current collective agreements will no longer apply as of Friday,” while noting the union will be in a strike position as of Friday but hasn’t determined if they will strike. As usual, the media is unclear who issued their notice first. But as far as we can tell, it’s at least a strike/lockout.
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Kate
A suspect package on the international baggage carousel caused a fright at Trudeau airport Monday evening and some flights were rerouted, but it turned out to be nothing.
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