The Journal’s Louis-Philippe Messier spends a shift working for Communauto and discovers how many details the company has to chase down daily.
Updates from December, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Many merchants along St‑Denis who initially fought the implantation of the REV have changed their minds and some are asking for more bicycle parking arrangements.
More branches of the REV are to come.
Joey
Great to see this kind of follow-up reporting, but it’s hardly a surprise. The St Denis REV plan was based on both principles (we should devote less of the roadway to cars) and evidence (people want to shop in the neighbourhoods). Parc Ave should be added to the mix…
Chris
Two bits caught my eye:
“Plusieurs stationnements dans le secteur sont payants […] ça n’a plus de sens pour mes clients de venir rue Saint-Denis”
“…Combien de clients font le tour du bloc une fois ou deux fois en voiture et décident de simplement quitter le Plateau…”
You’d think as merchants they’d understand supply-demand-price better.
The neighbourhood is fully built up, there’s basically no room to add new parking supply.
You want free parking? Well, then the parking will become full, and clients will drive around and give up.
You want clients to be able to find a parking place easily? Well, then the price of parking needs to be high enough.
They need to choose.
DeWolf
It’s like that old bit – nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded!
There are plenty of studies out there that show merchants vastly overestimate the number of people who get to their business by car. But let’s assume they’re right, and most of their clients do get there by private vehicle – why exactly are they located on St-Denis? It’s not like there was ever abundant free parking there.
The owner of La Binerie says “nous constatons une baisse considérable de notre chiffre d’affaires et beaucoup de clients qui s’en vont ailleurs.” A drop compared to when? La Binerie moved to St-Denis in 2020, the year of lockdowns and also the year the REV opened. So what are they comparing it to?
We give disproportionate weight to the opinions of merchants in this city but we never really hold them up to account when they start talking out of their asses. We also need to acknowledge that what’s good for individual business owners is not necessarily good for the street and vice versa. St-Denis is objectively doing better business than five or ten years ago and on top of that it’s a safer and more pleasant street for everyone who goes there – so if some specific businesses are struggling with how the street has changed, they need to adapt or move to another street that better suits their business model.
yasymbologist
it`s always like impossible to pursade someone with mere words. but you have chance to change his mind with facts like this. especially at places where the most widely practiced faith is that people should always move around with their 2,000-pound worth of metal and rubber.
Nicholas
DeWolf, La Binerie opened their current location in November 2019, not 2020, and while the REV was announced in May 2019, the owners said it took 18 months to plan, so they would have started their plan before the REV was announced. But it seems they just made some choices that were bad in hindsight: four months before the pandemic they opened a new location with four times the seating of the old place, and hugely expanded hours. That’s just unlucky. Breakfast food is also just not great for takeout (especially eggs and fries). The L’Barouf terrasse next door is often full, but La Binerie doesn’t have one; maybe they just have too many seats for their classic concept, as tastes change (do the people from France and elsewhere who’ve gentrified much of the central Plateau have a love for pricey soupe aux pois, paté chinois and pouding chômeur?).
But if you can’t make a classic, high-calorie greasy spoon place work at the intersection of two of the most-used bike lanes in the city, when L’Avenue and Beauty’s and Bagels Etc. and others are always full, maybe the bike lanes aren’t the problem.
DeWolf
Yes, you’re absolutely right. I remember it opening in 2019 and thinking it was way too big given how small it was before. The old school lunch counter vibe was a big part of its appeal.
And you’re also right that if they’re suffering, it probably has nothing to do with the REV or 28 fewer parking spots and everything to do with their business model.
DavidH
I still see people looking for La Binerie on Mont-Royal. I’ll never understand why they moved to a location they had no connection to and spent no effort advertising the move.
The original location was featured in a book and movie that used to be the most well-known quebecois works in France at the time (Le Matou). They gave up all that visibility and achalandage, replaced it with nothing at all. Yet, they expect better results?!
Bikes have nothing to do with it. People went to the old place because of its history, not because pork and beans are in vogue. The old place was real, new place looks like a décor.
Orr
I’m a bit late to this item, but as no-one has mentioned it, the building of the St-Denis REV (as well as the vision for the REV Network) is a direct testament to the memory of the tragic death of Mathilde Blais who was killed bicycling through the underpass on St-Denis under rail tracks, and the truck driver wo hit and killed her said he “didn’t see her.”
Now that it is safe to travel across and between Montreal neighbourhoods (ie eliminating the so-dangerous play-in-traffic gaps between bike-path sections) many many people including families and moms with small children, old people, what I’m trying to say is “regular folks of all ages” now feel it is safe to use a bicycle for urban mobility.
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Kate
A section of St‑Michel is sandwiched between two old quarries, one of them – the old Francon quarry – completely impassable. Now a footbridge is promised, although the map shows it will extend Jean‑Rivard Street over the ravine, not so far from its southern end, and it will only be completed in 2029.
Borough mayor Laurence Lavigne‑Lalonde says she would like to see the quarry eventually made more accessible, but that this isn’t the time to start big expensive long‑term projects.
Ian
I’d love more public access to the Francon site as it’s very interesting geologically… but it’s been a snow dump so long it’s seriously contaminated.
Kate
Somewhere I read that the bottom of the quarry reaches the water table, which isn’t reassuring given the years of road salt and hydrocarbons and other filth that must be poured into it every winter.
DeWolf
There’s also a new footbridge that will be built across Frédéric-Back Park (the old Miron quarry) next year. The city put out a call for tender a couple of months ago so the work should start in the spring.
https://forum.agoramtl.com/t/developpement-du-parc-frederic-back/6235/8
walkerp
If it reaches the water table, doesn’t that basically mean that it’s a giant hole in the middle of the island and we are going to start sinking?!
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Kate
A group that advocates for immigrants held a protest Saturday afternoon at the office of the ministry of immigration against the freezing of immigration programs for foreign workers and students, who came here in expectation that their contribution to Quebec society meant they would be able to stay.
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Kate
CBC has a video on why Montreal is such a bookstore city, interviewing several owners, and making a shy at answering the question in the title.
Ian
The irony is that the vast majority of Montreal’s independent new and used English bookstores have closed over the last 25 years.
Kate
Should that not be regarded as progress?
Ian
By some measures, certainly 😉
Then again as long as there’s a ton of universities & colleges in the city and likewise tons of students, yeah, we’ll always have bookstores.
Orr 13:28 on 2024-12-05 Permalink
I have sent pics of communauto cars parked in reduced-mobility reserved parking spots.
What I should have done is call the cops, although often drivers use them for “five minute free parking” spots and would be gone by the time police arrive. That is why the city needs to give me a pack of parking tickets, or heck, why not just a phone app.