The city is obliged to find space for new schools, especially in areas under development or redevelopment, but it’s a difficult process strewn with obstacles.
Updates from April, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A census of the homeless is under way Tuesday evening. This brief item mentions that this census “does not include homeless people who find shelter in subway stations or 24-hour restaurants, or who sleep on the street, in their car or in a tent” but I don’t know what the explicit terms are.
Chris
I wonder what fraction that misses. A lot I figure.
DeWolf
I can’t find the line about it not including virtually every category of homeless person, so maybe that was a mistake? Because it doesn’t even make sense.
MarcG
Seems like the article was updated since it was published. The sentence appears in this previous CityTV article on the subject from Apr 4.
Kate
The line was definitely in that piece when I linked, because I cut-n-pasted it.
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Kate
An office building built in 1984 on René-Lévesque is likely to be demolished so a developer can build a 24‑storey condo tower on the lot.
The old Delta Hotel on Sherbrooke is also for the chopping block. It was abandoned years ago – I remember stories of it being empty and full of rats. I never understood why it was a failure from the start, but it was.
The overall theme to this piece is that converting existing buildings to residential is often difficult or impossible.
Joey
Didn’t that Delta used to be the focal point of Just For Laughs?
Kate
I don’t remember that, but they used different sites during different years.
thomas
@Joey From what I remember, the Delta Hotel on President-Kennedy at City Councillors was the Just For Laughs spot.
DeWolf
The Delta has been operational for as long as I remember. You can still book rooms there today.
It was originally a condominium project that flopped before it was turned into a hotel. Maybe that’s the period when it was abandoned?
JP
yeah, this thread confused me a bit. It seems operational to me too, and I think my friend had her son get swimming lessons there with a private instructor a few years ago.
GC
Add me to the list of confused, because I thought it was one of the downtown hotels that was converted into a university residence. I must be thinking of another one on Sherbrooke…
CE
@GC, you’re probably thinking of this building.
GC
That’s one of them, yes. I suppose it was not a Delta before, though. Maybe a Holiday Inn?
CE
It was a Holiday Inn. It was converted to an Evo student residence around 2014 (the Delta next to the Tour de la Bourse was also became an Evo) and is now branded “Campus 1.”
Kate
I thought from the photo that the second project mentioned in the article was this building set back from the street, on Sherbrooke at City Councillors.
DeWolf
That is indeed the Delta that will be demolished. The demolition permit was issued last month. The new project will include both a 330-room hotel and a 498-unit apartment building:
https://forum.agoramtl.com/t/450-rue-sherbrooke-ouest-18-34-etages/6922
GC
Thanks, CE. I think my friends actually stayed at the President Kennedy Delta last year, so I knew what was still active. I just got mixed up!
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Kate
A spokeswoman for the city blue collar union is warning that the Atwater water treatment plant is lacking in serious security so that it’s vulnerable to possible vandalism.
But the lede is buried in this piece, because the real story is that the city is abolishing its own security patrol, a force of about 40 people who circulate among the various city installations. The city says the agents will be given different jobs and that there are better ways to do security now.
ProposMontreal
Funny, There was around 5 firetrucks there this morning at around 5h20. Probably pure coincidence.
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Kate
Monday evening, Mayor Plante said in council that her administration didn’t want the Ray‑Mont terminal to be built. This piece explains the zoning change made by Coderre city hall that created the conditions for a noisy shipping container yard to be placed in an area otherwise zoned residential.
Nicholas
Is it otherwise zoned residential? This is an area surrounded on two sides by an industrial rail access line, one side by a Molson and other company distribution site, and the last side by Notre Dame and some oil cisterns. Steve made a map (direct link) last fall. Here’s a pin.
I agree it’s close to some residential. But there’s no way that anyone would have built residential on the Ray-Mont lot: that would be the most hostile place to live on the island. The only use for this land, other than leaving it empty, is industrial.
Kate
It was an impression I got but I can’t cite. If the Coderre admin changed the zoning, what was it changed from?
People living nearby certainly never wanted it.
Is there a silver lining?
Ian
I actually know people that live on that stretch of Viau down by N-D and it actually is a cute little neighbourhood, with some very nice buildings and a lot of residents. it is kind of in the middle of nowhere if you just look at it on a map, but since it’s only as far east as it is, it is still conveneient to pretty much whatever, even a metro line with a short bus ride.
Now, is it 88 million green wall cute? That is kind of pushing it, for sure, especially considering that there are already housing projects not far from there, so there is a clear and present need that is obviously served by THAT kind of investment.
dhomas
@Nicholas Directly to the west of this lot is absolutely residential. There were also many projects to convert formerly industrial lots to residential. Take for example ‘La Biscuiterie’ on the corner of Viau and Ontario (where Viau Village cookies used to be made!) was converted to residential. Sure, “directly” surrounding the spot where Ray-Mont will build is industrial, but much of it is already disused. Molson/Coors is moving out of that spot. Just north of Molson (2150 Dickson), there is a disused building with two chimneys that has been vacant since I can remember (Google Maps shows it as unused since at least 2007). They were also supposed to extend l’Assomption street through this industrial zone so that it would continue south from Hochelaga to Notre-Dame. Everything north of Hochelaga street is being converted to Residential, too, which makes sense since it is so close to l’Assomption metro.
So, zooming out a little, even if the Ray-Mont lot is surrounded by industrial, the larger plot of (mostly disused) industrial land is surrounded by mostly residential areas, Why should we stop the spread of these residential areas and return to industrializing this plot of land? It doesn’t make sense to me.
jaddle 17:26 on 2025-04-22 Permalink
Hmm… if only there were a large building suitable for use as a school right downtown that just needed some long-overdue renovations… (yes, I’m talking about FACE, though there are a few other buildings that also fit that description!)
Kate 11:16 on 2025-04-23 Permalink
Wednesday’s La Presse talks about the city’s difficulty in getting provincial funding for new school buildings or renovating old ones.