STM maintenance workers are considering new strike action to jolt the sluggish contract talks into action.
Updates from July, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A reader sent me a link to a New Scientist piece about a study examining why trees lining Montreal’s streets thrive better during droughts than trees in parks. It’s because they’re getting water from our notorious leaky water mains, and the way this was determined – by comparing lead isotopes – is pretty clever.
Nicholas
Love this story, thanks! I remember hearing years ago that roots will find water wherever it is, and will get into a pipe crack and grow and grow. We need to send those water trucks out as we fix the pipes.
Kate
The tree with the worst record for breaking into pipes is the weeping willow, which is why we don’t plant them near buildings. You’ll only see them in parks, well away from infrastructure. They’re not native trees, but they really do things for a landscape.
Ian
Maples are really good at growing right up a house’s standpipe if they find a way in but it’s true, willows are notoriously fast.
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Kate
I had to read this CP piece on the CTV site twice to make sense of the timeline. A man who did time for a Toronto shooting in 2005 has been arrested in the shooting death of Abdeck Kenedith Ibrahim on Place de la Paix on Tuesday.
TVA clips the front page of the Journal in 2005 after the Toronto shootout, which is said to have sparked a surge for law and order in that city. Suspect Jeremiah Valentine had only been out on paroie for six months.
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Kate
There’s a ferry between Île-Bizard and Laval that can carry vehicles. Most of the time. Except, yesterday, a Tesla fell into the river. The curse on Elon Musk has reached Laval.
DeWolf
Wonder what the insurance claim is like when your car falls off a boat.
Blork
The car is considered a total loss, so no loss.
Nicholas
Pro tip: some rental car agencies ban taking their vehicles on ferries. Since you violated the rental agreement, it may also invalidate your insurance.
Ian
I guess it wasn’t a cybertruck or it might have burst into flames.
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Kate
The Belgo building is up for sale. Le Devoir delves into how it became a hub for art galleries starting in the 1980s – but will a new landlord tolerate the situation?
DeWolf
Here’s hoping there’s another Phoebe Greenberg out there who can buy it to essentially keep it as it is.
GC
That’s a must-see stop for me, every Nuit Blanche, as there are always some interesting things to see inside.
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Kate
La Presse talked to people who have been forced to live next door to burned‑out ruins that are neither being fixed up nor torn down. The city tends to delay demolitions, even when needed – as in the case of the notorious collapsing building on Park Avenue.
DeWolf
It’s kind of crazy that even when the city asks for a demolition order, it takes the court six months to consider the application.
This brings to mind the beautiful but dilapidated buildings on Esplanade facing the park. The city took the owner to court in 2013, got a demolition order. The owner resisted and the appeal took five years to work its way through the courts. Even when the owner lost, he just didn’t demolish the building.
Why does the city drag its heels? Why are the courts so slow? And why are there so many property owners who are willing to sit on ruins for years or even decades? If they wanted to make a buck, surely they could just sell and let some developer clean up the mess? It’s deranged.
Kate
We had a discussion about that Esplanade building here in 2022. It would be interesting to know what goes through the heads of the owners of these properties. I suppose in some cases the owner is aging and unable to cope, or doesn’t have the funds. I’ve heard of cases where a property is in limbo over a succession dispute, but that can’t account for all of them.
The city should have more concern about living conditions for the neighbours, even if it means taking over the ruined building and making executive decisions.
Chris
> …who are willing to sit on ruins for years or even decades?
Demolition costs money. Not demolishing costs no money.
> If they wanted to make a buck, surely they could just sell
Property and land value just goes up and up and up. They can make a bigger buck if they wait.
Ian
DeWolf, I find it interesting that you think this is a situation where the city should flex its zoning laws but enforcing AirBnB zones is somehow an egregious burden on its finances. Didn’t you hear, their hands are tied?
As Chris points out, asking “cui bono” will usually give you your answers.
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Kate
A young man who took a stolen Mercedes out for a road race on the Turcot last year and crashed, killing one of his friends, then fled the country, was arrested on his return and has now pleaded guilty. Yasser Laroui had already collected 30 driving violations and was 21 years old and driving without a licence when the crash happened.
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Kate
Craig Sauvé is to run for mayor at the head of a new party, Transition Montreal.
Ian
I wonder what the real story is there. I had assumed he would be welcomed back into the Projet fold after a brief reputation-cleansing exile.
MarcG
I figure that his politics are simply further to the left than Projet’s. Tax the rich to end poverty, socialize public services. I love safer streets and greener spaces but Projet is seriously lacking class consciousness. https://www.transitionmtl.org/nouvelles/transition-montral-entre-en-jeu-avec-craig-sauv-pour-transformer-montral
Ian
Fair enough, all good points.
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Kate
A body has been found in the third drowning off Verdun beach this summer, but it hasn’t deterred people from venturing into the river.
MarcG
Someone has put up a memorial at the site
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