There are various plans to put up residential towers over metro stations – both ones under construction and ones that have long been part of the urban landscape.
Updates from May, 2026 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
It was all so easy when Ensemble was sniping from the sidelines; now SMF wants a year to repair the potholes.
steph
Does she know that in a year it’ll be a whole new pothole season right?
Ian
If they’re actually repaired correctly it might work, but I’m not holding my breath.
I forget, are we in agreement that repairing potholes in insurmountable so nobody should be held accountable, or is it that potholes should be rapidly and correctly repaired so SMF is inheriting the legacy of ongoing bad roadwork over many mayoral dynasties?
CE
I think both are true.
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Kate
A popular café on Wellington in Verdun is closing after a 60% rent increase, reviving calls for commercial rent controls. The Gazette piece includes a coda in which the café’s landlord denies asking for a 60% hike.
Jim
Sad to see them go. However, the update matters. If the landlord disputes the 60% figure, we should be careful treating one side of lease negotiations as the full story. It is still a shame, but commercial leases are business, and sometimes both sides walk away unhappy.
I understand the call for commercial rent controls, but I’m not convinced regulation is the easy fix. We see already how well-intended rules can create paperwork and compliance costs that bigger companies absorb more easily than small independents. More bureaucracy may hurt the very cafés and shops it tries to protect.
Better lease support, better advice for small tenants, and ways to help local business owners stay rooted would make more sense to me.
MarcG
The irony is that the café was part of the first wave of gentrification on Wellington and now they’re not bougie enough. Curious to see what type of business has the cash to pay the hiked rent – I’m thinking big chain coffee/resto.
Joey
Here’s hoping the reporter, Jesse Feith, gets to the bottom of this. The tenant says they were presented with a 60% increase. The landlord says “We never demanded a 60 per cent rent increase… Various market scenarios were discussed in the normal course of commercial negotiations, but a 60 per cent increase was never requested.” Someone is lying, and the truth-teller should be able to document it…
DavidH
Some commercial leases in retail include a % of sales. So it’s quite possible that what the building owner asks for does amounts to a 60% increase in the cafe owner’s mind but that they don’t know it. If the current lease doesn’t include a % for exemple and they now want to implement it, they can only guess what the % they are asking for amounts to in dollars.
When I was in CEGEP a million years ago one thing that was hammered in all the entrepreneurial classes is that you should always sign long-term leases for commercial space. People starting out don’t want to commit long term. They don’t know what will happen so they think that they want flexibility. Sort-term leases are usually much cheaper too. It feels like the better choice.
However, if you sign a short term lease, your only option is failure. If you succeed, either the owner grabs your margin by raising the rent or he can grab your business and the achalandage you built for him when you refuse and vacate the space. You build an original pizza place through sweat and tears and then it’s the landlord’s nephew running a pizza chain concession at the same address once you leave. It happened all over Promenade Masson in the 90s. Same thing happened more recently with Sabor Latino in Petite Patrie. They built a grocery and cantina business on Bélanger. Once things got good, the landlord wanted an insane rent increase otherwise they would grab the store. Sabor Latino moved to the Plaza rather then renew. The landlord now operates the exact same business Sabor Latino built and grew at the original location but under the name Andes grocery.
When you sign a long-term lease, if your venture succeeds, you win. You might have troubles at renewal but, in theory, you brand is established by then so moving is not necessarily a death sentence. If it fails, you don’t actually need to worry about the lease. It is cynical but, you or the corporation you created will most likely go bankrupt anyways. The lease will be dealt with by the bankruptcy like all the other financial obligations. It’s scary and unnatural but long-term is usually the better option.
Ian
That said, there is the flip side.
For example, Comptoir 21 was a very successful Fich & Chips pesto on Saint Viateur. It was doing great. A good combination of Local employees and local residents, good food at a decent price, license but kid-friendly, and a very decently balanced menu in terms of overhead and variety.
One day, at the height of Saint Viateur’s gentrification, the landlords decided to kick them out because they felt that they could get an even better, more expensive restaurant in that clearly successful spot at an even higher rent.
That location has stood empty ever since, because who TF wants to rent from a greedy landlord that might kick them out on a whim?
Ian
OK I meant Fish & Chips resto but “Fich & Chips pesto” might just be the concept restaurant we have all been waiting for. (damn you autocorrect)
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Kate
Quebec is putting millions into what CTV calls health care prevention. Some would say that Quebec governments have been busily preventing health care for a long time.
Uatu
you know what would be great? Having a family dr. Just saying.
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Kate
Le Devoir marks the 20th anniversary of the Grande Bibliothèque with a dossier of items. In particular, they look at how a social worker at the library manages the presence of homeless people who need a peaceful place to hang out.
David S
FYI « intervenant psychosocial » does not necessarily mean « social worker », a reserved professional title. It is a general term, similar to « therapist » or « life coach » etc.
A social worker can call themselves an intervenant psychosocial, but an IP can’t call themselves a SW unless they are members of the Ordre (OTSTCFQ)
And in this case, the person is not a social worker, I checked.
MarcG
It’s only therapy if it comes from the Ordre, otherwise it’s just sparkling chit-chat.
Kate
Info and insight from David S, and a good laugh from MarcG!
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Kate
Fans of the Canadiens are ramping up the festivities. The Bell Centre has added a third big screen so more fans can watch the away matches there.
La Presse talked to men at the Old Brewery Mission. One says that the playoffs remind him he’s still alive. It’s all very Victor Hugo-Charles Dickens, this piece. Sometimes the news reminds me we’re slipping back through the Robber Barons era into the depths of the Victorian age.
Ian
Free viewings t the Rialto for those willing to travel to Mile End.
Ian 20:46 on 2026-05-11 Permalink
I have a colleague that lives on Rene Levesque and Metcalfe on the 3rd floor of a high-rise. He can hear the Lucien L’Allier metro. I guess it’s like the Blues Brothers line, “you get used to it”.
Kate 09:53 on 2026-05-12 Permalink
Shouldn’t it be possible to build sound insulation into a tower like that?
MarcG 10:03 on 2026-05-12 Permalink
When I’m talking to the pharmacist at my local pharmacy I can feel the vibrations from the metro under my feet every few minutes. You would think a new build would try to buffer it but there would be a price tag.
Kate 10:49 on 2026-05-12 Permalink
It may be the local geological conditions. I quite often walk along Berri near Jarry. I’ve seen photos of the excavation along there, early in the construction of the first metro tunnel, and there’s a fenced spot between two houses with a large ventilation shaft where you can hear the trains passing below, and sometimes a ghostly platform announcement. But underfoot you don’t feel any vibrations.
But I’ve never lived along there, admittedly.
A little later I’m adding this photo as a curiosity, it’s on Berri, May 23, 1962, the first excavations for the metro, marked by a short ceremony (Jean Drapeau is there somewhere). Jarry in the background: the building in the middle with alternating white stones was demolished for the midrise that houses Jarry station, but the building with horizontal stripes is still there, with a Basha in it at ground level these days. (Posted by Gabriel Jacob on Facebook on May 23 this year.)
Ian 21:25 on 2026-05-12 Permalink
Clay/sandy soil would certainly dampen sound more then rock. There are pockets of both in town, for sure.