Homicides in Montreal are half what they were this time last year – 13 vs 24. Various explanations are proposed but I think it’s just random variation.
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Kate
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Kate
There was a fire at one of the camps on Notre‑Dame East overnight; luckily nobody got hurt.
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Kate
SMF’s administration plans public consultations on four bike paths, presumably with a view to getting consensus on removing them.
DeWolf
Their goal is probably to remove the path on Meilleur.
There is currently no path on de la Commune (only the Old Port one on federal land that suddenly stops at St-Laurent), so that would be a way to create a path and say “Hey, look, we’re not anti-bike!”
It would be difficult to imagine removing the path on Côte-Saint-Catherine because doing so would eliminate a crucial east-west link that is used by a lot of schoolchildren. There would be an enormous uproar.
Rachel is the wild card. There’s no way SMF would dare remove one of the busiest and oldest bike paths. It’s currently very problematic and congested could use expansion and improvement. But doing so would mean taking space away from cars.
My theory is that SMF and her administration has absolutely no idea what they’re doing and they don’t actually have a clear outcome in mind for this audit. There’s no grand plan — just petty politics.
DeWolf
The consultations are actually online right now. I just responded to the one about Rachel.
75% of respondents want the current bidirectional path replaced by uni-directional paths on either side of Rachel (ie, like on Pine or St-Denis).
If SMF wants to “écouter et agir” she knows what to do…
Joey
Not surprised to see at least two bidirectional paths on this list, given that’s it’s based largely on data about collisions. The Rachel path is really anachronistic – far too many variables at play (cars turning left and right off of Rachel, though traffic with no lights, no bike-only traffic signals, cyclists turning left and right off Rachel, etc). Fixing that should be a layup for SMF, since she can legitimately critique Projet for never improving it.
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Kate
Weekend notes from CityCrunch, Le Devoir, free and cheap events in the Journal. But Osheaga is the big event this weekend.Work being done on both the Mercier and the Victoria bridges means leaving the island may be tricky.
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Kate
Three people in the Montérégie were treated for rabies exposure after a stray domestic cat attacked them; the cat was understood to have acquired rabies from a raccoon. How did different media illustrate the story? Radio‑Canada: a hostile‑looking raccoon despite the mention of a cat in the headline. CBC, a tabby cat in underbrush, with a caption beginning “A stray cat, not pictured here, tested positive for rabies…”. CTV also shows us a tabby cat but explains it’s a picture taken in Buenos Aires; La Presse also goes for a tabby cat in one report, but a raccoon in another.
TVA goes more into the response to the rabies situation with a report on distribution of vaccine baits in the area, and a reminder that anyone who sees a dead raccoon should report it.
Nicholas
Love to learn we still have weird town names like Godmanchester with weird little websites and names that, in a form, have existed for nearly if not more than a millennium and also have nothing to do with religion.
Kate
Not many Quebec towns are named directly from a town in England but that one is. The 2021 census numbers in the Wikipedia article show it’s still nearly 40% anglophone, too.
R T
In addition to all the 1-3 word links on the top of the page, they have one that’s 13 words long to remind you that it’s 40% and not 50%:
https://godmanchester.ca/loi-96-loi-sur-la-langue-officielle-et-commune-du-quebec-le-francais/
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Kate
I mostly put “suspicious fire” items on the incident map now, but I noticed that this fire reported early Friday in St‑Michel, described as happening to an empty building on Jean‑Talon near Pie‑IX, is at the same location as a fire in an empty building in that general location in March. Neither current piece mentions the previous incident or says whether it’s the same building, but it seems likely.
Neither the Gazette nor CityNews notes the previous incident either. Am I the only person running a traditional newsroom in this joint now?
Nicholas
Given the blue line extension that would be a desirable place to redevelop. I’m sure it was just an accident….
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