Montreal City Weblog

Kate 16:46 on 2020-08-27 Permalink Reply  

• david282 17:09 on 2020-08-27 Permalink

  More of that importation of US politics here, where some now take the position that a person who disagrees with on x doesn’t just hold a different opinion, and they’re not even just wrong, no, they’re bad people who we should punish to the maximum possible extent.

• Kate 17:47 on 2020-08-27 Permalink

  david∞, I suppose you don’t have any interest in Brexit, because then you’d be aware the highly divisive politics are a function of our time and technology, and not specifically a U.S. thing. I take an interest in the UK’s problems because I have dual citizenship, and things are like that there too. But my impression is that in other cultures I have some feel for – France for example – things are just as polarized and likely to push to extremes. “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity” as the fellow said.

• Blork 17:54 on 2020-08-27 Permalink

  Yeah, it’s definitely not US-specific. But it does stink. I’m not opposed to all “cancellations” but this kind of boycott over a disagreement on policy has the pong of a jackboot on it.

• Chris 18:20 on 2020-08-27 Permalink

  Indeed it’s not US-specific, but they are the exemplar.

• david282 23:08 on 2020-08-27 Permalink

  There’s that, Kate, but then there’s just a descent into a base sort of tribalism. I’d say it’s pointless, but it’s not – the point is the performance.

  I’ve been a staunch advocate for bike lanes, pedestrianization, walkable communities, transit, etc. as long as I can remember (like, since I was politically aware at 13 years old or something). I don’t drive, I don’t even like to be in a car. The point on which I’m most critical of VP and PM is that they haven’t delivered on transit and the urban transformation we’ve seen sprout very slowly.

  But people who are diametrically opposed to my project aren’t my enemy.

  I don’t know if they’re doing that in the UK too, man, I sure hope not. But that we’re starting to do it here is dismaying and annoying to me. And once one side starts, the other side will reciprocate, and before you know it, we have hardened lines on all sorts of issues which, while important, aren’t important enough to punch holes into the fabric of our civil society over.

• DeWolf 09:07 on 2020-08-28 Permalink

  The whole thing is insane. But construction is underway and I give it a few more weeks before there’s a Covid outbreak at a school or something else to distract people and they no longer wake up shaking with rage over a bike path.

  A café on St-Denis has already planned a REV opening party for November 7.

• Kate 10:53 on 2020-08-28 Permalink

  Bartek Komorowski has a Twitter thread about the St-Denis REV, worth looking at.

• Joey 14:32 on 2020-08-28 Permalink

  Thank for that thread. Hopefully the lights will be synced (and the parking lanes adequately reduced at the end of each block) to minimize traffic jams caused by cars waiting to turn off St.-Denis…

• Ian 16:52 on 2020-08-28 Permalink

  For a party predicated on urban planning they are pretty sloppy about urban planning. Look at having to redo Clark because they forgot about firetrucks. Or this: https://twitter.com/fagstein/status/1299389067403165697?s=19

• MarcG 18:54 on 2020-08-28 Permalink

  I notice in some of the mock-ups that there are bike racks blocking the sidewalks as well. It’s irritating to have a bunch of junk in the way when they’re already barely wide enough for 2 people to walk side-by-side comfortably – forget avoiding people because of a virus or selfish groups of people who don’t know that other people exist.

• Ian 22:04 on 2020-08-28 Permalink

  It’s like the old MAD magazine Popular Mechanics “projects section” parody – Article 1: How to turn your file into a ruler > Article 2: How to turn your ruler into a screwdriver > Article 3: How to Turn your screwdriver into a file …

  Except play that game with streets, and pedestrians/bicycles/cars.
  No wonder people are feeling frustrated with this “planning”.