Weekend notes from CityCrunch and cultural notes from La Presse.
Updates from Kate Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A major fire that broke out early Friday on Notre‑Dame in Old Montreal is under investigation as one person is in hospital and 40 people were evacuated from an adjoining building.
Updating: Two people have died in this fire, in a building belonging to the same landlord who owned the Place Youville Airbnb that burned and killed seven people in March 2023.
TVA also reports on a Molotov cocktail thrown at a restaurant in Point St Charles early Friday.
MarcG
I’m surprised you didn’t make note of the fact that the building in Old Montreal has the same owner as the one on Place D’Youville that burned down last year.
Kate
That bit of information is in the lede in La Presse now, but it wasn’t when I linked it.
%&#@!!
Blork
And apparently he was running a “hostel” out of it. CBC piece says “Some comments, however, describe the accommodations as crammed, rundown and report bedrooms without windows.”
Kate
Sounds grimly familiar. If this guy owns any other buildings, they have to go to the top of the fire department inspection list.
Joey
Look, for all my griping about certain things, I am a fan of Projet Montreal. I think, among other things, they are probably the most competent and morally good political party to seek office in Quebec in a long time (largely because they are motivated by policy, progress and results, and are less driven by thirst for power than pretty much everybody else).
Today we’ve learned that the Metro stations we happened to have the opportunity to inspect need to be shut down (we can only wonder how many other structural beams throughout the Metro system are in similarly bad shape). We’ve also learned that the landlord whose negligence and greed led to a fire that killed seven people is *still* cramming people into unsafe accommodations, leading to the death of at least two people. It’s hard to not think this city is a little doomed – especially since the ostensible good guys are in charge.
Kate
Since I first posted that story there have been two deaths! Holy shit, that guy has blood on his hands.
Priorities at city hall definitely have to change after this. Even if they have to pull some people from friendlier roles and make them be building inspectors.
jeather
Whatever you think about Plante’s choices, she consistently chooses “I want Montreal to be a great city for the residents”. This is based on her definitions of great, which you may or may not agree with — but she isn’t making choices for tourists, or posterity, or the short term.
The thing with the metro is not really her fault, we have years of ignoring repairs coming due.
But the lack of inspections, the complete lack of policing of Airbnbs — these are things she should be doing more about. Why are we not inspecting all of that owner’s places. What happened to the Airbnb ridealong crew?
su
The owner was suing the city over the prior inferno last I heard.
Joey
@jeather, agreed. I guess I wish the city treated murderous slumlords with the same urgency and confidence as it does, say, people who let their dogs off leash in the park at night. I wish the city prioritized ticketing drivers who go through crosswalks near schools more than ticketing drivers who park in restricted zones five minutes before the restricted period ends. We can go on like this all day. Yes, the vast majority of the problems can really only be solved in Quebec City. Still.
Major Annoyance
Let’s not forget the role les pompiers played in this. Bunch of racist white fucks lounging around their man-caves all day – for serious money – none of whom can be arsed to get off his barbecuing butt long enough to do the occasional home inspection.
My neighbour here in our little Expo 67-era shoddy fire-trap all-wood-construction student housing slum just told me he’s been living here 15 years now. Total number of firemen knocking on his door to look over the smoke detectors and fire escape routes: Zero. In 15 fucking years. Same goes for my doors too.
Half the universe probably hates what’s-his-face by now. But the blame spreads around too.
WinklePig
This Benamor guy has k*lled over 10 ppl at this point
And fuck the police. Fuck the fire dept
walkerp
I’m just gobsmacked that this guy still owns buildings that are being rented out. I mean isn’t the obvious move for the city to send inspectors out to any buildings in his name and inspect and ticket them relentlessly?!
If the city isn’t going to do it, the people should tar and feather this loser along with the LaTulipe dink. String them up from the ring as an example to other slum lords.
Major Annoyance
@walkerp: You I like. Have a wonderful weekend.
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Kate
Three stations on the blue line – Fabre, d’Iberville and Saint‑Michel – have been closed because of structural concerns revealed by work being done at Saint‑Michel. A shuttle bus, bus 809, will run between Jean‑Talon and Saint‑Michel stations while repairs are made.
Clarifications have been made Friday morning. The problem is at Saint‑Michel station only, but they need to close the stations between Saint‑Michel and Jean‑Talon because Jean‑Talon is the only station before Saint‑Michel where trains can turn to go back towards Snowdon.
Update: La Presse says the STM is blaming the infiltration of road salt brine for weakening the concrete.
carswell
An Agora Mtl poster took the shuttle from St-Michel to Jean-Talon and timed the legs of the trip and the waiting time to board. The later was good, under four minutes, but the trip itself took about 25 minutes vs. four minutes on the subway.
This is also going to have an effect on local businesses with non-local customers. Case in point: friends and I are indefinitely postponing a planned outing to the St-Michel flea market, about a 10-minute walk from the namesake station.
Kate
Not great, but better than having part of Saint‑Michel station collapse.
carswell
Oh, def. But I pity those commuters.
That the serious work on the blue line extension finally begins and immediately results in an extended blue line reduction is almost unbearably ironic.
Kate
I suppose it’s possible that maintenance work on Saint-Michel had been put on hold because of an assumption it would be done when the extension work began, but that could have been years ago, given the endless delays on this project.
carswell
Per Radio Noon, having finished a round of major maintenance work on the original 1960s stations, the STM is now focusing on the newer stations.
According to the guest prof, first indications are that salt, mostly from slush clinging to passengers’ footwear, is a major suspect. The prof noted that to avoid falls and lawsuits, the STM salts very heavily around metro stations, which exacerbates the problem and is an argument in favour of heating the entrance areas and nearby sidewalks instead of salting.
Kate
I was just adding La Presse’s version of the salt story to the original post.
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Kate
A study from Concordia suggests that a two‑bedroom apartment could go for $4,325 a month by 2032.
Joey
This study doesn’t seem to have included any public policy or regulatory elements in its model; sure demand can continue to grow much faster than supply, but if the TAL sets annual rent hikes are a few percent, there would have to be lots and lots of rule-breaking to approach the figures discussed here, no? That may be plausible, but it needs to be called out. We may all bemoan the weakness of our rent control system, but it still exists.
DeWolf
Any study that assumes “if policies and trends remain unchanged” isn’t worth much as a study. It’s like estimating population growth by extrapolating current growth rates, which is how we got estimates in the early 70s that Montreal would have 10 million people today.
That said we’ve gone through an alarming period of rent hikes and the only way out is to build more housing of all types and to reinforce rent controls.
JaneyB
…and to punish Airbnb in as many ways as possible. That is a key problem.
Blork
It’s a bit of a misdirection to blame/punish Airbnb. They don’t own those apartments and they don’t make any decisions about them. All they do is facilitate booking and payment.
That’s not to say they are utterly blameless, but the real problem are the people and real estate developers who choose to make their units short-term rentals instead of regular rentals. Let’s put the focus back on those people, the ones who make those choices.
MarcG
It’s a systemic problem and Airbnb is part of that system.
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Kate
Food & Wine magazine has a piece on Montreal’s Jewish food culture.
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Kate
A new sculpture, Orb, has been installed on the esplanade of Place des Arts and will be there for five years. As Olivier Du Ruisseau says in this piece, it has a sort of 1960s vibe that works with the era of the surrounding buildings. It’s almost an Expo 67 flair.
Blork
Cue the outrage from the idiot corner about spending tax money on artistic installations.
Kate
The item says it was the idea of the guy who runs the Mural festival, and “Mural a réuni environ un demi-million de dollars pour l’occasion, avec l’aide de Tourisme Montréal et du Fonds signature métropole du gouvernement du Québec.” Presumably at least some of that is tax money, but it would be funds set aside for spiffing things up to attract tourists, which would be frittered on folderol in any case.
Joey
We finally got our version of Chicago’s Bean! It looks like it’s been placed in a wading pool. I think it would be more of a hit if visitors could get up close… Anyway, I like it. Mural is great. Good use of taxpayer money IMO. Let’s hope the majority of the funds went to the artist.
Blork
Kate, it doesn’t matter to the idiots. Even if it were 100% privately funded and had large signs around it indicating so, the socials would still be full of idiots complaining about tax dollar funding. Look at the “Ring.” Hardly any public money done for that but you can’t see a picture of it on FB or Insta without every fourth comment being a screed about wasting tax dollars.
CE
Honestly, who cares about the idiots frittering away their time yelling at clouds on social media?
Blork
CE, I know! But I can’t help feeling a profound disappointment with humanity and the cultural loss of the potential of social media when I see that stuff. It would be one thing if it was rare but if social media has done anything it has exposed the extent to which so many of our fellow humans are dumb as fence posts. And I don’t mean naively and harmlessly dumb like your silly uncle, I mean actively and deliberately stupid.
It’s one of the reason I’m barely on social media anymore.
Kevin
Honestly, we’re at the point where everyone should be aware that unmoderated social media is an absolute garbage fire because it’s overrun by paid bad faith actors.
Block the blockheads and move on — they’re not real people!
Kate
Has anyone yet trained an AI to moderate?
CE
It’s not just paid trolls and bots, it’s an entire ecosystem that’s designed to elevate, promote, and encourage rage and anger because bad emotions increase engagement and keep people on the sites/apps longer. Social media may have started out with good intentions but it’s rotten from the inside out. A lot of damage has been done but the quicker we all as a society get away from it, the better we’ll be.
DeWolf
I was downtown this evening so I wandered by to see it. Not bad. It’s a bauble but a fun one to have around.
JaneyB
Love it! It does have a 60s vibe! 🙂
Tee Owe
With DeWolf on this one – looks like a fun addition to the city
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Kate
The STM is preparing to build a new garage for metro
trainsrepair vehicles under Decarie Boulevard. Official page for the project.Nicholas
The official page said the buildings need to be demolished for safety reasons, due to their advanced deterioration. But all but one were in use as stores in November 2020, according to Google Streetview (though with liquidation signs). The article says the area is needed for an access point, but how big does a stairwell and service elevator and loading dock need to be? It’s fine if they just say they want an easy construction site, but why hide the ball like this?
Also, Kate, it’s not for metro trains, it’s for the repair vehicles they send out at night that you sometimes see when coming home at 1 am. This will probably save close to an hour of travel time each night, so more time for work.
Kate
Thanks for the correction.
I’ve seen those vehicles, having lucked into a late-night visit to the metro a few years ago: photos by Ben Soo.
Ephraim
I strongly object to the lack of transparency surrounding the new metro repair station’s design and its integration with the Decarie neighborhood. I support the purchase, demolition, and construction of the new station itself. However, I want information on how the new building’s design will complement Decarie’s existing aesthetic. I also urge consideration for incorporating affordable housing into the project. Finally, I require full disclosure of the plans for employee parking.
My ideal outcome is a new building that maintains Decarie’s character while adding at least three stories of either residential or STM office space. I also believe employee parking should not be provided by the employer. If it is, it should be treated as the taxable benefit that it is.
Kate
Ephraim, I thought for a moment you were writing satire with phrases like “Decarie’s existing aesthetic” and “maintains Decarie’s character”. Rereading you, I’m still not sure.
Joey
Obviously they already ran public consultations on this, so you missed your chance to gripe about the tax treatment of parking spaces: https://www.stm.info/en/about/public-participation/lets-chat/northwest-attachment-centre
+1 to Kate’s answer. I encourage you to look up those addresses on Street View.
Ephraim
Not what was there, but something that doesn’t look out of place. The blocks beyond QM on that side are awful. The blocks further up are residential. So a glass office building at ground level will just stick out.
Yes, what was there was awful, but so is 900 place d’armes. We need streets to feel comfortable, somewhat homogeneous.
And too often we build for the STM as single use. How much space around and above an édicule is just wasted because we aren’t maximizing it’s value. Isn’t this the lesson we should have learnt from the REM. Use that space properly.
Ephraim
If you look at the primary site, the houses to both sides are 4 story tall residential apartment buildings. So is the block before them. The one exception is the building right next, which is mixed use and 3 stories. So the building, even if being used by the city for other purposes, should sort of “melt” into the neighbourhood and disappear, as if it wasn’t even really there. Imagine how weird a modern office building would look right in there.
The secondary location nearer to Queen Mary. That shouldn’t break the streetscene. Not by what is currently there, but by what should have been there. Look at 4954 Decarie as an example of what should have NEVER been authorized. Heck, even the post office shouldn’t have been authorized to be built so differently than the rest of the street scene. But we made mistakes in the past. Let’s try to prevent them in the future.Kate
I see what you mean, Ephraim, but I think you’d have trouble convincing anyone that the buildings fringing Decarie are worthy of any architectural consideration.
Ephraim
But neighbourhood continuity is. 900 Place d’Armes should be remembered for the mistake it is and never repeated.
James
If built in this area, almost all of the building will not be visible. Only a building big enough for trucks to fully enter will be at ground level. Most of the building will be multiple basements and finally, at the lowest level, tracks for the maintenance vehicles.
It will be a lot like the “Garage Cote-Vertu”: https://www.stm.info/en/about/major_projects/completed-major-projects/cote-vertu-garage
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Kate
The entire metro system was down early Thursday but was back by 6:10 am.
jeather
Blue line is shut east of Jean-Talon for an indefinite period.
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Kate
The city plans to raise property tax by 1.8% in 2025.
Ephraim
Yes, but it already raised evaluations between 2022 and 2024 by about 33% when inflation was under 13.5%
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Kate
CTV tells us that five teenagers were arrested in Snowdon on Wednesday morning with incendiary materials in a car. La Presse expands on the story, saying cops stopped another car in Côte St‑Luc, and both were found near synagogues.
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Kate
La Presse’s Maxime Bergeron ponders the personalities who might step up to face Valérie Plante in the mayoral election of November 2025.
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Kate
McGill University is shutting its gates to all but students and employees from Saturday till Monday, October 7 being the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel.
CBC also says synagogues are increasing security for the high holidays, although no threats have been received.
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Kate
A woman who “used her car like a weapon” to kill a fellow motorist in 2022 has been sentenced to five years and can’t drive for six years, although she’ll be behind bars for some of that time.
Tim S.
Among the reasons for not giving a more severe sentence, “son faible danger pour le public.” I dunno, I think a murderous driver poses the maximum danger to the public, but that’s just because I’m one of those rare people who goes near a road on a daily basis.
Nicholas
Why would anyone think she won’t reoffend? I understand not sending her to jail for life, but we’re restoring her privilege to drive a year after she gets out of prison? Would we restore someone’s right to own guns a year after they leave prison for intentionally murdering someone?
GC
Interesting that the judge seems to have concluded she hit him very deliberately and she called garages within minutes to fix the damage, but she also somehow had “remords sincères”. How did that come up? While she was at the garage, trying to cover up her crime?
What wasn’t super clear to me, from the article, was if they had some history of violence between them or if he was just a stranger who she encountered on the road.
Kate
Can we take a person’s licence away permanently?
Meezly
What is it about being a driver getting light sentences for taking a human life. She was even sober! The judge even admitted she hit the victim quite deliberately. Would the sentence be harsher had she used a hammer or a knife??
Blork
GC, it’s quite possible she showed sincere remorse. Just because she didn’t show it in the minutes and hours after the event doesn’t mean it didn’t settle in later when the immediate panic had dissolved. After all, it’s been two years since it happened, and that’s plenty of time for remorse to set it.
That said, to Kate’s question I’m pretty sure it is possible to permanently revoke a driving license. Most jurisdictions specify a difference between a SUSPENSION (temporary) and a DISQUALIFICATION/REVOCATION (permanent). But I don’t know what the criteria is here.
I’m pretty sure I saw that causing injury or death due to criminal negligence only qualifies for SUSPENSION, but is this a case of criminal negligence? I don’t think so. It sounds like she deliberately chose to hit the guy, although I think her defence lawyer argued that she was somehow “triggered” to do so from some trauma or other. (I admit that I’m getting tired of hearing about trauma and the way people use it to justify getting away with all sorts of things.)
Personally, I’m surprised that she got less than the maximum sentence and only a suspension.
Tim S.
I think it was on here that I read that judges do not have the authority to suspend a license, only to impose a driving ban as a probation condition. I could be wrong, but if this the case, it seems to me that the solution is to set up a SAAQ tribunal that automatically reviews any driver accused of a driving-related crime.
H. John
I’m not sure it answers all the questions, but Justice Eric Downs went into a lot of detail in his decision to explain how penalties are arrived at, and, more importantly, exactly what he considered in this case (starting at para 73 of the decision).
The decision:
Kate
Thank you, H. John.
GC
You raise a good point, Blork, about later remorse. I sometimes forgot how much time passes between an arrest and a sentencing.
Kate
But at that point, GC, is the remorse for the life taken, or for one’s own blighted prospects?
GC
Hard to say, Kate, from my sofa. The judge, um, judged it “sincères”. So, I guess there’s that… At least he didn’t say she was active at her local church or some other bullshit that is really irrelevant to someone’s character.
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Kate
Musical equipment can come with a lot of labels, and they tend to be in English. This will not be allowed under provisions of the strengthened language law, so music stores may have to close if they cannot provide equipment labelled in French.
We all have to suffer to save French, so I don’t know what they’re whining about. They could go teach French in the Eastern Townships, right? Except oops, the funding has been cut! Too bad!
rob
The musicians will just order from out of province stores that will only charge the 5% gst. (does anyone self declare the PST?). Bottom line is quebec that loses.
Robert H
Right. So now there’s another French tax and one more reason for people to avoid it in favour of English. French again becomes the language of inconvenience, prohibition, red tape and No-You-May-Not. The authors of language policy in La Belle Province don’t give enough consideration to unintended consequences. Défense de penser.
EmilyG
As a musician, this worries me. Me and a lot of my colleagues and friends could be affected by this.
And combined with the tuition increases at McGill possibly threatening McGill’s music program, among other things, I worry about the future of music in Montreal.Kate
The CAQ are philistines. As an anglo, while I may not thrill at the idea of the resurgence of the PQ, historically the party has been relatively generous with funding for cultural things. At least some of their people have understood that if you want to support a language, you need to allow for some amount of creativity in it.
The CAQ really could not care less whether there’s any music or books or Quebec‑made movies. They’re brutes.
Annette
Ok, if you actually enjoy PQ-approved cultural output, let the Bloc party commence:
Kate
Not sure how relevant that is, Annette.
Meezly
The CAQ want to run the province like a big business, but they really don’t give a f**k about small local businesses. Just hoping the more voters they can antagonize for the next election, the better.
Kate
But they’ve given millions to Northvolt, a firm that’s not doing very well at all, and probably going to allow it to damage the environment here. That’s not good big business, it’s crap (and probably why Pierre Fitzgibbon “lost his taste for politics”).
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Kate
I don’t like to victim-blame, but the Gazette has a story about a man who spent five years taking photos in remote parts of Canada, then left two laptops and three hard drives in a minivan downtown. They’ve been stolen, along with years of his work.
First, he didn’t back up his work offsite, ideally to the cloud, and second, he left irreplaceable valuables in a vehicle. Third, he didn’t have the Apple “find my” feature turned on.
Yes, it’s a sad story, but these are simple things he should have done, none of which are mentioned in the story. I suppose the journalist didn’t want to sound like she was wagging her finger at him. So I’m doing it.
Ricardo
“I don’t like to victim blame” and then goes on to blame victim. That said I appreciate and enjoy your blog.
Blork
There’s nothing wrong or hypocritical about saying “I don’t like to victim blame” and then proceeding to do so. That’s just presenting a preface that what follows is distasteful to the speaker/writer but the message conveyed trumps that distaste.
It’s not the same as saying “I’m not going to victim blame” and then proceeding to do so. These are two completely different things. Unfortunately some people don’t see that very obvious difference.
dhomas
You’re not alone, Kate. I saw his story on Reddit last week, and everyone said pretty much the same thing:
https://www.reddit.com/r/montreal/comments/1fpd42z/reward_up_to_2000_for_return_of_photos_items/Kate
I found it disingenuous to frame this as a story about robberies from vehicles only. Obviously that’s one aspect of the incident, but to spin it as a personal tragedy and loss without raising the issue of what measures he had taken to secure his work makes the newspaper sound naive too.
If the guy had the means to jaunt around for five years taking pictures, he had the means to subscribe to a backup system – maybe even a satellite link, if he was, as the article suggests, sometimes out of range of cell service. If you value your work, you put a belt and suspenders on it.
Kate
I didn’t see that, dhomas, but yes!
Blork
It sounds like this guy fell into the trap of thinking the only risk was failure or loss of his laptop. The article says he also had hard drives stolen, so he was probably backing up to those hard drives thinking he was safe. But if the hard drives are together with the laptop then the whole kit is only safe from SOME of the dangers.
Specifically, they are not safe from theft, if the theft also includes the goddamn hard drives. Nor are they safe from fire and floods, etc.
Even people who keep their computers and backups at home should learn from this. If you don’t have off-site backups (which can be cloud-based or other), you are not protected from theft, fire, etc.
That said, backing up loads of photographs to the cloud can be daunting. If you’re doing serious photo work there’s the complications of needing to keep RAW and/or DNG or sidecar files alongside the JPGs or TIFFs, plus no end of possible synchronization problems with your file management/organization system. The guy claims to have had more than a million photos, so that can easily be a terabyte or more, which might be slow on a laptop with a wifi link.
But FFS there are other ways! Have multiple hard drives and keep them in different locations. If you live on the road maybe make a SSD backup every few months and just mail it to someone you trust (you can get a tiny 1TB SSD drive for well under a hundred bucks). Keep a rotation going so there are always three or four backups out there in the world in case you have a disaster. Or just simply and get a cloud-based account.
Joey
The fact that he turned Find My is especially egregious. Not hard to imagine someone who would not want to take advantage of that feature (which keeps track of your Apple devices’ locations, with the default sharing option turned off, obviously) would also not want to backup his life’s work to the cloud. But for god’s sake, get yourself some backup drives and a safety deposit box or something.
Still not sure how this is news, but whatever.
Blork
And BTW, no matter what you use, it’s useful to have a few dormant backups. As in, SSDs or HDDs that you no longer back up to and just keep aside in storage. I actually had a hard drive corruption problem once that went unnoticed for a while, and when I replaced the drive and restored from my backup I discovered that the corrupted drive had also corrupted my backup. So I was basically backing up corrupted files that were overwriting the good ones. (Same could apply to cloud-based backup; if your source is corrupt it could be corrupting your cloud backup.)
Fortunately I had an older HDD that had 90% of the files on it. The corrupted HDD had only corrupted some random files, not everything, so I was able to restore everything but maybe a dozen unimportant files from the old backup and by carefully checking and migrating over the un-corrupted newer files from the iffy backup.
dhomas
The golden rule of backup is 3-2-1:
3 copies of your data. This could include your “production” data plus 2 copies.
2 different media types (this terminology is a little outdated, but it still applies). This could be a NAS or DAS RAID (replicated hard drives) array + cloud.
1 copy off-site. This is important and what bit the fellow in the article. You can have 3 (or 4 or 12) backups of your data. If they’re all in the same spot, fire, flood, theft, a meteor, could all wipe out your data.As Blork hinted at, you should also check up on your backup every so often. “Cold storage” can sometimes go bad. Off-site hard drives that are not spun up regularly can suffer head crashes; DVD can get disc rot; etc.
It can quickly get expensive to keep off-site storage in the cloud, especially for photographers or video editors. For them, I would recommend something like Backblaze or Amazon Glacier. These services provide relatively cheap upload fees, but expensive retrieval fees. So, in the case of catastrophic failure and you lose every other copy, you can still retrieve it from the online cold storage. It’s like insurance. You hope you’ll never need it.
If you’d like to read more, you can check out articles like this one:
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/Chris
Forget about “cloud”… it’s slow and expensive. Just buy a big ass hard disk. If he’s a photographer, he probably has a Mac, and Time Machine is easy.
Kate
Chris, according to the story, this guy was on the road a lot. He wasn’t sitting at a desktop computer. And, given his nonchalance about protecting his files, he probably would’ve done best with something he could set and forget, and that could not be stolen. Giving him a big ass hard disk is just asking for something else to be stolen.
dhomas
Well, he DID have external hard drives. But those too got stolen. Because he didn’t apply the “off-site” principal of the backup strategy. Everything was in one place.
Cloud is indeed expensive. Personally, I’m trying to rid myself of cloud service dependence, and associated subscription costs (which can and do increase at any moment, once you’re already hooked on the service). I backup everything important to a secondary server I keep running at my parents’ house, so I still get off-site storage, but with very little cost. If you have a tech savvy friend, you can also apply a similar strategy where you store their off-site backups and they store yours. I’ve considered this in the past, but decided keep everything in the family since I already had the extra hardware ready.
But this is not feasible for everybody. If you want a solution that doesn’t require you to manage it, you can opt for those cloud services I mentioned above.
Chris
Kate, big ass hard disks aren’t so big physically, and so not a problem even if he is on the road, they easily fit in a car. Being on the road also means your internet speed sucks. No desktop computer is needed, disks can easily connect to a laptop. As others said, he just needed to keep multiple disks in multiple places.
Kate
Chris, sweetheart, I’m well aware that a big ass hard disk is not a large object.
But this guy doesn’t need internet speed. He can take a bunch of photos then relax while they upload. Then he doesn’t have to arrange to leave disks somewhere if he’s living a peripatetic life on the road. He’s clearly not the kind of guy who would remember to do that anyway. He’s a total example of someone for whom you set it up so it’s seamless – set and forget.
Faiz Imam
I pay $90USD a year for backblaze, which backs up my 8TB local external drive.
And I make sure everything is backed up to that.
If my house burns down I don’t lose anything.
Joey
@Faiz and @Kate exactly, plus it’s a business expenses, so basically negligible. The annual cost would be a tiny fraction of one day of one of those trips.
Blork
One of the things that kills me about FB comments is the way people comment without reading the previous comments. Like someone will post an old photo of an intersection in Montreal asking where it is and a comment will contain absolute proof that it’s the corner of (for example) Sherbrooke and Guy with supporting evidence, comparison photos, etc. Then the VERY NEXT COMMENT is some idiot saying “Sherbrooke and Atwater!” Not to refute the previous comment, but just a random dumb-ass guess because he didn’t READ the previous comment.
Chris’s comments in this thread are like that.
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