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Being against bike lanes and pedestrianization is fair enough (it makes you look dinosaurish but hey free country), but this idea percolating that Valérie Plante has caused the troubles Montréal businesses are facing is just one of the most absurd things I’ve ever heard.
I mean I was always somewhat skeptical when Luc Ferrandez got blamed for the same thing but at least HE DIDN’T HAVE A GLOBAL PANDEMIC.
By the way whenever you read Montréal tweets like this in the morning you can just assume I’ve been listening to 98,5 again. Gets my blood flowing a like a good cup of coffee.
I went downtown yesterday. The bike paths are dead, the streets are dead, the McGill campus is empty, 3/4 of the lunch spots are fenced up, I didn’t see a soul besides a security guard in our 20-storey building.
This idea that “businesses have suffered enough now is not the time for all this construction.”
Slowing down building a bike path a sewer or the REM — by far the biggest project — is not going to bring people back into the city.
A vaccine is going to start bring people back.
Slowing down building a bike path a sewer or the REM — by far the biggest project — is not going to bring people back into the city.
A vaccine is going to start bring people back.
Besides, would construction be preferable now or in 12-24 months when shops are just trying to get back on their feet? (But who am I kidding you’re almost certainly gong to get both. Hello LHL tunnel!)
Getting back to businesses, there’s only so many levers a city can pull in the face of a pandemic. They can’t run deficits, so there are limits on tax holidays and subsidies. They have to follow public health orders and recommendations.
I think most Canadian cities have done a decent job of doing what they can, and Montréal is no exception. They’ve opened streets to shops and dining, they’ve expanded safe walking zones to get people out and about.
To get micro for a second, my neighbourhood is paralyzed half the weekends of a normal summer because of various street closing events. I anticipated closing Mont Royal was going to give me a stroke.
This time they allowed cars on quite a few more streets to cross Mont Royal. A very small adjustment to the usual setup that made all the difference for people on my street.
You won’t hear people on the radio shouting about that.
You won’t hear people on the radio shouting about that.
To quote @AdmiralHackbar and return to the original point: There’s a pandemic on. Everything else is a sideshow.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-co-working-space-provider-regus-files-for-creditor-protection-in/ https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/2020-09-04/un-important-locataire-du-centre-ville-se-met-a-l-abri-de-ses-creanciers.php
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-co-working-space-provider-regus-files-for-creditor-protection-in/ https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/2020-09-04/un-important-locataire-du-centre-ville-se-met-a-l-abri-de-ses-creanciers.php
One detail I should have added higher in the thread: Montreal office towers are apparently running at 5-10% capacity right now. They’re authorized for 25%. No bike path or poorly organized assembly of orange cones is to blame for that, it’s a PANDEMIC. https://lp.ca/xQe8Hn
