Issues in Urban Living I
by Observations on Montreal living, renovations and the progress of repairs.
The use of public transport, which is needed by many Montrealers, is something I am questioning more and more even though the cost has been compared to that of other countries, a constant increase in tariffs with promises to improve the quality of the transport or increase the number of trips is unfounded. Those promises are not being delivered nor have been in recent memory. Yet in this is how increases are justified.
At the same time, it appears that the number of bike paths is insufficient with the growing need for alternative transport in some areas especially when parking spaces are at a premium and people want to leave their car home during the workweek. But because many tax paying citizens pay taxes some must have complained to the city offices to keep the routes at a minimum or to have them located on the outside of road, near the curb. There are cyclists who would like freer movement and have their paths on the inside instead.
I would like to see a definite policy to help out the homeless who spend their day pacing up and down metro cars like never before. Some of their odours are just too much to handle and their shuttling back and forth is not a final solution. Neither is the supposed increased surveillance of metro stations, which should limit unpaid access onto trains. What are all the empty police wagons doing in front of some stations with no cops in sight?
City roadwork and reconstruction of street sidewalks has been slow over the past months and the timing has been terrible. It appears that the city could not care less for the business owner who would need decent access to his store on the main, a historical landmark for the city and a magnet for tourists all year round. How could have been dividers down a major part of the strip with ripped up sidewalks on the side and make shift ramps to individual store entrances if you were lucky. Some unlucky ones had to close their doors. All this happened when the overpass crossing the Pine intersection at Park Avenue had been successfully knocked down and the road leveled but the city still took their sweet time.
I know the old story about extending contracts and don’t tell me labour was short. Still Montreal has been able to pull off the summer festivals although the Montreal Film Festival does not seem to be the same ever since other contenders have laid claim to promoting their film shows during and after summer like the “Cinema du Nouveau Monde” which is about to happen. In other words I don’t think of summers anymore when it comes to film reviews. Maybe it is because too much of a good thing at any one time isn’t good; it just contributes to entertainment overload.
On the bright side the area around Place Victoria has been nicely renovated, although I question the costs involved at having transported her majesty’s statue inside the International Commercial Centre. Do people use this park dedicated to Riopel as much as they would complain about green spaces being at a premium near the downtown? That is another unsolved mystery. In my opinion way too much money has been set aside for the moving and rebuilding of statues, including the George Etienne one, than being applied to food programs for the needy. But that is not going to bring in the tourists, right?
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Post Commentrogerallen
On October 15, 2007 at 10:37 am
A discerning criticism. This situation is almost the same as here in Portsmouth, in England. Maybe technology and the internet have a possible solution. It might be possible for many of us to work from home as I am doing. The cities would then be less crowded. Office jobs especially, as the use of the computer is ubiquitous, could be reduced considerably. Just do your work in the comfort of your own home. What about children learning? Could we save on schools. Journalists not longer need to go jetting off all over the world. The reports are already on line and they only need to write it all up as a story.
The problem of the homeless is a bit different but in Portsmouth they have hostels which have taken all but the hard core homeless off the streets.
ecrivan
On October 18, 2007 at 2:38 pm
I think it is inevitable that working from home becomes more of a reality especially when you consider some of telemarketing options out there many want to avoid.Getting additional youth centers open or hostels would be a benefit to the city especially come winter time. One also has to think of the first nation people who have come to Montreal looking for medical treatment so excuses go and end u staying here. Some just end up freezing during the winter for lack of a better place to stay but inside metro entrances.This is not how the city was thirty years back and it looks like there will be more of an influx towards our big city and away from the arctic north unless residents can be encouraged to stay there.