Happy Canada Day

And have a good move.

Stevie Wonder Blows Open JazzFest

Over the years I would have to say the Jazz Festival has become my favorite Montreal thing. It’s free, no cars, tons of great music, and zillions of people looking for a break from everyday reality.

Stevie Wonder addressed the crowd before he started and talked some about his friend, Michael Jackson. Basically he said we should just forget all the bullshit and focus on the great music this man gave the world. He wanted the concert to be a celebration.

He then proceeded to perform one of the most inspiring concerts ever heard in this city. The sound was great, the screens were clear, and the rain let up for the most part. And he probably played your favorite song.

As the show moved towards the end he talked about his friend a bit more, emphasizing the celebration, and as his music began to fade a medley of Michael Jackson tunes began to play for about 10 – 15 minutes as Stevie Wonder and band stayed on stage listening with everyone else.

You are not going to see such selflessness from a superstar very often, literally sending everyone away with someone’s else’s songs for momentum into the night.

This kicks off the 30th edition of The Jazz Festival and was a night for the books in Montreal concert history.

On a personal note the last time I saw Stevie Wonder live was in 1972 at the Montreal Forum when he was the opening act for The Rolling Stones. Tickets were $8.00. Oh how times have changed!

The Transparent City

“Chicago, like many urban centers throughout the world, has recently undergone a surge in new construction, grafting a new layer of architectural experimentation onto those of past eras. In early 2007, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago, in collaboration with the U.S. Equities Realty artist-in-residence program, invited Michael Wolf to photograph the Chicago cityscape. Bringing his unique perspective on changing urban environments to a city renowned for its architectural legacy, Wolf chose to photograph the central downtown area, focusing specifically on issues of voyeurism and the contemporary urban landscape in flux.” More here.

All photographs by Michael Wolf

Saint Lawrence Seaway Turns 50!

There were those who felt that the opening of the Seaway would turn Montreal into a ghost town seeing as how we would lose our status on being the main terminal for everything going and coming from the Great Lakes. Didn’t happen and that is a great testament to the people of this amazing place. Still, on the 50th anniversary of the Seaway we need to keep in mind that while it was an economic boom for North America on the whole, and many of it’s inland ports, the environmental price has been very heavy indeed.

Fallen hero: the St. Lawrence Seaway at 50

Green groups dredge up the past as St. Lawrence Seaway turns 50

As Seaway Turns 50, it’s Time for a Reality Check

View of Montreal and Seaway at Laprarie Pier by Roger Kenner

Today the Arctic is melting and we have a Prime Minister who drools at the thought of excavating the Arctic ground while cruise ships dock in Nunavut, or will they have built a canal to Banff in another 50 years?

Developer May Sue Critic

“Lawyers for the developer of a proposed 325-unit residential project on the former site of Marianopolis College on Mount Royal have threatened to sue a local Cégep teacher for slander and libel over her outspoken criticism of the project.

In a legal letter dated June 15th, lawyers for Cato Development Inc. accuse Anushree Varma of inferring or implying that “our client is some how, and/or in some way, involved in scandalous, illegal and inappropriate business practises.” Story<a href="Lawyers for the developer of a proposed 325-unit residential project on the former site of Marianopolis College on Mount Royal have threatened to sue a local Cégep teacher for slander and libel over her outspoken criticism of the project. In a legal letter dated June 15th, lawyers for Cato Development Inc. accuse Anushree Varma of inferring or implying that “our client is some how, and/or in some way, involved in scandalous, illegal and inappropriate business practises.”" Story here.

One of the most puzzling things about the whole sad stupid history of Montreal’s Green Spaces (for an interesting eye opening account go here) is that we do not yet have Mount Royal rightfully zoned off. Such a law should be ironclad, no exceptions! But it has not happened and every mayor who has ever served here needs to share the blame, as they all must in regards to the city as a whole. Makes it seem they are all just puppets in the hands of developers, doesn’t it?

And you can’t blame the developers. Developing real estate is what they do and some of them make a very healthy chunk of change for their efforts. It must be very hard work.

But unless something is done soon, the rest of us can say bye bye to the mountain.

Homeless Man Run Over In Lane

A little catching up…. Couple of Gazette articles about a homeless man run over in alley here and here. The article highlights the need for better services for the homeless – a respite centre was closed because a grant had run out, for example. Downtown construction projects tend to scatter the homeless away for their routine hangouts such as a downtown park currently part of the Quartier Des Spectacles construction. And, in summer, businesses often holler for the removal of the homeless from the streets.

There are shelters and many social workers in the city but it just isn’t enough, nor is the system very effective in terms of reintegration. The city does not have much of an effective plan for dealing with the homeless beyond some outdated techniques such as passing bylaws that prevent people from spending the night in city parks. But this is an issue that has not been well thought out at all levels of government in Canada and a lot of needed housing gets lost in the ideological debates over “Housing”.

“Canada is one of the few countries in the world without a national housing strategy (United Nations, 2009). Many of the federal governments’ expenditures are cost-sharing, one-time only funding initiatives that lack long-term leadership on homelessness” More here.

FEANTSA

National Alliance To End Homelessness

Cities go further to help homeless.

How we treat our homeless will define who we are much more than how we throw a party or treat tourists. We need to care a little more than we have.

Homeless Nation

Bonne Fete!

Wiki

Irish Handball Alleys

Thanks to Pruned for finding this unique architectural collection of Irish Handball Allies. Most of them are not that old but it is interesting how so many of them have an ancient ruin look to them.

Buncrana Castle, Co. Donegal

Pontoon, Co. Mayo

Ballinalard, Co. Tipperary

Ardfinnan, Co. Tipperary

Tinryland, Co. Carlow

Abbeyknockmoy, Co. Galway

Irish Handball Alley

Trees Cut Down On Crowley/Prudhomme

A reader sent in some photos of tree cutting on a little green space along the Decarie. Apparently they are preparing for the construction of the Superhospital down the road which may actually get built one day. ” Only have french language flyer. The pictures are taken on June 18th and 19th…..location is Prud’homme, from Upper Lachine
south to Crowley…and the construction and killing of trees has started. Residents on Prud’homme and Crowley, are upset….”

(scanned from flyer)
Avis aux residents -

Travaux preparatoires a l’arrivee du CUSM-

Le Service des infrastructures, transport, et environnement de la Ville de Montreal vous informedu debut des travaux preparatoires a l’arrivee du Centre universitaire de sante McGill (CUSM) au Campus Glen, dans le secteur sud – ouest du quartier Notre -Dame- de- Grace.

Ces travaux debuteront au debut du mois de juin et se poursuivront en plusieurs etapes jusqu’a l’automne 2009. Deux chantiers distincts se derouleront en meme temps a deux endroits differents.

CHANTIER de L’AVENURE CROWLEY -
Ce premier chantier permettra de raccorder le chemin Upper Lachine a l’avenue Crowley en croisant l’avenue Prud’homme. Ces travaux sont efectues en prevision de la reconstruction du viaduc ferroviaire du Canadien Pacifique prevue en 2010 – 2011. Cependant le raccordement
au chemin Upper-Lachine restera ferme tant que la reconstruction du viaduc ferroviaire ne sera pas entreprise.

CHANTIER du BOULEVARD DECARIE -
Un second chantier permettra a la Commission des services electriques de Montreal de construire un nouveau reseau electrique souterrain en bordure du boulevard Decarie ( cote est ), entre la rue Saint – Jauques et la boulevard De Maisonneuve. Ces travaux sont requis pour l’arriee du CUSM et l’elargeissement du boulevard Decarie.

ENTRAVE et CIRCULATION -
Durant ces travaux, la circulation locale sera maintenue sur l’avenue Prud’homme. Le stationnement sera interdit sur l’avenue Crowley ainsi que sur le boulevard Decarie. Afin de faciliter la circulation , le boulevard Decarie sera a double sens, entre l’avenue Crowley et la rue Saint-Jacques. La circulation des vehicules lourds se fera obligatoirement par le boulevard Decarie via la rue Saint -Jacques. Aucun camion de chantier ne devra emprunter l’avenue Prud’homme.

UPPER-LACHINE -
Des travaux d’infrastructues a la hauteur du chemin Upper-Lachine, entraineront la fermeture de la voie sud entre la rue Addington et le boulevard Decarie.
Toutefois, la circulation en direction ouest sera interdite et detournee par le boulevard De Maisonneuve a partir du boulevard Decarie.

Barrel Monster

Causing a bit of a stir in the US because even though this street art is technically vandalism, it seems to be putting a lot of smiles on a lot of faces.

“When Joseph Carnevale chopped up three stolen orange and white traffic barrels from a construction site to create a massive sculpture of a roadside monster thumbing a ride, the North Carolina college student said he saw it as a form of street art.

Raleigh, N.C., police just saw vandalism….However

Hamlin Associates, the construction company whose barrels were turned into a monster, doesn’t want to press charges.

“We’ve had a fair amount of vandalism, but never anyone turn it into art,” Company President Steven Hussey said. “I actually thought it was pretty neat.”

Hussey said the value of the publicity his company has received is well above the $365 cost of the traffic barrels that Carnevale used.

“It’s been positive publicity for us,” he said. “If we’d known he’d do that good of a work, we’d have given him the barrels.”

Story here.

Facebook group with 3, 298 Members

No Promise Of Safety

Our roads are notoriously bad here in Quebec and our long suffering pothole thumping drivers deserve some kind of entertaining diversion to make their drives a little less miserable . Perhaps the MTQ should look into buying some Barrel Monsters for our eternally under repair highways?

Huge Momentum Shift For Turcot At BAPE

What a week! It started off quietly with not many people expressing a whole lot of optimism about the upcoming public hearings. But a funny thing happened on the way to the BAPE. The Mayor of Montreal and the two other candidates for mayor showed up asking that the Turcot project be rethought. Then the Parti Quebecois decided to turn up the heat on Jean Charest and all of a sudden we got ourselves a pretty serious movement! Add to that that the week was full of a rich diversity of groups from the South West and well beyond, all with very well organized and articulated briefs, and you have a powerful recipe for success. This has just been wonderful to witness, and I am very happy for all the people who have worked so hard and had the courage to keep going when things did not look too good.

The South West will be a stronger place no matter what happens now and it has been great to see some before now unlikely networking happening. There has been a lot of cross borough talk at the grassroots level, a lot of common ground covered so to speak. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Very conspicuous by their absence was the superhospital folks up on the Glen, but then again, there ain’t no hospital being built there yet!

One political veteran told me it was like the turning point in an election campaign where you can actually feel the momentum shift and that is exactly what happened here this week. Something changed. Stay tuned.

The Turcot edition of the BAPE concludes Friday afternoon.

Google Moon

Just a matter of time now as NASA decides to go back for another look at the favorite sphere of all lunatics!

40 years on, another giant step for Nasa
By Samira Ahmed

Nasa unveils plans for manned missions to the moon – but what will they achieve, 40 years on from the first lunar landing? Samira Ahmed reports.

Mankind is taking steps to get back on the moon, as Nasa launches a mission aimed at finding sites for potential moon bases.

The TV series Space 1999 had predicted it 10 years ago, although there is no indication from the latest mission that the moon will be used for nuclear storage.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral air force station this afternoon, is designed to map the moon’s surface so Nasa can find safe and scientifically interesting landing spots for future missions.

Video here.

Turcot Fenced Off

No pictures yet but apparently Turcot Yards is now fenced off and there are security people in cars telling people to get off the property of be fined. And apparently there are trucks dumping gravel on the site, especially at night. Might be a little premature, or arrogant others might say, considering that the BAPE hearings are on this week with a plethora of reasons being presented on why the Turcot project should be completely rethought.

Well, this was inevitable of course. Will have more thoughts on this and other aspects of it all in the coming weeks.

Tremblay, Harel Chime In

Both appeared at the BAPE yesterday and Harel emphasized that no residential buildings should be turned down while Tremblay stressed the importance of there not being any private investors on the project. All good. Richard Bergeron of Project Montreal will get a turn too, though it should be said that Bergeron has been attending community meetings regarding the Turcot Issues pretty much from the beginning.

Story here.

Better Turcot Plans

Professionals in urban planning are among those presenting at the BAPE hearings and are suggesting that the Turcot plan is backward thinking and should be readjusted to meet contemporary 21st Century needs and ambitions. The current Turcot plan is just too huge an expenditure for something that will be obsolete as it’s being built.

Article here.