An army of tow trucks clear out one side of a single block
Leaving work late last night, I noticed an army of tow trucks hooking onto cars parked on Ste. Catherine St. near Peel and hauling them away. The orange snow-clearing signs say no parking between midnight and 4am, so there's no excuse for being there past 2am when this photo was taken.
Just because there wasn't any snowfall that day doesn't mean the guys with the snowplows don't need the street when they've reserved it.
(And what were these people doing parked on the street downtown at 2am on a Monday anyway?)
December 29, 2008 – 4:52 pm|Posted in Navel-gazing
Last weekend, the paper didn't show at my apartment. I don't usually make a fuss about it, since I work at the newspaper and can always get another copy there. And half the time I discover it in some hidden spot under a step or in a recycling bin.
Besides, it was exceptionally snowy and there were apparently problems at the plant, so few of my coworkers got the paper that morning. I figured it might be delivered later in the day or with the next day's paper. It never was.
Or so I thought. Yesterday, a full week later, I found it in a receding snowbank. Frozen solid.
To add insult to injury, it happened to be the issue wrapped in the Christmas card from my carrier. (We'll ignore for a moment the irony of having a French Christmas card wrapped around an English paper, especially since many carriers distribute more than one paper.)
It took a few hours to thaw out, and it'll be a few days until it dries. Even though I picked up another copy of that day's paper, I'm kind of curious if I'll be able to read it.
I guess determining that the whole Fredy Villanueva thing and police not getting along well with young brown people has all been settled now, L'Actualité has endedits Montreal North blog. (Well, actually it's made it "dormant", which is kind of like when my ex-girlfriend said our relationship was just on a break - it'll be forgotten about quickly.)
I actually remember this ad from 1994, when the then-STCUM introduced and publicized its seemingly revolutionary system where you could call a phone number and get the arrival time of the next bus.
The Telbus system (in which each stop for each route had a phone number attached to it) was eventually replaced with the current AUTOBUS, which has a single phone number and a five-digit code for each stop.
A second ad returns to a dry, if accurate, talking point for public transit: It's cheaper and more reliable than a car in the long run.
The fine folks at Hour asked me to provide some "suggestions" for The Man various powers-that-be for 2009, which would then be used as free holiday filler quoted in an article to come out on Christmas Day.
The piece, which puts me the bottom with the rif-raff and interest group leaders, includes pretty well verbatim what I sent them.
Specifically, that:
Gérald Tremblay and Benoît Labonté think for a few more seconds before their next project to blatantly pander to voters before next December's election
STM provide real-time updates online about metro service disruptions
Montreal police and other emergency services post their breaking news about car accidents, fires and murders online so that curious Montrealers can check for themselves what's going on instead of having to wait for one of the media outlets to take dictation from the PR guy
more Montrealers start up niche blogs about their communities and their areas of expertise
TQS and Global TV, who are third in the franco and anglo TV ratings for their local newscasts, realize that slashing budgets isn't the only answer and start experimenting by covering the news in some unique way
Montreal music radio stations stop desperately clinging to the lowest common denominator and take a chance by allowing their DJs some freedom in choosing what goes on the air
Montreal newspapers, radio and TV stations stop giving lip service to the Internet and put some real focus online - the Journal [de Montréal] could start by dealing with its union issues that are preventing it from launching a real website
local TV stations start creating local programming that goes beyond the evening newscast that gives us the weather, fatal car accidents and fluff every day
Montrealers stop complaining about the snow and take public transit if they're so annoyed at having to shovel out and move their cars all the time
Amir Khadir brings hard work and new ideas to the National Assembly instead of spending his time as an MNA whining about how the government isn't helping poor people enough
the next major public transit expansion project take fewer than 20 years to plan and execute.
December 25, 2008 – 12:00 am|Posted in Humour, Video
(I'd celebrate your birthday, Vishnu, if only I knew when it was.)
If I had a life, I'd put a message here about how I'm on vacation and there won't be any posts for a little while (you know, like all the really cool bloggers are doing). But I don't, so I'm not going anywhere (except to work later this afternoon).
As part of its year-end filler special series, The Gazette is having its reporters look back on the 10 biggest stories of 2008, with an emphasis on behind-the-scenes reporter-as-the-story making-of stuff. Self-important, sure, but it's the kind of stuff journalists themselves crave.
Among the stories is municipal affairs reporter Linda Gyulai's reports on the Société d'habitation de Montréal and the Société d'habitation et de développement de Montréal, which merged and went private and had all sorts of shaky land deals and stuff. Dry as all hell, but important backbreaking work. As with many such stories, this one started with prompting from an anonymous source.
@FrancisVachon Actually, the trick is to use a photo that's so poor its creator would be ashamed to claim copyright on it ;) 14 mins ago
@FrancisVachon It's okay as long as you say "COURTESY: FACEBOOK" 14 mins ago
Investigative reporting! RT @SunNewsNetwork: #SunNews Exclusive: @michelebachmann rips @BarackObama in an interview with @BrianLilley. 16 mins ago
@in92days Really depends on the article 36 mins ago
@S_Tsirgiotis apparently 1 hour ago
RT @BasemBoshra: Thanks for retweeting every bit of praise you get. I was on the fence about you, but now that I see other people like y ... 1 hour ago
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