Category Archives: Montreal

| Montreal, Sports, Video

Concordia’s baseball team

Concordia journalism students François Nadeau and Steven Myers put together this short video documentary with the help of CUTV. It features some interviews with members of Concordia’s baseball team.

(See Part 2)

Concordia baseball has been trying for years to get the kind of recognition that high-profile sports like football and hockey get, though they say the university has been immensely supportive of their efforts.

Insert your own joke about Jeffrey Loria and the Expos here.

UPDATE: I should mention the team is going to the national championships. Let’s hope Rick Monday isn’t there.

UPDATE (Oct. 26): They won! National champions! W00t!

| Media, Montreal

Gazette consolidates weekday paper into three sections

The Gazette (which brilliantly decided to hire me way back when, and more brilliantly has decided to re-hire me a few times since) today reorganized its Tuesday-to-Friday papers, reducing the number of sections from five to three. Sports, Driving and Classified will no longer get section fronts on those days, but will get giant teases, examples of which you can see below.

Publisher and editor Alan Allnutt explains the change in a note to readers on A2.

What’s noteworthy here is that there is no corresponding reduction in the size of the paper. The “news hole” (the space not reserved for advertising) is the same in all sections. So this is a purely organizational change. It uses the same amount of paper and will provide the same amount of content.

So why do it then?

Continue reading →

| Montreal, Technology

Projet mobilizes the Internet mob

If you notice that online polls are biased heavily toward Projet Montréal, it’s partially because that party’s supporters are young and Internet-connected, and partially because Projet Montréal is pushing its members through Twitter and Facebook to tip the scales of those polls.

Because, in the grand scheme of things, this is where a political party should be focusing its efforts.

Hey, it worked for Ron Paul and Lyndon Larouche, didn’t it?

| Montreal, Video

Traffic problem: solved.

Matt Forsythe points out this video from the NFB’s archives, talking to Mayor Jean Drapeau about plans to improve traffic in the city, which has by now grown so much it’s on the other side of the mountain.

Among the plans discussed are, of course, the widening of thoroughfares like Dorchester Blvd. and Henri-Bourassa Blvd. (but don’t worry, they’ll still have sidewalks) and the creation of a new elevated expressway on the north side of the island, which will be totally awesome and maintain our status as Canada’s largest city.

Oh 1955…

(That sound you’re hearing right now is Richard Bergeron having a stroke.)

| Montreal, Opinion, Public transit

STM needs real-time metro status online

Metro system failures need to be better reported.

Metro system failures need to be better reported.

Last week, the metro went down. This kind of thing happened, but this system interruption seemed more serious than most. First of all, it affected more than one line. In fact, more than half the metro system was non-functional because of a power failure, which also forced some trains to stop in mid-tunnel and people to be evacuated along the tracks.

I was on online duty at the Gazette when this happened, so along with reporter Jan Ravensbergen I kept the story updated, scouring social media (particularly Twitter) for updates, pictures and testimonials. That’s how I learned about the in-tunnel evacuations. One thing I couldn’t do was just check out the STM’s website, because though the interruption knocked out dozens of stations on three lines and lasted for longer than an hour, there was nothing posted there about it.

The STM has been doing some fun things with technology, like delivering schedules by text message. But one thing it’s seriously lacking is a real-time update system about the status of the metro.

One commenter suggested using Twitter. It certainly couldn’t hurt. The delivery system isn’t too important. What matters is that when someone presses the button that creates an automated message relayed to passengers through the public-address system, that computer should also update the website, post a Twitter message, add a notice to an RSS feed, or all of the above, noting the problem.

Without this, journalists have no choice but to bug the STM’s PR people every 10 minutes to check the status of the system, and regular people have no way of knowing. That seems like an awful waste of everyone’s time.

Surely some simple solution to this problem can be found.

| Montreal, Public transit

The young’uns speak

Poster for Jeunes pour Montréal

Poster for Jeunes pour Montréal

You don’t usually see third-party interest groups in municipal elections, but one has appearently formed called Jeunes pour Montréal. The idea is not to advocate for any particular political party but to raise issues of specific interest to youth, including public transportation. Its creators say they’re supported by student associations and not any particular party, so I’ll take them at their word.

They’re also (of course) active on social media, including Facebook, where we learn that the most popular issue apparently is metro service overnight. They’ve asked the three parties for their views on that issue.

Aside from the little traffic that would take a metro at 4am, the overnight hours are when track maintenance and other work is carried out that can’t be done while the trains are running.

But an increase in the frequency and reach of night bus service is an idea worth looking at.

UPDATE: Turns out the group isn’t authorized by the Chief Electoral Officer and its signs are up illegally. Some of them have already been taken down.

| Montreal, Technology

Ile Sans Fil in the park

Both Union Montreal and Vision Montreal have an element on their platforms that some technologically-inclined Montrealers might find interesting: free (or cheap) wireless Internet access in public parks and other public areas.

The idea isn’t new. The city first approached the volunteer group Ile Sans Fil more than two years ago to talk about setting up such a system. Ile Sans Fil provides free wireless Internet through more than 150 access points in the city, most through places like coffee shops who pay ISF a small fee.

The city has even conducted studies and hearings on the subject, and a presentation given in November 2007 resulted in only one comment, in support of the project. In a report, filed at the beginning of 2008 (PDF), the city’s commission on economic development recommended setting up a network with Ile Sans Fil.

For various reasons internal to the city’s operation, this issue has been sitting on a shelf since then. ISF even appealed to the public in August 2008, (perhaps prematurely), though specifying that the group wasn’t in danger if the deal fell through. ISF were expecting a call for tenders earlier this year on a free wifi project, which it would then bid on and be a clear favourite for, but it never came.

Both Tremblay and Harel should be somewhat embarrassed to have this on their platforms. Tremblay because the city hasn’t acted on this yet despite the preliminary work being done, and Harel because it was an idea of the Tremblay administration that her party has now stolen.

| Montreal, Technology

Google Street View coverage maps

I won’t bother reporting that Google Street View launched in Montreal and other Canadian cities today, since everyone else is already doing that.

But I’ll add this map so you can see what areas are covered (sorry Châteauguay, Vaudreuil-Dorion and St. Bruno, it seems you’ve been left out):

Google Street View coverage map for Montreal

Google Street View coverage map for Montreal

To check it out, we’ll start you off in true Gazette style, at the corner of Peel and Ste. Catherine. Now go and find all those embarrassing or quirky photos hidden in the city.

Continue reading →

| Montreal

Vos vrais patrons, c’est moi?

Got this flyer in the mail today. It’s from Montreal’s blue-collar union (SCFP 301), who are trying to negotiate a new contract with the city (and are staging a one-day strike on Wednesday). They try to gain public sympathy by arguing that union labour is cheaper than outsourcing, and that their salary demands of 2/2.5% per year are not extravagant.

More details from this “exclusive” La Presse piece, and some thoughts from Propos Montréal.

scfp1

Continue reading →

| Montreal, Pop quiz

Montreal Geography Trivia No. 56

Another suggestion from a reader: Where in Montreal do a street (“rue”) and avenue of the same name intersect?

Bonus half-points if you want to throw in streets and crescents, streets and boulevards, streets and terrasses, etc., which are much more common.

Alexandra Avenue and Alexandra Street

Alexandra Avenue and Alexandra Street

UPDATE: I should have excluded numbered streets and avenues (too easy). The answer I (and contributor Jean Naimard) had in mind was Alexandra St. and Alexandra Ave. in Little Italy. But I’m sure you can come up with others.

| Media, Montreal, Video

Melnick Underground

Mitch Melnick, the afternoon host on the Team 990, has begun his own web video show online called Melnick Underground. The first episode was filmed and posted on Saturday. Discussions include music and, of course, the Habs.

The show, which is shot at Hurley’s pub and Melnick stresses has absolutely nothing to do with the radio station, has a very “underground” feel to it (read: the sound, lighting and graphics are all awful), but it’s the content that matters, and it remains to be seen if it can gain a following.

I’m noticing a trend developing where journalists and other media personalities try going out on their own online. In some cases, like Peter Anthony Holder or Jean-Michel Vanasse, it happens after they get fired. But some who are still comfortable in their current jobs are also considering similar moves because they feel they’re not getting something from their current employer (either editorial freedom, exposure or money).

I welcome these kinds of efforts, and hope Melnick finds an audience for his show. In that light, some constructive suggestions:

  1. Your intro is 68 seconds long. Way too long. Like 63 seconds too long.
  2. We can live with the imperfect lighting, but the sound needs to be better. You got microphones on the table, just make sure you talk into them, especially when you’re at a bar with loud music playing.

Any other remarks from the peanut gallery?

| Media, Montreal

DramaSud

Média Sud was launched in 2008 as a joint project between community newspaper Point Sud and community radio station FM 103.3 (CHAA), both serving the South Shore community. It provided much-needed coverage of local news for those communities, who are otherwise underserved by large Montreal papers who focus on the island and Transcontinental-owned community papers that are little more than press releases and advertisements.

That partnership has broken down in recent weeks, with both sides fighting over control of the website. The battle appears to have been won by the newspaper (which literally took control of the website and denied the radio station access), and the story on Média Sud (and audio news update) makes it out to be a victory for goodness and puppies and such against the evils of community radio. The story by Quebecor weekly Brossard Éclair paints a much different story, with the radio station as the victim.

The conflict appears to have grown out of financial problems at the media website, even though it’s heavily funded by the city of Longueuil and the Quebec government, something The Gazette pointed out last year might hurt its objectivity.

Now that Point Sud has won the battle, let’s hope it can win the war to keep Média Sud alive.

| Montreal, Opinion, Web design

Dear “Friends of Louise Harel”

Friends of Louise Harel

Friends of Louise Harel

Good for you with the website rallying anglos to the defence of Louise Harel. Providing a new voice in the election campaign is always welcome. And you’re getting the francophone media to use anglo headlines, which is always a plus.

Here’s the thing: Maybe people would believe you more about the surge of Montrealers from ethnic communities who have come out in support of her if the pictures on your website weren’t stock photos from a U.K.-based stock photo service.

These aren’t Montrealers, nor are they friends of Louise Harel, so why are there pictures of them on your website? Does Harel not have enough real friends that you’ve had to import pictures of fake ones?

UPDATE (Oct. 5): And I see you’re also plagiarizing blog posts. (Original, FOLH version)