Montreal is a mess these days.
Its sidewalks are covered with ice, its roads are filled with potholes, its construction sites send us on detours where progress is marked by orange marker cones.
It’s this kind of fall that makes a lot of Montrealers wish they had heated sidewalks, at least along Ste-Catherine Street. Alas, there are none. (Radio-Canada)
The weather has a lot to do with it.
But a lot of people will tell you the government of Mayor Valérie Plante and her Project Montreal party own part of this mess.
In November, 2017 Plante and Project Montreal swept past Denis Coderre and his Team Denis Coderre party promising that the time was at hand for change.
Coderre is currently on a much-publicized weight loss program riding an exercise bike in the lobby of the Jewish General Hospital, saying he’s lost 85 pounds since he turned 55 last summer.
Plante and her party, meanwhile, are taking fire for some moves they’ve made–closing the road over Mount Royal for much of the summer and shutting down a venerated softball diamond at the foot of that mountain.
Montrealers are continually honing their walking skills. Seriously. (Charles Contant/CBC)
And some moves they haven’t made–like getting the streets plowed and keeping the sidewalks clear of ice so people can actually use them and not the streets to move about--when they can move about.
But it appears now that another move the newcomers made is coming back to haunt them and their fellow citizens.
In January, 2018 Project Montreal announced it was abandoning Coderre’s plan to take advantage of downtown construction to install a heating system under Ste-Catherine St., Montreal’s famous main drag.
Not a lot of people noticed at the time, but–like bad Karma–the decision is coming back to haunt Plante and her party.
Hazardous sidewalks and streets are keeping more and more people stuck at home. (Simon-Marc Charron/Radio-Canada)
really wet shot
One need only take a look at the picture at the top of this story to comprehend the full effects of that decision.
Two years ago, Montreal Gazette columnist and filmmaker Josh Freed was fired up about Coderre’s decision to heat a 670-metre stretch of Ste-Catherine, as a prelude to an expanded version of the idea.
No more.
On Saturday, Freed, who is known more for his humour than his anger, pulled no punches about what’s going on at Montreal’s core.
I spoke by phone with Freed about the column and the need for heated sidewalks on Tuesday.
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