Scenes from around town

The 110 year old Neo-Gothic Viger Station Hotel is way too great a building in a great part of town - just east of city hall - to be allowed to be used as a magnet for firebugs. The CPR built it as a hotel but it closed in 1935 and was used as a city building ever since and other stuff like the offices of the Rehabilitation Society for Cripples. The city sold the magnificent building to Developpement Telemedia for $9 million in July 2005.

Our ol pal Cameron Charlebois is heading the initiative to get it back into usage. There are meetings... and experts... and hearings. Its... ever ...so ...democratic. But as the clock ticks the danger of a fire or other damage grows. I am told that water damaged the building rather seriously last winter. Also, as one industry veteran commented, Charlebois has gotten a bit long in the tooth to develop the property. Developers have to be young and hungry. When you hit your mid-50s its hard to roll the development dice for fear of losing your retirement nest egg. Developers, as we know, always go broke. Its an adage, look it up.

Long, long ago I wrote a spicy article about Charlebois complete with some unflattering quotes about him. But he took it like a man and returned my calls afterwards, as did his pal Phil O Brien, who built that World Trade thingy on McGill during the recession. OBrien didnt much like the piece I penned but remained civil with me because he realized probably nobody really read that darn thing I wrote anyway.

This monstrosity sits across from the Jewish General Hospital, which is the turf of City Councillor Saulie Zajdel, who must put in at least 45 minutes of work a week on his city duties, judging by his performances at borough council meetings. How people could be forced to look at this mess from their hospital beds is beyond me.



These scenes are from Bannantyne and Church where a female crossing guard was run over and killed a few days ago. The 2 top photos from a day or so after the accident shows a little makeshift shrine. The bottom photo, from about 6 days later, shows the womans replacement, as well as the ongoing monument to the victim. If anybody in the city had a brain theyd realize that the problem with this crossing is lights. It should be a four way stop. The guard was killed when somebody sped up to try to catch the tail end of a green and ended up in a collision with another vehicle, which skidded into the guard on the sidewalk. Time for the city to start scrapping the traffic lights which emperil innocent people by encouraging speeding.




These two photos - the top taken outside ICAO this morning, and the bottom one taken near the Nelson monument last week - prove that one-man placard protesters are still a wacky feature of the city. Be kind to these people and ask them about their initiative. The good karma will serve you well.