Superhospital latest citizens' meeting

   Zooperhopital meeting last night at the Kosa Arts Center. Firstly, I came super late. Secondly the Kosa building on Crowley is very impressive. They demolished a daycare to build it (it moved to the old MOSD building on Upper Lachine).

   The hall has space for 200 or so people but admittedly a big pillar obstructed my view of the front where a whole big line up of pinstriped MUHC officials answered questions.

   A bunch of people who own expensive houses on nearby Grey Avenue asked about whether the buildings would cast shade on their homes, block the vista south and lead motorists to roam the streets looking for freebtastic parking. They were told that the buildings would not be as tall as the Air Canada building.

   Others asked about the committee in which the various affected neighbourhoods were supposed to meet so everybody can get along and share the burden, which has thus far not been shouldered sufficiently by Westmount in my humble view.

   My friend Jill P. asked about what the MUHC would do for the immediate neighbourhood, which she described in very pitiful terms, making it look like this upstanding area was full of drop outs, illiterates and crackheads which may be true for her block but not mine!

   One guy said the construction dust was making people sick, ironically the hospital was making peeps ill, he claimed.

  A couple of one-foot-in-the-gravers asked when the Vendome metro would become wheelchair accessible but there's no timetable for that.

   Predictably many people started hyperventilating and exagerrating when they got their turn on the microphone, which is something that irritates me in such meetings.

   I suspect I missed a lot of the talk about the upcoming problem of car traffic. One new initiative that City Councillor Peter McQueen is pushing forward is to open Girouard north from Upper Lachine, which would allow a second way out of the neighbourhood, as the upcoming bypass at Crowley looks too constricted. It's a good idea but it would also cost access to the highway, as the Girouard entrance to highway 20 and 15 south would have to be shut down. The only alternative is to build a roundabout at Girouard and Upper Lachine, which might make things hairy for pedestrians and cyclists, but I'm favouring that as an option right now. Roundabouts can be made slow as we've seen in Nun's Island. They're pretty cool.

Anyway, a whole buncha people from various other organizations gave out pamphlets below, which gives you an idea of the salary component that goes into a major undertaking such as this.