Is that a Montreal thing? I ask this of these five itemz below.
1- Worrying about a toll on the replacement for the Champlain Bridge, is that a Montreal thing?
Our elected officials are claiming that there's a united opposition against the imposition of tolls on the upcoming bridge that will eventually replace what is the Champlain Bridge. To his credit the NDP South Shore MP whose name I can't quite recall has been working hard in his futile attempt to persuade the Harper Conservatives to allow motorists to ride the span for free.
But when a TV crew shot some streeters on the South Shore random folks interviewed said hell yeah put a toll up there because I don't use it much and I don't want to pay.
Other online discussion forums and article comment sections echoed the same sentiment.
Of course the diable est dans les details, there's a big difference between paying 25 cents of paying $7 bucks to cross and we don't know how much it'll cost to cross, so there's that.
So I ask: is worrying about tolls a Montreal thing?
2-French suddenly lovin' English, is that a Montreal thing suddenly?
Those of us long-in-the-tooth anglos who have been here a long time can certainly recall the parle-en-francais! and le-Quebec-aux-Quebecois era where folks were unashamed to pile on you for opening your mouth with the Queen's English coming out.
(Personally I parle French a lot and love doing it, but I also talk English in situations that other fluently-bilingual anglos might speak French. For example if I'm in the east end waiting for a red light and something unusual happens I might comment to the person next to me on it in English. Why? Because it's fun, it creates an interesting context, a bond, a declamatory moment, hard to explain).
But La Presse has come out with a new survey of 500 young Quebec volk, suggesting that the younger peeps here in the Kweeb are suddenly overwhelmingly positive to English, Premier Couillard was unabashedly pro-English and was even wildly applauded for saying he'd beef up the learning of English, and indeed just last night on French TV an academic said that studies show that the more English French kids can be taught, the better it will be.
Suddenly there's a consensus forming quite the opposite of what it would have been just a couple of years ago.
So I ask: Is French folks being highly positive to the English language suddenly a Montreal thing?
3-Going up the stairs at the Oratory, is it a Montreal thing?
I've got to tip my hat to the great oratory of St. Joseph, largely built by an unjustifiably ambitious underling who was in the right time at the right place to see an incredible massive shrine built around him, frankly the only local churcharoo that can really conjure up the mysteriousness sideshow element required to believe in ghostly gods. I know that they used to have Andre's heart in a jar until it was kidnapped and supposedly returned, although I'd say there's a good chance there's another man's heart in that jar now. And of course the chambres a bequilles has been featured on postcards, a place where people shun medical advice and toss their canes because their walking ways has been healed by the miracle of god.
That said, do pilgrims really ascend those stairs on their knees? I've never actually seen it.
Dance break:
4-Having sex in cars, is it a Montreal thing?
Montrealers used to be oversexed because they'd move out at age 12 and get an $80 a month apartment with money from their part beer bike jobs
As a result Montreal became a bit of a hedonists' paradise as young people would spend weekends at their lovers' apartments practicing sex position and consuming all sorts of drugs.
But rents skyrocketed and the few kids who move out now often have to share with several roommates, making intimacy difficult. The rest, of course, are doing the Italian thing and living at home until 29 and saving up for their future house which they'll buy once the real estate market crashes again.
So the stage has been set for Montreal to be a city of romantic parking. But if that's the case where in the city do they go to park? I can't imagine you can just pull over on any random city street and get busy and be vulnerable to dog-walkers peering in to your most personal moment.
A cop once told me that they see the steamed up windows with suspension shaking all the time but never bothered those inside.
So, um, is this, like, uh, a Montreal thing?
5- Seeing the area below the hill as lower-class, is that a Montreal thing?
Areas like the Point, the Hank, the Griff, Emard, Cote St. Paul, Verdun, were long seen as areas to escape from, partly no doubt because they lacked the geographical advantage of being above the hill, which was home to the most coveted and expensive areas.
But gentrification, proximity to downtown, bla bla, appear to have counteracted the trend and made some of these lower-altitude areas seem coveted. Or is is still just the same old lowerland hyped up with boosterism?
So seeing the below-the-hill area as less desirable, is that a Montreal thing?
I ask you this and encourage you mightily to respond in the comment section, as crowdsourcing is the only way to get answers these days.
1- Worrying about a toll on the replacement for the Champlain Bridge, is that a Montreal thing?
Our elected officials are claiming that there's a united opposition against the imposition of tolls on the upcoming bridge that will eventually replace what is the Champlain Bridge. To his credit the NDP South Shore MP whose name I can't quite recall has been working hard in his futile attempt to persuade the Harper Conservatives to allow motorists to ride the span for free.
But when a TV crew shot some streeters on the South Shore random folks interviewed said hell yeah put a toll up there because I don't use it much and I don't want to pay.
Other online discussion forums and article comment sections echoed the same sentiment.
Of course the diable est dans les details, there's a big difference between paying 25 cents of paying $7 bucks to cross and we don't know how much it'll cost to cross, so there's that.
So I ask: is worrying about tolls a Montreal thing?
2-French suddenly lovin' English, is that a Montreal thing suddenly?
Those of us long-in-the-tooth anglos who have been here a long time can certainly recall the parle-en-francais! and le-Quebec-aux-Quebecois era where folks were unashamed to pile on you for opening your mouth with the Queen's English coming out.
(Personally I parle French a lot and love doing it, but I also talk English in situations that other fluently-bilingual anglos might speak French. For example if I'm in the east end waiting for a red light and something unusual happens I might comment to the person next to me on it in English. Why? Because it's fun, it creates an interesting context, a bond, a declamatory moment, hard to explain).
But La Presse has come out with a new survey of 500 young Quebec volk, suggesting that the younger peeps here in the Kweeb are suddenly overwhelmingly positive to English, Premier Couillard was unabashedly pro-English and was even wildly applauded for saying he'd beef up the learning of English, and indeed just last night on French TV an academic said that studies show that the more English French kids can be taught, the better it will be.
Suddenly there's a consensus forming quite the opposite of what it would have been just a couple of years ago.
So I ask: Is French folks being highly positive to the English language suddenly a Montreal thing?
3-Going up the stairs at the Oratory, is it a Montreal thing?
I've got to tip my hat to the great oratory of St. Joseph, largely built by an unjustifiably ambitious underling who was in the right time at the right place to see an incredible massive shrine built around him, frankly the only local churcharoo that can really conjure up the mysteriousness sideshow element required to believe in ghostly gods. I know that they used to have Andre's heart in a jar until it was kidnapped and supposedly returned, although I'd say there's a good chance there's another man's heart in that jar now. And of course the chambres a bequilles has been featured on postcards, a place where people shun medical advice and toss their canes because their walking ways has been healed by the miracle of god.
That said, do pilgrims really ascend those stairs on their knees? I've never actually seen it.
Dance break:
4-Having sex in cars, is it a Montreal thing?
Montrealers used to be oversexed because they'd move out at age 12 and get an $80 a month apartment with money from their part beer bike jobs
As a result Montreal became a bit of a hedonists' paradise as young people would spend weekends at their lovers' apartments practicing sex position and consuming all sorts of drugs.
But rents skyrocketed and the few kids who move out now often have to share with several roommates, making intimacy difficult. The rest, of course, are doing the Italian thing and living at home until 29 and saving up for their future house which they'll buy once the real estate market crashes again.
So the stage has been set for Montreal to be a city of romantic parking. But if that's the case where in the city do they go to park? I can't imagine you can just pull over on any random city street and get busy and be vulnerable to dog-walkers peering in to your most personal moment.
A cop once told me that they see the steamed up windows with suspension shaking all the time but never bothered those inside.
So, um, is this, like, uh, a Montreal thing?
5- Seeing the area below the hill as lower-class, is that a Montreal thing?
Areas like the Point, the Hank, the Griff, Emard, Cote St. Paul, Verdun, were long seen as areas to escape from, partly no doubt because they lacked the geographical advantage of being above the hill, which was home to the most coveted and expensive areas.
But gentrification, proximity to downtown, bla bla, appear to have counteracted the trend and made some of these lower-altitude areas seem coveted. Or is is still just the same old lowerland hyped up with boosterism?
So seeing the below-the-hill area as less desirable, is that a Montreal thing?
I ask you this and encourage you mightily to respond in the comment section, as crowdsourcing is the only way to get answers these days.
I don't like paying tolls, but there is no god-given right not to ay them. one way to encourage people to use public transport.
ReplyDeleteMost of my French-speaking acquaintances were never hostile to the English to begin with. Sometimes they were less interested in learning about English things, and developed a concern about developing a vibrant local French culture. But humans are humans the world over. Only politicians actively promote hostility.
The only interesting thing about the Oratory (apart from the great organ) is the little room withg glass windows at the top., To get there, you go up a staircases in one of the pillars and you find that there are actually 2 domes - an inner and an outer, and there is a circular staircase in between them to get to the little room.
Only had sex in a car once, and it was between consenting adults who already shared their own home.
Property values might not say lower class but most people who move to the old neighbourhoods don't mind the reputation.
I really want to hear the answers to number one. I suspect that with every Metro trip now costing three dollars and even entry to the Notre Dame Cathedral costing five bucks, people are probably much more sympathetic to user fees then they used to be. Especially when it comes to something like a bridge toll, which has been a pretty normal type of user fee for thousands of years.
ReplyDeleteIn Vancouver they built 2 bridges into the city and tolled both of them. $3.50 to cross. It is the wave of the future. They are built by private companies and stand to make a fortune as they will be tolled in perpetuity. I always thought our gas taxes paid for bridges but governments love to put that money in general accounts.
ReplyDeleteAlso I have seen people go up the steps at St. Joseph's Oratory on their knees but that was back in the sixties.
As far as English being learned by french Canadians it is the international language of business as well as aviation. It's a no brainer to learn it. In BC it is more important to learn Chinese as Vancouver is fast becoming an Asian city. Only 48% of Vancouverites were born in Canada.
1) Pay the damn toll or take the Metro. Nothing is for free.
ReplyDelete2) I speak French when it's handy to do so, and over the years my French friends have always preferred to speak English to me since it's handy to them. To each his own. Language should never have been a "political" thing in the first place. We are not the Balkans.
3) Dedicated, older pilgrims presumably climb the Oratory steps on their knees, but I'm sure it hurts. Anyway, it's quicker to walk up along the side roads.
4) If people have nowhere else to hide to "do their thing", then they'll resort to the car's back seat. Whatever happened to the "pick-up van" craze of years back? Did the car-makers think that SUVs were better?
5) Many cities have overlooking hills: Edinburgh, Auckland, Hobart, Rio, etc. With the exception of the latter, presumably it's because properties have traditionally been more valuable on slopes and ridges. Maybe it's a psychological remnant of military history: holding the high ground to maintain a look out for an approaching enemy.
Besides, lower districts can be subject to flooding from nearby rivers and overloaded sewer pipes following heavy downpours.
Who is his "UrbanLegend"?
ReplyDeleteHave read his or her comments for a long time now. They make so much sense.
I am lucky enough not to need a car in Montreal but I see the gas prices. Montrealers pay more for gasoline than anyone else in North America. This is mostly due to taxes. Put that on top of the taxes they pay to buy the car, insure the car, park the car etc. I think drivers here are paying more than their fare share for the use of the roads. We live on an island. Unless you are growing vegetables in your back yard, you benefit from our roads and bridges wether or not you personally drive over them.
ReplyDeleteTOLLS: A Quebec thing -- where else in the non-communist world would people even dare HOPE that society would pay for them to cross a bridge?
ReplyDeleteFRENCH SPEAKING ENGLISH: I have noticed that we are ALL much more interested in being bilingual all of a sudden. Thank God and PKP, it feels as though the linguistic balance has been restored. Not just in Montreal, but in the rural areas I frequent as well.
ORATORY STAIRS: For sure a Montreal thing, given Saint Joseph's famous healing powers (as channeled by Brother André, now a Saint himself).
SEX IN CARS: No way this is a Montreal thing. Tina Turner sang a song called steamy windows, and the "If the van's a-rockin, don't come a-knockin" bumper stickers are an American thing I believe...
HIGHER/LOWER GROUND: Not a Montreal thing, as Urban Legend points out. On that note, rich neighbourhoods tend to be in the West end. Why? The Jet Stream blows West-East -- who wants to live downstream from a factory!
For the last 4 weeks (and the next 2), for my job (taxi inspector), I have to go to the Oratoire, and, indeed, there are people who go up the stairs on their knees.
ReplyDeleteI may go there 2-3 times a year, either when I am showing visitors around or use the escalators inside as a convenient shortcut to go up the Mountain, and I never failed to see people going up the stairs on their knees…
(Now, if they could only finish that belvedere up on the top of the dome, I am DYING to take pictures from there...)