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| Viger and Pap, one of Montreal's countless illegally unpaved parking lots |
Parking lots are expected to be paved, landscaped, have lines separating spaces, the minimum size which is dictated in a city bylaw.
But of course that bylaw has largely gone ignored.
A few years back I hounded the city until they gave me access to someone from the inspector's office who said that owners are able to skirt fines by switching official ownership.
It seemed slightly hard to believe.
In recent years the city has put massive pressure on parking lot owners to build on their land, with a carrot-and-stick strategy dreamed up partially by Robert Libman when he served under Mayor Tremblay.
So the secret reason that inspectors turn a blind eye on parking lot transgressions?
The city would rather these lots remain unpaved with the hope that they'll be turned into condos or office buildings than to force owners to invest big money to pave and organize these lots, which would then likely enshrine their flat and vacant parking vocation for a long time to come and ultimately hinder their eventual transformation into something more useful and ambitious.
I wouldn't trust Robert Libman to tell me the correct time. He was on the Executive Committee along with Frank Zampino, presently up on fraud charges. Saulie Zajdel was there too, and Michael Applebaum was on the fringes then in NDG too. I am glad that I don't live in Mount Royal Riding, as I could NEVER vote Conservative, although I support Stephen Harper, if Libman were on the ticket. Wise up, Mount-Royalers...you need someone with more integrity than yesterday's man, who went to Quebec City on one issue, and who then was willing to sell his constituents off to the highest bidder by supporting municipal mergers.
ReplyDeleteI also have my doubts regarding the "imminent" agreement between Cote St. Luc and the City of Montreal to finally complete the "Cavendish Connection" route which has been bandied about since the 1930s (yes, that far back!).
ReplyDeleteIndeed, CSL Mayor "Horsefeathers" was on CJAD the other day all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about how he is so very gung-ho and optimistic about the project. The man was so quick with all the right answers that he sounded like a little boy playing with his toy trucks in a sandbox. Hell, he almost had me believing that the bulldozers were virtually ready to roll!
Oh yeah? Well, just you wait, folks: some other red-herring will pop up at the last minute to de-rail the entire plan, which will likely be CSL's long-held insistence that Cavendish "through-traffic" be "encouraged" to divert east onto Royalmount toward Decarie and not straight down through to St. Jacques as it should obviously be. "Through-traffic", eh? LOL!
Much of the real blame for this decades-old delay can be aimed at the deep-pocketed, intransigent property owners who live between Fleet and Cote St. Luc Road: in other words, the local NIMBY Club.
You only have to witness the slow but steady decline and inevitable disintegration of the Cavendish Mall to see how such blatant political procrastination and outright deception has stunted business growth and progress.
Mr. "Glibman" and all of those other bozos like "The Martian" who cling to power with their pie-in-the-sky BS ought to be turfed-out once and for all since they are now so out-of-touch with the real needs of the people.
Pardon my dripping cynicism, but we have seen and heard all of this nonsense so many times that it has now moved beyond the tiresome to the pathetic and soon to the stage that it may finally require outrage and public shaming to actually accomplish anything.
Action speaks louder than words and I will only believe that Cavendish has been connected when I SEE that it has been connected.
On the bright side, it finally looks as though the Dorval Circle re-construction is about to get rolling again.
Shall I hold my breath?
That lot is seen in my 1988 aerial photo and willing to bet that it is older.
ReplyDeleteThe completion of Cavendish won't be seen in our lifetimes, if ever. The project is totally dependent on the province for funding and all they're announcing are studies, and studies of studies.
ReplyDeleteOn the political side, the NDG-CDN council had a vote on the Cavendish motion a few months ago. It was mostly symbolic as they have no real power in the matter. Copeman, Rotrand, Perez voted for; McQueen, Popeanu and Searle voted against. That forced Copeman to break the tie and the motion passed. High on his horse, Jeremy Searle will do whatever he can to stop Cavnedish.
So forget Cavendish, it ain't happening.
The Dorval circle? HA! Slated for completion in 2043.