Street view rebels, urban trikes, swimming in cold water and more from Montreal

Fab Excavation guy is the new champion of Google Street view Montreal as a reader submitted this fab belly-exposing pose made last summer on Dunver in Crawford Park west Verdun.
   Unlike a Montreal woman who sued Google for showing a too-daring pic of herself, this guy was happy to show off his hairy Molson muscle.
   Before you get too excited, the company is based in Laval so this great model is not likely a Montrealer in the strictest of sense.

This Slovakian-born Montrealer who came to Upper Lachine via Vancouver likes to swim in the St. Lawrence River in the winter.
   He seems to think swimming in a chilly flow has curative benefits because it reduces inflammation. He reports that he saved someone's dog not long ago who had ventured into the icy waters. He rides his bike to and from NDG to a spot in Verdun to take the plunge. I've told him many times that I'll go down and watch but never never found the time.

Purple-tricycle-riding Greek-Montrealer spotted at Val-U Village yesterday proudly reports that he rides all through the winter, which is quite an accomplishment considering the last two winters have been incrazilably cold here.

Snowdon Theatre needs to be saved. I have started a Facebook group up for those who want to join the effort to stop the ongoing dilapidation of this borough-owned building which housed a gymnastics facility that mostly catered to young girls. (Don't believe it when they tell you that it has been moved elsewhere, the new facilities don't have the necessary amenities made possible at the old locale).

One danger in citizen democracy is that is allows a small gang of 'tards to give the impression of a critical mass by crowding in at council meetings where oblivious councillors are fooled into making hasty and rash decision. As a result, many regular citizens who didn't happen to attend the precious council meeting are saddled with a with a permanent mess they had no say in.
   The renaming of Oxford Park by people friendly with a Caisse Pop manager from 20 years ago was one such disgrace, more so now that a person with the same name - Georges St Pierre - has the same name.    
   Do you really want this park to seem to be named after that guy?
   This guy might be a hero to some but he's an entirely inappropriate person to have on the name of your park as he practices a vicious sport and recently went to bat for a major drug dealer.

As much as it pains me to admit it, the $11 million pledge recently made by Mayor Coderre to spruce up the city's baseball parks doesn't strike me as money well spent. Although I loved playing as a kid, organized baseball is not a very good sport for youngsters.
   Until at least about 12 the pitchers are simply unable to toss a ball over a plate with any accuracy, so batters end up walking, pitchers get stressed and fielders get bored.
  It's not that much for parents either because you can only see the game through a fence which isn't visually satisfying.
  The makeshift coaches are routinely overwhelmed by the size of the teams and never know more than a couple of kids' names. They are prone to making unfair choices, putting some kids on the bench too often, or in in the outfield where no balls ever get hit. In the house level many games are cancelled due to non-attendance. There's a ton of sitting around.
   Meanwhile the competitive league is way too intense, a kiddie boot camp, far too demanding.
   Also, tossing money at people to re-make parks can end up in disaster as we saw with the basketball court at Oxford Park which replaced 14,000 square feet of grass with mostly-unused concrete.
   Adult baseball/softball is pretty great though.
   I played in regular weekend pick-up softball games at the park at Laurier and St. Dump on the Plateau in the 90s and the facilities weren't great. The wooden stands were so rotten that somebody named Christina Stockwood called the city to ask them to fix them. Instead they were simply removed. The facility has been transformed into a soccer field. How depressing is that.