Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Verdun (Nuns Island)

Looks like ,some opposition to Public Transit ,on Our old Nun's Island, now that's something that doesn't't makes sense,but here's one opinion from a Blog on the net:

Nuns’ Island hates public transit

As if trying to find a way to sound more like elitist suburban NIMBY snobs, residents at the southern tip of Nuns’ Island have apparently complained to the STM that they have too much bus service. They complain about the noise and dust generated by the buses.

I know buses are loud. I hear them outside my living room window every day. But I’ve never thought to complain about them, nor have I ever experienced dust problems (do they shed?)

Perhaps the noise and dust problems in the area might be due to the fact that it’s one giant construction zone for upscale condos? The photo above is one of many new skyscraping condo buildings going up in what was once empty space near a park.

The STM, after considering numerous half-assed schemes to placate residents and needlessly inconvenience public transit users, has concluded that it’s not reducing service to the area. The article doesn't’t make clear which side Claude Trudel is on, since he’s both the Verdun borough mayor and the chairperson of the STM board of directors. Let’s hope he and his constituents realize this is the best option for everyone involved.

Especially when you consider that one bus on the road can replace dozens of SUVs.

9 comments:

Ken McLaughlin said...

Same ol BS from Nun's Island. I know a guy who owns some properties on Wellington and he says about the only thing they haven't complained about is birds singing too loud in the morning - the people over there are known to be the biggest whiners in the region, totally oblivious to all the ironies and paradoxes built right in to their community. The history of development on Nun's Island can be pretty much summarized in the 'ol real estate slogan, " a piece of the country, 5 minutes from downtown". If you are retarded enough to believe that, have some special power that allows you too see through the condo tower on the other side of the street, and, like that article says, find city buses to be much, much more louder and inconvenient than large construction sites, then you are home!

Ken McLaughlin

Les F said...

Ken , I have to laugh, because when I first came here to Victoria,the Inner Harbour was a Great Fisherman's Wharf and the whole shoreline was dotted with many different & interesting business's,
Then of course (Progress) beset this little town,.and one by one everything disappeared,& the Developers were mostly successful in eradicating all the Fishboats literally hundreds plus,..from te whole area,.....Cannery's disappeared, they chased out most of the fishboats (but now have a laughable ghost of it's former self) fleet of fishboats,.that used support the local economy ,by buying all their Food & Fuel ,and Repairs to their boats,from local tradesman, Now that we have a few left (mainly for the tourist's to see....hahahaha & all the business's are gone,.We now have a bunch of Condo's built all the way around the whole shoreline,limiting view of the harbour from the peasant locals who lived here all their lives,Also we have had floatplanes that came to Victoria's Inner HArbour and were neat to see ,but now of course the 'noise' from these atrocious little airplanes are annoying the Condo owners,who moved in when it was a quaint little harbour ,but unbeknownst to those genius's who had more money than brains ,the fact that airplanes & boats & bridges going up & down ,...make noise,....well this wouldn't do , so now they compalin of all the planes(they were successful in annoying fisherman for the most part to move out,so their Condos could be built......
And all of them are wondering why the overall charm of Victoria,is disappearing ,,,,,,,when it's these clowns moving in ,that are the cause.............but i have to admit it's a nice place to look at but I wouldn't want to live there........hahahahahhah
Reminds me of the song I posted a while back called the "Come Here's & the Been Here's" by Chuck Brodsky.....................and so I guess we all have some of Our truly great spots,being devoured by politically backed developers,...afterall I've never seen a Politician leave Politics without his blind trust coming to fruition,.or his friend the developper making out OK too in the DO-RE-MI department,......
Looks like every where we look (or more approriately ./. Looked) is changing before Our Eyes
Say Goodbye to Nun's Island ,as it cannot ever be the same..............................HF&RV

Steve Gladwish said...

Man these guys would complain when they belonged to Verdun about everything...
Now they belong to Mtl..since they made Verdun a borough..man that phrase bugs me too..
They wanted Mtl.Enjoy..I hear they are spending coin on the approach ramp from the island to town.
Bet ya they will start screaming about that too..
I agree with you Ken...

Lad

Les F said...

Yes ,the 'come here's,.are never happy, I think they are talking of a bridge from Galt pver to the Island too.(or is that part of the new approach ramp???)
I saw the same thing here on the news one night where some people were all opposed to a developer building across the street & having to take down some tree's that were part of the view,but they didn't have a problem buying their house they were in directly across the street,which was all tree'd only a year before they bought the place.......Yikes !
"People are strange"--------------Jim Morrison

Steve Gladwish said...

Les

I always felt that they looked down on the people from Verdun.Alot of them did not want to be known as coming from the City of Verdun...they said Mtl. when asked..
Money talks..B.S.walks I guess...

Les F said...

Well they can 'pretend' all they want ,it's still Verdun no matter how many name changes it goes through. Snobs will be snobs,..and there are areas of 'Mtl' that noone ever wanted to go to, never mind live in,but until one yuppie tells their friend that it's cool, & the (in) place to be,.then they stampede to see who can pay the most to live there,and tear all the things they came there for down, & build Condo's....Condos = the Ghetto of the Future,...........the Real people ,the down to earth ones are the ones you never hear from,that go about their lives watching the madness,
I do however wonder ,why Verdun allowed itself to be swallowed up by the City of Montreal,.and never opted back out ,when they were offered the chance, because I would imagine ,that the tax base ,particularly with the so called unscaled building on Nuns Island ,that they would be a very efficient & self-sufficient little city,(like they used to be)...My guess,would be Politics as usual & an uneven playing field for the real citizens,when voicing their concerns,,,,Same as everywhere I guess ,someone got an envelope full of 100's (more like 1000's these days,or more) ..Personally I have always ,thought that the first 3 tall building s on Nuns Island looked out of place ,.and almost spelled the beginning of the end of a once neat little natural oasis in the middle of the river ,a perfect escape from the Big City,....... HF&RV

Ken McLaughlin said...

It wasn't like there was much of an effort made to keep Verdun independent. Georges Bosse, like a lot of the Mayor's on Montreal Island, joined Tremblay's party playing the no lose card close to the vest, which in many ways was like voting FOR the merger. And the truth is also that Nun's Islanders would have probably voted to go to to Montreal in very strong numbers. Verdun is still largely a renter's town and renter's are not usually the ones getting their arses kissed in city elections. And on it goes....

Ken McLaughlin

Ken McLaughlin said...

I agree with you about the look from the waterfront today, Les. It's ugly over there! All us old timers were lucky to have grown up at a time when there was at least the illusion of some kind of "natural" system out on the river.

Tell you a little side story. In the 80's at Concordia there was a photography student who discovered the Verdun boat clubs. He made a very nice portfolio of photographs of people, boats, shacks, etc. He described the Verdun waterfront as being like "a New Brunswick fishing village" and went on about how astonishing it was that downtown Montreal was just over there- sort of the evil twin, heh heh, of that Nun's Island real estate slogan, "a piece of the country 5 minutes from downtown. Well, while that was happening Nun's Island folks just kept venting their outrage over the "ugly riverfront" that Verdun had to offer them. Makes you wonder what kind of a person wants to live there, you know? I mean you buy a place, then you complain about the view? Go figure. Today, of course, they have want they seem to like, a view of other condos!

No surprises how all that turned out for sure.

Ken M

Steve Gladwish said...

Ken
Agree with you hundred per cent..