I like to tell the story of my first election campaign more than eight years ago, when I was the candidate for Côte Saint-Luc City Council in District 2. There were a number of objectives on my agenda, but chief among them was the introduction of District meetings, whereby very local issues would be discussed.
These meetings, held once a year (or more often if need be), have been very well received. On June 2, 2014, the most recent such gathering dealt with a number of issues. Mayor Anthony Housefather joined me at the podium along with our point man on traffic, Eric Ibey, and Police Station 9 Sergeant Bryan Cunningham.
Award of Merit – Mathew Stein
For the second year in a row, I handed out a special Award of Merit. It went to 16 year old Mathew Stein, who is completing Grade 10 at Bialik High School. Mathew was recognized for stepping up on his own and cleaning up the neighbourhood – specifically the streets and sidewalks of District 2.
“Every year, as part of our commitment to personal growth, I must do a certain amount of community service hours,” Mathew explained. “In my case I have been very upset at the lack of respect and responsibility that t residents have shown to their community. I walk my dog and have noticed that people think that our city is a personal garbage dump and have acted accordingly. So after having consulted with my dad, I took it upon myself to clean up my city, one piece of garbage at a time. It was difficult during the winter months, but now that the weather is nicer I am getting out with my garbage bags and picking it up. I have been told that even my small effort has made a difference in how our streets look and hopefully people will take notice and stop dumping their trash on the ground. Maybe we can even set up a continuous effort to keep my initiative going, and get more people involved. And if we make it fun, more people will do it.”
Bravo Mathew!
Mathew attended the meeting with his parents Steve and Arlene, brother Jessie (a member of the Côte Saint-Luc Dramatic Society) and his grandfather Victor Ades.
I also took the opportunity to announce that Steve Stein has agreed to serve as the acting chair for a special Dog Owners Advisory Committee. As the city councillor responsible for Animal Protection, I am getting a lot of proposals thrown my way. Steve’s group will try and put various objectives in order.
Mayor Housefather
Mayor Housefather spoke glowingly about the growing population in Côte Saint-Luc. He spoke about how blessed we all were with the results of the April provincial election, which saw the divisive PQ minority government go down to defeat. Côte Saint-Luc, he reminded everyone, played a leading role lobbying against proposed laws on language (Bill 14) and secularism (Bill 60).
Developments at the Quartier Cavendish and soon on Parkhaven are welcoming new young families to Côte Saint-Luc. The former project is pretty much sold out. We will be adding integrated green space to the project and building up The Avenue – the appropriately dubbed main road going into Quartier Cavendish – with hopefully some shops and cafes to join Yeh! Yogurt as a reason to stick around our town.
On the extension of Cavendish Boulevard, the mayor maintained his optimism that this will become a reality – an extension that goes from Cavendish in Côte Saint-Luc to Royalmount in TMR and then to St. Laurent. One of the goals of our city, since Bernard Lang left office as mayor in 1998, has been to see Cavendish extended. There is now a committee in place, a mayor of Montreal (Denis Coderre) who favors the move and a Liberal government which we believe will finally make this happen.
On a final note, the mayor reiterated his wish to keep Meadowbrook Golf Course green.
Police Matters
Bryan Cunningham (do not let the name fool you as he is a francophone from Ahuntsic) told us how pleased Police Station 9 is to have their Bike Patrol back in operation. Two police officers are now regularly patrolling our parks on two wheels. I am very pleased to hear this, especially where Rembrandt Park is concerned. We repeatedly get calls of people congregating there during late night hours and creating disturbances. The Bike Patrol should put a dent in this.
We opened the floor to questions. Sergeant Cunningham listened to concerns about streets where speeding occurs and traffic and parking infractions are a problem. Josef Brody of Sir Walter Scott Avenue made a point of saying how a better eye needs to be kept on the Côte Saint-Luc Shopping Centre where cars frequently ignore the no stopping and no parking rules.
Alex Halpern of Merrimac Road asked for the police to better monitor the crosswalks on the Heywood circle. On Saturdays specifically, with people going to and from synagogue, it is very difficult to cross the street as cars zoom by. He asked for adjustments to be made to the crosswalks and sidewalks and for there to be a better police presence. Sergeant Cunningham agreed to assign some officers to observe.
Shirley Rosen said it is time again for the police to crack down on Bialik High School parents who block driveways and go in no parking zones. Sergeant Cunningham said that Police Station 9 does give attention to problematic matters related to Bialik, but they have a fair number of schools to cover in their territory. Tickets are issued and problems exist at all schools. The police are doing their best. I have personally met with successive Bialik administrations and I wish to assure everyone that the situation is vastly improved to what it was years ago.
Steve Acre asked if cars are being ticketed if they rest on the zebra like "no stopping" line in front of the police station parking lot on Kildare Road. He recommended closer attention be paid to the area.
Cavendish and Kildare
We all agree that the corner of Cavendish and Kildare is problematic. Pedestrians complain that there is not enough time to cross the street; motorists insist that the light turns colours too quickly. We have undertaken a number of measures over the years: introducing double left turns on Kildare heading to Cavendish and on Cavendish to Fleet; synchronizing the traffic lights along Cavendish; maintaining a crossing guard there year-round. Can we undertake any additional action? There are some possible solutions, which we have discussed. Not only would they be very costly, but given the changing dynamics of that corner it would only serve as a stop-gap measure and frankly not a good investment at all.
Both Mayor Housefather and Eric Ibey explained that no significant changes are being considered at the present time given the new reality of a Cavendish extension, as well as the developments at Quartier Cavendish and Parkhaven. The mayor added that there is actually less traffic at that corner today than during the glory days of the Cavendish Mall.
When work does begin on an extension, the mayor said, the Cavendish-Kildare intersection will be an important component of the changes made to traffic patterns. At that point something elaborate will occur.
Some people did have suggestions as to how to make some improvements now. He has agreed to do walkabouts with those individuals so they can show him personally what they have in mind.
Rembrandt Park
At a District 2 meeting two years ago, we discussed in great detail the future of Rembrandt Park. Would we redo the tennis courts? Should the basketball courts stay? Follow up consultation was done and it was determined that the true wish was for the courts to be resurfaced, new lighting to be installed and for the status quo to prevail otherwise. Well it was timely for me to announce that the refurbished Rembrandt courts are in operation. Ditto for the new lighting. We even did some repairs to the fencing. Because of the unfriendly spring weather we had, delivery was a bit delayed. But everyone should now be very pleased.
Final Word
The final word went to Dr. Paul Weinstein, who complained about the state of our sidewalks during the winter. Better effort needs to be made, he said, to break up the ice.
while it is looking very promising for the land once occupied by the Griffith McConnell.
The mayor reminded everyone about the efforts I have made to have a special allocation of $10,000 made these last few years to have the snow dump reduced to rubble, as opposed to the days when a mountain like structure essentially remained intact through the summer months. At the present time we are still working on the procedure, which is not as easy as it looks. Strong machinery is required to chop up what used to be a mixture of snow and dirt and has now evolved into thick mud.
While on our respective vacations last Christmas, both the mayor and I were alerted to excessive noise coming from the snow dump. We spoke each day, communicated with staff and arrived at solutions such as having a barrier of snow to be formed almost like a wall to shield some of the noise and for as much work to occur deep the dump as possible. We closely monitored the trucks making unnecessary noise, even posting our own staff there. It seemed to improve matters. We worked closely with residents of the still relatively new Les Cours Marc Chagall Town Houses.
