Naomi E. Holobow
President, Shaughnessy Village Association
tel: (514) 846-1861
fax: (514) 846-9440
Hi everyone,
1. Patricia Fraser of Baile Street won the Shaughnessy Cup this year in the Village Garden Contest - congratulations, Patricia! See pictures of the presentation of the awards and also the winning gardens here: ( Second Annual HarvestFest Party )
2. To report illegal parking, uncollected piles of garbage, burned out street lights, and potholes, call 872-3434.
3. The Plan Particulier d'Urbanisme (PPU) continues to be developed. We are now in the visioning phase, and the next steps should be more concrete. You might have read an article in Saturday's Gazette about our area (Can Concordia save the West End?) - and while I don't agree with all her points, the journalist (Mary Lamey) named the key players and captured the main issues facing our neighbourhood. All I can say is that at the PPU meetings, so far we are not at the stage of concluding that more student housing is what we need. Stay tuned.
4. One of our area's strengths lies in the architectural heritage of some of our houses. Jessica Noras did a little research and discovered that in the 15 years awards have been given, our area in the Ville Marie borough has won 5 of the 15 Prix émérites du patrimoine awards in the residential category, as follows:
1994: 1216 St-Mathieu
1995: 2090 Tupper
1997: 1186 Seymour
2002: 1176 St-Mathieu
2005: 2076 Tupper (the photograph is not yet posted on the website)
5. Still on the historical aspect, Toni Bramley tells me the SVA house date plaques are ready and that she has contacted those of you who requested them for payment. Once we gather that, we will pay for the production and pick up the plaques.
A record 15 members attended a recent meeting organized by Albert Wener with Police Officer Frederick Tomie ( frederick.tomie@spcum.qc.ca ). Such a large turnout shows that we have concerns - and we have asked for increased police patrols in our laneways and area. Frederick told us that Station 12 (located at 21 Stanton Street, Westmount, Quebec H3Y 3B1) has only 2 patrol cars and 2 auxiliary cars on duty at any one time and that this summer, they had reduced staff due to vacations, transfers, coverage of our numerous festivals, etc.
There is also a new community police officer (for non-emergency, longer term issues), Albert Pimental - tel: 280-0412 ), who is replacing Caroline Gauthier, now on maternity leave. Some of the complexities of living here were illustrated by the fact that all the effort that has gone into making Cabot Square safer, cleaner, and full of fun activities for residents, has resulted in some of the itinerants being displaced to Chomedey Street laneways and Toe Blake Park instead. This is more a social issue than a police issue. Frederick said that when you call to report an incident, the more information you can provide, the better -- names, addresses, descriptions, time etc. Apparently more people are reporting incidents using camera cell phones, so some of you dog walkers (street watchers) might want to take a cell phone along on your evening duty. If you e-mail Officers Frederick or Albert could you also copy Ben Smith of our board (chair of the security committee) so he has a record (benjamin.smith@polymtl.ca )? Also, if you prefer to remain anonymous, you could send Ben an e-mail with incidents you have seen but not reported, and he will see that they get to Station 12.
7. A "Meet the Candidates" Evening has been organized by Geraldine Stringer for Thursday, October 27, from 7pm to 9pm in the Auditorium of the Atwater Library and Computer Centre (1200 Atwater, enter by Tupper Street entrance and proceed up to the second floor). We have invited local candidates from all four municipal parties. As we are citizens who generally vote, we actually yield a fair amount of power in our district (Peter McGill) - so I would encourage you to come and ask questions that will help you decide who you want to elect. You can imagine how difficult it was to schedule such a meeting so a good turnout on our part would serve as thanks to Geraldine. Each candidate will have 3 minutes to present their platform, then another 2 minutes to introduce their team, and then the floor will be opened to questions from the audience. Board member Jean-Pierre Pelletier will act as moderator. Ours is a rather unique opportunity in that many current venues around town allow you to meet only one party at a time.
Here's the scoop: on November 6, we have to vote for 4 different positions:
- Mayor of Montreal
- Mayor of the Ville-Marie Borough
- Montreal City Councillor representing Peter McGill District
- Ville-Marie Borough Councillor representing Peter-McGill District
You vote for an individual position - you don't have to vote an entire party team (although they would obviously like you to do so). I will send you a table listing all the party names and candidates a bit later. Hopefully, I will have the right names for the right positions.
That's it for now,
Naomi
Naomi E. Holobow
President, Shaughnessy Village Association
tel: (514) 846-1861
fax: (514) 846-9440
