Civic Alert: Let’s protect the good ideas for the Park!

A long-time de Maisonneuve Boulevard resident told me that, though not directly impacted by the turf, she felt that neighbours had shared feelings on the various issues.

“It was quite different from the merger fight,” she explained. “That was a fight against external factors.

“With the Park, we had to decide for ourselves.”

The challenges set creative juices racing! The WMA produced its most detailed commentary on a municipal issue that I can recall in nearly two decades of my active involvement.

Citizens have pushed, too! Many ask for better grass care before considering artificial solutions.

Narnia spokesperson Gillian O’Driscoll, a McGill professor, told me that, although there is Fieldturf in Molson Stadium, the lawn at the heart of the campus is freshly-sodded annually.

It was a showplace at convocation and heavily-used the rest of the time for pick-up games, Frisbee, and so on.

Jon Breslaw presented his ambitious plan for the Westmount section of the Glen Yards that the mega-hospital will not be immediately building on. He included new uses for the old rail station and nearby municipal parking as well as a link to the Public Works Yard via the Glen rail bridge.

A challenge to Westmounters was put forward at the May 16 consultation by Victor Haines of de Maisonneuve Boulevard.

He frequently crosses the Park on the way from his home to Dawson College, where he is a long-time member of the faculty.

Haines believes that given the right leadership and tools — notably a low-tech flag — a citizen watch could be responsible for maintaining the rules and getting higher usage from the playing fields.

The fields would normally be open but, if they had to be closed — too much rain or to allow new grass to grow, for instance — then an appropriate flag would fly warning people to stay off.

It is the same principle that is used at some beaches to indicate when it is unsafe to swim.

Even the game of soccer itself could be reviewed. Dr. Henry Olders found some US equipment manufacturers promoting the notion that the small area game is beneficial for many young players.

The great European games we see on cable TV are staged on perfect grass pitches. Players routinely kick the ball from one touch line to the other. But learner soccer is not like that. The ball does not travel that far. Ball playing skills are more important.

The idea of trying to condense the public debate into one hearing with such wide-ranging implications could never really succeed. How can we rescue the good ideas and make sure they are debated and looked in to on their merits?

Continued at council

In the two years that I have been writing these articles, there has never been as much responses the Park has brought in the past few weeks.

Not all have been supportive! Councillor Cynthia Lulham thought I had implied last week that she had decided on the artificial turf solution. Actually, I had not named her because Patrick Martin, whom I was quoting, had not mentioned her.

For the record, she firmly stated she has not decided on her position on the project. She had been unable to attend the hastily called session Mayor Marks chaired last Tuesday to get councillors’ reactions to the public hearing.

Narnia spokesperson O’Driscoll — a Harvard-trained neuroscientist, incidentally —excused me for confusing her with the actress Gillian Anderson last week. But she was not as forgiving of her role at the May 16 public hearing.

She had mentioned being spokesperson for the daycare, which neighbors the park, in the opening of her presentation. She adds that her submission was not only approved by the Narnia board but that the position paper was supported by the 55 parents who signed their petition. Clearly they are as deeply involved as anyone.

On Monday, Narnia, the Westmount Park School teachers and Save the Park presented new documents to council.

In a different mood, Narnia children and parents delivered the painting of the Park created by children at Family Day on Saturday.

Not till late June

At Monday’s council meeting, Lulham, who expertly chaired the regular council meeting in Karin Marks’s absence, said there would be no council vote on the issue before the end of June.

When asked, she said the vote would not be in public, although there would be public voting if it went as far as a referendum on any loan bylaw.

Still concerned about council making decisions about the Park that are hidden from the public, a Save the Park activist asked a complex question trying to have council agree to only public acceptance of purchases or contracts to do with the artificial turf.

That received a terse “No” from Lulham.

In a similar vein on timely public access to information, the WMA’s Henry Olders asked about the extensive delays in making standing committee reports available. “Some of them report so little, that they ought to be ready for distribution next day,” he said. “Instead, we have to wait months.”

Coming together

Monday’s council meeting had a small agenda, but a lot of interest. There was legislation for the traffic control and calming measures the city believes will minimize the impact of Marianopolis moving to the top of Claremont. The dramatic move to control park vandalism was also welcomed.

Council approved the purchase of six hybrid vehicles — five for the public safety unit and a new car for the Director-General.

A switch to hybrids will mean saving about 200 tonnes on the city’s carbon dioxide footprint. The cost of gasoline will also drop, by about $100,000 at present rates, due to greater full efficiency of the new vehicles compared to the five and six-year-old models they will replace.

“It is an interesting convergence of environmental and cost savings,” commented Councillor Patrick Martin.

Marianopolis move means major changes

On August 20, when Marianopolis CEGEP students assemble at the new campus at the Congregation de Notre-Dame site, 4873 Westmount Avenue, they will find the city has put in place a set of measures designed to discourage car use.

Just as the mega-hospital threatens to transform Victoria Village and Lansdowne Ave., the college’s move will be similarly momentous, the effect reaching down to Sherbrooke Street.

Parking rules are being changed along Claremont basically, but also extending to parts of Victoria Ave.

The new traffic lights at the NDG/Westmount/Claremont intersection will have pedestrian signals (as will eventually virtually all new lights in the City) and be synchronized with the lights at Victoria and Grosvenor to support the 30 km/hour speed limit that will be imposed on the whole area.

At the present Cote-des-Neiges site, Marianopolis students used to take all parking spaces on neighboring streets. It was controlled by installing one hour limits. This system will be repeated in the Claremont area, but permit holders will be allowed longer.

The City is asking the STM to double the bus service in the morning rush hour on routes 124 and 138, which pass by the college. That is from two to four each way — not much for a population of 1,300 that is supposed to be oriented to public transit.

Also, there is a common myth that schools resume after Labour Day (Sept. 3). Not quite so. Marianopolis will start two weeks before. The English Montreal School Board resumes on Aug. 30.

Late Night with the agglom

For those flipping channels while waiting for David Letterman to start on Friday night, there was a surprise: on the Quebec parliamentary channel, NDG MNA Russell Copeman was in full flight and it was live from Quebec!

The ADQ had chosen the business of the day and decided to keep members in their seats until midnight. As a distraction from the budget and the speculation about whether there would be an election, Mario Dumont had chosen to focus attention on demergers.

MNAs began talking — repeatedly — about these issues from about 11 a.m. on Friday. Municipal Affairs Minister Nathalie Normandeau explained her proposed changes for the South Shore, which she pretended had been agreed by the local players. The ADQ and PQ refuted that and said there were lots of other solutions being called for.

For the Montreal aggloms, Normandeau doesn’t have any proposals yet. With less than three weeks remaining in this session, agreed solutions are far away.

One Island, One City again

Big Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay adopted an old-fashioned “One Island, One City” battle cry for his party faithful at the weekend. That is hardly a move towards consensus and cooperation that Normandeau thinks is about the sweep the Island!

If she had little new or worthwhile to say, her critics had even less. Most of the time was taken up by the kind of polite mud-sling that demeans the political world and amuses only participants, if anyone.

The ADQ’s new municipal critic, Martin Camirand, at least had been force-merged and had a career on St Jérome’s Executive Committee before being “promoted” to the National Assembly.

He was among his party’s speakers who relied heavily on the briefing provided by their researchers.

As far as Montreal was concerned, that brief derived much inspiration from the four suburban mayors who supported the ADQ in the last election.

Copeman made fun of this when it was his turn to speak, twelve hours into the debate. It proved, he said, that the ADQ “was not ready to form a government.”

He lampooned his rival ADQ candidate, who had not been seen in the riding during the election period and came third, despite the Montreal-West mayor (Campbell Stuart) having supported him.

“I don’t need the ADQ to teach me the problems the people of Montreal-West have,” their MNA said. “We know the Montreal agglom is dysfunctional. We want a clean structure with a true participation of the components.”

For Westmounters, there was a little added interest. For most of the after-lunch sessions, their MNA, Jacques Chagnon, took his turn as Deputy Speaker and had to listen to a debate when he probably knew more about the subject than almost any other participant!

Civic Studies

No representation: Are the suburban mayors organizing another boycott of the agglom? Westmount is not sending a deputy for the absent Mayor Karin Marks to tonight’s session. Most other suburbs are not attending either, Chairperson Cynthia Lulham told WMA president Henry Olders when he asked.

Rated: La Presse rated boroughs and cities for their transparency and council accessibility. Among the cities, Westmount was tied for second place with TMR. Beaconsfield, where former TV journalist Bob Benedetti is mayor, came top of the 14 cities; Montreal-West came fourth, Côte St. Luc was sixth and Hampstead eleventh. Of the 19 Montreal boroughs, CDN-NDG was rated fifth.

Terminating: Today is the last day of the official concession whereby Communauto allows Westmounters to sign on without the $500 deposit. I hear unofficially, however, the offer will be recognized for a few days longer.



• Community activist Don Wedge can be reached at calert@web.net. His columns are archived at www.westmountexaminer.com, go to Opinion.