The Walkable City: From Haussmann's Boulevards to Jane Jacobs' Streets and Beyond
The year that will end at midnight tonight held some excellent things, but as I noted in our holiday blog, in some cases the only appropriate reaction was "be careful what you wish for."
It finally turned cold last night, adn this morning the windows were covered with frost, even though they are double glazed. Or rather, they are double glazed since Monday. 
We had a few centimeters of snow yesterday afternoon and last night, so there's a semblance of a white Christmas here. The picture was taken from the back porch as the temperature hovered near the point where Fahrenheit and Celsius come together (0F and -18C)--it ws too cold and early to go out. 
The main difference betwen this young woman and the ordinary 20 year old in Europe or North America, is that she probably is a whole lot braver because participating in a demonstration in Cairo is a lot more dangerous than occupying a park in Manhattan, Minneapolis or Montreal.
This time of year it is the fruit that matured during the long days of summer that bring the sun into our lives. Here are clementines and Cortland apples (the best of the Quebec crop, I think) which make lovely decorations to say nothing of eating over the end of year holidays.
This morning La Presse has this excellent drawing by Chapleau, with an even more telling caption:
Brilliant sunshine today, and a little snow. It's not enough for a white Christmas, but maybe it's a good sign.
Stephen Harper's Conservatives haven't given much shrift to the international conference on climate change in Durban, South Africa. Nice to see that this negative presence has been matched by demonstrations on the ground, as witness the parody of our prime minister who appeared in media around the globe over the last few hours. The demon on his back must be whispering evil things in his ear--how else to explain how a supposedly intelligent man can ignore so much evidence about climate change?"The average income of the top 10 per cent of Canadians in 2008 was $103,500 – 10 times than that of the bottom 10 per cent, who had an average income of $10,260, an increase from a ratio of 8 to 1 in the early 1990s....At the same time, the top federal marginal income tax rates tumbled – to 29 per cent in 2010 from 43 per cent in 1981."
Last week the Globe had a story which must be read in tandem with this. It details how educated women are having more children in the US than in Canada. One of the many reasons, it seems, is because the growing divide between the wealthy and the poor in the US "has created both a class of women who can afford to hire help in their homes and a pool of workers who are willing to provide it cheaply...
"Because wages of unskilled workers have fallen for the past 30 years in the U.S. (30 per cent by some estimates), favourably employed working parents can afford to hire housekeepers and nannies – and they can afford to have more children as well."
What a sorry state of affairs. The report, please note, comes at a time when The Help by Katherine Stockett about African American maids and their employers in the 1960s is still on best seller lists and the movie from the novel is making waves. Not much has changed, except the maids now may be from foreign countries.
It's chilly today, although there's no snow on the ground. The sun at the moment is flooding into our house, and lighting up this cat's window as well.
As I write this, it is 1:31 p.m., a year exactlyl after the moment when the first call went in on the fire which put us out of our house for eight months. We've been back since August 1, but the last work onlly was completed three weeks ago. Needless to say, this is a day that gives us the shivers. No one was hurt, we lost very little, but it was an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone.
Elin spent three years at The Hague, living just off a canal on a street that ended with -laan: neither she nor I can remember the complete name but the -laan referred to the canal. Then she moved to St. Henri, just off the Lachine canal, and I used to joke that she went from one -laan to another.
This is a good traffic day in Montreal, where the problems of urban sprawl are considerablly less than in many other North American cities and where public transit ridership is growing fast. "— include firm goals for conservation of green space, wetlands and shorelines. The document suggests 12 per cent of the territory should be protected by 2015, and 17 per cent by 2020.
"— favour dense, residential development around public transit hubs (at least 40 per cent of new homes built over the next two decades should be built near public transit)
"— encourage the development of a regional bicycle network for recreational and commuting purposes
"— encourage significant improvements to public transit service
"— favour maintenance of existing road and public transit infrastructure over construction of new roads and highways.:
While the preservation of wetlands and the bicycle path plan are laudable, what really is important is the last item, with the goal of denser development around transit hubs coming in a close second. It's true that if you build them they will come...or drive the roads and buy the houses. So don't.
Perhaps my favourite photographer is Henri Cartier-Bresson. On a trip to France a few years ago we spent two afternoons in a restrospective exhibition of his work at the Biblithèque nationale. It was literally an eye-opener, as not only were great prints of his photos on display, so were notebooks and some of his contact sheets.
On a roll of 36 shots, he would have no less than three or four subjects. Each shot would be a distinct moment, and the amazing thing was that each was exactly the right one. His famous shot of a man jumping across a puddle, for example, was not one of a half dozen, if I remember correctly. He didn't warm up with snaps of other people crossing the square or fuss with settings to get the right exposure. He simply knew what aperature and speed to use and waited until the man in question was ready to take flight.
The redwoods and giant Sequoias of California were the mythic trees of my youth. Both the variety that grows in the Sierra Nevada and the one native to the coastal ranges were awe-inspiring, while walks in the groves were they grow remain exceedingly pleasant memories. 
Le Devoir columnist Josée Blanchette has a piece today about dogs and what a pain they are. Jeanne, who can not read of course, was taken by it nevertheless. The pictures of the dogs enchanted her. The one she liked the best is of the dog in a stroller, because, I presume, it included two of her favourite things.
This morning I had an appointment on the other side of the mountain, so I walked across through Mount Royal Park. We didn't get the snow storm that whipped the Northeast US into submission, and the leaves are lingering on the trees. The yellows and oranges are past their prime, but the walk was still lovely."C-10 does not take into account the return of the young offender, of the individual into society," he said.
"What you've got is a Band-Aid solution here, you're not curing anything,"
Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty has also been making noises about that province's dissatisfaction with the bill.
The Conservatives can pass the bill, which combines nine separate pieces of legislation which died on the order paper when the election was called last spring. That's the problem when you've got a majority government, even though a majority of the people didn't vote for you. The only hope is that in the current federal system the provinces will be able to make their opinions felt.
This year it seems like Halloween has gone on forever. Today's the day, and I expect not much is getting done in schools all across North America as kids parade around in their costumes and prepare for the candy gorge today. But there have been parties (often only for grownups) since Friday night which means almost four days of festivities.
Who would have thought that climbing hydrangeas could do such damage? But given enough time and the cycle of freeze and thaw in this climate, and it probably should not be a surprise that the lovely vine--which covers the gates to the Mount Royal Cemetery--has done considerable damage.
After attempts to brace the stone in place, the gate is now strapped together and barricaded so that no one can pass underneath, even on foot. 
One small photo shows the gate about four years ago on another lovely fall morning. 
For a long time I had a sticker from the Icelandic social democratic party, brought back by a young friend who'd spent some time in that small, rugged country in the 1980s. It's gone now, cleaned of the fridge by zealous post-fire cleaning."Iceland was supposed to be the ultimate economic disaster story: its runaway bankers saddled the country with huge debts and seemed to leave the nation in a hopeless position.
"But a funny thing happened on the way to economic Armageddon: Iceland’s very desperation made conventional behavior impossible, freeing the nation to break the rules. Where everyone else bailed out the bankers and made the public pay the price, Iceland let the banks go bust and actually expanded its social safety net.
"....Iceland hasn’t avoided major economic damage or a significant drop in living standards. But it has managed to limit both the rise in unemployment and the suffering of the most vulnerable... “Things could have been a lot worse” may not be the most stirring of slogans, but when everyone expected utter disaster, it amounts to a policy triumph.
"And there’s a lesson here for the rest of us: The suffering that so many of our citizens are facing is unnecessary..."
Lots of pumpkins yesterday at the Jean Talon Market, all ready to be carved for Halloween next week.
Tiny front ylard gardens are a feature of Montreal's densely settled neighborhoods. People spend a great deal of time and effort claiming the little bit of green they offer for themselves. But sometimes, the efforts are pure whimsy.
