Rotten apartments

There are way too many badly run apartment buildings in Montreal. I have lived in about a dozen or so apartments that all appeared to be okay when I first looked at them, and I came to learn that each apartment had a unique and completely rotten set of problems—all of which could have been nothing serious if the buildings had been managed properly. Each place was ultimately unliveable, due to noise or neglect and/or building staffers or a landlord with a piss rotten attitude.

Montreal is not Moscow, but it has issues that I think are similar to what it would be like to live in Russia’s capital, a city that is rife with mismanagement in everything. I think something has to change significantly in the way problems are handled regarding tenants vs. bs, otherwise the city will descend permanently into a black hole of crap that there will be no getting out of. It is already more than halfway there, in my opinion.

>>Joe

Dirty streets

I have travelled through many cities in the last few years, in Canada and abroad, and none compare to Montreal in terms of the amount of garbage littering the streets. Even Brooklyn was cleaner!

Road after road of plastic water bottles, food wrappers, cigarette packages and coffee cups.

It’s not just a question of our city services, it’s about the attitude of most Montrealers. Disposing of these items on the street has become as acceptable to them as pitching away your cigarette butt. It saddens me to no end to keep seeing children playing in parks strewn with litter, to see my elderly father every day having to remove the rubbish that has blown onto his property, to see otherwise beautiful areas of the cities ruined by this trash.

You probably think I’m overreacting and there are much bigger problems that we must tackle first. But all these other cities are facing big problems as well, and regardless of their economic situation (some better and some worse off than Montreal), they still have enough civic pride and social consciousness to keep their cities clean.

People always talk of how Montrealers are so sophisticated and socially and environmentally aware, but I see no evidence of this.

We are lagging behind so many other cities in terms of our eco-strategies that at times it is quite embarrassing.

>>Dirty Montreal

Ed Binder (!) for mayor

[Re: “No really, Jaggi Singh for mayor,” Letters, Oct. 15] Jaggi Singh’s not running for mayor so let’s stop taking about him. Suggesting he would make a good mayor is like saying Frank Cavallaro would make a good mayor because you like his weather reports. Or Mitsou should be mayor because she’s hot and been around for a while.

If we picked politicians from random people we liked (I’m voting for letter writer Ed Binder) elections would be a lot more interesting and easier to organize. You’d just write your pick down, and send it off to city hall. Think how much fun this would be, and the chaos! Maybe Singh would run if there was some chaos, instead of those three snooze-fests we have the job of electing.

But he’s not in the race, so let’s stop dreaming and stick to talking about the real, live, boring candidates we do have to elect. And maybe one day we’ll have an election to get excited about.

>>Andy Johnson

Go Nordiques go

[Re: “The Nordiques,” News, Angel, Oct. 15] The NHL back in Quebec, that would be awesome! We’re always getting the short end of the stick when it comes to sports—they took the Nordiques to Colorado and stuck the Expos in Washington, D.C., so now when we want to root for a national team, all we have are the Canadiens (who are sucking BIG TIME this year). No wonder us fans get so freaking mad.

Okay, so there’s the Alouettes and the Impact, but the CFL isn’t the NFL and if you don’t have European roots, are you really that interested in soccer? What we need is more hockey—we love it, we’d support it and and when our beloved Canadiens are sucking ass like they are, then we’d have another team to root for.

So please Mr. Mayor of Quebec City, bring back the game we so dearly love—may I suggest putting a bid on Phoenix?

>>David Miles

WE WELCOME LETTERS TO THE EDITOR!

Send your comments, compliments or criticisms to:

Letters to the Editor,

c/o Montreal Mirror,

465 McGill, 3rd Floor

Montreal, Quebec

H2Y 4B4

You may also fax us at (514) 393-3173, or reach us by e-mail at letters@mtl-mirror.com:

Letters to the Editor

All letters should include your name, address and daytime phone number.

If you wish to reach someone in particular, here's a list of people involved with the production of the newspaper and this site.