“This is an HLM. You’ll notice there’s a lot of cologne,” says Terri Leckner as she waves her hand through the perfumed air. Leckner explains that the heavy aroma permeating her lobby is caused by two men who live in her residence.
The 69-year-old is wearing bright red lipstick and a pretty dress with flowers on it. She uses a walker to make her way through the building where she lives with other low income seniors and people with disabilities.
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It’s lunch time on a warm, sunny fall day, but Ye Olde Orchard’s terrace is almost empty.
“We are currently functioning at about 60 percent capacity of where we were at the same time last year and that is due to a number of reasons,” says Michael Whitty, co-owner of the popular neighbourhood pub.
“The first being the public fear and apprehension of actually coming into bars and the second being the media– I don’t want to use the word ‘attack,’ but that seems to be the only way to say it– on bars and restaurants.” Whitty adds that social distancing requirements also account for a loss of clientele.
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Sammi Liang and her husband Toni Melki had always dreamed about opening a restaurant.
“We were set to open March 10 and everything was ready, everything was lined up. And then two days later, the premier of Quebec went on TV and shut down the whole province,” says Melki, from the terrace of Sammi’s Mongolian Delicacies in NDG.
“I can’t sit here and cry to you about what happened to us, because it happened to a bunch of other people, not just here in Canada but in the whole world.”
“When we rung in the new year, I mean, who would have thought this would be one of the biggest turning points in modern history?” says the 35-year-old.
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When Amanda Vandenberghe opened her mailbox a few weeks ago, she was surprised to find a ticket from the city of Montreal.
It accused her ex-partner of “having thrown, deposited, or left snow,” in front of their house between February 15 and 27.
The problem is Vandenberghe’s ex-partner has been living in Seattle since 2015.
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Malaka Ackaoui’s husband was the one who told her about the accident Thursday that put an 84-year-old woman in the hospital. The woman later died of her injuries.
“Not again,” she said when she heard the news.
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The once regal Empress Theatre is literally falling apart. The city has put fences up to ensure passersby are protected from falling concrete. However according to one of the owners of the cafe across the street, teenagers are jumping over them.
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Her husband, Lucio, jokes that she’s the empanada lady. “I like it,” says Dolores López Barcala. “It’s better than Dolores, which means pain in Spanish. When I was a kid that wasn’t so funny.”
The nickname seems to suit the sparkly-eyed mother of two from Argentina, whose empanada delivery service is giving NDGers a taste of Latin American culture.
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This summer the city of Montreal has continued to test for lead in people’s drinking water. Some NDG area homes are showing alarming results.
Recent tests on Prud’homme Avenue showed lead levels far higher than those Health Canada considers safe. At least one home tested at 65 parts per billion (ppb). That’s 13 times higher than recommended levels of 5 ppb.