Author Archives: Richard Shearmur

Municipal pools are important for equity, health (and fun)… Death by drowning is the number 1 killer of young children, particularly amongst poorer people and racialised minorities, as a New York Times article of July 2023 reminds us. Access to pools and to swimming lessons are thus important, especially for those with fewer means andContinue reading “Not In My Pool: pricing the riff-raff out of municipal pools”

Tomorrow is the 1st of July, moving-day in the province of Québec: most apartments are rented on one-year leases, running from 1st July to 30th June, so everyone moves on the same day. This system has many flaws. Insufficient housing, rising rents, homelessness and overcrowding However, the biggest problem is that there are simply notContinue reading “Québec’s housing crisis – good politics?”

Over the last week we have witnessed the unfortunate events aboard Titan, the undersea exploration vessel that imploded, presumably because of massive water pressure as it descended towards the Titanic. Oceangate, the company that designed and operated the submersible, deliberately avoided regulatory processes designed to ensure that submersible innovations are safe. According to Oceangate ,Continue reading “Unbridled innovation, implosions and slow-motion catastrophes”

I have written before about the increasing over-administration of universities and, more widely, of the the audit society as diagnosed in the 1990s by Michael Power. The audit society, which was nascent in the 1990s, is flourishing today in many institutions, such as McGill. A McGill example: obligation to understand and comply The other dayContinue reading “Accounting 101: the theatrics of compliance”

Over breakfast yesterday (27th April) I was listening to morning radio shows, alternating between Radio-Canada and CBC, as I usually do. Both had items and interviews about the federal employee strike. The strikers’ basic demands revolve around two things: The overwhelming impression that came across the morning shows was that the federal government should limitContinue reading “Income level of federal workers: why should planners care?”

I took a stroll Wednesday evening (5th April). For those unfamiliar with ice storms, here are a few pictures…

I was invited, last Friday, to be part of a panel discussing AI and the city. There are quite a few such panels these days. The common question seems to be: how much will AI alter cities? Not much, I think (and, incidentally, Paul Krugman would probably think so too). AI is about data processing,Continue reading “We are living in a material world (or: AI is nothing without wires and well-tended trees)”

There is an unfortunate habit, especially in the English-speaking press, to (deliberately?) misrepresent some of the recent protest movements in France. On the face of it, they can easily be labeled as irrational. The yellow vest protests of 2017-18 have often been framed as a “protest against climate action”. Current opposition to an increase inContinue reading “What lies beneath: French pension protests and why Canadians should take note”

Suite à mon billet d’hier et à certaines questions qui m’ont été posées, voici deux autres figures qui présentent les arrivées et les départs par tranche d’âge. Ces arrivées (Figure 1) et départs (Figure 2) sont présentés en % du nombre total, qui, lui aussi, est représenté sur les figures. Veuillez noter la mise enContinue reading “Montréal: qui arrive et qui part?”

Il est de bon ton de s’inquiéter de l’exode urbain, surtout ces jours-ci alors que le mythe voudrait que la COVID ait accéléré le départ des populations urbaines vers les régions éloignées et les petites villes. Deux remarques s’imposent: J’expose ci-dessous les chiffres qui révèlent cette dynamique. Cette dynamique est importante, car si l’on veutContinue reading “Il n’y a pas d’exode urbain: mais Montréal attire moins”