Happy birthday, Montreal: May 17th marked the city's birthday, and to celebrate, we experienced a sudden cold snap and snow in the middle of the day.

And yet, the vibes were high. For every single sardonic newsletter writer out there thinking the weather couldn't get any worse, people have taken to social media with words of hope and pride for what is one of the greatest cities in the world.

The city is ramping up with opening after opening, terrasses are being set up on every street, and we crushed it in the Canada's 100 Best restaurants list. Love it or hate it, we are barreling forward without over-thinking anything for a second. There's a 36-hour-long party in the Old Port this weekend, the festivals will soon begin, and we're all out there catching rays the moment it's +15 degrees.

As the Austrian writer Hedwig 'Vicki' Baum once wrote, "there are shortcuts to happiness and dancing is one of them." There may be plenty to point out and proclaim amiss with the city, but Montreal as a whole remains an occasion to dance.

Weekend events you don’t want to miss

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What you need to know

ICYMI: A weekly round-up of the latest local news, from food and entertainment to current affairs and more.

Slinging mud from the bottom of the Lachine Canal

In this recent editorial, Cult MTL columinst Toula Drimonis hits back against heavy trash talk by Journal de Montréal writers that often claim the city's a filthy, dangerous, chaotic mess of a place. But is it? (Cult MTL)

Stop trash-talking Montreal

For some Journal de Montréal columnists, the need to denigrate the city has almost become an unhealthy compulsion.

Cult MTLToula Drimonis

Reviving a vibe in Montreal's Quartier Latin

Serving homemade menus with some '90s family-style nostalgia, Big Trouble is the final piece in an eat-sleep-jam 'European' model for the local music venue Turbo Haus. Completing a circular ecosystem of hospitality for musicians, we're calling it: This will be a missing piece of a puzzle you didn't know existed. (The Main)

New café-restaurant Le Café Big Trouble revives a vibe in Montreal’s Quartier Latin

Serving homemade menus with some ’90s family-style nostalgia, Big Trouble is the final piece in an eat-sleep-jam ‘European’ model for the local music venue Turbo Haus.

The MainJP Karwacki

This is fine. This will go well.

You know that webcomic from KC Green with the dog in the house on fire? Its persistence as an apt meme for—well, everything—sure as hell seems to apply to this proclamation from Legault's government that everything with the housing crisis is peachy keen. (CTV News)

Moving day in Quebec will ‘go well,’ says Legault; opposition, housing groups say otherwise

The premier is confident things will ‘go well’ on July 1, 2023, but critics fear the rental situation in Quebec spiraling out of control.

CTV News

Another one bites the brisket

After 73 years selling deli meats prepared in their own smokehouses, Quebec Smoked Meat is closing up shop on June 30. A famous purveyor of Old World food for those in the know, it'll be sad to see them go; especially since many claim they made the stuff better than Schwartz's ever did. (Montreal Gazette)

Pointe-St-Charles institution Quebec Smoked Meat closing after 73 years

It’s the second establishment specializing in beloved Montreal delicacy to announce its closing in the same week.

Montreal GazetteRené Bruemmer

Catch the (museum of) waves

Montreal was one of the world's hubs for the recording industry, and this story tells that tale and then some, as said industry took an unexpected turn into developing a secret laboratory during World War II that led to the creation of frickin' satellites. (Journal Métro)

Montréal, pionnière du disque et des ondes

Le Musée des ondes Émile Berliner offre la chance aux visiteurs de découvrir comment Montréal est devenue une «créatrice de vedettes».

Journal MétroDavid Beauchamp

Feeling the heat

Here at The Main, we abstain from included one-off arson attempts in our newsletters, but when there's so many that it amounts to one a day since the beginning of the calendar year? That sparks a conversation. (Radio-Canada)

Un incendie criminel par jour pour les commerces du Grand Montréal

L’extorsion d’un restaurant à Laval par des organisations criminelles aurait conduit à sa fermeture.

Radio-CanadaRadio-Canada

Bang bang, they'll shoot them down

Killing small dogs, roaming around daycares in broad daylight; coyotes have made so many brazen appearances in people's lives on the island in the last half-decade that they've ended up in the city's crosshairs—literally. The SPCA believes more non-lethal tactics should be employed, however. (Le Devoir)

Montréal va abattre des coyotes

Les incidents se sont multipliés depuis 2021 dans le secteur du parc-nature de la Pointe-aux-Prairies.

Le DevoirJeanne Corriveau

The scars of time

Located between Old Montreal and downtown, the city was completely reimagined in the 1990s and 2000s following decades of desolation. The idea was to repair the scars left by the construction of the Ville-Marie tunnel by creating a a world-class district, but that district is—when you look close enough—falling apart. (La Presse)

Quartier international de Montréal | 20 ans et déjà des rides

La création du Quartier international de Montréal a été l’une des pierres angulaires de la renaissance du centre-ville de la métropole. Deux de ses « pères » se félicitent de le voir atteindre l’âge adulte, mais déplorent que son entretien par la Ville ne soit pas à la hauteur des lieux.

La PresseLa Presse

Clang clang clang goes the trolley

The land that was once the site of the Hippodrome racetrack now sees, thanks to the non-profit organization Espace La Traversée, an incoming residential developer which in turn faces some steep prerequisites for housing, public housing, and transit. That includes a hopeful creation of a "Viennese tramway" in the heart of it all. (Montreal Gazette & La Presse)

Ancien hippodrome | La mairesse d’arrondissement rêve d’un tramway

L’idée de faire circuler un tramway sur les terrains de l’hippodrome « fait rêver » la mairesse locale, qui vient de dévoiler qui construira le premier projet immobilier du futur quartier de 12 500 logements.

La PressePhilippe Teisceira-Lessard

You can't bring out your dead

Rising inflation has caused labour disputes just about everywhere, but here in Montreal, few of them have become more pronounced than those on the graveyard shifts at Canada's biggest cemetery. Even as we write this, the standoff continues. (Global News)

Canada’s biggest cemetery has been closed for 5 months. Families are now calling on the province to intervene - Montreal | Globalnews.ca

More than 250 bodies have gone unburied this year at a Montreal cemetery as a result of a labour standoff, with the remains stored at freezing temperature in an on-site repository.

Global NewsAlessia Simona Maratta

"Time to hit the streets"

This 2008 documentary details one Montreal stencil artist's "clandestine campaign to make his mark on the city streets." It's not too often you see street artists, pre-MURAL Fest, be viewed in a countercultural light reserved for vigilantes. Put on some popcorn and get it a look. (YouTube)

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That wraps up this week's edition. We’ll be back with more curiosities, local stories, and events to discover next week.

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