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1-50 Regulation in Effect for all Aircrafts as of August 1, 2015 Transport Canada has announced that the 1:50 ratio will be the new regulation in effect for both wide and narrow-bodied aircraft effective August 1, 2015. Airlines will be able to “flip flop” between the former 1:40 ratio and the new 1:50 ratio according to their operational requirements. Exit doors may also be left uncovered on wide-bodied aircraft, a major change from previous proposed regulations. Your Union views this development as a completely unacceptable and unnecessary risk to the safety of both crewmembers and the public. In changing the regulation without the usual consultation process, Transport Canada and the Harper government continue to act on behalf of the airline industry and in a manner that is without sufficient parliamentary and public scrutiny. Decades of privatization, deregulation and hyper-competition have led to a relentless drive to cut labour costs. Transport Canada makes no secret of this, and has calculated that the regulation will allow operators to achieve cost savings of $288,469,940 during the next ten years by reducing the number of Flight Attendants and associated costs including salaries, hotel stays and per diems. To read the new regulation, please see: http://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2015/2015-06-17/html/sor-dors127-eng.php. For the federal government and its transportation officials to so baldly place profit over safety is a national disgrace. It appears this government has learned nothing from the rail tragedy in Lac Megantic, which has also been linked to deregulation and the loosening of safety rules Your Union is reviewing all available options to continue our legal fight against the 1:50. We will update you on our intended response as soon as possible. We also look forward to the upcoming federal election, which we are confident will oust Harper and elect a government that supports worker rights and public safety. But to achieve that goal, our members must do their part. The Airline Division Political Action Committee will be working hard between now and the election to turn out Flight Attendants to vote. We will bring the full weight of our safety expertise forward to the new government and the public. Our research on this issue has been extensive, and is grounded in the real life understanding of the safety risks associated with reduced cabin crew. In fact, we believe our members’ real life experience is the best possible evidence that 1:50 jeopardizes safety, disrupts service, and reduces the job satisfaction and morale of Flight Attendants. During the past several months we have been compiling our members’ stories about the effect of 1:50. In the coming weeks, we will publish a series of bulletins that capture the voices of members describing how 1:50 has affected them on and off the job. Each bulletin will describe a different aspect of how 1:50 has affected them, including at work where members report increased fatigue, anxiety about decreased safety and service; and at home, where members report reduced income, greater stress and depression, and harm to personal relationships and overall wellbeing. These stories are gleaned from the responses of well over 100 Flight Attendants who responded to questionnaires made available by the Component and CUPE Local 4092. We encourage members to continue to share their stories in the months to come. Please follow the next bulletins. Your Union remains committed to fighting the 1:50 ratio on the legal, regulatory, and political levels. http://accomponent.ca/

Il en avait été questions il y a plusieurs mois et je croyais que la ville avait finalement abandonnée l'idée... mais voilà qu'on en jase à l'Hôtel de ville : Merci à IluvMTL 20.20 Contrat de services professionnels CA Bureau du directeur d'arrondissement - 1131145005 Accorder un contrat de services professionnels de 285 425,44 $ à Affleck de la Riva architectes pour l'aménagement du square Cabot et autoriser une dépense maximale de 342 510,53 $ (appel d'offres public VMP-13-026- 6 soumissionnaires) District(s) : Peter-McGill

via le site de Microsoft : Press Release MICROSOFT CLOUD TO TOUCH DOWN IN CANADA Locally deployed Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online will help power Canadian business Toronto, June 2, 2015 – Microsoft today announced plans to deliver commercial cloud services from Canada. Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online will be delivered from Toronto and Quebec City in 2016, further strengthening Microsoft’s footprint in Canada’s competitive cloud landscape. “Soon, the Microsoft Cloud will be truly Canadian,” said Kevin Turner, Worldwide Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft, who travelled to Toronto to make the announcement. “This substantial investment in a Canadian cloud demonstrates how committed we are to bringing even more opportunity to Canadian businesses and government organizations, helping them fully realize the cost savings and flexibility of the cloud,” said Turner. According to IDC, total public cloud spend in Canada is projected to grow to $2.5B by next year. The fastest growth will be from Public cloud infrastructure with a strong 45 per cent increase by 2016. These new locally deployed services will address data residency considerations for Microsoft customers and partners of all shapes and sizes who are embracing cloud computing to transform their businesses, better manage variable workloads and deliver new digital services and experiences to customers and employees. General availability of Azure is anticipated in early 2016, followed by Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online later in 2016. Janet Kennedy, President of Microsoft Canada, says delivering cloud services from data centres on Canadian soil opens up significant new cloud-based possibilities for organizations who must adhere to strict data storage compliance codes. “We’re very proud to be delivering the Microsoft Cloud right here in Canada, for the benefit of Canadian innovators, entrepreneurs, governments and small businesses. Delivering the flexibility of hyper-scale, enterprise grade, locally deployed public cloud services is the ultimate Canadian hat trick.” Canadian Customers Already Using Cloud Today Canadian customers of all sizes are already in the Microsoft Cloud. Even today, Microsoft delivers cloud-based email, Office 365, and CRM Online to more than 80,000 Canadian businesses. Companies like Air Canada, Quebecor and Hatch are saving money while empowering their employees to collaborate, be more productive and mobile with Office 365, Yammer, and Skype for Business. “Information systems and technology continue to be a differentiator for Hatch as it helps us to gain advantages in the marketplace – our use of Microsoft cloud is an integral part of this success. We are now able to focus on our business while benefiting from all the innovation Microsoft offers with a Service Level Agreement we can count on.” Christopher Taylor, Global Director, Hatch. Diply.com is a great example of an Ontario-based start-up leveraging Microsoft Azure, the company’s cloud-based infrastructure. The company delivers 850M page views per month on Microsoft Azure and owns no servers. Diply.com is able to rent servers from Microsoft by the hour based simply on the demand they receive. “We only pay for what we use,” said Gary Manning, CTO and co-founder at Diply.com. “We estimate our cost per 1,000 users is only $0.07! We’d never be able to build that back-end infrastructure ourselves.” Governments in Canada Welcome the Microsoft Cloud Ontario’s Deputy Premier and President of Treasury Board, Deb Matthews, applauded Microsoft’s commitment to enabling Ontario businesses to compete globally. “This commitment by Microsoft will further enhance the ability of Ontario’s innovative business sector to thrive and compete with the best in the world,” said Matthews. “To date more than 3,200 Canadian startups have benefited from joining the free BizSpark program, many of which are based in Ontario. By bringing the power of the cloud to Canada and providing free access through BizSpark, our entrepreneurs can truly compete with the best in the world.” John Tory, Mayor of Toronto, praised the announcement as a significant boost to Toronto’s digital infrastructure. “Together with Microsoft, we’re bringing Toronto into the 21st Century,” said Mayor John Tory. “Toronto is home to a skilled and talented work force that is ready to bring ideas to life. The City is committed to investing in state-of-the-art infrastructure that’s needed to attract good jobs and fuel innovation.” Tory noted that it’s estimated that more than 14,000 jobs in Toronto are connected to cloud computing. To learn more about Microsoft’s cloud touching down in Canada visit reimagine.microsoft.ca Additional Quotes “Microsoft gives us the high-performance infrastructure we need to handle major fluctuations in traffic and demand for a majority of our media websites,” said Richard Roy, Vice President of IT and Chief Technology Officer, Quebecor. “We only pay for what we use, eliminating the need for costly up-front investment in hardware. Microsoft has completely transformed the way we build new IT environments – what used to take days or weeks can now be done in a matter of minutes. Our move to Microsoft’s cloud with has enabled us to innovate rapidly in response to changing forces in our industry.” “We decided to move to the cloud with the Office 365 suite because of the globalization of CDPQ’s investment activities and our need for simplified collaboration among our teams around the world”, said Pierre Miron, CDPQ’s Executive Vice-President, Operations and Information Technologies. “CDPQ also welcomes Microsoft’s decision to establish two data centers in Canada, one in Quebec City and the other in Toronto,” added Miron. “The City of Regina partnered with Microsoft Canada in 2013 to become one of Canada’s first public sector organizations to embrace Office365,” said Chris Fisher, Director of IT, City of Regina. “That strategic decision, which raised eyebrows amongst our peers, continues to pay dividends as the product matures. It is helping the City find cost-effective ways for employees to efficiently communicate with each other and the public.” “As proud Canadians and creators of the world’s first 100% cloud-based digital asset management system, we’re eagerly awaiting the new Canadian data centres coming online next year,” said David MacLaren, President & CEO of MediaValet. “Since launching the first version of MediaValet in late 2010, we’ve had opportunities to work with healthcare, government and higher education organizations in Canada, but been hampered by their rigorous data compliance needs. Microsoft’s investment in a Canadian cloud will open up doors to significant sectors of the Canadian market and help us grow our market share on home soil.” About Microsoft Established in 1985, Microsoft Canada Inc. is the Canadian subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq "MSFT") the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft Canada provides nationwide sales, marketing, consulting and local support services in both French and English. Headquartered in Mississauga, Microsoft Canada has nine regional offices across the country dedicated to empowering people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. For more information on Microsoft Canada, please visit www.microsoft.ca. For further information, please contact: Natasha Beynon Veritas Communications beynon@veritasinc.com 416.640.4660

http://designmontreal.com/commerce-design/a-propos-de-commerce-design-montreal Commerce Design Montréal Toggle navigation À propos de Commerce Design Montréal La Ville de Montréal célèbre cette année le 20e anniversaire de la création des Prix Commerce Design Montréal, une initiative montréalaise dont le succès fait écho depuis plus de dix ans dans plusieurs villes d’Europe, du Canada et des États-Unis. Les efforts soutenus dans ce programme ont contribué à sensibiliser les commerçants et le public à la valeur ajoutée du design. Ils ont insufflé une remarquable progression dans la qualité des lieux que l’on fréquente et l’expérience qu’ils nous procurent. C’est sur cette lancée que la Ville de Montréal poursuit son action et récompense celles et ceux à qui l’on doit cette heureuse transformation. Les lauréats se retrouvent au cœur d’une campagne de promotion et de relations de presse d’envergure qui vise à les faire connaître auprès du grand public, contribuant à leur notoriété et à l’accroissement de leur volume d’affaires. Cette récompense confère aux Prix Commerce Design Montréal toute leur originalité. Un trophée, création du designer industriel Claude Maufette, est attribué aux lauréats (commerçants et designers) qui sont aussi pourvus d’autres outils promotionnels visibles signalisant leur distinction. Historique Commerce Design Montréal a été créé en 1995 dans le but de faire valoir auprès des commerçants montréalais les bénéfices d’investir dans la qualité de l’aménagement de leur établissement avec l’aide de professionnels qualifiés. La raison d’être de cette activité est encore et toujours de développer le marché du design commercial à Montréal pour : améliorer la qualité du cadre de vie et rendre la Métropole plus attrayante; augmenter la compétitivité des commerces; accroître la demande locale pour les services professionnels en aménagement commercial. Les objectifs visent à créer un effet d’entraînement auprès d’autres commerçants, de convaincre ces derniers du bien-fondé du design pour leur succès en affaires et d’avoir un effet structurant sur la revitalisation et la dynamisation des rues commerciales. L’effort public et parapublic pour sensibiliser les commerçants montréalais au design a été sans relâche de 1995 à 2004. L’étude d’impacts alors réalisée avait démontré que le programme a concrètement développé, en dix ans, le marché en design de commerces et induit l’effet d’entraînement recherché. La qualité promue par les Prix Commerce Design Montréal s’est avéré un axe de communication très porteur pour la candidature de Montréal Ville UNESCO de design dont la désignation a été obtenue en 2006. Après dix ans de succès, un élargissement et un repositionnement vers d’autres secteurs d’activités étaient nécessaires. Il s’imposait alors de sensibiliser de nouveaux acteurs à l’amélioration de la qualité du design dans la ville. En 2005, le prolongement de l’action de Commerce Design Montréal fut confié à Créativité Montréal qui réalisa, de 2006 à 2008, trois éditions des Prix Créativité Montréal. De son côté, la Ville de Montréal continua de transférer son expertise et céder des licences à d’autres villes qui reprisent le concept original. « Commerce Design » est devenu une marque de commerce officielle de la Ville de Montréal en 2014. En relançant le programme en 2015, Montréal souhaite continuer à inspirer d’autres villes, à faire grandir le réseau et voir évoluer son concept puis, engendrer des retombées probantes sur son territoire grâce au partage d’expériences. Les grandes étapes de Commerce Design Montréal Appel de candidature : l’objectif est de recruter une centaine de participants d’une grande diversité ; des commerces de tous types et envergure, répartis sur le territoire de l’île de Montréal, récemment aménagés avec l’aide d’un professionnel en design ou en architecture. Jury : le jury retient, suivant l’analyse des dossiers et le visionnement des photos, une quarantaine de commerces finalistes qu’il visite lors d’une tournée d’observation. Il sélectionne 20 commerces et concepteurs lauréats, ex aequo. Parmi les critères qui guident les jurés, la mise en contexte est cruciale, car la sélection vise à refléter plusieurs réalités commerciales à Montréal, afin que les commerçants qui songent à investir dans le design de leur commerce puissent s’identifier et s’inspirer de l’un ou l’autre des établissements primés. Les Prix du jury sont annoncés lors d’une soirée festive qui réunit des centaines d’invités. Rencontres avec les designers : le public est invité à découvrir, lors du weekend « Venez, voyez, votez! » les 13 et 14 juin 2015, les 20 commerces lauréats sous l’angle du design, alors que les concepteurs sont sur place pour accueillir visiteurs et clients et expliquer leur démarche créative. Prix du public : du 11 mai au 31 août 2015, le public peut voter en ligne ou à l’aide d’un bulletin de vote pour son commerce préféré parmi les 20 lauréats. Au terme de la campagne « Votez avec vos yeux!», le commerce qui récolte le plus grand nombre de votes est proclamé « Prix du public » lors d’un événement de presse. Des cartes et chèques-cadeaux échangeables dans les commerces primés sont tirés au hasard parmi les votants, bouclant ainsi la boucle. Voir les partenaires et collaborateurs Prix Frédéric-Metz En août 2014, le milieu du design a perdu un grand pédagogue, un communicateur exceptionnel, un militant en faveur de la qualité en design : Frédéric Metz (1944-2014). Professeur associé à l’École de design, membre fondateur du Centre de design et de l’École supérieure de mode de l’UQAM, il est une figure marquante du design au Québec. Pour perpétuer sa pensée, la Société des designers graphiques du Québec (SDGQ), l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) et le Bureau du design de la Ville de Montréal lui rendent hommage en créant le Prix Frédéric-Metz dans le cadre des Prix Commerce Design Montréal 2015, un programme qu’il affectionnait tout particulièrement et auquel il a collaboré pendant plusieurs années. Le Prix Frédéric-Metz récompensera un établissement primé parmi les 20 Prix du jury dont le design (intérieur, graphique) parfaitement intégré, inspirant et efficace « facilite la vie, élève la beauté, la fonction et le sens, adoucit l’expérience, et constitue une valeur ajoutée à la vie quotidienne ». Un trophée, aux couleurs du personnage Metz, sera attribué aux lauréats lors d’une cérémonie spéciale le 14 septembre prochain. Une vidéo produite par deux étudiants en communications de l’UQAM, Gabriel Lajournade et Amélia Blondin, sous la direction artistique de Philippe Lamarre, président sortant de la Société des designers graphiques du Québec, a été réalisée pour l’occasion. Les plus proches collaborateurs et amis de Frédéric Metz témoignent de leur amitié et de leur admiration pour son travail et son legs pour les générations futures. sent via Tapatalk

http://www.lapresse.ca/maison/decoration/amenagement/201504/28/01-4865137-amenagement-les-finissants-sexposent.php Publié le 28 avril 2015 à 12h25 | Mis à jour à 12h25 Aménagement: les finissants s'exposent Le vernissage aura lieu le jeudi 30 avril à partir... (Photo fournie) Agrandir Le vernissage aura lieu le jeudi 30 avril à partir de 18h, et l'exposition sera ouverte au public le vendredi 1er mai et le samedi 2 mai entre 12h et 16h. PHOTO FOURNIE Ma Presse Sophie Ouimet-LamotheSOPHIE OUIMET La Presse Comme chaque année, la Faculté de l'aménagement de l'Université de Montréal ouvre ses portes au public pour son exposition de finissants. Plus de 250 projets seront présentés dans les locaux de la Faculté, toutes disciplines confondues: architecture, architecture de paysage, design industriel, design d'intérieur, design urbain et design de jeux. Cette année, l'exposition explore la dualité entre le fond et la forme dans la création. Le vernissage aura lieu le jeudi 30 avril à partir de 18h, et l'exposition sera ouverte au public le vendredi 1er mai et le samedi 2 mai entre 12h et 16h. Fond Forme Université de Montréal, Faculté de l'aménagement 2940, chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine amenagement.umontreal.ca sent via Tapatalk

City promises services for Montreal's homeless in remodelled parks MONTREAL, QUE.: APRIL 15, 2015 -- A view fence around the perimeter of Emile-Gamelin park, which is closed for renovations, in Montreal city hall in Montreal on Wednesday, April 15, 2015. (Dario Ayala / Montreal Gazette) Dario Ayala / Montreal Gazette With two months to go until Cabot Square is accessible again and the recent closing of Place Émilie-Gamelin, many of Montreal’s homeless have lost two main, relatively safe, gathering spots. But despite the upheaval, officials are promising that once reopened, the spaces will not exclude or forget the city’s most vulnerable citizens. Fences sprang up around Émilie-Gamelin park on April 7, and will remain in place until early May, when a large block party is expected to herald the park‘s rebirth as a concert venue, public garden, food court and outdoor beer garden. It’s a significant overhaul that could have a long-lasting impact on the people who live and work in the neighbourhood. That includes the homeless men and women who spend their days in the park, said Marie-Joëlle Corneau, spokesperson for the Quartier des spectacles Partnership — a not-for-profit organization that co-ordinates and manages many of Montreal’s best-known cultural offerings. Corneau promised that the new park will continue to welcome outreach workers. A food distribution point for those in need at the northern end of the park will not be moved either, she said. “We have noted over the years that in Émilie-Gamelin, and in la Place de la Paix, the homeless will stay around during outdoor performances and events,” Corneau told the Montreal Gazette in an email. “Many have told us that they appreciate the ambience that is created and the presence of other members of the public, which makes the spaces more secure — even for them.” It’s a hopeful message, but it might come as cold comfort to the people who have no roof over their heads and who rely on public parks and buildings during the day. Émilie-Gamelin is one of several spaces frequented by the homeless that has been closed off or forcibly emptied in recent months. In January, city crews dismantled a makeshift camp in Viger Square, using machinery to sweep up more than a dozen beds in the area. Cabot Square is also undergoing a major year-long renovation, and local advocacy groups have warned that its closure has displaced dozens of homeless aboriginals. “We have not noticed a huge impact yet (at Émilie-Gamelin), but I would suspect that our café that’s open during the day would be even busier now,” said Matthew Pearce, president and chief executive officer of the Old Brewery Mission, which is located just a few blocks away from the park. “It may become the kind of park where the homeless are feeling less able to stay. … I hope that those individuals will then understand that the Old Brewery Mission has open arms for them.” According to a spokesperson for the Ville-Marie borough, the city will have eight police cadets stationed in Place Émilie-Gamelin this summer who will help maintain order during public events, but they will not issue tickets to the homeless. As part of an overall intervention strategy in the park, the city has set aside $48,000 to help pay for two dedicated outreach workers through local organization Présence Compassion, along with another $8,000 to assist with needle cleanup. One of the outreach workers works year-round while the other is only employed for the summer, when traffic in the square is much greater. As for the notion of serving alcohol in a public park that has long been home to people with substance abuse issues, Pearce acknowledged that it may not seem like a great idea. “You know, my own take on that is that it won’t be pivotal because people who have substance abuse issues in Montreal, if they don’t go one place they can go to another,” he said. “The challenge is to increase the level of services for that population to help them better cope with dependencies.” Over in Cabot Square, the reopened space is expected to include a number of policing and cultural programming initiatives designed to better serve the homeless and those at risk. A café in the park’s gazebo will employ aboriginal people, and two outreach workers will be establishing a permanent office adjacent to the café. “I think we’re on track with everything,” said Rachel Deutsch, manager of the Cabot Square Project, an umbrella group helping to co-ordinate new programs and services in the park. “We’re looking at cohabitation and issues of safety for everyone. We’ve worked really closely with Ville-Marie borough and they have been very, very supportive.” While Cabot Square is closed (it is expected to reopen in July), the Old Brewery Mission has been shuttling people from that area to the mission’s facilities in the east end, and to other locations — all on the city’s dime. According to Pearce, “if the city wanted us to, we would do it for Viger Square and Émilie-Gamelin as well.” sent via Tapatalk

Publié le 14 janvier 2014 à 14h40 | Mis à jour à 15h12 La Maison Théâtre de Montréal Le gouvernement du Québec a annoncé un investissement de près de 10 millions pour la construction d'une nouvelle salle multifonctionnelle sur le campus du cégep du Vieux Montréal. L'accord de principe, signé hier avec le Cégep, spécifie qu'il partagera ce nouvel espace avec la Maison Théâtre. Rappelons que la Maison Théâtre propose environ 300 représentations par année destinées à un public âgé de 2 à 17 ans. Devant une classe de quatrième année du primaire, la première ministre Pauline Marois a insisté sur «l'importance de l'accès aux arts et à la culture pour les jeunes». L'inauguration est prévue pour 2017. http://www.lapresse.ca/arts/spectacles-et-theatre/theatre/201401/14/01-4728594-la-maison-theatre-de-montreal-sera-agrandie.php?utm_categorieinterne=trafficdrivers&utm_contenuinterne=cyberpresse_B9_arts_244_accueil_POS1

https://medium.com/@transitapp/the-mini-villages-of-montreal-s-metro-6900e158b2a The metro is the backbone of Montreal. Besides New York City and Mexico City, Montreal’s annual ridership is higher than every other subway system in North America. It’s a feel-good story if you’re from Montreal. But there are lots of big cities in North America. Why has the STM — Montreal’s transit authority — been so successful in getting us to ride the metro? One big reason: Montreal’s metro stations are incredibly well-integrated within the city’s densest neighbourhoods. Would you take the metro if it took you an hour to get there? Probably not. That’s why when urban planners design transit systems, they try to optimize transit station walksheds: the area around a transit station accessible by foot. Just because your grandpa walked seven miles to school (uphill both ways) doesn’t mean you should. Having a metro station within walking distance makes it more likely that you’ll actually use public transit, and not have to rely on a car. This visualization shows the population that lives within walking distance of each Montreal rail station: Montreal rail station walksheds’ population within 800m of stations. The sizes of the circles and the numbers inside them correspond to the population in 1,000 people (24 = 24,000). How does your station compare? In other words, if you were to shout really loudly outside most metro stations, there are lots of people who will hear you. There are thousands — and often tens of thousands — of people living within 800 metres of Montreal’s rail stations. And this is in a city with almost no skyscrapers! To create this graphic, we found the number of people in Montreal who live within 800 metres of the nearest rail station, which represents a 10 minute walk for a fully-grown human with average-sized legs. The Côte-Sainte-Catherine station has the most people living in its walkshed (about 28,000 people), followed by the Mont-Royal and Guy-Concordia stations (about 26,000 each). Mont Royal metro on the left (26,000 people), Montmorency on the right (6,000 people). Where would you rather live? Funnily enough, the metro station with the most foot traffic (Berri-UQAM) actually has less people living around it than the areas around the adjacent Beaudry, St. Laurent, and Sherbrooke stations. This is because many people going through Berri-UQAM don’t actually live there — they’re just stopping to transfer between the Orange, Green, and Yellow lines. Tweet at us!On the whole though, areas around metro stations are much more densethan the rest of Montreal: the population density within metro walksheds is more than 10,000 people/km², while population density outside of them is a mere 3,700 people/km². By giving Montrealers cheap, rapid, and reliable access to the rest of the city, metro stations encourage people to live nearby. But when people can’t live near stations (due to zoning or other reasons) you don’t see as much development, and neighbourhoods become much more car-reliant and “suburbified”. Consider Montreal’s AMT stations, which generally don’t have as many people living nearby as metro stations. AMT stations are often next to highways and surrounded by a sea of parking, while others are smack-dab in the middle of nowhere. The lack of dense housing nearby is one reason that the ridership numbers for the AMT (80,000 daily trips) pale in comparison to the mammoth numbers of the STM Metro (1,250,000 daily trips). When people live further away from stations, they have to rely on feeder buses or park-and-ride’s. To avoid that inconvenience, many people simply choose to use cars instead of taking public transit. Altogether, we’re proud that Montreal’s car cravings are comparatively light. When stacked up against similarly-sized North American cities, our public transit mode share is very high. Take a look: Originally posted by transit planner extraordinaire Jarret Walker on humantransit.orgLargely because of our city’s metro, over 20% of Montrealers take public transit to work, which is more than double the share in the metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Washington DC, and Seattle. Still, we can do better. In the STM’s Strategic Plan for 2020, one of the primary goals is to reduce the share of car trips from 48% of total trips down to 41%. To make up the difference, they hope to encourage more Montrealers to take public transit. There are many ways to acccomplish this goal: congestion pricing or better parking policies to discourage driving, increased service to boost transit’s convenience, and real-time customer information (iBUS anyone?). In particular, our walkshed graph shows that denser development should be an important part of the STM’s toolkit — notwithstanding the usual political hurdles. Our team at Transit App is also doing its part to make public transit more convenient in Montreal, and in many other cities around the world. From our Mile End office, our team is giving millions of people the flexibility and reliability of a car — without the burdens of actually owning one. Find out how we can help make your transit experience better: You can download Transit App for free on iPhoneand Android

Site internet: http://www.pps.org/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/projectforpublicspaces About Placemaking for Communities Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is a nonprofit planning, design and educational organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger communities. Our pioneering Placemaking approach helps citizens transform their public spaces into vital places that highlight local assets, spur rejuvenation and serve common needs. PPS was founded in 1975 to apply and expand on the work of William (Holly) Whyte, the author of The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Since then, we have completed projects in over 3000 communities in 43 countries and all 50 US states. Partnering with public and private organizations, federal, state and municipal agencies, business improvement districts, neighborhood associations and other civic groups, we improve communities by fostering successful public spaces. Having been brought into to apply Placemaking in a broad range of contexts around the world, an increasing focus of our work is in training and capacity building, often helping to build local Placemaking organizations. PPS trains more than 10,000 people every year and reaches countless more through our websites and publications. PPS is the internationally recognized center for resources, tools and inspiration about Placemaking. Through research, conferences, and strategic partnerships, PPS promotes Placemaking through a series of transformative agendas to address some of the most pressing issues of our time. Our Building Community Through Transportation agenda runs a biannual ProWalk/ProBike conference through our National Center for Bicycling & Walking (NCBW) which is a resident program of PPS. Our leadership on Public Markets has included a regular international conference series as well. Internationally, we are looking to influence the governance of developing cities and nations though our partnership with UN Habitat. We are doing this through trainings and projects and a joint conference series, called the Future of Places, that will culminate in a written document to encourage the adoption of Placemaking principles at the Habitat III UN global gathering in 2016. Through the development of a Placemaking Leadership Council (including over 500 members) PPS is working to support a broad network to drive the further evolution of Placemaking and build its potential impact as a movement. In its broadest application, Placemaking is a catalyst for building healthy, sustainable and economically viable cities of the future. Agendas PPS is structured around seven agendas that have the potential to transform cities by breaking down what Placemaking means and how it can happen. These agendas form a lens through which we can view the greater mission of PPS. Place Governance Place Capital Healthy Communities Building Community Through Transportation Architecture of Place Entrepreneurial Places: Markets, Main Streets, and Beyond Creating Multi-Use Public Destinations Team Jobs & Internships Press Room Contact Us Placemaking Leadership Council

Salut, j'ai découvert aujourd’hui, grâce a l’émission, C'est juste de la TV, un magazine sur les projets immobiliers a Montréal, au canal Savoir, c'a l'aire super interagissant et vous pouvez rattraper les épisodes sur le site de Canal Savoir Voici la description du poste sur l’émission et le lien pour les épisodes complet sur le web http://www.canalsavoir.tv/videos_sur_demande/archi_branches À travers l'odyssée du journaliste Marc-André B. Carignan, le magazine convie à l'exploration des projets immobiliers les plus novateurs. Chaque émission est ainsi consacrée à un architecte et à la visite exhaustive de sa dernière création. Une approche originale qui sonde ses inspirations, questionne son imaginaire et sa vision de la ville de demain. Une formidable opportunité pour le public de s'imprégner de leur ingéniosité, de leur avant-gardisme, mais aussi de mieux saisir les enjeux cruciaux en matière d'habitat et d'urbanisme. La série a bénéficié du soutien financier du Conseil des arts du Canada, du Bureau du design de la Ville de Montréal et de l'Ordre des architectes du Québec.

Pas de Camion à Déchets dans le QDS Source: Spacing Montreal There aren’t going to be any dump trucks blocking up the streets in Montreal’s new Quartier des Spectacles. Last Wednesday, the City approved a proposition to replace public trash cans with receptacles for garbage, recyclables and compostables, all hooked up to an vacuum-powered collection system. Waste placed in each receptacle would be sucked into a network of underground tubes and transported to a central processing location (possibly located in Place Desjardins). At first glance, this system may seem unduly costly and invasive, not to mention energy intensive. But since the streets in the QDS are already slotted to be ripped up in order to replace ageing sewers, aqueducts and power-lines, throwing in the waste-collection system will only cost an additional $8.2 million (according to a planner who worked on the proposal). Under the new system, garbage collection in the neighborhood would rely on electricity rather than fossil fuels, which may not be a bad idea given the cost and environmental impacts of burning fuel. Most importantly, the new garbage collection system would also apply to residents and businesses located in the Quartier des Spectacles. For instance, the restaurants in Place Desjardins would be able to be compost food scraps, saving several hundred tons of waste from landfills each year. Although Montreal is behind cities like Toronto who offer composting for household waste, this initiative would be the first in North America to offer composting on the public domain and for businesses. ENVAC, the European company that engineers these systems worldwide, built their first trash-vacuuming system in Stockholm in 1961 and it is still in operation (it has an expected lifespan of about 50 years, although that is probably standard for sewers and other infrastructure). Teaching the hoards of drunken festival-goers and clueless tourists to sort trash from recyclables and organic waste is a challenge for the future…

via the New Yorker : FEBRUARY 28, 2015 Leonard Cohen’s Montreal BY BERNARD AVISHAI PHOTOGRAPH BY ROB VERHORST/REDFERNS VIA GETTY Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”—a hymn to souls too carnal to grow old, too secular to give praise, and too baffled to mock faith—recently turned thirty. Cohen himself, now eighty, came of age in Jewish Montreal during the twenty years after the Second World War, and those of us who followed him, a half-generation later, can’t hear the song without also thinking about that time and place, which qualifies as an era. The devotional—and deftly sacrilegious—quality of “Hallelujah” and other songs and poems by Cohen reflects a city of clashing and bonding religious communities, especially first-generation Jews and French Catholics. Montreal’s politics in the early sixties were energized by what came to be called Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, which emancipated the city’s bicultural intelligentsia from Church and Anglostocracy. The pace of transformation could make the place half crazy; that’s why you wanted to be there. Religious thoughts seemed to be the gravest ones in Montreal then, insinuated, even inculcated, by its architecture, seasonal festivals, and colloquialisms. Cohen grew up in affluent Westmount, the best part of Mount Royal, about a mile from my family home in Snowdon—a neighborhood on a lower Western slope, where “the English” (as my mother called them) had no choice but to make room for Jewish factory owners, lawyers, and doctors. Towering over both our neighborhoods, impressing itself on our senses, was the dome of St. Joseph’s Oratory, Quebec’s great basilica, the dream palace of (the now canonized) Brother André Bessette, who healed the body and spirit of pilgrims—the place we simply called the Shrine. A. M. Klein, the first of the Montreal Jewish poets, wrote, “How rich, how plumped with blessing is that dome! / The gourd of Brother André! His sweet days / rounded! Fulfilled! Honeyed to honeycomb!” Its neon-illuminated cross was visible from my bedroom window, an imposing rival for the whispered Shma Yisroel of bedtime. The city’s ironwork staircases, its streets tangled around Mount Royal, carried the names of uncountable saints (St. Denis, St. Eustache, St. Laurent); the fall air was scented by rotting leaves and, on Rosh Hashana, polished synagogues. Fresh snow sharpened Christmas lights. Our curses, borrowed from Québécois proles, were affectionately sacrilegious mocks of the Mass: “calice,” “tabarnak,” “osti”—chalice, tabernacle, host. For Jews, a sense of rivalry was palpable, triangular, and almost Old Country in character. French public schools were run by the Catholic Church, English schools by the Protestant School Board, and some fifty per cent of Jewish students went to Anglo-Jewish day schools that embraced (and effaced) Old World movements: Orthodox, Zionist, folkish Yiddishist. Montreal’s Jews numbered well over a hundred and twenty thousand in those years. A great many men and women behind the counters of our bakeries, delis, and bookstores spoke (as did my father) the Yiddish-inflected English of immigrants who had come in the twenties. The Soviet revolution had changed the boundaries of Russia’s borderlands, closing Russian markets that had previously been open to Jewish merchants and textile manufacturers in Lithuania and White Russia (now Eastern Belarus), forcing them West—just when the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 closed America to more Jewish immigration. My father and his widowed mother and siblings were trying, in 1928, to get from Bialystok to Chicago, where an uncle lived. The port of Montreal was supposed to be their starting point, before heading down to the Great Lakes. It was where they stayed. (If the accents were heavier, you knew the new arrivals had come mainly from Romania or Hungary after the Nazi defeat, and had witnessed horrors that we did not speak about.) Jewish community life after the war was imbued with a sense of intensely felt tragedy, but so was traditional Judaism as a culture. The world of Yiddishkeit, three generations back for New York intellectuals, was just one generation back for us. Compared with “Dick and Jane” in our English readers, the characters of the Hebrew bible—their violence, jealousies, and treacheries—seemed like family. On a streetcar ride up Queen Mary Road, where the Shrine stood, a nun once told me that I had “the look of Abraham” on my face. Another, apparently reading my mind, asked me if I knew what it meant to have sinful thoughts. (She also kindly shared an amusing word game, so her Inquisition ended with grace.) The largest English talk-radio station had a call-in show on Sunday evenings on which the vexingly courteous Pentecostal Pastor Johnson explained why Jews, in rejecting Jesus, were sadly damned. Most of his callers were Jews who debated and denounced him. Unlike in the United States, Jews in Quebec did not have a neutral civil space to melt into. We had nothing as stipulated as the American Constitution; our liberties derived organically, within the tradition of British Common Law. Canada’s money had a Queen on it, not the founding fathers. The institutions of Jewish Montreal created places in which we fell back on ourselves. The heads of our welfare services and of the Y.M.H.A., the public library, the free-loan society, and political congresses were local celebrities. The family of the liquor baron Sam Bronfman, who supported these institutions, were our nobility. The progressives among us didn’t go to Reform synagogues; we just went to Orthodox and Conservative synagogues, and irregularly. If we got sick, we went to the Jewish General Hospital. My father, a Zionist leader who travelled to Israel in 1954 as if on the hajj, often admonished me with the famous aphorism of Moses Mendelssohn, the eighteenth-century liberal philosopher, that I should be a Jew at home and a human in the street. I understood Mendelssohn more readily than, say, Leonard Bernstein, who, teaching us sonata form on television, seemed human pretty much everywhere. Tolerance meant dialogue and reciprocal recognition, not assimilation. A few years ago, I walked through Bialystok with a historical map of the now destroyed Jewish city—before the First World War, Jews comprised about half the population—and found my father’s house. I was struck by how familiar Montreal’s large immigrant Jewish neighborhoods might have seemed, at least on the surface, to my father in 1928, when he arrived at the age of fourteen: the same hard winter and the same thick-walled constructions, the same forested hills, the same churches, the same easy insular Yiddish dominating commerce in textiles and clothing—the shmate (“rag”) business. The same farmers who had, a couple of generations back, been peasants, speaking a strange national language, working in our factories, speaking against us from hearths and pulpits yet greeting us warmly and with a practiced humility. The same sense that, by contrast, the propertied classes, our local nobility, would tolerate Jews so long as we helped them get richer but did not cross some invisible boundary—the presumably unavailable daughters. In his iconic Canadian novel, “Two Solitudes,” Hugh MacLennan describes Quebec as being defined by two competing cultures, nested in two little nations that were also classes, French and English. The gruff, brilliant, promiscuous Irving Layton—who had been an acolyte of Klein, and who became Cohen’s mentor and advocate—observed many years later that Montreal actually had three solitudes—a Jewish one, too, sitting somewhere between the others. Commercial life was English, so Jews as a community were drawn to the Anglophone world, narrow only in Quebec. Yet immigrant Jews engaged more poignantly, pushing and pulling, with French religious culture, which was locally engulfing. Catholic priests and nuns were ubiquitous public servants, tending to the French population, largely subsidized by provincial taxes and dominating Quebec’s French universities, hospitals, and social agencies, as well as the public schools. Cardinal Paul-Émile Léger, installed in 1953, was a kindly man, concerned for the poor, who ended his days as an African missionary (“a mensch,” my father called him), and the equal of any mayor; he kept anyone under sixteen from entering a movie theatre, except when Walt Disney films made the rounds. In the thirties and forties, the Church in Quebec had been ultramontane, and the not silent partner of the reactionary National Union Party of Premier Maurice Duplessis, who ruled, with a five year interruption, from 1936 until his death, in 1959. He had been xenophobic, populist, ambivalent about the war against Hitler, and classically (if discreetly) anti-Semitic. Behind the scenes, this political establishment instructed French voters, many of whom lived in far-flung farming villages where parish schooling was limited. They were barely literate and easily swayed. Duplessis presided over an apparently impregnable majority, rallied against sinful Montreal—Cardinal Léger sought to ban bingo—and used the provincial police thuggishly, turning it into a personal force. But the war and its aftermath gradually put the Catholic Church on the defensive. The exposure of Québécois soldiers to the triumph over Fascism, the penetration into the countryside of radio and television, the inescapable guilt that Catholic intellectuals felt about the death camps, the Second Vatican Council in 1962—all of these unleashed dissent. The Church’s chief critics were dazzling, cosmopolitan French Canadian intellectuals: Jean Marchand, the charismatic, leftist union leader; Gérard Pelletier and Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the editors of Cité Libre magazine (Trudeau would eventually lead the federal Liberals to victory in 1968); and René Lévesque, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s most famous French-language host. When, in the 1960* election, the Liberal Party came to power (Lévesque joined the Liberal’s cabinet as the resources minister), the priests and nuns began losing their grip on the city’s schools and social services, and Quebec entered the humanist insurgency of the Quiet Revolution. The arts began to flourish: the Comédie-Canadienne blossomed, and the filmmaker Denys Arcand joined the National Film Board, producing award-winning French-language documentaries. The University of Montreal and community colleges were infused with provincial funds, and their graduates took social-service jobs in a new, fiercely secular Quebec bureaucracy. Public schools, still divided by language, were taken over more firmly, and funded more lavishly, by the regional government (though the formally “confessional” nomenclature—Catholic and Protestant—was not finally abandoned until 1998). By the spring of 1963, the Quebec government had nationalized old English-owned power companies, disturbing the peace of the residual Anglostocracy. In this loosened political atmosphere, Jews—who voted “Liberal” as faithfully as we conducted Seders—emerged into the culture. We grew infatuated with Trudeau’s federalist idealism. He was elected from a largely Jewish Montreal constituency and remained there throughout his years as Prime Minister. The Quiet Revolution transformed Montreal, at least for a while, into a kind of Andalusia: contesting religious-linguistic cultures rubbing each other the right way. Jews shared professional and literary ties with les Anglais, but we shared an affinity with French Catholics, for religious traditions that were thickly esthetic and that we, each in our own way, both loved and loved to distance ourselves from. We also intuitively understood congregational routine, authoritative interpretation of sacred literature, the prestige of historical continuity—we understood that messiahs matter in this world, that the divine emerged within the precincts of a discipline, commandments, and the mass, all of which produced decorum before they produced grace. As Cohen writes in “Hallelujah,” you cannot feel so you learn to touch: works, not just faith alone. Our rivalry with Catholics at times seemed fuelled by an unacknowledged tenderness, theirs for our historical struggles, professional erudition, and exegetical trenchancy, ours for their majestic spaces, genuflecting hockey champions, and forgiving, suffering servant—a Jew, after all. “I love Jesus,” Cohen told his biographer, Sylvie Simmons. “Always did.” But, he said, “I didn’t stand up in shul and say, ‘I love Jesus.’ ” My mother—the amiably innocent scion of another Bialystoker family—took me, overdressed (oisgeputzt), to Eaton’s department store to see the Christmas pageantry; and then, more reverentially (and to my father’s dismay), she took me to the Shrine’s wax museum, to see depictions of the passions of the saints. When I first heard a recording of Judy Collins’s iconic rendition of Cohen’s “Suzanne,” at McGill in the fall of 1967, a year after my mother’s sudden death—heard about the lonely wooden tower and its occupant searching out the drowning—it occurred to me that I had never expected much empathy from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It also occurred to me that Cohen, whose father had died when he was nine, knew loss, and that the distance from mama’s boy to ladies’ man could be short. Which brings me, finally, to McGill. If our emancipation was not in civil society, it was on that campus. The university had been chartered in 1821 to provide English and Scottish Protestants a colonial piece of the Enlightenment, above the atavism of habitant manors and parishes; the student population at the Arts and Sciences Faculty, in the mid-sixties, was something like forty-per-cent Jewish. Cohen was a legend by the time I got there. He had graduated in 1955, and had published three books of poetry and two novels; the National Film Board had made a fawning documentary about him. It was at McGill that Cohen found Irving Layton (he said of Layton, “I taught him how to dress, he taught me how to live forever”). Klein, Layton’s teacher, had been there in the thirties, studied law, and went on to simultaneously write “The Rocking Chair,” a poetic tribute to French Canada, and edit The Canadian Jewish Chronicle. (Secretly, he also wrote speeches for Sam Bronfman). By the time Cohen got to McGill, Klein had fallen silent, spiralling into, among other sources of melancholy, a never-completed exegesis of Joyce’s “Ulysses.” For our part, we found at McGill a kind of finishing school to make ourselves more sovereign, like Cohen was. There was no need for young Jews to offer Quebec some new model of political insurrection—no American-style howl. The restrained, verbose liberalism of John Stuart Mill seemed insurgent enough, even for Trudeau and Levesque. So was the tolerance—the scientific doubt—of the Scottish enlightenment and the lyricism of English and Irish poets, from Wordsworth to Yeats. Hemmed in by Jewish and Catholic sexual norms—and also by Victorian prissiness—the first right that we thought to exercise was the right to Eros. Cohen told Sylvie Simmons that he was first inspired to write poetry when, in his teens, he read, in English translation, the work of the Spaniard Federico García Lorca. But, like many other Jewish youths at McGill, he shuttled between the debating union and the traditions of the English, immersing himself in the study of liberty and literature as in a yeshiva. This open-spirited time of cross-fertilization did not last. The Quiet Revolution, which prompted Trudeau’s federalism, in time gave rise to a more stridently nationalist idea, encouraged by Charles de Gaulle on his trip to the 1967 World’s Fair, and soon championed by Lévesque, too: that Quebec would be better off as an independent country, maîtres chez nous (masters of our own). Spooked by the vitality of English culture in Montreal, and by the fact that many more French were learning English than the other way around, separatists began agitating for an end to English-language education for new immigrants and English signs in the city. Socialists among the separatists, recalling Lévesque’s nationalization of the power companies, began calling for the nationalization of banks and large businesses. At the beginning of the sixties, radical separatists—impatient with the Liberals’ nonviolent democratic methods—had formed the Front de Libération du Québec, or F.L.Q., and gone underground. By the end of the sixties, they had placed bombs in the stock exchange and in mailboxes in English neighborhoods. In 1970, after a spate of F.L.Q. kidnappings (a Quebec minister, Pierre Laporte, was murdered), Trudeau imposed martial law. The city was roiled by arrests; a friend at McGill known for his New Left sympathies saw his flat raided; the police confiscated books, including, he laughed nervously, one entitled “Cubism”. Lévesque despised the violence of the underground, but was undeterred in his commitment to pursue national sovereignty democratically, ultimately through a referendum. In 1968, he had founded Le Parti Québécois. Jews, like most English-speaking residents of Quebec, were shocked when Lévesque was unexpectedly elected Premier in 1976. This proved the cue. Tens of thousands moved to Toronto. Some Jewish intellectuals, professionals, and artists stayed, but most left, and the amity of the sixties dimmed. Cohen kept a house in Montreal, but as his fame as a songwriter grew he spent little time there. Nevertheless, something of his native Montreal could not be shaken off—the short, sweet tradition of which Cohen was, in a sense, the end. In his 1978 poem “The Death of a Ladies’ Man,” Cohen writes of a lover’s “high religious mood” brought low by the dangers of desire: “She beckoned to the sentry / of his high religious mood. / She said, ‘I’ll make a space between my legs, / I’ll teach you solitude.’ ” You hear the resonances of Cohen’s own religious mood, and Montreal’s, in the lyrics of many songs—“Sisters of Mercy,” “Story of Isaac,” “Who by Fire,” “If It Be Your Will”—culminating, perhaps, with “Hallelujah.” The resonances and the losses are even clearer, I think, when you go to the start of the tradition—roughly, Klein to Layton to Cohen—rather than hear only its end. Klein’s 1947 poem “The Cripples,” about French Catholic worshippers at St. Joseph’s Oratory, which I quoted from earlier, reaches this climax: They know, they know, that suddenly their cares and orthopedics will fall from them, and they stand whole again. Roll empty away, wheelchairs, and crutches, without armpits, hop away! And I who in my own faith once had faith like this, but have not now, am crippled more than they. There you have it: a freethinking Montreal Jew, in whose bones the Torah was bred, inventing precise English lines to express envy for French Catholic piety. “Anything beautiful is not your own,” Cohen told a Jewish student newspaper in 1966. “When I write, I place myself in contact with something much more glorious than anything I can pull up from within myself.” Poetry was unlocked by reverence. But reverence might, ironically, embolden the poet to cross boundaries, to perhaps court one of those beautiful Westmount girls. And if you did, if you touched the dew on her hem, you could throw your crutches away. *Correction: A previous version of this post misidentified the election year that the Liberal Party came to power.

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François Hollande inaugure mercredi soir la Philharmonie de Paris, dont l’auditorium doit rivaliser avec les grandes salles de concert de Berlin, New York ou Tokyo, sans la présence de son architecte star Jean Nouvel, qui dénonce une ouverture «prématurée». L’architecte évoque le «mépris» dont il aurait été l’objet pendant la conduite du chantier et annonce, quelques heures avant le concert de gala, qu’il ne participera pas à l’inauguration. «Nous sommes à la hauteur de l’événement», a rétorqué le président de la Philharmonie, Laurent Bayle, tout en reconnaissant que le chantier devra se poursuivre quelques mois. Le toit, où le public pourra se promener à 37 mètres au-dessus du parc de la Villette ne sera ouvert qu’au printemps et le restaurant panoramique en mars. La Philharmonie a vu son coût exploser de 200 millions d’euros lors de son lancement en 2006 à 386 millions aujourd’hui. La façade recouverte de 340 000 oiseaux métalliques domine comme une colline escarpée le périphérique de Paris, Porte de Pantin, dans le nord-est de la capitale. La Philharmonie est la première salle de concert construite à Paris depuis la Salle Pleyel en 1927, si l’on excepte l’Opéra Bastille (1989), à l’acoustique réputée médiocre. «Paris n’était pas au niveau des autres capitales, de Londres à Berlin en passant par l’Europe du sud, Rome, Porto, les Etats-Unis et l’Asie et les pays du Golfe», note son président, Laurent Bayle. Elle a bénéficié des meilleurs acousticiens mondiaux, le Néo-Zélandais Harold Marshall et le Japonais Yasuhisa Toyota. AUDACE Son architecture audacieuse, avec des balcons suspendus évoquant des «nappes immatérielles de musique et de lumière» selon Jean Nouvel, met le spectateur le plus éloigné à 32 mètres du chef d’orchestre, contre 48 m pour Pleyel. Le violoniste Gilles Henry a été «ébloui» par la transparence du son. Sa consoeur flûtiste Florence Souchard-Delépine évoque «un son aérien, avec en même temps beaucoup de matière, on entend bien les graves, les aigus, les timbres : les définitions sont parfaites». L’Orchestre de Paris, qui donne le concert de gala, a littéralement «essuyé les plâtres» dans un bâtiment qui nécessitera encore plusieurs mois de finitions. Quelque 500 musiciens (deux orchestres résidents et trois formations associées) «habitent» cette nouvelle maison de la musique, qui comprend aussi six salles de répétition, 10 studios de travail, un café, un restaurant, des bars, des ateliers pédagogiques et un espace d’exposition. UNE «MAIN TENDUE AU GRAND PARIS» Les détracteurs de la Philharmonie lui reprochent son gigantisme et sa localisation excentrée dans un quartier populaire alors que le public de la musique classique avait ses habitudes Salle Pleyel, dans le 8e arrondissement huppé. «Excentrée pour qui ?» : Laurent Bayle défend son implantation au bord du périphérique comme une «main tendue au Grand Paris avec ses 13 millions d’habitants». La ministre de la Culture, Fleur Pellerin, s’est aussi réjouie mercredi que l’établissement se situe près de «quartiers en difficulté» de la banlieue. «Le programme de la Philharmonie prévoit beaucoup d’actions pédagogiques en direction des populations pas habituées à fréquenter des salles de musique symphonique», a-t-elle fait valoir. La Philharmonie compte sur le week-end pour séduire un nouveau public, avec à chaque fois «un espèce de minifestival, où vous pouvez écouter différents genres de musique, mais aussi voir une exposition comme en mars avec David Bowie, ou pratiquer de la musique dans des ateliers, acheter des disques, aller à la médiathèque», explique le directeur des programmes, Emmanuel Hondré. UN MILLION DE VISITEURS ATTENDUS Le premier week-end «portes ouvertes» propose des concerts gratuits, dont une performance de 101 pianistes dirigés par le Chinois Lang Lang, samedi à 16 heures Laurent Bayle devra jongler avec un budget plus contraint que prévu : 30 millions d’euros au lieu de 36 initialement prévus, la Ville de Paris ayant réduit de 3 millions sa contribution. Un million de visiteurs sont attendus «en vitesse de croisière», selon Laurent Bayle, dont la moitié pour les concerts et l’autre pour les ateliers, activités éducatives et expositions.

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/15-wishes-for-montreal-in-2015 15 wishes for Montreal in 2015<article itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/NewsArticle" id="post-430336" class="post-430336 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-local-news tag-education tag-homelessness tag-montreal tag-politics tag-social-issues l-article" style="margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1;"><header class="entry-header" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"> KATHERINE WILTON, MONTREAL GAZETTE More from Katherine Wilton, Montreal Gazette Published on: <time itemprop="datePublished" class="entry-date published pubdate" datetime="2015-01-03T16:23:47+00:00" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">January 3, 2015</time>Last Updated: <time itemprop="dateModified" class="updated" datetime="2015-01-03T16:23:49+00:00" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">January 3, 2015 4:23 PM EST</time> </header><figure class="align-none wp-caption post-img" id="post-439490media-439490" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="http://wpmedia.montrealgazette.com/2014/12/montreal-que-november-25-2014-the-skyline-in-montreal.jpg?w=1000" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none;"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" itemprop="description" style="margin: -1px 0px 0px; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> The skyline in Montreal at dusk Tuesday November 25, 2014. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette</figcaption></figure>SHAREADJUSTCOMMENTPRINT As Montrealers rang in the New Year this time last year, a gloomy cloud hung over our city. In the midst of an unforgiving winter, our social peace was being threatened by a divisive debate over the Parti Québécois’s proposed charter of secular values, which would have restricted public employees from wearing or displaying conspicuous religious symbols. With a spring election on the horizon, the fear of another referendum hung like a dead weight from many of our shoulders. Poor job prospects and political uncertainty persuaded some of our fellow citizens to leave for greener pastures in Ontario and Western Canada. No matter where we turned, it was hard to escape the bad news. The Charbonneau Commission continued to uncover tales of corruption, our road network remained in abysmal shape and commuters fretted about the safety of the Champlain Bridge. But one year later, the mood seems lighter. “Montreal is back,” insisted Denis Coderre, the city’s populist mayor who has been trying to set a new tone. Coderre is already at work planning the city’s 375th birthday celebrations in 2017. He says the festivities and related development projects will have lasting benefits for residents, such as a pedestrian link from the mountain to the river. But many wonder whether Coderre has a vision and long-term plan for a city that is still facing employment and demographic challenges. So what’s in store for Montreal in 2015? The city will get several new hospitals when the McGill University Health Centre opens this spring, and the city’s skyline is filled with cranes — but surely more needs to done to enhance our quality of life. We asked 15 Montrealers who are well-connected to their city for their suggestions on how to make the city a more enjoyable place to live in 2015. Here are their ideas, in their own words. Raphaël Fischler, director of McGill University’s School of Urban Planning <figure id="attachment_439425" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> Raphael Fischler is director of the School of Urban Planning at McGill University. Courtesy of McGill University. Picasa</figcaption></figure>The new year must see progress in ongoing efforts: reducing the high-school dropout rate, helping the homeless find permanent housing, repairing old infrastructure, greening the city. It must also see two goals reach the top of the political agenda: making public spaces, facilities and buildings universally accessible; and anticipating the transformation of older suburbs. Montreal is a difficult place for people with limited mobility, be they children in prams, adults in wheelchairs or elderly people using walkers. The winter is an ordeal for them, but even the summer is difficult because of inadequate infrastructure in streets and buildings and in the transit system. Universal accessibility must become a priority. As central neighbourhoods continue to gentrify, low-income households, including immigrants, are moving away from the centre, in particular to suburbs built in the 1950s to 1970s. The residents of such suburbs will need better access to public transit and services than is currently the case there. It is imperative that we start planning to meet the challenge of suburban poverty. Yves Laroche, owner Yves Laroche Galerie d’Art <figure id="attachment_439485" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> Yves Laroche in his art gallery on St. Laurent Blvd. in Montreal. Vincenzo D'Alto / Montreal Gazette</figcaption></figure>I wish that Montreal could get its good mood, its collective happiness, back. I hope the people who are negotiating the public-sector contracts for the city of Montreal and the unions all put a little water in their wine and come to some agreement. This city has been in such a grumpy frame of mind lately. You can see it in the faces of the policemen and the firemen and the city workers. Visitors to the city tell me that they feel it, too. It is weighing on all of us. But what I wish for most of all is for the young, emerging artists who make this city what it is be left alone to create their own personal imprints without being boxed in by teachers or dealers or art-buyers who tell them what will sell, what’s in vogue, what colours are best. I wish we would begin to see outsider art from the worlds of tattooing and graffiti and comics with fresh new eyes. Matthew Pearce, chief executive officer of the Old Brewery Mission <figure id="attachment_439429" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> Matthew Pearce, CEO of the Old Brewery Mission. Marie-France Coallier / Montreal Gazette</figcaption></figure>In 2015, I want Montrealers to join the Old Brewery Mission in imagining a city where every citizen has a place to call home and no large numbers of people are resorting to shelters and soup kitchens for their survival — month after month, year after year. Further, I want us all to resolve to own the social phenomenon of homelessness and each contribute in our own way to significantly reduce the amount of men and women who find themselves on the street. The city and the province have recently issued their respective action plans on homelessness and so, for 2015, I want to see … action. Specifically, solutions to homelessness exist when we act collectively to create diverse affordable housing options with the appropriate counselling supports, adapted health care services and preventive measures to ensure people remain housed. See the end of homelessness as we know it today. It will work. Coralie Deny is the director general of the Conseil régional de l’environnement de Montréal <figure id="attachment_439431" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> Coralie Deny, director general of the Conseil régional de l’environnement de Montréal, behind a staircase that was built from wood recovered from Georgian Bay in Lake Huron. Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette</figcaption></figure>In 2015, there will be a lot of talk about planning and development in the Montreal region. We hope that it will be done with sustainable development in mind and that the changes will improve the quality of life. Some of the important issues will be the adoption of Montreal Island land-use development plan, urban plans for each city on the island, a parking policy, an updated transportation plan and the plan for repaving Ste-Catherine St. W. These plans will provide us with guidelines on how Montreal will be shaped. The plans must be precise and visionary and take into account principles that will be followed in all parts of the island. There must be improvements in public transport service and more bike paths. We need to promote Montreal as a walkable city, develop our streams and improve access to the river. We should also establish a network of connected green spaces, revitalize neighbourhoods and spruce up their commercial streets. If we work together, 2015 can be a pivotal year for Montreal. Heather O’Neill, author <figure id="attachment_439439" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> Author Heather O’Neill lives in Montreal and writes about the city. She is photographed with her dog Muppet at home on April 25, 2014, at her desk where she spends most of her time writing. Marie-France Coallier / Montreal Gazette</figcaption></figure>There’s an unhealthy fixation on young people in our society now. We try to micromanage every minute of their day and spend absurd resources on them. And I think they should be just left in peace to lie around in the libraries and daydream and doodle strange sea creatures in the margins of their notebooks and to engage in philosophical discussions with their pet mice. On the other hand, I think that we as a city should take better care of our elderly citizens. Transportation is really difficult for many of them. There are so many elderly who are abandoned and alone and neglected, prisoners in their own homes. There is no place for them in society and they are treated as though they are burdens. I just think they need to be valued and respected more. We’ve become a little callous in our attitudes toward the elderly. Everyone needs to accept that this is a part of life and one of our basic obligations. Better aid needs to be given to home care for seniors and those family members, often only one person, who have to shoulder all the responsibility of taking care of them. Eric Dupuis, chef-owner Dominion Square Tavern and Balsam Inn <figure id="attachment_439441" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> Eric Dupuis, chef and co-owner of the Balsam Inn poses for a photograph at the newly opened restaurant in Montreal, Wednesday, December 17, 2014. Graham Hughes / Montreal Gazette</figcaption></figure>We should exploit our European side more, with its lifestyle and traditions. That way we would make our city more vivante and exciting for residents and tourists. Let’s create more vibrant neighbourhoods by letting them develop their own personalities instead of passing so many laws and rules meant to over-protect our society. And as individuals we should stop being insular and share more time with our neighbours. Montreal should have terraces everywhere, even in winter. We should have more small markets where producers come to sell their goods. These are both ways of encouraging outdoor living in winter. We should let parents bring their kids into bars (not night clubs) when they go out for a drink with their friends. We should have l’apéro every evening of the week, not just on Thursdays. Bring back that old European spirit we had back in the day! Kim Arrey, nutritionist <figure id="attachment_439442" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> Kim Arrey, a dietician/nutritionist prepares a yogurt and apple snack in her home in Montreal, Wednesday December 17, 2014. Vincenzo D'Alto / Montreal Gazette</figcaption></figure>This will be the year that we show the world that Montreal really is different from other cities in North America and that we take very seriously the challenge of providing nutritious, healthy, delicious food to all our citizens at an affordable price. We will start with our hospitals and long-term-care institutions, ensuring that the meals served to patients will play a key role in establishing better health. Budgets will be adjusted so that food is considered medicine, and an integral part of the care plan of each patient. Rooftop gardens at the superhospitals will provide the kitchens with fresh, nutritious, tasty produce. Grocery stores on site will help our patients purchase affordable, nutritious food, as prescribed by our dietitians and doctors. Insurance companies will reimburse clients for the visits that they make to the dietitian, and the government will give us a tax credit for purchasing health-promoting food. The goal would be not just to prevent nutrition deficiencies but to promote good health through good nutrition. Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, president and CEO of VIA Rail Canada <figure id="attachment_439453" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> President and CEO of Via Rail, Yves Desjardins-Siciliano in the Montreal offices, on Thursday, December 18, 2014. Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette</figcaption></figure>My wish for 2015 is to see more Montrealers travelling by train to Québec City, Ottawa or Toronto, and any points in between or beyond. Every time Montrealers choose the comfort and safety of the train, where they can put their time to good use — they are helping to reduce their environmental footprint, reinforce the importance of their national public transportation service and support the growth of Canada’s economy in the 21st century. Montrealers, like all Canadians whether they live in large metropolitan areas or in smaller communities in between, have in VIA Rail a reliable rail system that allows them to get wherever they need to be without the use of their cars. At VIA Rail, we believe that inter-modality is everyone’s business and, in cooperation with our public transportation partners, we offer an alternative that helps unclog our highways and makes getting in and out of our cities easier and more enjoyable. Robert Green, a history teacher at Westmount High School <figure id="attachment_439450" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> Westmount High School history teacher Robert Green. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette</figcaption></figure>In 2015, I would like to see an end to politicians attempting to accomplish their goals at the expense of vulnerable public-school students. Last year, it was teachers and students from various religious minorities being stigmatized by the Parti-Québécois government’s proposed charter of values; this year, it’s (Quebec Premier Philippe) Couillard attempting to balance the budget by asking vulnerable students to pay for all the tax cuts the previous Liberal government had doled out to the rich. Montreal’s public schools have a high numbers of students with special needs and students from low-income families. These are inevitably the students most affected when budgets for education and other social services are cut. When Mr. Couillard was running for election, he stated that he saw education as an investment in Quebec’s future. It would be nice if in 2015 he showed this was more than empty rhetoric by doing two things: 1) reversing the cuts to public education; 2) dealing fairly with the province’s teachers in upcoming contract negotiations. Craig Sauvé, Projet Montréal city councillor for Saint-Henri — Petite-Bourgogne — Pointe-Saint-Charles district <figure id="attachment_439457" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> Craig Sauvé, Projet Montreal city councillor, at city hall. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette</figcaption></figure>For 2015, I hope that improving the quality of life for citizens is truly a high priority for all levels of government. I hope that Quebec seriously re-thinks its transportation strategy: the government should reconsider its plans for the $600-million Highway 19 project and instead reinvest the money in important public transit projects such as the LRT (light-rail train) on the Champlain Bridge, a West Island mobility plan and the extension of the métro’s Blue Line. At the city level, I hope that Mayor (Denis) Coderre shows some leadership on transport. In 2014, the STM has had to cut bus departures because of budget cuts; they are now in catch-up mode. Our neighbourhoods need more bus and métro service, not less. We also need more investment in bike paths to promote healthy, active transport. Affordability and economic fairness are on the minds of all Montrealers, our governments need to implant measures that will make it easier for families to make ends meet: keep housing affordable, stop hiking STM fares and hydro rates, protect affordable, quality daycare and education. I also hope that all levels of government invest in greener neighbourhoods, green energy initiatives and protecting our valuable green spaces, such as Meadowbrook Park. I hope that 2015 is a year of peace, joy, understanding and working together. John Archer, wealth adviser for RBC Dominion Securities <figure id="attachment_439465" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> Financial adviser John Archer in Montreal. Allen McInnis / Montreal Gazette</figcaption></figure>From a financial adviser’s point of view, the state of an individual city does not really impact financial markets or investment portfolios (unless, of course, you own Montreal’s municipal bonds in your investment portfolio or within your mutual fund or pension plan). However, the city does affect the adviser’s quality of life and that of his or her family. From a quality of life point of view, I have three items on my Montreal wish list: Firstly, I would like to see a drastic improvement of our homelessness issue. Just once I would like to walk freely from Atwater Ave. to Peel St. without being accosted for money every block or so. Secondly, I would like to see an improvement in programs and employment opportunities to help our youth thrive economically in the city. If our children cannot see a future here, and they continue to abandon us, then that will be our greatest loss. Thirdly, I would like to see a coordination of road construction along with our traffic flow and control. There is nothing more frustrating than driving on one of our many streets under construction than waiting for an intolerably long light and seeing that there is absolutely no work nor reason for the closed lane to be blocked off with orange construction cones. Surely our traffic flow can be better managed under these situations. Maria Liliana Madriz, co-owner of Cachitos, a Venezuelan restaurant on Ste. Catherine St. <figure id="attachment_439471" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> María Liliana Madriz in Montreal on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2013. Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette</figcaption></figure>I wish for the sharks not to bite so much. When you start a small business with all your savings (and countless working hours), you expect a fair amount of permits, taxes, and expenses to bite at your hard-earned income. My wish concerns the hidden taxes that keep biting at you every day: like the 30 free parking spaces that were removed in my area, only to become viciously hounded metered spots, leading clients to pay $52 for the few extra minutes they take to say goodbye. Or the added 25 cents per litre we’re charged for gas in Quebec, affecting our shopping, commute and errands. Or the hikes in rent due to raised school and property taxes. Or the felony of having an English sign that, God forbid, is close in size to the French one, even though the most profitable season is summer, which brings English speaking tourists. To name a few. And then, at the end of the day, while drinking a scotch to forget all of the above, you realize that the scotch also cost you more than it ought to, and that there’s nothing you can do about it, except to drink it slowly and hope that the bites won’t bleed you out. Geoff Molson: Owner, president and CEO of the Club de hockey Canadien, Bell Centre and Evenko <figure id="attachment_439476" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> Montreal Canadiens owner Geoff Molson speaks at the funeral for former Montreal Canadiens captain Jean Beliveau at Mary Queen of the World Cathedral in Montreal, Wednesday, Dec.10, 2014. Paul Chiasson / THE CANADIAN PRESS</figcaption></figure>I think this city thrives when the Montreal Canadiens go a long way in the playoffs. I hope we can bring that to the city. And I hope that businesses start to thrive in Montreal and this becomes a destination for businesses to invest in. I can feel it coming. There’s a new wave of optimism in the city. It’s refreshing because it wasn’t always that way in the past decade or so. Just look around the city and see all the (construction) cranes. That’s one reason to be optimistic. But also look at the world economy. Compared to what’s happened in the rest of the world, Montreal and Canada survived quite well in difficult times since 2008. From where I sit, I need to equip Marc (Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin) with a winning organization for the fans to enjoy. From a business perspective, to do my part, I just need to keep investing in our city and bringing new festivals, a winning hockey team and more business, like the condominiums around our (Bell Centre) building. I hope others do that, as well. Debbie Friedman, trauma director for the Montreal Children’s Hospital <figure id="attachment_439478" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> Debbie Friedman is trauma director of the Montreal Children’s Hospital and assistant professor of pediatrics at the McGill school of medicine. </figcaption></figure>I consider it a true privilege to work in the field of health care. Collaborating with many committed individuals who have dedicated their lives to helping others is rewarding and meaningful. Diminished budgets, cuts in salaries, corruption scandals and new laws often detract from what health care should be about namely: the patients and their families. Working in the field of trauma you are reminded all too often about how precious life is and how essential it is to be able to offer timely, expert care. This year, a new chapter begins in the history of the Montreal Children’s Hospital, and the McGill University Health Centre at the Glen site. As trauma director, I am committed to seeing our Pediatric and Adolescent Trauma Centre flourish in its new home. I am confident that despite the challenges we face in health care today, the people I work alongside will be focused on what we do best: providing the highest level of specialized care to our patients and their families. As well as training a new generation of health care professionals, conducting research, and working closely with the public, the media and governing bodies to develop and implement effective injury prevention strategies. As for Montreal, I would hope that a city that has so much potential would get back to the business of thriving and embrace its unique heritage, thereby encouraging our youth to build their lives here in Montreal. Life is precious and those of us working in the area of trauma see the tragic reality of injuries all too often. Danny Maciocia, head coach of the Université de Montréal Carabins football team <figure id="attachment_439494" class="wp-caption post-img aligncenter" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="photo url" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text wp-caption" style="margin: -1px 0px 2em; padding: 10px; border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1; text-align: right; background: rgb(12, 12, 12);"> Universite de Montréal head football coach Danny Maciocia. Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette</figcaption></figure>People giving back … as far as professional athletes or even university football players (and others from) athletics. Just trying to give back to the community … getting involved, trying to make an impact, trying to make a difference, trying to influence people’s lives on a positive note. Because at the end of the day, I’m sure they look at several of these individuals as role models. So, just give back, make an impact and, like I said, try to make a difference and bring some core values in their message in 2015. </article>

https://www.facebook.com/archibranches About Animation : Marc-André B. Carignan Production : AGLA Médias www.aglamedias.com Description Grands artisans de l'effervescence de nos cités, les architectes modèlent notre cadre de vie et lèguent une identité, une singularité à nos paysages urbains. Archi-Branchés tient à rendre hommage à ces hommes et femmes visionnaires, trop ignorés du grand public. À travers l'odyssée du journaliste Marc-André B. Carignan, le magazine convie à l'exploration des grands projets immobiliers, les plus novateurs du Québec. Chaque émission est ainsi consacrée à un architecte et à la visite exhaustive de sa dernière création. Une approche originale qui sonde ses inspirations, questionne son imaginaire et sa vision de la ville de demain. Une formidable opportunité pour le public de s'imprégner de leur ingéniosité, de leur avant-gardisme, mais aussi de mieux saisir les enjeux cruciaux en matière d'habitat et d'urbanisme. Chaque épisode d'Archi-Branchés représente bien plus qu'une visite de bâtiment, il propose plutôt d'en dresser une véritable biographie. Quel est l'historique du site, du quartier ? Quel est le rayonnement culturel, social ou économique de l’œuvre sur son environnement ? Quelles sont les pistes de développement envisageables ? C'est toute la portée spatio-temporelle du monument qui est ainsi mise en scène. Le portrait du projet ne se limite pas au cadre de sa silhouette : il en trace les perspectives et raconte son histoire. Basic Info [TABLE=class: _5e7- profileInfoTable _3stn, width: 376] <tbody>[TR] [TH=class: label]Created[/TH] [TD=class: data]2013[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: spacer] [TD=colspan: 2] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH=class: label]Genre[/TH] [TD=class: data]Magazine[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: spacer] [TD=colspan: 2] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH=class: label]Network[/TH] [TD=class: data]Canal Savoir[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: spacer] [TD=colspan: 2] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH=class: label]Season[/TH] [TD=class: data]I[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: spacer] [TD=colspan: 2] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH=class: label]Starring[/TH] [TD=class: data]Marc-André B. Carignan[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: spacer] [TD=colspan: 2] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH=class: label]Directed By[/TH] [TD=class: data]Marie-Claude Gervais[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: spacer] [TD=colspan: 2] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TH=class: label]Written By[/TH] [TD=class: data]Lloyd Pasqualetti, d'après une idée originale de Lisa-Marie Lampron[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: spacer] [TD=colspan: 2] [/TD] [/TR] </tbody>[/TABLE] Contact Info [TABLE=class: _5e7- profileInfoTable _3stn, width: 376] <tbody>[TR] [TH=class: label]Website[/TH] [TD=class: data]http://www.aglamedias.com[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: spacer] [/TR] </tbody>[/TABLE]

http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/city-life/324311/montreal-je-tadore Montréal, je t'adore 10 years ago, I went to Montreal for the first time on a whim. I was 20 years old, living in Ottawa and working for the Canadian government when I had just found out that my mother had breast cancer. Right after I received this upsetting news, a French Canadian guy - who I’d only met a few weeks earlier - invited me to hang out with him in Montreal. I was in such an emotional state that I decided to risk it and go spend time with someone I barely knew and have him show me his city. From that day forward, I fell madly in love with Montreal (not the boy, though - we remained friends and thankfully my mom recovered from cancer shortly after). I have gone back every few years since then, including spending three weeks in a French immersion program, just a few years after my first visit. When I returned to the city last week with my husband and son, I was reminded why I love Montreal. Here are my ten favourite things - in no particular order - about North America’s coolest city. Bikes - Montreal was one of the first cities in North America to establish a public bike sharing system with its Bixi bikes. The system was launched on May 12, 2009, and currently has 450 stations around Montreal’s central core. The city has embraced bike lanes and bike infrastructure ever since. It’s King/de la Commune station, with 110 docking points, is the biggest bike sharing station in North America. You will find people of all ages and backgrounds on bikes…like this guy:image Street art - Montreal is home to many talented street artists - and it shows, especially around the Plateau/Mont Royal area, which is bursting with colourful, impressive street murals. The city supports these artists through the recently launched MURAL festival. It is a free art festival that aims to celebrate urban art and graffiti painting, sculpture and installations, dance, music, film, and performance. The second edition took place in June on the famous Boulevard Saint-Laurent. Each festival brings new street murals to the neighbourhood. I could write a whole post on Montreal street art (and I probably will).image Advanced walk signals - In some Montreal intersections, pedestrians actually get to proceed on a green light BEFORE cars! A brilliant show of respect for people and a great way to promote safe walkable cities. Babies - I noticed everyone loves babies in Montreal. In Vancouver, people without children tend to avoid eye contact with me/pretend I don’t exist. In Montreal, everyone smiles and wants to help you when you have a child- from grandmas to young male hipsters. In all of the restaurants we went to, people never seemed to mind if my son was fussy or needed tending to. One male server even offered to watch him while my husband and I shopped on St.Denis Street. I’m pretty sure he was joking, but he mentioned that he also has children (and he was under 30). Maybe it is because Quebec’s fertility rate is higher than the Canadian average, but there appeared to be a lot of young families there. Public spaces - Montreal has many fun, creative public spaces - parklets, green laneways, urban forests, public swings, and as I mentioned before, spectacular street art. Here is a shipping container converted into a pleasant seating area:image Festivals and Culture - I remember when I was staying in Montreal for a French immersion program, it was July and the streets were constantly being closed off for some big party, complete with concerts, fireworks, outdoor movies, fashion shows, drum circles and more - Tam Tam at Mont Royal, The Indy, The Festival du Mode et Design, The Comedy Festival, The Festival du Jazz. Of course at the time I found this amazing, because festivals of this scale were so rare in my hometown of Vancouver. We may finally be catching up, but nobody throws a party like Montreal. Whimsy - When I walk around Montreal, I don’t see a city of monotonous glass towers. There are little bits of whimsy all around, like purple accents on heritage buildings, a bold red staircase on a rowhome, street trees made of ribbon, amusing murals, and even garbage cans made to look like maple syrup containers. Montrealers definitely have a sense of fun.image Mid rise buildings/row homes - You can walk down some streets in Montreal and forget you are in a city. I loved getting off the main roads and finding myself on a quiet street surrounded by lush trees and row homes, very much like New York. The city also seems to prefer mid-rise buildings to high-rise towers. Bilingualism and Multiculturalism: Montreal is one of the rare cities where people speak two languages - French and English - and that is a beautiful thing. To be able to walk into a store or restaurant and have the option of being served in French, English, or a bit of both, is a treat for me as I continue to work on improving my French skills. The city is also home to many different ethnicities - from Portuguese to Chinese to Italian and Haitian. On my last visit, I loved spending time in Little Portugal on upper St Laurent St, where I bought a lucky Portuguese rooster and ate an enormous roast chicken sandwich and egg tart. Style: Many Canadian clothing brands got their start in Montreal, such as Jacob and Le Chateau, and the city is home to several clothing designers and manufacturers. Montrealers have a sense of style that is bold and eclectic. This makes for great shopping (especially around the Mont Royal area) and people watching. As one Montrealer states: In Montreal, dressing in what makes you feel awesome and sexy, no matter how outlandish, is just a normal part of life. Thinking of cutting off the arms of an old fur coat and wearing them as legwarmers? Great idea! Want to max out the use of your Dracula Halloween costume by rocking a floor-length cape year-round? By all means, please do! You can understand why Cirque du Soleil had to come from Quebec and nowhere else. Walkable. Bikeable. Hip. Fun. Stylish. Edgy. If I haven’t already convinced you of Montreal’s effortless cool and fun-loving ways, you should go and see for yourself why it’s one of the best cities in the world.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Obituary+David+Azrieli+touched+many+parts+society/10014707/story.html By Paul Delean, THE GAZETTE European-born David Azrieli, who fled the Nazis as a teenager, fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and then found fortune in Canada, died Wednesday at age 92. According to Forbes magazine, the Montreal-based real-estate developer and businessman was one of the richest Canadians with an estimated worth of $3.1 billion. He also was one of the most generous, contributing more than $100 million to philanthropic causes around the world, many of them in the fields of medical research, education and the arts. “It’s a great loss,” said Susan Laxer, president of local Jewish organization Federation CJA. “He literally changed the landscape in Israel with his office towers and architecture, and with his philanthropy, he touched many parts of our society and community. Through his legacy, he’ll continue to touch the lives of many people.” Norma Joseph, professor of religion and associate-director of the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies at Concordia University, described him as “a formidable person, very strong-minded. And he used his mind for a wonderful vision of community and building.” The institute got its start in 2011 with funding provided by the family foundation, “but he did more than give money. He also gave his personal time and effort,” Joseph said. Born into a Jewish family in Poland, Azrieli escaped ahead of the Nazi occupation and kept moving, winding up in British Mandate Palestine in 1942. He studied architecture at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and fought in Israel’s war of independence before settling in Canada in 1954. In a rare 1973 interview with the Montreal Star, he said he arrived here with no family connections and “literally, penniless.” “Nobody gave me anything,” he said. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Université de Montréal and working at a number of jobs, he had enough saved for his first solo project in 1957, construction of four duplexes on vacant lots he purchased in Ville D’Anjou. It was the start of a real-estate juggernaut that would eventually include thousands of apartment units, office buildings and shopping centres in Canada, the U.S. and Israel. Among his local holdings is the downtown Dominion Square Building housing The Gazette, acquired for $78.25 million in 2005, and the Sofitel Hotel. The Azrieli Group also held interests in companies active in the fields of energy, water and finance. He remained its chairman until last week when daughter Danna succeeded him, a move prompted by his medical condition. A sometimes controversial figure, Azrieli made headlines in the 1970s when he razed the former Van Horne Mansion on Sherbrooke St. and erected a 17-storey office tower on the site. In 1984, he sued The Gazette for libel over an editorial about a local development, but lost. “From the times of the pyramids to those of the skyscrapers, the works of architects and builders have been monuments to their glory or to their shame,” Superior Court Judge Paul Reeves said. “They build before the public eye and the public rightfully says whether it likes or dislikes what it sees.” In his later years, Azrieli split his residency between Israel and Westmount. “I have two homelands,” he once said, “two places that I love and where I have been blessed to do what I love best.” Active in and supportive of Jewish causes throughout his lifetime, he served as president of the Canadian Zionist Federation and in 2008 authored a book called Rekindling the Torch: The Story of Canadian Zionism, which told the story of the contribution of Canadian Jews and non-Jews to establishment of the state of Israel and their continuing support for the country. He also made Holocaust remembrance a personal crusade after it took from him two siblings and both parents. “This is my vision, to be able to use the tangible rewards of my career in building and construction to create a legacy for education and educational institutions in both of my homelands,” he said. A recipient of the Order of Canada, Azrieli also was a “chevalier” of the Ordre National du Québec. Married for 57 years to Stephanie Lefcort, he had four children: Rafael, Sharon, Naomi and Danna. He died surrounded by family at his country home in Ivry-sur-le-Lac, Que. pdelean@montrealgazette.com

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/montreal/201406/11/01-4774945-des-maquettes-3d-de-la-ville-disponibles-au-grand-public.php

Le Cirque Éloize a imaginé des projets d’animation du parc Jean-Drapeau en vue du 50e de l’Exposition universelle 25 février 2014 | Frédérique Doyon | Actualités culturelles Le Devoir La Biosphère pourrait faire l’objet d’une mise en lumière permanente à l’instar de la tour Eiffel. L’idée fait partie d’un bouquet de propositions pour animer le parc Jean-Drapeau, à l’occasion du 50e anniversaire de l’Exposition universelle en 2017, a appris Le Devoir. La Société du parc Jean- Drapeau (SPJD) a mandaté le Cirque Éloize pour mettre sur pied une table de concertation afin d’imaginer des programmations spécifiques pour le site des îles Notre-Dame et Sainte-Hélène, en vue du 50e de l’Expo, mais qui se déploieront dans le cadre du 375e anniversaire de Montréal. L’exercice s’articule autour de sept grandes orientations pour dynamiser le site à long terme. Chaque orientation a donné lieu à des idées bien concrètes, inspirées de ce qui se fait ailleurs dans le monde. L’illumination du fameux dôme géodésique de l’architecte Richard Buckminster Fuller, icône de l’Expo, est l’une des idées proposées pour remettre en valeurs les icônes architecturales de l’Expo, un des axes de développement abordés dans le rapport qui n’a pas encore été rendu public, mais dont Le Devoir a eu un aperçu. Une autre proposition consiste à doter le parc de bateaux-péniches de services (hôtellerie, restauration, etc.) sur les bords du fleuve. Un concept similaire, qui existe à Amsterdam et à Paris, est l’une des idées soumises au chapitre de la réappropriation du fleuve. Il faudra attendre avant de savoir quelles recommandations seront retenues. La direction de la SPJD doit d’abord déposer le rapport à son conseil d’administration, puis à la Ville et à la Société des célébrations du 375e anniversaire de Montréal. Car ces propositions se joindront à l’ensemble du programme du double anniversaire — voire triple, puisqu’il coïncide aussi avec le 150e de la Confédération canadienne. Et le budget de ce programme d’animation n’est pas encore attaché. Il s’articulera à l’ambitieux programme d’aménagement du parc déjà connu, qui vise à revitaliser quatre secteurs clés au coût de 55 millions de dollars : la Place des Nations, la construction d’une promenade riveraine panoramique de trois kilomètres le long du Saint-Laurent, la création d’un espace d’accueil autour du métro et l’aménagement du Parterre de l’île Sainte-Hélène — où se déroule le festival Osheaga — pour accueillir confortablement 45 000 personnes. Le parc Jean-Drapeau est le premier grand parc public montréalais (constitué en 1874, avant le mont Royal), et jouit depuis 2007 du statut de site patrimonial. Le projet de valorisation et de développement Horizon 2017 totalise 159,7 millions de dollars étalés depuis 2012, jusqu’en 2017.

MONTRÉAL, le 28 février 2011 - Au nom de la ministre de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine, Mme Christine St-Pierre, le député de Marquette, M. François Ouimet, la responsable de la culture, du patrimoine, du design et de la condition féminine au comité exécutif de la Ville de Montréal, Mme Helen Fotopulos, ainsi que le maire de l'arrondissement de Lachine, M. Claude Dauphin, annoncent l'investissement de 10, 9 M$ pour le réaménagement et l'agrandissement de la bibliothèque Saul-Bellow dans l'arrondissement de Lachine. Ce projet est financé dans le cadre de l'Entente sur le développement culturel de Montréal. Le coût global de ce projet, qui s'inscrit dans le programme de rénovation, d'agrandissement et de construction de bibliothèques (RAC), est de 10,9 M$. La Ville et le ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine (MCCCF) investiront chacun 4,3 M$, tandis que l'arrondissement injectera près de 2,3 M$. L'ouverture de la bibliothèque agrandie et rénovée est prévue pour le printemps 2013. Soulignons que durant les travaux, les services offerts aux citoyens seront maintenus, mais temporairement relocalisés au sein de l'arrondissement. « Je suis très fier d'être ici aujourd'hui pour annoncer ce beau projet pour les citoyens de Lachine, qui permettra à la bibliothèque Saul-Bellow d'être un pôle culturel plus attrayant et accessible. Cette réalisation, où battra le cœur de Lachine, a été rendue possible grâce à un engagement commun pris lors du Rendez-vous novembre 2007 - Montréal, métropole culturelle. Le concours d'architecture associé à ce projet offre une occasion privilégiée de se surpasser et de viser l'excellence. L'effervescence de notre communauté passe indéniablement par l'accès à un lieu de savoir et de culture vaste et diversifié », a souligné M. François Ouimet. « Les bibliothèques représentent en quelque sorte le cœur d'un quartier. Véritables lieux de rencontre, elles donnent accès à la culture et au savoir à ceux qui les fréquentent. Les citoyens de Lachine pourront profiter d'une bibliothèque agrandie, modernisée et axée sur les besoins des familles. Aujourd'hui, notre Administration démontre, encore une fois, qu'elle est résolue à consolider Montréal comme ville de savoir et comme métropole culturelle », a déclaré Mme Fotopulos. « Je suis heureux d'annoncer ce projet de réaménagement et d'agrandissement de la bibliothèque Saul-Bellow puisqu'il s'agit d'un investissement direct qui permettra d'offrir aux citoyens de Lachine une bibliothèque moderne, attrayante, fonctionnelle et ouverte à sa communauté. Ce projet vise à combler l'important déficit de l'arrondissement en matière d'offre de service, tant sur les plans qualitatifs que normatifs. Il permettra de plus, de consolider un pôle culturel et social au cœur de l'arrondissement de Lachine », a affirmé M. Claude Dauphin. Ce projet a été retenu par la Ville et le MCCCF sur la base de critères spécifiques, soit : l'écart par rapport aux normes qui avait été rendu public dans le Diagnostic des bibliothèques municipales de l'île de Montréal, la volonté de l'arrondissement de s'engager financièrement, ainsi que la faisabilité et la qualité du projet. Architecture, développement durable et art publicLa future bibliothèque Saul-Bellow intégrera le bâtiment existant (1427 m2) et un ajout d'environ 1194 m2. Une fois les travaux terminés, la superficie de la bibliothèque aura presque doublée. La conception de la bibliothèque fait l'objet d'un concours d'architecture qui contribuera à consolider le statut de Montréal Ville UNESCO de design. Ce nouvel équipement culturel vise une certification environnementale LEED OR. L'appel de candidatures pour le concours d'architecture, qui se déroulera en deux étapes, a été lancé le 16 février dernier. Un jury formé de sept membres recommandera à la Ville de Montréal et à l'arrondissement de Lachine sept finalistes parmi les architectes qui auront déposé leur dossier de candidature. Les sept finalistes retenus présenteront ensuite un concept sur la base duquel l'équipe lauréate sera choisie. Les membres du jury sont : monsieur Patrice Poulin, architecte, PA LEED et gestionnaire immobilier à la Direction des stratégies et des transactions immobilières de la Ville de Montréal; monsieur Alex Polevoy, directeur - Culture, sports, loisirs et développement social, au sein de l'arrondissement de Lachine; madame Julie-Anne Cardella, directrice de la bibliothèque de Westmount; monsieur Daniel Pearl, architecte et professeur à l'Université de Montréal; madame Louise Bédard, architecte; monsieur Maxime Frappier, architecte; madame Anne Carrier, architecte, et monsieur Charles Ferland, architecte et membre suppléant. Selon la Politique d'intégration des arts à l'architecture et à l'environnement des bâtiments et des sites gouvernementaux et publics du gouvernement du Québec, la Ville procèdera en 2012 à un concours d'art public sur invitation visant à doter la bibliothèque Saul-Bellow d'une œuvre. Rappelons que cette politique consiste à réserver un pourcentage de l'ordre de 1% du budget de construction à la réalisation d'une ou de plusieurs œuvres conçues spécifiquement pour ce lieu. La réalisation du projet d'oeuvre d'art sera gérée par la Division des équipements culturels, de l'art public et du patrimoine artistique par l'entremise de son Bureau d'art public. http://www.montreal2025.com/communique.php?id=1344&lang=fr

Rez-de-jardin fait plus beau que demi sous-sol Dans LaPresse : Publié le 16 janvier 2014 à 09h19 | Mis à jour à 09h19 Une espèce en voie d'extinction? Les cours Garneau, sur le Plateau Mont-Royal, proposent des unités sur deux niveaux incluant sous-sol et rez-de-chaussée. Les occupants ne vivent donc plus essentiellement sous le sol. PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE NATHAËLLE MORISSETTE La Presse Les futurs acheteurs à la recherche d'un rez-de-jardin neuf sur le Plateau Mont-Royal risquent d'être déçus: l'arrondissement a voté en juillet 2011 un règlement visant à interdire ou à tout le moins encadrer la construction de ces unités dans les nouveaux projets afin, dit-on, d'améliorer la qualité de vie des résidants. Résultat: plusieurs des nouveaux immeubles à condos qui voient le jour dans le Plateau offrent des unités au rez-de-chaussée sur deux étages. Seules les chambres se retrouvent au demi-sous-sol et l'espace de vie - comprenant les pièces communes - sont à l'étage supérieur. L'arrondissement a pris cette décision à la suite d'une analyse de 29 projets. Parmi eux, 19 projets proposés en 2010 présentaient les problèmes suivants: ils étaient situés dans des zones où il y a beaucoup d'achalandage, sans recul et trop près des nuisances de la rue, comptaient sur peu de luminosité naturelle et n'offraient que des vues sur l'extérieur sans intérêt, peut-on lire dans un extrait du sommaire décisionnel daté du 2 mai 2011. Si les demi-sous-sols ne sont pas complètement bannis du Plateau, les constructeurs sont contraints de respecter certaines conditions: les logements au sous-sol ne doivent être autorisés que dans des zones strictement résidentielles, il faut calculer une distance de 1,5 m entre le logement et le domaine public et ce recul doit comporter au moins une fenêtre. L'arrondissement exige aussi qu'au moins 60% de la superficie de l'espace comprise entre le domaine public et le mur extérieur du logement soient recouverts de végétaux. Le promoteur a l'obligation de fournir un dégagement de 2 m entre une ouverture et toute unité de stationnement située sur la même propriété. D'autres arrondissements, comme celui du Sud-Ouest, n'ont pas de règlement de zonage propre au demi-sous-sol, mais bon nombre de nouveaux projets se retrouvent sous la loupe des conseillers en planification et urbanisme. Il arrive donc que, dans certains cas, les autorités suggèrent de créer des unités sur deux étages plutôt que d'avoir des condos sous le sol.

Green Mobility: A Tale of Five Canadian Cities Un article très intéressant de SustainableCitiesCollective..... qui parle de Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa et Calgary. Il y a plein de tableau qui montre le taux d'usager du transport-en-commun dans les villes, de densité, l'usage de l'automobile, type de logement, etc... À voir! Montreal is the largest city of the province of Quebec and the second largest city of Canada. It is located on the island of Montreal and is well known as one of the most European-like cities in North America and as a cycling city. It is also famous for its underground city and its excellent shopping, gourmet food, active nightlife and film and music festivals. Montreal's public transit consists of a metro and bus network, paratransit service for people with functional limitations, and the public taxi, which is a form of transport provided in low-density areas where it is not possible to establish regular bus services, according to the Sociéte de Transport de Montréal. Five commuter rail lines connect downtown Montreal with 83 municipalities in the Montreal metropolitan region, according to L'Agence métropolitaine de transport de la région de Montréal; and the 747 bus line links several downtown metro stations with Pierre Trudeau International Airport. A bus shuttle service links the same airport with the VIA Rail train station in Dorval, a suburb of Montreal. Public transportation is considered as Montreal's preferred transportation mode for the future. And in order to encourage the use of transit, the City's Master Plan aims to intensify real-estate development near metro and commuter train stations, as well as certain public transportation corridors, according to City of Montreal Master Plan. The modal share of transport on the Island of Montreal is expected to change from 2008 to 2020 as follows: car only from 48% to 41%, public transit from 32% to 37%, active transportation (walking and biking) from 15% to 18%, and other motorized modes of transport from 5% to 4%, according to the STM's Strategic Plan 2020. Montreal has nearly 600 kilometres of dedicated bikeways, according to Tourisme-Montreal. And Quebec Cycling, a non-profit organization, runs two programs designed to promote the use of active transportation in the city. The first, "Operation Bike-to-Work" supports employees who want to cycle to work and employers who want to encourage their employees to cycle to work. The second, "On-foot, by bike, active city" promotes active and safe travel in municipalities —especially near schools— to improve health, the environment and the well-being of citizens, according to Vélo Québec http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/luis-rodriguez/200096/green-mobility-tale-five-canadian-cities

Excellent texte de François Cardinal (de La Presse) sur pourquoi Montréal devrait avoir un statut spécial : Manifesto for a city-state Montreal has paid the price for being treated like just another region. Quebec’s economic hub deserves better. François Cardinal Policy Options, November 2013 Far from being a land of forests, plains and prairies, Canada is an urban country. Nearly 70 percent of the population lives in urban centres and more than 90 percent of demographic growth is concentrated in those metropolitan areas. These proportions put Canada at the top of the world’s most urbanized nations. And yet all of Canada’s cities, from Montreal to Toronto, Calgary and even Ottawa, are neglected by federal and provincial political parties. They are short-changed by electoral maps. All are forced by the provinces to labour under a tax system that dates from the horse-and-buggy age. All are relegated to the status of lowly “creatures” subject to the whims and dictates of higher levels of government. It’s as if the country has not yet come to terms with the changes it has undergone since its founding. “Cities do not exist under the Constitution, since it was drawn up in 1867 when we were a rural, agricultural country,” Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi pointed out when I interviewed him at City Hall. “But today the country is highly urbanized, a fact that, unfortunately, is not reflected in the relations higher levels of government maintain with the cities.” The 2011 federal election offered a good example of this oversight. Every party targeted the “regions,” those wide-open spaces of rural and small-town Canada. The Conservatives’ slogan in French was “Notre région au pouvoir” [Our region in power]. The Liberals cited “rural Canada” as a priority but barely mentioned urban Canada. The Bloc used the slogan “Parlons régions” [Let’s talk about regions] but had no urban equivalent for the metropolis. More critically, the parties felt compelled to appeal to voters in the regions by positioning themselves in opposition to the cities. The most glaring instance came during the French leaders’ debate, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper castigated Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff over his promise to build a new Champlain Bridge. “I would not take Mr. Ignatieff’s approach and divert money from the regions to finance infrastructure for Montreal,” Harper said. The Liberals were not much better. They pledged to develop a plan for public transportation but never specified what it would look like. They promised support for social housing but said they would take the money out of funds for urban infrastructure. The reason for this is not rocket science. With the big-city vote so thoroughly predictable, the parties focus on rural areas or the suburbs where they believe their policies might swing votes. They rarely target the city centres. At the provincial level, the situation is pretty much the same. In fact, the Quebec government was able to relieve Montreal of its “metropolis” title and its dedicated ministry nearly 10 years ago without raising eyebrows. Thus Montreal became just one “region” among all the rest: Administrative Region 06. In the 2012 election in Quebec, Montreal did move up a notch. There was more discussion about the city. But since then, unfortunately, good intentions have been replaced by a charter of Quebec values, which has been broadly criticized in Montreal. Imposing it confirms the implicit trusteeship under which the government rules the metropolis. But even more than urban centres elsewhere in the country, Quebec’s parties have limited reason to take an interest in the city. Montreal is either politically safe (for the provincial Liberals) or a lost cause (for the Parti Québécois). In short, Quebec is no different from other Canadian provinces in treating its major city like a big village that must be attended to, certainly, but not more than any other municipality. The cost of showing the city favour is to risk losing precious votes in rural areas. But major cities are no longer the same municipalities they were in the past. Today, Montreal and Toronto are expected to compete with Paris and New York. They are expected to attract and hold onto businesses, court foreign creative talent, draw more private investment and deliver more and more services to residents, from social housing to public transportation. Providing support services for recent immigrants, developing the knowledge-based economy, building social housing, dealing with antigovernment demonstrations and adapting to climate change are all responsibilities that now fall to cities. They are nothing like the urban “creatures” of the 19th century. Lucien Bouchard could not have been more clear when he said in his 1996 inauguration speech after being elected premier: “There can be no economic recovery in Quebec without a recovery in Quebec’s metropolis.” For once, it appeared the government of Quebec was going to recognize Montreal’s special character and grant it preferential treatment. “The complexity of the city’s problems calls for special treatment and even, I would say, for the creation of a specific metropolitan authority,” Bouchard continued. It seemed as if he was about to usher in an exciting new era. There was now a minister responsible for “the metropolis.” A development commission was set up for the Montreal metropolitan area and it was to be invested with significant powers. A true decentralization of power was in the offing. An economic development agency, Montréal International, was created at this time, as was the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT). But just when it appeared Montreal was going to receive special attention and treatment, the government’s old habits returned with a vengeance. Like a parent who has given too much to one child, the Quebec government decided to restore the balance by giving to the regions with its left hand what it had given Montreal with its right. A local and regional development support policy was introduced in 1997. Then the Ministry of Regions was created and local development centres set up. A few months later, they added government measures for the province’s three metropolitan areas and then, finally, measures for all urban areas. “The reforms demonstrate, once again, the government’s efforts to address Montreal’s specificity without neglecting the needs of the rest of Quebec,” political scientist Mariona Tomàs explained in her fine book Penser métropolitain? But the result was a government policy similar to the previous ones, an across-the-board approach based on a view of Quebec as a collection of communities, rather than a province organized around its main economic hub. “The government’s desire to maintain a territorial balance can be seen in the powers of metropolitan structures,” Tomàs observed. “The law provided the same types of powers for all the urban communities created in 1969, and then for all the metropolitan communities in 2000.” Giving the rural Outaouais region the same powers as Greater Montreal reduces the latter to just one region among many. To this way of political thinking, the metropolis must not be allowed to overshadow any other town, must not be given too much. It cannot receive more attention than others, and cannot be elevated above any other. Canada’s “hub cities,” those few major urban centres like Montreal, are the drivers of economic activity in the country. That was the conclusion of a recent Conference Board study, which pointed to the collateral benefits of a thriving metropolis. It found that strong growth in metropolitan areas spurs growth in neighbouring communities and then in the whole province. But how can Montreal play its role as an economic driver if it is not treated as such? We need only look outside the country to be convinced that we need to roll out the red carpet for the metropolis: to the United States, where big cities have the attention of the country’s leaders; to Asia, where the treatment of major centres sometimes borders on obsessiveness; or even to France, a country that, like Quebec, is marked by a deep divide between “the metropolis” and “the provinces.” France provided a telling illustration of this awareness in early 2013, a few months after François Hollande’s Socialist government took office. Although France was in dire straits, burdened by crushing public debt and being forced to reconsider the fate of its precious social programs, Hollande did not think twice about launching a project of heroic proportions to relieve congestion in Paris. The price tag: the equivalent of $35 billion for a brand new “super metro,” plus $10 billion to extend and upgrade the existing system. Was this completely crazy? On the contrary. Hollande was being logical and visionary. France understands the importance of investing in its metropolis. This is a country that is ready to look after its towns and villages, while not being afraid to give Paris preferential treatment. “A strong Paris is in the interest of the provinces,” commented L’Express magazine in March 2013. Quite so. The article notes, for example, that much of the income generated in Paris is actually spent in the rest of the country. All financial roads — tourism, commuting for work, national redistribution, whatever — all lead to Paris, with benefits to the provinces. L’Express cites the case of Eurodisney to illustrate. Disney had hesitated before settling on building its amusement park in Paris — not between contending French cities, but between Paris and Barcelona. Herein lie the value and importance for the entire country of having a strong metropolis. “Weakening Paris would slow France’s locomotive,” argued L’Express. “And in a train, the cars seldom move faster than the locomotive.” Clearly, what Montreal needs is special treatment, more autonomy and more diverse sources of revenue. In short, it needs a premier who will stand on the balcony of City Hall and proclaim: “Vive Montréal! Vive Montréal libre!” Worryingly, the current state of affairs in Montreal — the revelations and insinuations of political corruption and collusion — is prompting many observers to call for the Quebec government to take the opposite tack and tighten the city’s reins. According to this view, more provincial government involvement is needed to check the city’s propensity for vice. But in fact the only way to make the city more responsible and more accountable is to give it greater power, wider latitude and more money. Montreal’s problem is that it has all the attributes of a metropolis but is treated as an ordinary municipality, subservient to the big boss, the provincial government. Its masters are the minister of municipal affairs, the minister’s colleagues at other departments involved in the city’s affairs and, of course, the premier. Montreal is under implicit trusteeship. This encourages, even promotes a lack of accountability on the part of the municipal administration, which is only half in charge. “It’s not complicated: Montreal is currently a no man’s land of accountability,” says Denis Saint-Martin, political science professor at the Université de Montréal. “There is a political and organizational immaturity problem, which explains the political irresponsibility we have seen in recent years. Montreal needs more power, not less. Montreal needs to be more accountable, more answerable.” Essentially, the metropolis needs to be treated like one, with the powers and revenues that go along with city status. Montreal is a beggar riding in a limousine. Invariably, after a municipal election, the incoming mayor announces a wish list and then gets the chauffeur to drive him up provincial Highway 20 to Quebec City to knock on the provincial government’s door with outstretched hands, hoping for a little largesse. Montreal’s mayor has to beg because the past offloading of responsibilities for delivering services to citizens onto the municipality has not been accompanied by new money. “In Quebec, the province is responsible for much of the regulatory apparatus under which cities operate, which the cities feel restricts their autonomy,” said political scientist Laurence Bherer in 2004, speaking at the 50th anniversary of the Université Laval political science department. “And far from decreasing in recent years, provincial intervention has spread to a variety of areas such as the environment and public security, further relegating the cities to the role of operative rather than architect.” It is unacceptable for the provincial government to be the “operator” of a metropolis. That is why municipalities are rightfully seeking greater autonomy and greater freedom of action from their provincial masters. This is what is starting to happen in other provinces: in Alberta, with its Municipal Government Act, with British Columbia’s Community Charter and especially in Ontario, with the City of Toronto Act, which reads in part: “The [Ontario Legislative] Assembly recognizes that the City of Toronto, as Ontario’s capital city, is an economic engine of Ontario and of Canada.” The Ontario government appears to understand the special role Toronto plays in the wider economy. The City of Toronto Act goes on to say, “The Assembly recognizes that the City plays an important role in creating and supporting economic prosperity and a high quality of life for the people of Ontario [and] that the City is a government that is capable of exercising its powers in a responsible and accountable fashion.” Quebec’s largest city deserves similar treatment: strict accountability in exchange for recognition of its status as an autonomous government and the ability to tap more diverse sources of revenue. Indeed the main reason Montreal is regularly forced to pass the hat in Quebec City is its heavy dependence on property taxes for its income. As a creature of the province, it still operates under the good-old British tax model that sees it derive the bulk of its revenues — 67 percent — from property taxes. This was not a problem a hundred years ago, when Montreal provided only property services to its residents. But its responsibilities have expanded. The standards imposed by Quebec City have proliferated, and the portion of the budget allocated for services to individuals has grown considerably. Yet its tax base remains just as dependent on a single sector: real estate. This situation has a huge drawback. The City does not share the economic benefits that it generates. It might well pour money into the Formula One Grand Prix and summer festivals, invest in attracting conventions and tourists, renovate public spaces to make the urban environment more attractive and friendly. But it will get not a penny back. On the contrary: these investments only increase the city’s expenses in maintenance, security and infrastructure, while the federal and provincial governments reap the sales taxes. Take the city’s jazz festival. Montreal has to pay for security, site maintenance, public transportation to bring visitors to the site, and must deal with the event’s impact on traffic. In return, it gets happy festival-goers and tourists who spend money, stay at hotels, eat at restaurants — and fill provincial and federal coffers with sales tax revenues. They enrich the governments in Quebec City and in Ottawa, but not Montreal, which picks up the tab for the costs. The result is that the hole into which large cities are quietly sinking gets deeper. Big-city economies are dematerializing. The knowledge-based economy, in which Montreal shines, is based on innovation, research and brains, not factories. But for now, grey matter is not subject to property tax. Add to the mix an aging population with more modest housing needs, the increase in teleworking, self-employment and e-commerce, and you have a Montreal that is not only under implicit administrative trusteeship but also in an increasingly precarious financial position. And then people wonder why our metropolis is not playing the role it should be playing. another region. Quebec’s economic hub deserves better.

The jury members are: - Melvin Charney, architect; - Odile Decq, architect and Director of the École Spéciale d'Architecture, Paris; - Jacques Des Rochers, Curator of Canadian Art, Montréal Museum of Fine Arts; - Michel Dionne, architect, Cooper, Robertson & Partners, New York; - Raphaël Fischler, urban planner and professor at the School of Urban Planning, McGill University; - Mario Masson, landscape architect and Division Manager, Service du développement culturel, de la qualité du milieu de vie et de la diversité ethnoculturelle, Ville de Montréal; - Alessandra Ponte, associate professor, School of Architecture, Université de Montréal; - Philippe Poullaouec-Gonidec, landscape architect and holder of the UNESCO Chair in Landscape and Environmental Design at Université de Montréal. Instructions for prospective entrants (Courtesy of CNW Telbec)