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Une imitation de Times Square au centre-ville ? Kathleen Lévesque Édition du mardi 26 juin 2007 Mots clés : Times Square, écran géant, Busac, Construction, Montréal L'installation d'un écran électronique géant pourrait bientôt être autorisée Photo: Pedro Ruiz Le centre-ville de Montréal pourrait bientôt prendre une allure clinquante à la façon de Times Square, à New York. L'arrondissement Ville-Marie s'apprête à autoriser l'installation d'un écran électronique géant avec publicités, vidéos et messages qui défilent, a appris Le Devoir. L'immense écran électronique trônerait sur l'immeuble situé au 1200, McGill College, une avenue de prestige bordée au sud par la Place Ville-Marie et tournée au nord vers le mont Royal. showBigBox(); C'est le promoteur immobilier Busac, celui-là même qui a mené le projet de l'îlot Voyageur constituant un dérapage financier pour l'UQAM, qui talonne depuis plusieurs mois l'arrondissement Ville-Marie afin de changer les règles d'affichage publicitaire. L'insistance de Busac semble donner des résultats. Selon le scénario privilégié par l'arrondissement, le conseil de Ville-Marie pourrait donner son aval à un changement réglementaire en août. L'équipe du maire de l'arrondissement, Benoit Labonté, a jusqu'au premier juillet pour inscrire le projet à l'ordre du jour de l'assemblée. Il s'agirait de permettre un projet-pilote d'une année. «Les élus doivent prendre une décision rapidement. Si cela se fait, il y aura des revenus pour l'arrondissement. Et le type d'affichage devra être soumis à des règles», a expliqué au Devoir le directeur des affaires publiques de l'arrondissement, Jean-Yves Duthel. Ce dernier estime qu'il s'agirait d'un nouveau champ de revenus fort intéressant pour Montréal. Selon le pourcentage négocié avec Busac, Ville-Marie pourrait empocher quelque 200 000 $ par année, par écran géant. Cela semble s'inscrire dans un contexte où Montréal est aux prises avec des difficultés financières et souhaite diversifier ses sources de revenus. Le gouvernement du Québec a d'ailleurs déposé jeudi dernier un projet de loi donnant entre autres choses de nouveaux pouvoirs de taxation (divertissement et stationnements commerciaux) à la Ville de Montréal. Outre les règles d'urbanisme qui interdisent les écrans électroniques géants, un autre obstacle se pose. La Charte de la Ville de Montréal ne permet pas que la municipalité puisse bénéficier de redevances sur le domaine privé. Ainsi, le projet de Busac devra être soumis à l'approbation du conseil municipal qui pourrait ainsi demander une modification à sa loi constituante. Le changement législatif qui en découlerait pourrait être adopté en décembre par l'Assemblée nationale et entrer en vigueur dès 2008, selon ce que prévoit Ville-Marie. Au-delà des revenus anticipés, l'arrondissement Ville-Marie aimerait profiter de cet écran géant pour diffuser de l'information destinée aux citoyens, comme la tenue de certains événements. Or l'arrondissement Ville-Marie planifie déjà depuis plus d'un an la construction d'un édifice (vitrine culturelle) dans le contexte plus large du développement du Quartier des spectacles. L'immeuble s'élèverait au coin des rues Sainte-Catherine et Saint-Laurent avec en façade, un écran surdimensionné destiné uniquement aux événements culturels. Le projet de Busac est d'une autre nature. Pour André Poulin, directeur général de Destination centre-ville, une société de développement commercial représentant 8000 commerces, l'écran sur McGill College serait «un irritant inquiétant». «Si on veut une qualité de vie, il ne faut pas imiter ce que les grandes villes font. Venir au centre-ville de Montréal, ce n'est pas pour être assailli par de la pollution visuelle. Il faut protéger les gens contre l'envahissement commercial», croit M. Poulin. Ce dernier se questionne également sur le problème de sécurité que pourrait engendrer la présence d'un écran électronique. Il croit que les automobilistes pourraient être distraits par la diffusion des publicités et des messages à lire. Les affiches lumineuses, les écrans électroniques géants et les néons publicitaires sont chose courante dans plusieurs grandes villes du monde, notamment sur le continent asiatique. Times Square, à New York, demeure toutefois le quartier le plus célèbre pour son animation et sa démesure. En 2000, un nouvel écran, haut de plus de 36 mètres, a été construit au coût de 37 millions de dollars. NASDAQ loue l'emplacement pour plus de 2 millions par année. À Montréal, le projet de Busac pourrait ouvrir la porte à une avalanche de demandes similaires. Busac, qui est une filiale d'une entreprise new-yorkaise installée ici depuis 1998, a de l'ambition. En moins de dix ans, Busac s'est hissée parmi les douze plus grands propriétaires immobiliers au Québec. Elle a acquis des immeubles comme le 1200, MGill College, la Place Dupuis et l'immeuble voisin (888, de Maisonneuve Est) où loge le maire Benoit Labonté et la fonction publique de l'arrondissement Ville-Marie. Busac n'a pas rappelé Le Devoir hier

Highway/Freeway - 6-8 lanes (both ways) Roads/Blvd/Ave - 4 lanes (both ways) Would probably takes 25-50 years to fix everything on the island of Montreal. Also overhaul the metro system, like one person invisioned for 2100. If not that atleast a monorail system between the airport and the financial district. Thats all I can think of for the transportation bit It's true we need to expand our highways wider because even back in 50's/60's we had problems with congestion. Hopefully with doubling the lanes we might be able to cut down on congestion. Also have the city of Montreal, Quebec and Canadian government help pay for doubling the bus and metro cars to run 24/7 and split waiting times in 1/2.

Montreal | Cold? Mais oui, but the winter welcome is warm By Kristin Jackson Seattle Times travel staff PREV 1 of 3 NEXT STEPHAN POULIN / TOURISM MONTREAL Sled-dog races are just one attraction of Montréal's Fête des Neiges, the winter festival. KRISTIN JACKSON / THE SEATTLE TIMES Saint Joseph's Oratory, seen from a tour bus, is one of Montreal's grandest churches. Related Archive | Europe without the euro awaits visitors in historic Montreal MONTREAL, Quebec — Taxi drivers kept stopping to offer us rides, beckoning to the steamy warmth of their cabs. No wonder; it was 10 degrees below zero on a February night, and we were the only people on the city sidewalk. "Non, merci," I'd wave off the taxis, determined to get some fresh air after spending the day on stuffy planes en route to this French-speaking Canadian city. The air certainly was fresh — sparkling clear and frigid as my daughter and I trudged along, swaddled in all the clothes we'd packed. I looked like a walking sleeping bag in my old, very puffy down coat. On the narrow street, wrought-iron banisters and balconies of Victorian buildings were glazed in ice. Snow sparkled in pools of light cast from living rooms and old-fashioned street lamps. Another taxi stopped: "Vous êtes fous" — you're crazy — said the driver, as we smiled and walked on. Maybe it was nuts, but the intense cold of the starry night was exhilarating. And thankfully, it warmed up in the next few days to a relatively balmy 15 degrees. Ask Travel Seattle Times travel writer and editor Kristin Jackson answers your questions about Montreal and other Canadian destinations in a live Q&A at noon Tuesday on seattletimes.com. Off-season pleasures Winter visitors to Montreal, a city of 3.6 million that's the largest French-speaking city in the western world after Paris, do miss out on the bustling summer life of sidewalk cafes, music and heritage festivals, and the city's world-class film festival. Yet there are advantages to the off-season. It's much more peaceful, with none of the summertime hordes of tourists who cram the narrow, cobblestone streets of Vieux Montreal, the historic heart of the old city that was founded in 1642 by French settlers. Flights and hotels are much cheaper. I paid less than $100 a night for a somewhat ramshackle, but cozy, suite with a kitchenette at the small University Bed & Breakfast. Its location was unbeatable — a short walk to the heart of downtown or to the restaurants of the trendy Boulevard Saint-Laurent. And winter brings its own pleasures, including outdoor skating rinks in the heart of the city; sleigh rides and cross-country skiing in city parks; and an annual winter festival (La Fête des Neiges) with concerts and other cultural events plus snowy fun, including outdoor games of volleyball and soccer and dog-sled races. And there's indoor fun, from shopping and museums to music clubs and restaurants of every ethnicity. To warm up, we headed indoors to some of Montreal's excellent museums. The premier art museum, the Musée de Beaux-Arts (Museum of Fine Arts), was a stylish place to wander among paintings and sculpture, from European old masters, including Rembrandt, to Islamic art to moody 19th-century Canadian landscape painting. Day by day, Montrealers beat the cold in "Underground City" (called RÉSO in French), a 20-mile pedestrian network beneath the city center where it's always balmy. The brightly lit underground concourses are lined with hundreds of stores and eateries, and link the city's major sights, hotels, Metro and train stations. It felt like an endless shopping mall to me, and I soon coaxed my teen daughter away from the trendy shops to the streets above. When we got too chilled, we'd warm up at one of the many European-style bakeries, indulging in fruit tarts or handmade chocolates. I'd order in French; hearing my mangled grammar, the shopkeepers would immediately switch to English. While only about 18 percent of the city's residents are native English speakers, many Montrealers are bilingual. On the bus To see more of the city and stay warm, we hopped on a Gray Line sightseeing bus for a three-hour city tour, from the pastoral heights of Mont-Royal, a 343-hilly park that rises steeply above downtown, to the stately stone buildings of Vieux Montreal and the stadium of Olympic Park, where Montreal hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics. The bus driver cranked up the heat and his patter: "It's a nice shack, eh," he cackled as we passed the sprawling 19th-century mansions of Westmount, the traditional bastion of rich, native-English-speakers. Later, the bus lumbered past the modest row-houses of East Montreal, where exterior iron staircases, built outside to save space, spiral to the upper floors. The bus became so drowsily hot, it was a relief to get out at viewpoints and at some of Montreal's grand churches, evidence of the once-firm grip of the Catholic church on Montrealers and all of Quebec province. That changed with the "Quiet Revolution" of the 1960s as Quebec turned more affluent, secular and multicultural. The faithful (and tourists) still flock, however, to St. Joseph's Oratory, a massive hilltop church by Mont-Royal park. Started as a tiny shrine in 1904 by a devout monk, Brother Andre, it expanded through his relentless efforts into an imposing, ornate church with an almost 200-foot-tall dome. Outdoor stairways climb steeply to the church; pilgrims still struggle up them on their knees, imploring for the healing miracles for which Brother Andre was renowned. Always a fan of visiting churches, I led my daughter into Notre Dame basilica in Vieux Montreal, the historic heart of the city tucked between the broad (and icy) St. Lawrence River and the downtown highrises. We whispered as we entered the ornate Catholic church, with its soaring Gothic-style nave, stained-glass windows and a vaulted blue ceiling that shimmers with 24-karat gold stars. There was only a handful of tourists, dwarfed by the vastness of the church, which, while it looks almost medieval, was built in the 1820s. It was a place to sit quietly, to think of the religion and cultures intertwined with Montreal, where the Iroquoian natives roamed for thousands of years, where French explorers landed in the 1500s, followed by fur traders, settlers and eventually the British and now waves of immigrants from all over the world. Montreal Where to stay • Stay at a downtown hotel, where you can easily walk to major sites (even in winter, thanks to the "Underground City." Some top hotels and boutiques are on Rue Sherbrooke Ouest, including the landmark Ritz-Carlton Montreal. Other upscale lodgings include the Hotel Sofitel and InterContinental Hotel. • I stayed at the moderately priced University Bed & Breakfast (adjacent to the downtown McGill University, Montreal's premier English-language university). It won't suit everyone — furnishings are eclectic and services minimal — but for about $100 a night, I got a cozy suite in an old-fashioned, townhouse-style building, with a living room, bedroom and kitchenette (www.universitybedandbreakfast.ca or 514-842-6396). • Get hotel information and make reservations through the city's tourism office, www.tourisme-montreal.org/ or phone the Quebec Department of Tourism at 877-266-5687. Getting around You don't need a car in the city; its center is compact, and the downtown and adjacent Vieux Montreal are ideal to explore on foot. For outlying areas, the city has a good Metro system. Guided bus tours are offered through Gray Line Montreal (www.coachcanada.com/montrealsightseeing/), or take a ride in parks or Vieux Montreal on a "caleche," a horse drawn-carriage (or sometimes sleigh). Traveler's tip • You don't need to speak French to get by in Montreal; English is widely spoken (However, it's generally appreciated if visitors try to speak a bit of French.) • While winter can be the most economical and least crowded time in Montreal, late September/early October and May also can be good times to visit, with lower hotel rates and more moderate weather. More information • Montreal Tourism: www.tourisme-montreal.org/ or 877-266-5687. • La F&ering;te des Neiges (winter festival): www.fetedesneiges.com/en/ In a Notre Dame side chapel, Catholic schoolchildren finished their prayers. They filed out into the street, bare-legged and laughing in their gray and navy uniforms, skipping along the snowy sidewalk. They didn't give Montreal's winter cold a second thought.