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Vietnam airlines plans on beginning service to Los Angeles in 2018. Montreal is mentioned as a beyond point (whatever that means). .Under the terms of the Vietnam-United States Air Services Agreement, the Vietnamese government, in 2007, designated the following cities in the US it wishes to serve on a regular basis alongside Los Angeles: San Francisco, CA; Seattle Tacoma Int'l; New York; Washington Dulles; and Dallas/Fort Worth. As intermediary points, it specified Taipei Taoyuan, Taiwan and Nagoya Chubu, Japan while beyond travel points were listed as Vancouver Int'l, Montréal Trudeau, and Toronto Pearson in Canada. No local traffic rights between Japan and the United States have been granted.

1-Fort Lauderdale 442 139 2-Chicago 278 979 3-NYC (LGA) 259 779 4-Miami 256 049 5-Orlondo 209 187 6-NYC (NWK) 201 617 7-Las Vegas 185 989 8-Atlanta 181 850 9-Los Angeles 151 409 10-NYC (JFK) 137 210 Florida and NYC area are the biggest Market le comparatif avec 2013 sera disponible prochainement les amis

Jean-Sébastien Marsan 04-09-2014 | 11h18 MONTRÉAL - Les tarifs hôteliers à Montréal ont grimpé de 9 % en moyenne au cours des six premiers mois de 2014 comparativement à la même période en 2013. La métropole s'est même hissée en tête de liste des villes où les voyageurs canadiens ont payé le plus cher pour un hôtel cinq étoiles, avant Tokyo et Los Angeles. C'est ce que révèle le service de réservation d'hébergement en ligne Hotels.com dans son plus récent Hotel Price Index, publié mercredi. Cet indice, fondé sur les réservations effectuées sur le site web Hotels.com et sur les prix réels (non les prix affichés) que paient les clients, a été établi à 100 en 2004. Il atteint 115 en 2014. À l'échelle mondiale, l'augmentation moyenne des tarifs hôteliers est de 4 %. Les hôtels des Caraïbes ont enregistré la plus forte hausse, à 6 %. En Amérique du Nord, en Europe et au Moyen-Orient, les prix réels ont progressé de 5 %. Lorsqu'on regarde de plus près le marché canadien, on constate que les prix des hôtels à Montréal (168 $ la nuitée en moyenne) et à Vancouver (157 $) ont augmenté de 9 % au cours des six premiers mois de 2014, dépassant le marché torontois (152 $ la nuit). Cette année, Montréal se hisse même au top 20 des villes où les Canadiens ont dépensé le plus pour un hôtel cinq étoiles: une moyenne de 573 $, en hausse de 30 % comparativement au premier semestre de 2013. Les plus chics hôtels de la métropole québécoise sont plus coûteux, en moyenne, que les établissements cinq étoiles de Tokyo (533 $), Los Angeles (532 $), Londres (508 $) et Paris (469 $). LES TOURISTES SE RESSEMBLENT Les touristes canadiens en voyage dans leur propre pays ont des comportements assez similaires aux touristes étrangers qui s'offrent un séjour au Canada. Dans les deux cas, la destination la plus populaire demeure Toronto. Les Canadiens préfèrent ensuite Montréal, puis Vancouver, tandis que les étrangers ont tendance à privilégier Vancouver avant Montréal. À ce jour, «2014 est une excellente année à Montréal grâce aux événements comme les congrès et les compétitions sportives», a commenté Eve Paré, présidente-directrice générale de l'Association des hôtels du grand Montréal. «Ces événements contribuent à occuper les chambres d'hôtel et à tirer les prix vers le haut.» Le rapport de Hotels.com dévoile également ce que les Canadiens paient lorsqu'ils réservent une chambre à l'étranger. C'est aux Bahamas que les Canadiens ont payé le plus cher dans la première moitié de l'année 2014 pour une nuit d'hôtel de luxe, à 341 $ par nuit, en hausse de 12 % par rapport à 2013. Suivent les hôtels de la Suisse (246 $ la nuitée, en moyenne), de la Croatie (235 $) et du Royaume-Uni (225 $). Les dix destinations les plus populaires chez les touristes canadiens en 2014 sont New York, Las Vegas, Londres, Paris, Orlando (Floride), Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle et Rome. http://fr.canoe.ca/argent/depenser/auquotidien/archives/2014/09/20140904-111852.html

Effets visuels: MPC et BUF s'installeront à Montréal Montréal continue d'avoir la cote auprès des entreprises européennes d'effets spéciaux: après Framestore, c'est au tour de Moving Picture Company (MPC) et de BUF de s'installer prochainement à Montréal, a appris La Presse Affaires. MPC et BUF ont toutes deux travaillé sur les effets spéciaux du film Life of Pi, qui a remporté dimanche l'Oscar des meilleurs effets spéciaux. Selon nos informations, MPC a l'intention de déployer une équipe d'une cinquantaine de personnes pour faire une partie des effets visuels de X-Men: Days of Future Past, un film mettant en vedette l'actrice oscarisée Jennifer Lawrence qui sera tourné à Montréal l'été prochain. Le mandat de la nouvelle équipe montréalaise de MPC sur X-Men devrait commencer l'été prochain et se terminer l'automne. Si l'expérience est concluante, MPC pourrait ensuite installer un studio permanent à Montréal. MPC n'a pas commenté hier les informations de La Presse Affaires sur son arrivée éventuelle à Montréal. L'entreprise française BUF a aussi choisi Montréal comme lieu de son expansion canadienne, mais les détails de son arrivée à Montréal resteraient à finaliser. Fondée en 1984, BUF a des bureaux à Paris, en Belgique et à Los Angeles. Selon nos informations, autant BUF que MPC sont présentement à évaluer la taille de leur futur studio québécois, notamment en considérant la pénurie de main-d'oeuvre déjà existante à Montréal. Après Framestore et Mikros MPC et BUF suivront les traces d'autres boîtes européennes qui ont pignon sur rue à Montréal. Ces jours-ci, l'entreprise britannique Framestore inaugure son loft du Mile End alors qu'une trentaine d'employés commenceront à travailler sur le prochain Robocop. Au début de 2014, Framestore aura 200 employés à Montréal. L'arrivée de Framestore a été annoncée en grande pompe le mois dernier par la première ministre du Québec Pauline Marois au cours d'un voyage en Grande-Bretagne. Une autre entreprise européenne, la française Mikros image, s'est installée plus discrètement à Montréal en 2011, faisant notamment la moitié des effets visuels du film Astérix et Obélix: Au service de Sa Majesté. Pour remplir ses prochains mandats, le studio compte passer de 30 à 180 employés l'été prochain. «Nous avions des clients en France qui souhaitaient travailler au Canada à cause des crédits d'impôt, dit Pascal Laurent, directeur du studio. Nous nous sommes aperçus qu'il y a beaucoup de talent à Montréal, et nous pouvons faire le pont entre les États-Unis et le siège social en France.» Grâce aux crédits d'impôt Selon Éric Julien, associé en fiscalité à la firme Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, d'autres entreprises européennes d'effets spéciaux sont aussi tentées par l'aventure montréalaise, notamment en raison du crédit d'impôt remboursable de 45% du Québec (53,3% en combinant le crédit d'impôt fédéral). La firme comptable a organisé récemment une rencontre à Londres avec une douzaine d'entre elles. «Elles pensent beaucoup à venir à Montréal, dit Éric Julien. Ce n'est pas le climat ni la beauté de la ville qui les attirent ici, c'est le crédit d'impôt, l'un des plus avantageux au monde. Et pour les Européens, Montréal est plus près que Toronto ou Vancouver. Le coût de la vie est plus avantageux à Montréal qu'à Toronto et surtout qu'à Vancouver.» L'industrie québécoise des effets visuels destinés au cinéma et à la télé compte environ un millier d'emplois. Les entreprises existantes craignent que l'arrivée de studios européens aggrave la pénurie de main-d'oeuvre. «Nous avons une stratégie pour en atténuer les effets. Nous avons réduit les délais d'octroi des visas de travail (de cinq mois à trois semaines) et nous travaillons en collaboration avec les écoles pour accélérer les programmes de formation afin que les étudiants arrivent plus rapidement sur le marché du travail», dit Hans Fraikin, commissaire du Bureau du cinéma et de la télévision du Québec, qui prévient les boîtes étrangères que le débauchage d'employés dans les boîtes existantes est «très mal venu». ----------------- Portrait des deux entreprises Moving Picture Company > Fondée en 1970, achetée en 2002 par la française Technicolor > 1000 employés dans le monde > Bureau principal à Londres, autres bureaux à Los Angeles, New York, Bangladore (Inde) et Vancouver > Films: Man of Steel, Life of Pi, Skyfall, Sherlock Homes: A Game of Shadows BUF > Fondée en 1984 > Bureau principal à Paris, autres bureaux en Belgique et à Los Angeles > Films: Life of Pi, Avatar, The Dark Knight, Thor, Astérix aux Jeux olympiques http://affaires.lapresse.ca/economie/technologie/201302/28/01-4626239-effets-visuels-mpc-et-buf-sinstalleront-a-montreal.php?utm_categorieinterne=trafficdrivers&utm_contenuinterne=cyberpresse_boitePourAccueilCbp_10209_accueil_POS1

"City lights broadcast our existence into the night of space. Imagine how the Earth will look to astronauts in a century's time or longer? These images are incredibly difficult to take from a spacecraft traveling along at almost 28,000 kilometers per hour. The images are held at NASA's Johnson Space Center in a special archive for astronaut photography. Watch for the great cities of Beijing, Istanbul, Melbourne, Montreal, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Buenos Aires, Brasilia (one of our favorites), and more." [video=youtube;-RGNhZ292Zg]

(Courtesy of CBC News)

en cherchant un peu partout sur internet je suis tombe sur cet article (de blog) que j'ai trouve interessant, qui fait par de la situation de Atlanta, qu'elle decrit comme un 'dense sprawl': Tuesday, August 4, 2009 “Spatial Mismatch” and Why Density Alone Isn’t Enough by Sarah Goodyear on August 4, 2009 Density, density, density. It's something of a mantra in sustainable transportation circles. But in today's featured post from the Streetsblog Network, UrbanCincy points to the cautionary example of Atlanta -- a place that could perhaps best be described as dense sprawl. The skylines of Atlanta. What has happened in Atlanta is something that should be learned from. Atlanta is arguably the king of sprawl in modern day America, but some might say, well Fulton County has a higher population density than does Hamilton County. Similar arguments can be applied to other less urban regions than Cincinnati. The fact is that Fulton County is just about built out with the exception of some land in the far southern reaches of the county. Furthermore, this built-out county has extraordinarily dense suburban areas including the central Perimeter area which includes 30-story office towers, residential towers and 12-lane highway systems to boot. The traffic is abysmal like much of the rest of Atlanta and the problem is only going to get worse. The reason is a combination of densities and form. The suburban areas of Atlanta, and even much of the urban areas, are almost entirely car-dependent. So a low-density suburban area that is car-dependent is one thing, but a high-density area of the same makeup is nightmarish. The "spatial mismatch" is exacerbated to a degree seen nowhere else in America than Atlanta and Los Angeles (Los Angeles County is the most populated county in the country at 9+ million). The people living in one area are working in another creating a spatial mismatch that is exacerbated by the high densities. They are not walking, biking or taking transit to a level enough that would offset its densities. When you hear of the next "new urbanist" neighborhood on the fringes of a metropolitan area, or the next lifestyle center that pitches itself as being the next best thing to an authentic urban shopping experience, be wary. These are not real communities where store owners live in addition to running their business. The residents are most likely hopping in their car that is parked nicely within one of their two (or more) dedicated parking spaces and driving into the center city for work. Higher densities in our suburban areas are not the answers to our sprawl issues. A correction of the spatial mismatch is what's needed to truly create a sustainable metropolitan area. Natural systems need to be preserved in their truest form and our most fertile food-producing regions need to be maintained for their highest and best use. Higher densities in the core with high-density satellite neighborhoods connected by high-quality transit options are the best possible solutions. Other news from around the network: Kansas Cyclist reports on efforts in Iowa and Colorado to ban bikes -- that's right, ban bikes -- from some roads. Meanwhile, CommuteOrlandoBlog is back from a bike trip through Amish country and has a very thought-provoking post on the culture of speed vs. the culture of trust. And Trains for America links to a debate over the relative merits of high-speed and maglev trains. je me demandes si montreal n'est pas un peu en train de vivre ce genre de transformation lente, avec nos dix-30, nos developements en peripheries (pensez a toutes ces tours a l'entour des galleries d'anjou, par example), et la volonte que certain semblent vouloir exprimer de garder le centre-ville bas et de l'etendre au besoin (griffintown, radio-can, toute a l'ouest de Guy). ca ne fait que renforcer mon argument que le developement devrait etre encourage a etre non seulement dense mais central, et que toutes ces petites tours de 65 metres sont du gaspillage d'espace et une potentielle source de problemes de transport comme on le vois a Atlanta ou Los Angeles. (ps, j'suis passe par atl en janvier pis c'est clairement une ville de char, a peu pres 12 voies d'autoroute qui en devient 24 via diverses routes de contournements ici et la ... c'est intense!)

Selon Martin Prosperity Institute The Great Musical North November 12, 2009 The music business is a fascinating example of a creativity-driven industry. Advances in manufacturing and sound recording technology mean that only a small part of the value of the final product – a compact disc or digital download – is generated by manufacturing and distribution. Instead, most of the costs of the music business today are incurred by creative work: writing, producing and performing the music; designing the packaging and branding; and marketing via blogs, magazines, videos and more. This emphasis on creative inputs makes the music industry an excellent research subject for improving our understanding of the geography (and other dynamics) of a broad range of creative industries, from software to medicine to media. While the public perception exists that Canada is a hot spot for music and musicians (from Neil Young to Shania Twain to Kardinal Offishall), a comparison with the global leader in music production – the United States – will help us to separate perception from reality. The most recent period for which detailed and directly comparable data are available is 2007. This Insight aims to improve our understanding of the dynamics of the business by focusing on one particular aspect: the differences between the music industries of Canada and the United States. On a per capita basis, Canada’s music industry dramatically outperforms the US when it comes to the presence of music business establishments (this category includes record labels, distributors, recording studios, and music publishers). Canada has 5.9 recording industry establishments per 100,000 residents, about five times the US figure of 1.2. A detailed breakdown at the metropolitan level can help us to better understand what drives this disparity. To make the scope of our analysis more manageable, we focus on city-regions with populations over 500,000, as they are home to 85% of recording industry establishments and about 65% of the North American population. Using location quotients, a standard industry measure of regional concentration, we find that almost half of the 15 cities with the highest music industry location quotients are Canadian (Exhibit 1). But despite its much lower per capita figure at the national level, the United States has the two top-ranking cities. The first, Nashville, boasts an incredibly high figure due to its heavy specialization in country and pop music. The second, Los Angeles, is the global giant of the entertainment business. US dominance becomes more apparent when we look at size. Recording industry establishments in the US are slightly larger – they have an average of 5.9 employees each, compared to only 5.7 in Canada. But the difference is dramatically more pronounced when it comes to revenue. US establishments earn average receipts of $4.1 million per establishment, compared to only US$540,000 in Canada. So Canada has considerably greater per capita musical activity than the United States in terms of record labels, recording studios, and licensing houses. But the data tell us that the United States has much higher-earning businesses that are more heavily clustered in fewer places – especially Nashville, Los Angeles, and to a lesser extent, New York. While this research is preliminary, we can speculate about what drives these differences. Economic geographers, from Jane Jacobs to Allen Scott to the Martin Prosperity Institute’s own recent analysis, have long noted that growth in creative industries like music tends to be driven by clustering and economies of scope and scale. The concentration of the American music business in a few key cities likely encourages these forces. In Canada, the fact that the music business is more evenly distributed is certainly a positive thing for musicians looking for opportunities in smaller cities. But failure to cluster in a few key centres may be discouraging the Canadian music industry from growing larger and more internationally competitive. [/img]

Charest patrouille le ciel de L.A. Nicolas Bérubé La Presse Publié le 05 octobre 2009 à 07h18 | Mis à jour le 05 octobre 2009 à 07h21 (Los Angeles) Jean Charest enlève son veston beige et grimpe à bord de l'hélicoptère Black Hawk du comté de Los Angeles. Le capitaine Tony Marrone, un homme solide à la mâchoire carrée, lui montre son siège. «Vous avez la meilleure place à bord, M. le premier ministre!» dit-il. Il montre du doigt le siège qui fait face à une grande ouverture dans le côté droit de l'appareil. En vol, il offre une vue non obstruée du ciel californien - et du sol, à plusieurs centaines de mètres. Le premier ministre prend place, un sourire accroché aux lèvres. Le capitaine Marrone l'aide à boucler sa ceinture, sorte de pieuvre noire aux multiples tentacules. Les autres passagers montent à bord, et quelqu'un referme les portes coulissantes. Le moteur démarre. Une vague odeur de kérosène remplit l'appareil. But du voyage: observer les avions-citernes Bombardier CL-415 en action. Pilotés par des Québécois, deux de ces avions sont loués au Québec chaque automne depuis 16 ans par le comté de Los Angeles, où les feux de broussailles sont de plus en plus fréquents et dévastateurs. Les Américains paient trois millions de dollars pour louer les CL-415 et leur équipage de 11 Québécois, experts dans l'entretien et le pilotage de ces bimoteurs uniques qui valent près de 30 millions pièce. «Aujourd'hui, nous considérons que les pompiers québécois font partie de notre famille, note le capitaine Marrone. C'est vous dire à quel point leur travail est apprécié par les pompiers d'ici.» Attention aux motomarines À travers les fenêtres du Black Hawk, les bâtiments de Los Angeles sont si petits qu'ils ressemblent aux circuits imprimés d'un ordinateur. Le pilote fonce vers le nord, vers les montagnes de Santa Clarita. Au bout de 10 minutes, un immense lac apparaît au milieu des montagnes arides. C'est l'un des 12 points d'eau utilisés par les pompiers pour ravitailler les CL-415. «Ces lacs sont populaires auprès des plaisanciers, explique le capitaine Marrone. Avant d'aller faire le plein, les CL-415 doivent communiquer avec les gardiens, qui font évacuer le lac. Il ne faut pas que des motomarines soient dans le chemin quand l'avion arrive.» À notre droite, un avion jaune et rouge apparaît à l'horizon. Il file vers le lac de ravitaillement. L'avion ralentit. Bientôt, sa carlingue effleure le dessus des flots à une vitesse de 130 km/h, laissant une longue traînée blanche. Après 12 secondes, l'avion reprend de l'altitude. Les pilotes pompiers sont prêts à relâcher 6000 litres d'eau. L'avion décrit un arc au-dessus de la région. Au-dessus d'une crête, les réservoirs s'ouvrent. Un nuage blanc prend naissance sous l'avion. Des trombes d'eau frappent le paysage sec et mouillent une route désertée en contrebas. Les passagers de l'hélicoptère regardent la scène, médusés. En route vers Hollywood Le pilote de l'hélicoptère met le cap vers le sud. On survole bientôt les gratte-ciel du centre-ville de Los Angeles. L'appareil s'approche ensuite des lettres «Hollywood», si hautes qu'elles remplissent notre champ de vision. «Incroyable. C'est à couper le souffle», murmure M. Charest, alors que le Black Hawk survole les vertes collines de Beverly Hills et les immenses villas qui y sont juchées. «Il y a plus d'habitants à Los Angeles qu'au Québec au complet, dit-il, sondant le paysage du regard. C'est quand même quelque chose.» De retour à la base de Van Nuys, M. Charest sert la main de l'équipage québécois, et pose pour une photo de groupe. «S'il y en a qui ont des casiers judiciaires, c'est le temps de le dire», lance-t-il, pince-sans-rire. De son excursion dans le ciel de Los Angeles, M. Charest dit retenir que les pompiers québécois accomplissent un travail essentiel et remarquable. Et que Los Angeles n'est sans doute pas un modèle de croissance à imiter pour le Québec. «Comme Québécois, c'est impressionnant de voir la densité de population. C'est à l'opposé de nos grands espaces. Et la place qu'occupe l'automobile est tellement importante ici... Je crois qu'on est bien chez nous.» http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/200910/05/01-908403-charest-patrouille-le-ciel-de-la.php

Will California become America's first failed state? Los Angeles, 2009: California may be the eighth largest economy in the world, but its state staff are being paid in IOUs, unemployment is at its highest in 70 years, and teachers are on hunger strike. So what has gone so catastrophically wrong? Patients without medical insurance wait for treatment in the Forum, a music arena inInglewood, Los Angeles. The 1,500 free places were filled by 4am. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images California has a special place in the American psyche. It is the Golden State: a playground of the rich and famous with perfect weather. It symbolises a lifestyle of sunshine, swimming pools and the Hollywood dream factory. But the state that was once held up as the epitome of the boundless opportunities of America has collapsed. From its politics to its economy to its environment and way of life, California is like a patient on life support. At the start of summer the state government was so deeply in debt that it began to issue IOUs instead of wages. Its unemployment rate has soared to more than 12%, the highest figure in 70 years. Desperate to pay off a crippling budget deficit, California is slashing spending in education and healthcare, laying off vast numbers of workers and forcing others to take unpaid leave. In a state made up of sprawling suburbs the collapse of the housing bubble has impoverished millions and kicked tens of thousands of families out of their homes. Its political system is locked in paralysis and the two-term rule of former movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger is seen as a disaster – his approval ratings having sunk to levels that would make George W Bush blush. The crisis is so deep that Professor Kevin Starr, who has written an acclaimed history of the state, recently declared: "California is on the verge of becoming the first failed state in America." Outside the Forum in Inglewood, near downtown Los Angeles, California has already failed. The scene is reminiscent of the fallout from Hurricane Katrina, as crowds of impoverished citizens stand or lie aimlessly on the hot tarmac of the centre's car park. It is 10am, and most have already been here for hours. They have come for free healthcare: a travelling medical and dental clinic has set up shop in the Forum (which usually hosts rock concerts) and thousands of the poor, the uninsured and the down-on-their-luck have driven for miles to be here. The queue began forming at 1am. By 4am, the 1,500 spaces were already full and people were being turned away. On the floor of the Forum, root-canal surgeries are taking place. People are ferried in on cushions, hauled out of decrepit cars. Sitting propped up against a lamp post, waiting for her number to be called, is Debbie Tuua, 33. It is her birthday, but she has taken a day off work to bring her elderly parents to the Forum, and they have driven through the night to get here. They wait in a car as the heat of the day begins to rise. "It is awful for them, but what choice do we have?" Tuua says. "I have no other way to get care to them." Yet California is currently cutting healthcare, slashing the "Healthy Families" programme that helped an estimated one million of its poorest children. Los Angeles now has a poverty rate of 20%. Other cities across the state, such as Fresno and Modesto, have jobless rates that rival Detroit's. In order to pass its state budget, California's government has had to agree to a deal that cuts billions of dollars from education and sacks 60,000 state employees. Some teachers have launched a hunger strike in protest. California's education system has become so poor so quickly that it is now effectively failing its future workforce. The percentage of 19-year-olds at college in the state dropped from 43% to 30% between 1996 and 2004, one of the highest falls ever recorded for any developed world economy. California's schools are ranked 47th out of 50 in the nation. Its government-issued bonds have been ranked just above "junk". Some of the state's leading intellectuals believe this collapse is a disaster that will harm Californians for years to come. "It will take a while for this self-destructive behaviour to do its worst damage," says Robert Hass, a professor at Berkeley and a former US poet laureate, whose work has often been suffused with the imagery of the Californian way of life. Now, incredibly, California, which has been a natural target for immigration throughout its history, is losing people. Between 2004 and 2008, half a million residents upped sticks and headed elsewhere. By 2010, California could lose a congressman because its population will have fallen so much – an astonishing prospect for a state that is currently the biggest single political entity in America. Neighbouring Nevada has launched a mocking campaign to entice businesses away, portraying Californian politicians as monkeys, and with a tag-line jingle that runs: "Kiss your assets goodbye!" You know you have a problem when Nevada – famed for nothing more than Las Vegas, casinos and desert – is laughing at you. This matters, too. Much has been made globally of the problems of Ireland and Iceland. Yet California dwarfs both. It is the eighth largest economy in the world, with a population of 37 million. If it was an independent country it would be in the G8. And if it were a company, it would likely be declared bankrupt. That prospect might surprise many, but it does not come as news to Tuua, as she glances nervously into the warming sky, hoping her parents will not have to wait in the car through the heat of the day just to see a doctor. "It is so depressing. They both worked hard all their lives in this state and this is where they have ended up. It should not have to be this way," she says. It is impossible not to be impressed by the physical presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger when he walks into a room. He may appear slightly smaller than you imagine, but he's just as powerful. This is, after all, the man who, before he was California's governor, was the Terminator and Conan the Barbarian. But even Schwarzenegger is humbled by the scale of the crisis. At a press conference in Sacramento to announce the final passing of a state budget, which would include billions of dollars of cuts, the governor speaks in uncharacteristically pensive terms. "It is clear that we do not know yet what the future holds. We are still in troubled waters," he says quietly. He looks subdued, despite his sharp grey suit and bright pink tie. Later, during a grilling by reporters, Schwarzenegger is asked an unusual question. As a gaggle of journalists begins to shout, one man's voice quickly silences the others. "Do you ever feel like you're watching the end of the California dream?" asks the reporter. It is clearly a personal matter for Schwarzenegger. After all, his life story has embodied it. He arrived virtually penniless from Austria, barely speaking English. He ended up a movie star, rich beyond his dreams, and finally governor, hanging Conan's prop sword in his office. Schwarzenegger answers thoughtfully and at length. He hails his own experience and ends with a passionate rallying call in his still thickly accented voice. "There is people that sometimes suggest that the American dream, or the Californian dream, is evaporating. I think it's absolutely wrong. I think the Californian dream is as strong as ever," he says, mangling the grammar but not the sentiment. Looking back, it is easy to see where Schwarzenegger's optimism sprung from. California has always been a special place, with its own idea of what could be achieved in life. There is no such thing as a British dream. Even within America, there is no Kansas dream or New Jersey dream. But for California the concept is natural. It has always been a place apart. It is of the American West, the destination point in a nation whose history has been marked by restless pioneers. It is the home of Hollywood, the nation's very own fantasy land. Getting on a bus or a train or a plane and heading out for California has been a regular trope in hundreds of books, movies, plays, and in the popular imagination. It has been writ large in the national psyche as free from the racial divisions of the American South and the traditions and reserve of New England. It was America's own America. Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and now an adopted Californian, remembers arriving here from his native New England. "In New England you would have to know people for 10 years before they let you in their home," he says. "Here, when I took my son to his first play date, the mother invited me to a hot tub." Michael Levine is a Hollywood mover and shaker, shaping PR for a stable of A-list clients that once included Michael Jackson. Levine arrived in California 32 years ago. "The concept of the Californian dream was a certain quality of life," he says. "It was experimentalism and creativity. California was a utopia." Levine arrived at the end of the state's golden age, at a time when the dream seemed to have been transformed into reality. The 1950s and 60s had been boom-time in the American economy; jobs had been plentiful and development rapid. Unburdened by environmental concerns, Californian developers built vast suburbs beneath perpetually blue skies. Entire cities sprang from the desert, and orchards were paved over into playgrounds and shopping malls. "They came here, they educated their kids, they had a pool and a house. That was the opportunity for a pretty broad section of society," says Joel Kotkin, an urbanist at Chapman University, in Orange County. This was what attracted immigrants in their millions, flocking to industries – especially defence and aviation – that seemed to promise jobs for life. But the newcomers were mistaken. Levine, among millions of others, does not think California is a utopia now. "California is going to take decades to fix," he says. So where did it all wrong? Few places embody the collapse of California as graphically as the city of Riverside. Dubbed "The Inland Empire", it is an area in the southern part of the state where the desert has been conquered by mile upon mile of housing developments, strip malls and four-lane freeways. The tidal wave of foreclosures and repossessions that burst the state's vastly inflated property bubble first washed ashore here. "We've been hit hard by foreclosures. You can see it everywhere," says political scientist Shaun Bowler, who has lived in California for 20 years after moving here from his native England. The impact of the crisis ranges from boarded-up homes to abandoned swimming pools that have become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Bowler's sister, visiting from England, was recently taken to hospital suffering from an infected insect bite from such a pool. "You could say she was a victim of the foreclosure crisis, too," he jokes. But it is no laughing matter. One in four American mortgages that are "under water", meaning they are worth more than the home itself, are in California. In the Central Valley town of Merced, house prices have crashed by 70%. Two Democrat politicians have asked for their districts to be declared disaster zones, because of the poor economic conditions caused by foreclosures. In one city near Riverside, a squatter's camp of newly homeless labourers sleeping in their vehicles has grown up in a supermarket car park – the local government has provided toilets and a mobile shower. In the Los Angeles suburb of Pacoima, one in nine homeowners are now in default on their mortgage, and the local priest, the Rev John Lasseigne, has garnered national headlines – swapping saving souls to saving houses, by negotiating directly with banks on behalf of his parishioners. For some campaigners and advocates against suburban sprawl and car culture, it has been a bitter triumph. "Let the gloating begin!" says James Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency, a warning about the high cost of the suburban lifestyle. Others see the end of the housing boom as a man-made disaster akin to a mass hysteria, but with no redemption in sight. "If California was an experiment then it was an experiment of mass irresponsibility – and that has failed," says Michael Levine. Nowhere is the economic cost of California's crisis writ larger than in the Central Valley town of Mendota, smack in the heart of a dusty landscape of flat, endless fields of fruit and vegetables. The town, which boldly terms itself "the cantaloup capital of the world", now has an unemployment rate of 38%. That is expected to rise above 50% as the harvest ends and labourers are laid off. City officials hold food giveaways every two weeks. More than 40% of the town's people live below the poverty level. Shops have shut, restaurants have closed, drugs and alcohol abuse have become a problem. Standing behind the counter of his DVD and grocery store, former Mendota mayor Joseph Riofrio tells me it breaks his heart to watch the town sink into the mire. His father had built the store in the 1950s and constructed a solid middle-class life around it, to raise his family. Now Riofrio has stopped selling booze in a one-man bid to curb the social problems breaking out all around him. "It is so bad, but it has now got to the point where we are getting used to it being like this," he says. Riofrio knows his father's achievements could not be replicated today. The state that once promised opportunities for working men and their families now promises only desperation. "He could not do what he did again. That chance does not exist now," Riofrio says. Outside, in a shop that Riofrio's grandfather built, groups of unemployed men play pool for 25 cents a game. Near every one of the town's liquor stores others lie slumped on the pavements, drinking their sorrows away. Mendota is fighting for survival against heavy odds. The town of 7,000 souls has seen 2,000 people leave in the past two years. But amid the crisis there are a few sparks of hope for the future. California has long been an incubator of fresh ideas, many of which spread across the country. If America emerges from its crisis a greener, more economically and politically responsible nation, it is likely that renewal will have begun here. The clues to California's salvation – and perhaps even the country as a whole – are starting to emerge. Take Anthony "Van" Jones, a man now in the vanguard of the movement to build a future green economy, creating millions of jobs, solving environmental problems and reducing climate change at a stroke. It is a beguiling vision and one that Jones conceived in the northern Californian city of Oakland. He began political life as an anti-poverty campaigner, but gradually combined that with environmentalism, believing that greening the economy could also revitalise it and lift up the poor. He founded Green for All as an advocacy group and published a best-selling book, The Green Collar Economy. Then Obama came to power and Jones got the call from the White House. In just a few years, his ideas had spread from the streets of Oakland to White House policy papers. Jones was later ousted from his role, but his ideas remain. Green jobs are at the forefront of Obama's ideas on both the economy and the environment. Jones believes California will once more change itself, and then change the nation. "California remains a beacon of hope… This is a new time for a new direction to grow a new society and a new economy," Jones has said. It is already happening. California may have sprawling development and awful smog, but it leads the way in environmental issues. Arnold Schwarzenegger was seen as a leading light, taking the state far ahead of the federal government on eco-issues. The number of solar panels in the state has risen from 500 a decade ago to more than 50,000 now. California generates twice as much energy from solar power as all the other US states combined. Its own government is starting to turn on the reckless sprawl that has marked the state's development. California's attorney-general, Jerry Brown, recently sued one county government for not paying enough attention to global warming when it came to urban planning. Even those, like Kotkin, who are sceptical about the end of suburbia, think California will develop a new model for modern living: comfortable, yes, but more modest and eco-friendly. Kotkin, who is writing an eagerly anticipated book about what America will look like in 2050, thinks much of it will still resemble the bedrock of the Californian dream: sturdy, wholesome suburbs for all – just done more responsibly. "We will still live in suburbs. You work with the society you have got. The question is how we make them more sustainable," he says. Even the way America eats is being changed in California. Every freeway may be lined with fast-food outlets, but California is also the state of Alice Waters, the guru of the slow-food movement, who inspired Michelle Obama to plant a vegetable garden in the White House. She thinks the state is changing its values. "The crisis is bringing us back to our senses. We had adopted a fast and easy way of living, but we are moving away from that now," she says. There is hope in politics, too. There is a growing movement to call for a constitutional convention that could redraw the way the state is governed. It could change how the state passes budgets and make the political system more open, recreating the lost middle ground. Recently, the powerful mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, signed on to the idea. Gerrymandering, too, is set to take a hit. Next year Schwarzenegger will take steps to redraw some districts to make them more competitive, breaking the stranglehold of party politics. He wants district boundaries to be drawn up by impartial judges, not politicians. In previous times that would have been the equivalent of a turkey voting for Christmas. But now the bold move is seen for what it is: a necessary step to change things. And there is no denying that innovation is something that California does well. Even in the most deprived corners of the state there is a sense that things can still turn around. California has always been able to reinvent itself, and some of its most hardcore critics still like the idea of it having a "dream". "I believe in California. It pains me at the moment to see it where it is, but I still believe in it," said Michael Levine. Perhaps more surprisingly, a fellow believer is to be found in Mendota in the shape of Joseph Riofrio. His shop operates as a sort of informal meeting place for the town. People drop in to chat, to get advice, or to buy a cold soft drink to relieve the unrelenting heat outside. The people are poor, many of them out of work, often hiring a bunch of DVDs as a cheap way of passing the time. But Riofrio sees them as a community, one that he grew up in. He is proud of his town and determined to stick it out. "This is a good place to live," he says. "I want to be here when it turns around." He is talking of the stricken town outside. But he could be describing the whole state.★ • This article was amended on 5 October 2009 because we inadvertently referred to the historian, Kevin Starr, as Kenneth.

Korean Air, a unit of South Korea’s Hanjin Group, has an agreement with Los Angeles developer Thomas Properties Group to develop the Wilshire Grand pending city approval. Construction is proposed to begin in 2011, with completion in 2014. Above, a sprawling view of downtown Los Angeles. Korean Air a annoncé son projet de créer un nouvel hôtel de luxe à Los Angeles, ainsi que des bureaux et un complexe résidentiel. Korean Air, qui possède également trois hôtels en Corée et à Hawaï, a acheté le Wilshire Grand Hotel, en 1989. La compagnie aérienne va construire à la place du bâtiment actuel un programme immobilier de 610000 mètres carrés à usage mixte. Le programme sera composé de deux tours, dont une tour de 40 étages ainsi qu'un hôtel de luxe de 700 chambres. Ce projet dont le coût devrait atteindre le milliard de dollars devrait être certifié selon le standard de développement durable américain US Green Building Council LEED. Le maire de Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa a déclaré: "Ce nouveau projet est un grand pas en avant dans nos efforts visant à construire des immeubles écologiques, à usage mixte au centre de notre ville. Le programme Grand Wilshire contribuera à revitaliser le centre-ville, et sera un nouvel immeuble emblématique important pour Los Angeles et l'économie locale." Plus d'infos: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-downtown4-2009apr04,0,6152342.story http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-notebook11-2009apr11,0,7766716.story

April 7, 2009 By MELENA RYZIK Apologies to residents of the Lower East Side; Williamsburg, Brooklyn; and other hipster-centric neighborhoods. You are not as cool as you think, at least according to a new study that seeks to measure what it calls “the geography of buzz.” The research, presented in late March at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, locates hot spots based on the frequency and draw of cultural happenings: film and television screenings, concerts, fashion shows, gallery and theater openings. The buzziest areas in New York, it finds, are around Lincoln and Rockefeller Centers, and down Broadway from Times Square into SoHo. In Los Angeles the cool stuff happens in Beverly Hills and Hollywood, along the Sunset Strip, not in trendy Silver Lake or Echo Park. The aim of the study, called “The Geography of Buzz,” said Elizabeth Currid, one of its authors, was “to be able to quantify and understand, visually and spatially, how this creative cultural scene really worked.” To find out, Ms. Currid, an assistant professor in the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and her co-author, Sarah Williams, the director of the Spatial Information Design Lab at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, mined thousands of photographs from Getty Images that chronicled flashy parties and smaller affairs on both coasts for a year, beginning in March 2006. It was not a culturally comprehensive data set, the researchers admit, but a wide-ranging one. And because the photos were for sale, they had to be of events that people found inherently interesting, “a good proxy for ‘buzz-worthy’ social contexts,” they write. You had to be there, but where exactly was there? And why was it there? The answers were both obvious and not, a Möbius strip connecting infrastructure (Broadway shows need Broadway theaters, after all), media (photographers need to cover Broadway openings) and the bandwagon nature of popular culture. Buzz, as marketers eagerly attest, feeds on itself, even, apparently, at the building level. A related exhibition opens on Tuesday at Studio-X in the West Village, just south of Houston Street, an area not quite buzzy enough to rank. The study follows in the wake of urban theorists like Richard Florida (Ms. Currid calls him a mentor), who have emphasized the importance of the creative class to civic development. “We had social scientists, economists, geographers all talk about it being so important,” Ms. Currid said. “It matters in the fashion industry, it matters in high tech. The places that produce these cultural innovations matter. We have sort of this idea — ‘Oh, Bungalow 8 matters,’ but what do we even mean by that?” Ms. Currid became interested in assessing social scenes when doing research for her 2007 book, “The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art & Music Drive New York City.” For the buzz project, snapshots from more than 6,000 events — 300,000 photos in all — were categorized according to event type, controlled for overly celebrity-driven occasions and geo-tagged at the street level, an unusually detailed drilling down, Ms. Williams said. (Socioeconomic data typically follow ZIP codes or broad census tracts.) The researchers quickly found clusters around celebrated locations: the Kodak Theater, where the Oscars are held, for example, or Times Square. “Certain places do become iconic, and they become the branded spaces to do that stuff,” Ms. Currid said. “It’s hard to start a new opera house or a new theater district if you already have a Carnegie Hall or a Lincoln Center.” The allure trickled down to the blocks nearby, Ms. Currid said, pointing to the nightclub district in West Chelsea, which started with Bungalow 8. “Why wouldn’t they want to be near the places that already were the places to be?” she asked. “It makes a lot of economic and social sense.” New York Los Angeles That the buzzy locales weren’t associated with the artistic underground was a quirk of the data set — there were not enough events in Brooklyn to be statistically significant — and of timing. “If we took a snapshot two years from now, the Lower East Side would become a much larger place in how we understand New York,” Ms. Currid said. But mostly the data helped show the continued dominance of the mainstream news media as a cultural gatekeeper, and the never-ending cycle of buzz in the creative world. “There’s an economy of scale,” Ms. Currid said. “The media goes to places where they know they can take pictures that sell. And the people in these fields show up because the media is there.” Distribution to a far-flung audience helps cement an area’s reputation as a Very Important Place. “We argue that those not conventionally involved in city development (paparazzi, marketers, media) have unintentionally played a significant role in the establishment of buzz and desirability hubs within a city,” Ms. Williams and Ms. Currid write in the study. Whether their research can be used to manufacture interest — hold your party at a certain space, and boom, buzz! — or help city planners harness social convergence to create artist-friendly neighborhoods remains to be seen. (Ms. Currid and Ms. Williams next hope to map economic indicators like real-estate values against their cultural buzz-o-meter.) For Ms. Williams the geo-tagging represents a new wave of information that can be culled from sites like Flickr and Twitter. “We’re going to see more research that’s using these types of finer-grained data sets, what I call data shadows, the traces that we leave behind as we go through the city,” she said. “They’re going to be important in uncovering what makes cities so dynamic.” Ms. Currid added: “People talk about the end of place and how everything is really digital. In fact, buzz is created in places, and this data tells us how this happens.” But even after their explicit study of where to find buzz, Ms. Currid and Ms. Williams did not come away with a better understanding of how to define it. Rather, like pornography, you know it when you see it. “As vague a term as ‘buzz’ is, it’s so socially and economically important for cultural goods,” Ms. Currid said. “Artists become hot because so many people show up for their gallery opening, people want to wear designers because X celebrity is wearing them, people want to go to movies because lots of people are going to them and talking about them. Even though it’s like, ‘What the heck does that mean?,’ it means something.” Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS First Look Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/arts/design/07buzz.html?ref=arts

A new headquarters facility for the Los Angeles Police Department is set to open this summer. Designed by AECOM (formerly DMJM) in joint venture with Roth + Sheppard Architects, the new 11-storey, 500,000 square foot building occupies an important civic block in downtown LA across the street from City Hall and near the Los Angeles Times and new Caltrans buildings. The project provides for a main police administration building and public plaza with below grade parking for 300 cars and an off-site vehicle maintenance garage and fueling station with parking for 800 vehicles. The design challenge was to meet the functional needs and rigorous security requirements of one of the busiest police stations in the nation while also providing greater transparency and openness to the community. In a nod to the civic nature of the site, AECOM pulled the public functions out of the building, as, for example, a 200–seat café and 450-seat auditorium, and located them in the plaza for greater public access. The park and low-rise auditorium to the North (facing City Hall) offer a street scaled entry to the building and green space for passersby, visitors and building occupants. Built of precast, glass and stone, the building is linked to the existing civic center buildings with its vertical grain, massing and lightness of color. The new headquarters is designed to achieve LEED Silver certification and utilizes energy efficient mechanical systems, day-lighting, drought-tolerant planting, a “cool roof” system, high-performance glass, water clarifiers and recycled or renewable building materials. http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=11267

Le groupe de presse américain qui détient le Los Angeles Times et le Chicago Tribune serait au bord du dépôt de bilan. Pour en lire plus...

Un condo vendu 47 millions: record à Los Angeles Le condo vendu 47 millions occupe les deux derniers étages d'une tour en construction et offre une vue à 360 degrés. Il sera possible de voir la mer à l'ouest, des gratte-ciel du centre-ville de Los Angeles à l'est, et la chaîne de montagnes Santa Monica au nord. Photo archives Reuters Le mardi 5 août 2008 Nicolas Bérubé La Presse Los Angeles Un pied-à-terre à L.A., ça vous dit? Si c'est le cas, vous pouvez dire adieu à l'appartement qui occupe les deux derniers étages de la tour Century, en construction près du boulevard Santa Monica. Ce condo vient de s'envoler au prix de 47 millions de dollars. Le condo, qui marque un record pour un condo en Californie, a été acquis plus tôt ce mois-ci par Candy Spelling, la veuve du milliardaire Aaron Spelling. Décédé en 2006, M. Spelling a été le producteur télé le plus prolifique de l'histoire d'Hollywood. On lui doit notamment Beverly Hills 90210 et Charlie's Angels. Le condo, qui s'étend sur 1500 mètres carrés, offre une vue à 360 degrés. Il sera possible de voir la mer à l'ouest, des gratte-ciel du centre-ville à l'est et la chaîne de montagnes Santa Monica au nord. La tour est située à deux pas des restos branchés d'Hollywood. «Avant de faire mon choix, j'ai pris soin d'explorer toutes les tours à condo de l'ouest de L.A., et le Century a été la seule à satisfaire mes exigences, a fait savoir Mme Spelling. C'est carrément l'immeuble le plus luxueux à Los Angeles.» La riche dame prévoit emménager dans ses nouveaux quartiers lorsque la construction de la tour sera complétée, à la fin de l'année 2009. La tour comprendra 140 résidences, dont les plus luxueuses seront munies de foyers, de patios et d'une salle de divertissement. Un restaurant haut de gamme situé au rez-de-chaussée pourra servir les résidants. L'immeuble comprendra également une salle d'entraînement, un spa, une salle pour goûter les vins et un service de voiturier disponible 24 heures par jour. Pour Mme Spelling, le condo marque un retour à une habitation plus modeste: le manoir de 5000 mètres carrés qu'elle occupe actuellement compte 123 pièces. Situé dans le chic quartier de Holmby Hills, près de Beverly Hills, le manoir est la plus grande résidence du sud de la Californie.

A, B ou C? Photo Pénélope Fortier Nicolas Berubé La Presse Los Angeles C'est un détail qui pique la curiosité: à Los Angeles, tous les restaurants affichent dans leur vitrine un certificat arborant une grosse lettre bien visible. En se promenant en ville, on voit beaucoup de «A», mais aussi des «B» et quelques «C». Pas de «D», par contre. Quand un restaurant obtient un «D», il est aussitôt fermé par les services sanitaires du comté. La «cote» affichée est le résultat des inspections de salubrité. Le système a vu le jour il y a 10 ans, faisant de L.A. la première grande ville aux États-Unis à implanter une telle procédure pour informer les clients. Selon le département de santé publique, cette mesure a eu un effet positif sur la propreté des cuisines et le respect des règles d'hygiène. Durant les six premiers mois de son application, 39,9% des établissements ont obtenu la cote «A». Dix ans plus tard, 82,5% ont une note parfaite, souligne le directeur du programme du comté de Los Angeles, Jonathan Fielding. «Le programme a eu pour effet de réduire le nombre d'hospitalisations à la suite d'un empoisonnement alimentaire. Une étude indépendante a noté une réduction de 20% du nombre des visites à l'hôpital à cause des problèmes liés à la nourriture dans les restaurants. Un phénomène qui ne s'est pas produit dans les autres comtés», précise-t-il. Pour John Carnova, propriétaire d'un café dans le quartier Venice, le système de notation des restaurants est une bonne chose. «Ça donne de l'information aux gens. Ils peuvent savoir en un coup d'oeil si le restaurateur est sérieux, ou s'il ne fait pas attention à la propreté. Moi, je n'ai rien contre ça.» Les inspecteurs sont devenus beaucoup plus méticuleux, a expliqué récemment Andrew Casana, porte-parole de l'Association des restaurateurs californiens qui compte 33 000 membres. «C'est un système avantageux pour tout le monde. Avant les lettres, les inspections étaient simples et rapides. Depuis 10 ans, la feuille d'inspection est passée d'une demi-page à quatre. Les inspecteurs regardent tout.» Mais le système provoque aussi des grincements de dents. Un jeune propriétaire d'un restaurant à Santa Monica, qui veut garder l'anonymat, trouve ridicule d'avoir à afficher une lettre dans sa vitrine. Il a pourtant obtenu un «A» à la dernière inspection. «On est quoi, nous? Des enfants de maternelle? C'est encore un exemple du gouvernement qui essaie de montrer son autorité et d'infantiliser les commerçants.» Les inspections en cuisine, dit-il, sont une excellente chose. Un restaurant qui ne convient pas aux normes doit faire des changements, écoper d'une amende, ou bien perdre sa licence. «Mais de mettre une lettre dans la vitrine, c'est ridicule et ça n'aide personne. Selon moi, un restaurant doit être sécuritaire pour les clients, ou sinon fermé. Je ne comprends pas l'idée d'afficher une note comme si nous étions des enfants d'école.» C'est une série de reportages-chocs réalisés dans des cuisines de restaurants avec des caméras cachées qui a poussé les autorités à mettre en place ce système de cotation, en 1997. On y voyait des employés qui fumaient en préparant les aliments, et d'autres abus du même genre. Le département de santé publique du comté a été accusé de laxisme: la plupart des restos filmés dans le reportage avaient obtenu de bonnes notes lors des inspections précédentes. Aujourd'hui, l'une des conséquences du système est de susciter la discussion. L'an dernier, quand le très couru restaurant Axe, à Venice, est passé de la cote «A» à la cote «B», tout le quartier était au courant le jour même. Le resto avait, semble-t-il, perdu des points à cause de la présence de fissures dans ses murs et d'un lavabo mal nettoyé... Une semaine plus tard, le restaurant a retrouvé son «A» et les racontars ont cessé. http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080405/CPACTUEL/804051171/6685/CPACTUEL Pourquoi pas à Montréal???