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If anyone else is as obsessed with sidewalks as I am, you may enjoy this map I've made of good quality and renovated sidewalks in Montreal. Pretty much anything different from the typical ugly concrete sidewalks makes the cut. Some of them are still under construction/renovation. I can actually draw most of these from memory, but I still had to look some of them up. I'm sure I missed some, so feedback is welcome! Montreal - Sidewalks

http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2015/02/play-god-with-this-customizable-miniature-city/385054/?utm_source=SFFB NAVIGATOR Play God With This Customizable Miniature City The 3D-printed buildings are based on architecture in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere, and can glow at night. JOHN METCALFE @citycalfe 7:00 AM ET Comments Image Ittyblox Ittyblox Perfect for the urban-planning wonk who wants to build a personal city—or the destructive child who'd like to stomp one to bits—are these tiny, customizable dioramas, which include skyscrapers that can be hacked to glow in the dark. The adult toys, called Ittyblox, are 3D-printed by the New York/Netherlands company Shapeways, and include a variety of constituent pieces. There's this glassy, jet-black Chicago office tower, for instance, and also a cute clump of New York townhouses. Each one has a different footprint, so arranging them to fit the baseplate might require a bit of "Tetris" skill. But don't worry about troublesome zoning issues—you're the god of this Twilight Zone civilization. At least some pieces, like the 1:1000-scale Guggenheim Museum and Tudor City building, are based on real-life structures. And all are cut with fantastic detail. Here's the product description for that Chicago tower: "Because some offices have their sun shades down, there is a variation in window color. The rooftop is detailed with a few air conditioning units." The blocks range from $6 to $93, with multibuilding sets accounting for the more expensive prices; add in $20 for the baseplate plus shipping. Making the buildings glow requires work, though it's probably worth it to the hardcore model fan; some of the windows are cut out and will become illuminated if underlit with an LED. Check out this guide for detailed instructions. sent via Tapatalk

(Courtesy of the Financial Post)

(Courtesy of The Montreal Gazette) I removed most parts of the article that aren't really speaking about the Decarie Square project. Plus he voices his opinion on office towers here in Montreal.

(Courtesy of The Montreal Gazette) Great read. I was wondering what was going on. Time to bring the Capital of Canada back to Montreal and make the Capital of Quebec in Montreal! As Obama said "Yes, we can!"

(Courtesy of The Montreal Gazette) I should have done this years ago when I lived in Pierrefonds. The 201 would never show up on time. Sometimes it be 30 mins to an hour late

La Presse threatens union with closure By Mike King, The Gazette September 4, 2009 La Presse newspaper employees talk during preparations for a meeting for employees at the Palais des congrès in June 2009. La Presse newspaper employees talk during preparations for a meeting for employees at the Palais des congrès in June 2009. Photograph by: Phil Carpenter, Gazette file photo MONTREAL – La Presse, North America’s largest French-language broadsheet, will stop publication Dec. 1 if its 700 employees don’t give up $13 million in concessions between now and that date. Caroline Jamet, the 125-year-old newspaper’s vice-president of communications, confirmed publisher Guy Crevier sent the staff an email yesterday informing the workers they have three months to reach an agreement to avoid suspension of both the paper and its website, cyberpresse.ca. In acknowledging La Presse’s current business model “has no chance of surviving,” Crevier noted how management has cut its share of the $26 million needed to be reduced this year to continue operations and that contract negotiations must be sped up to get the other half from the 600 unionized workers. “We have to reduce our cost structure and the only missing link is the contribution of the employees,” Jamet told The Gazette. She said the main issue is the 32-hour, four-day work week that the company wants changed to 35 hours over five days because of the expense of extra staff for that fifth day. That move would likely result in the loss of about 100 jobs, but Jamet added retirements and voluntary departures could reduce the number of layoffs. Crevier, also president of Gesca Ltée – the Power Corp. of Canada subsidiary that owns and publishes La Presse and other French-language papers in the province and Ontario – listed what was done to cut $13 million: • Ceased publication of its Sunday paper June 28 • Reduced the size of the paper to reduce paper costs • Put a voluntary departure program in place • Concluded agreements with financial institutions for new financing, including to cover the “seriously underfunded” pension plan. He first announced to employees in June that, facing an anticipated $215 million deficit by 2013, the paper was seeking to cut costs by $26 million annually over the next five years. It was at that meeting the decision on the Sunday paper was made known. Union leader Hélène De Guise said the longer work week is one of the items being negotiated as well as the possibility of trimming employees’ vacation time. But she added the bargaining team wants to further analyze Crevier’s pronouncement before making any further comments. The last collective agreement expired Dec. 31. Crevier ended his missive stating: “The future of La Presse, your future, is in your hands. It’s up to you to decide.” Jamet, also spokesperson for Gesca, said the measures being taken at La Presse presently have no effect on the chain’s other dailies: Le Soleil in Quebec City, La Tribune in Sherbrooke, Le Nouvelliste in Trois-Rivières, La Voix de l’Est in Granby, Le Quotidien in Saguenay and Le Droit in Ottawa. It is up to the publishers at each of those papers to identify how to cut their costs, she added. In July, the Boston Globe’s union approved a package of $10 million in wage and benefits cuts after owner The New York Times had threatened earliler this year to close New England’s biggest paper unless major concessions were made. The same thing happened at the San Francisco Chronicle in March in order to avoid being closed by the Hearst Corp. mking@thegazette.canwest.com © Copyright © The Montreal Gazette

Daimler to close St. Thomas, Ont., plant The Canadian Press October 14, 2008 at 1:30 PM EDT ST. THOMAS, Ont. — Daimler AG is ending truck production at plants in southwestern Ontario and Oregon and cutting 2,300 jobs as the German automaker tries to cope with depressed demand for its heavy vehicles. The closure of the St. Thomas assembly plant, announced Tuesday, will see the loss of another 700 jobs and is the latest blow to hit Canada's manufacturing sector, centred in Ontario and Quebec. A local business leader in St. Thomas said people are “just reeling” from the planned shutdown in the community, which has already seen cuts at a local Ford Canada auto assembly plant and recent layoffs at Magna-owned Formet Industries and 3M in London. “It spins through the entire region,” said Bob Hammersley, general manager of the St. Thomas and District Chamber of Commerce. Videos 00:01:42 GM closes plants in Wisconsin, Michigan General Motors Corp.'s efforts to hoard cash and outlast a prolonged economic slump claimed the jobs of more than 2,700 workers Monday “About 700 workers are directly affected,” but a “lot of suppliers will be affected by the news. The jobs that are going to be lost are not just jobs that are in the city of St. Thomas, but they extend through the entire region.” Blue-collar industries in Canada have seen thousands of jobs wiped out because of the restructuring auto industry, the high value of the loonie in the last two years and the slump in the United States economy, which has cut demand for Canadian-built cars and trucks. In recent months, General Motors, Deere & Co., Volvo and other industrial companies have cut jobs and announced plans to shut down plants in southern Ontario. Earlier Tuesday, Daimler announced in Germany that its North American truck division will drop its Sterling brand and end truck production in St. Thomas next March, when the company's current agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers union expires. However, the German company said it will make additions to its Freightliner and Western Star truck operations to cover the markets for those brands. Daimler Trucks North America will also close its Portland, Ore. truck plant in June 2010, when current contracts there expire. The company said Western Star production will shift to a plant in Santiago, Mexico, while Freightliner-brand military vehicles will be produced at one of its factories in the Carolinas by mid-2010. Daimler said about 2,300 workers at St. Thomas and Portland will be affected by mid-2010.That includes previously announced layoffs of 720 workers at the Ontario plant, whose jobs will go next month. The company also plans to cut its administrative workforce by about 1,200 — with more than half of those directly related to the Sterling brand. A voluntary separation program will be offered. Ken Lewenza, president of the Canadian Auto Workers union, said the plant closure will mean the loss of 1,300 jobs, including workers who will be laid off Nov. 4, and will deal a huge blow to St. Thomas. “This is another example of the loss of hundreds of highly skilled, family supporting jobs which cannot be replaced by the slew of recently created part-time jobs,” said Mr. Lewenza. Last week, Statistics Canada reported creation of 107,000 jobs in the economy in September, but nine in 10 of those were part time. Daimler said in a statement that the truck restructuring plans were drawn up “in response to continuing depressed demand across the industry and structural changes in the company's core markets.” “We are confident that this forward-looking strategy for (Daimler Trucks North America) is the right measure to address the challenges in the North American market,” said Andreas Renschler, the Daimler board member responsible for the truck operation. During a telephone conference call, Mr. Renschler stressed that “we can't wait for a government bailout with taxpayer money.” “We have to act now,” he said. “And that's exactly what we're doing.” The St. Thomas cuts are in addition to the 720 workers already scheduled to be laid off next month with the elimination of one of the plant's last two shifts. Daimler laid off 600 people at the St. Thomas plant last year when the first of three shifts was cut. The plant produces a range of medium- and heavy-duty trucks and once employed more than 2,200 people. With the U.S. economy headed towards recession, demand for heavy trucks used for shipping and other purposes has dropped sharply. Mr. Hammersley said despite the bad layoff news, there are “other dimensions of transportation employment” that St. Thomas could pursue. “We could look at aerospace, we could look at aircraft manufacturing, rail car manufacturing — not just things that are on rubber tires.” Daimler said the truck unit expects to strengthen its position on the North American commercial vehicle market by “concentrating the company's considerable technical and marketing resources on a more focused model lineup.” The company said it expects the changes to improve the truck unit's earnings by $900-million (U.S.) a year by 2011. Daimler shares rose 4.9 per cent at €27.49 euros in trading on the Frankfurt stock market.

Bachand attacks Feds over funding cut Don Macdonald, The Gazette Published: Wednesday, June 04 Quebec's economic development minister is on the warpath over federal funding cuts to about 60 non-profit organizations involved in economic development across the province. Raymond Bachand said he's been unable to persuade federal minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn to reconsider the cuts so now he's taking the battle public. Bachand said the policy will damage the province's economy and called for the intervention of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "This is going to be a political fight," he said in an interview. "It's a bad policy of that minister. And, at the end of the day, it's a bad policy of the government if the prime minister does not intervene to change that policy, or change the minister." The federal agency is eliminating operating grants over three years to non-profit organizations across a wide swath of sectors including such groups as Montréal International, the Quebec Film and Television Council, Aéro Montreal, Institut National d'Optique and Fur Council of Canada, according to a list provided by Bachand's office. Bachand said the organizations play an important role in developing the economy. They bring companies, government and research centres around the same table and work together on common initiatives such as marketing campaigns and making international contacts, he said. The mininster calculated the cuts will total between $20 million and $30 million by the third year. "It doesn't make sense," Bachand said. "You need people do that job. It's part of the infrastructure...How do you make progress without having the specific players of an industry around the table and developing business plans?" A Blackburn aide said the economic development agency is eliminating its funding for operating budgets to redirect the money to assisting small and medium-sized businesses "that are in a position to actually create jobs." Pierre Miquelon, a senior adviser to Blackburn, said about 70 per cent of the agency's budget has been going to the non-profits and it's time for the companies in the different sectors to pony up more money to support the groups if they believe it's deserved. "Maybe it's time that the community pays for the operations of the non-profit in question," Miquelon said. "If the community will not provide the cash for operating costs why should the Canadian taxpayer do so?" He added the agency will continue to subsidize organizations for individual projects with "a beginning, a middle and an end." But Bachand suggested there's a political motive behind the cuts. "Politicians like to give money and have their picture in newspapers," he said. "And if you give money to Montréal International and these groups...you don't get your photo in the newspaper." Hans Fraiken, head of the Quebec Film and Television Council, said his organization, which promotes Quebec as a shooting location, has lost $400,000 in federal funding plus another $200,000 in municipal money that was contingent on it. Those cuts, on a $1.5 million budget, may force the closure of the two-year-old organization that Fraiken said brought $260 million in foreign capital to the province last year and generated $12 million to $14 million in federal revenue. Alan Herscovici, executive vice president of the Fur Council of Canada, said Blackburn's agency cut $50,000 in funding to promote the annual North American Fur and Fashion Exposition in Montreal to foreign buyers. Bachand's department ended up replacing the federal funding but Herscovici questioned the wisdom of the cuts for what is the largest fashion trade show in Canada. "We know that manufacturers are under siege with the rise of the Canadian dollar and the weakening U.S. economy," said Hersovici, who noted the Fur Council receives federal funding for other initiatives. "In supporting the show they support all the manufacturers. They don't have to pick winners and losers." "It's a small investment to help a lot of people." dmacdonald@thegazette.canwest.com http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/business/story.html?id=473e52e9-b789-4f48-9cee-b296c5b86cfe