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Affichage des résultats pour les étiquettes 'green'.
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http://www.montrealmirror.com/wp/2010/09/16/news/tacofying-city-hall/ YESSSSSSSS PLEEEEEEEEAAAAAASE!
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Enjoy! Compliments of: Le Triomphe, Montreal, scale 1:87 *************************************************** CITÉ NATURE, Montréal, scale 1:87 ********************************************** DOWNTOWN MONTRÉAL, scale 1:1000 Some buildings in green...maybe some day they will rise.
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Cavendish LRT Van Horne LRT ??? LRT (NDG/CDG LRT) - Splits into two. Parc LRT I did not have a chance to extend the green line more west or any other LRT lines.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/travel/montreal-green-alleyways-take-visitors-backstage.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1
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Mon premier tour d'hélicoptère... malheureusement il y avait beaucoup de smog/humidité et ça rendais la prise de photo pénible... sans compter l'espace très restreint pour manœuvrer une grosse Canon 5D MK3. Certaines photos donnent l'impression d'une aquarelle à cause de la pollution. On a aussi eus une permission spéciale de faire un 360 autour du centre ville, le pilote l'as demandé puisqu'il voyait que je prenais des photos :-) Je vais sûrement refaire le tour une journée moins humide pour avoir de meilleures photos. Here's my helicopter by Malek Racho, on Flickr Montreal's suburb - pool paradise by Malek Racho, on Flickr Montreal's suburb - pool paradise by Malek Racho, on Flickr Montreal's suburb - pool paradise by Malek Racho, on Flickr Montreal's suburb - pool paradise by Malek Racho, on Flickr St-Laurence river by Malek Racho, on Flickr Hazy downtown Montreal by Malek Racho, on Flickr Notre-Dame boulevard and Montreal port by Malek Racho, on Flickr Montreal density by Malek Racho, on Flickr Olympic stadium by Malek Racho, on Flickr Olympic stadium by Malek Racho, on Flickr Olympic Stadium by Malek Racho, on Flickr Montreal's biodome by Malek Racho, on Flickr Olympic Stadium by Malek Racho, on Flickr Montreal's density by Malek Racho, on Flickr A green oasis in Montreal's density by Malek Racho, on Flickr University of Montreal campus by Malek Racho, on Flickr University of Montreal campus by Malek Racho, on Flickr MUHC and Turcot interchange by Malek Racho, on Flickr MUHC and Turcot interchange by Malek Racho, on Flickr Downtown Montreal by Malek Racho, on Flickr Downtown Montreal by Malek Racho, on Flickr Downtown Montreal by Malek Racho, on Flickr Downtown Montreal by Malek Racho, on Flickr Construction frenzy around the Bell Center by Malek Racho, on Flickr Downtown Montreal by Malek Racho, on Flickr Downtown Montreal by Malek Racho, on Flickr Downtown Montreal by Malek Racho, on Flickr Downtown Montreal by Malek Racho, on Flickr
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Westmount needs you! With this mailing, we are appealing to your civic duty. We need your input on the most important project the City of Westmount has put forward in its long history: the rebuilding of the Westmount arena and pool. Council would like to proceed with this project, but only if a majority of taxpayers is behind it. It is your money, after all, that will help pay for it. I shall not pretend that the history of this rebuilding project so far has been a smooth one. Mind you, nor was the struggle to restore and expand the Westmount Library in the 1990s, but it was a project most citizens became very proud of. Your Council feels this same success can be repeated with the arena/pool project. But only if it is a rallying point and not a focus of division and rancour. There were two separate designs suggested for the arena/pool project by the previous Council during 2009. A great deal of work went into these proposals, but they received mixed reviews in a series of public meetings. The whole of Westmount, however, was never canvassed. The new Council, since its election in November 2009, has been working on ways to address the objections raised by citizens to the prior proposals. Objectors fell into two broad camps: people in the neighbourhood saw the new arena as a massive intrusion, a wall 30 feet high by 500 feet long from St Catherine Street to de Maisonneuve, jutting into Westmount Park; meanwhile, the pool itself ate up precious green space. For the rest of Westmount, concerns had more to do with the cost: do we really need to go from one-and-one-half to two rinks? Why can’t we just fix up the existing arena? Others felt we needed an indoor pool more than a replication of our current sports mix. The cost concerns were substantially mitigated by the crowning achievement of my predecessor Mayor Karin Marks: she managed, by dint of incredible perseverance - and the help of Jacques Chagnon, our local MNA - to get $20 million of infrastructure grants for the project. It is Canada’s and Quebec’s contribution that allows us to build a $37 million arena/pool complex that will cost Westmounters $17 million. In fact, the cost to taxpayers will probably be closer to $12 million, thanks to contributions from Westmount schools, foundations, and private donors. This cost translates into an additional $200 a year in taxes for the average single-family dwelling. What about the neighbours and the sheer bulk of the arena? Well, if we had to describe the essence of our city, we would surely be torn between invoking Westmount’s unique architectural heritage and Westmount’s prized greenspace. This Council wants a project that respects both. We want the park to win the battle between it and the arena. We do not wish to plunk a massive piece of architecture down in an established greenspace. So we have gone underground. Council’s plan is to bury the ice rinks, putting tennis courts and grass on top of them - creating the ultimate green roof. Skylights will bring in natural light. Only the entrance pavilion and Teen Centre will be above-ground. more pics and full desc. http://www.westmount.org/pdf_files/ArenaPool_Proposal.pdf
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GOOD: City Index 2014 - #12 - Montreal, Canada Canada’s cool kid grows up
un sujet a posté jesseps dans L'actualité
#12 - Montreal (Courtesy of GOOD) Read more The 50 cities they selected are quite interesting; #1 Hong Kong, #2 Johannesburg and #3 Mexico City. -
Green Mountain to boost Montreal operations with as much as $50M investment
un sujet a posté Habfanman dans L'actualité
Nicolas Van Praet, Financial Post · Jun. 6, 2013 | Last Updated: Jun. 6, 2013 2:23 PM ET MONTREAL • Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. is revamping its Canadian manufacturing operations in Montreal as investors savour a tripling in the company’s shares over the past year. The Waterbury, Vt.-based company, which bought Quebec coffee chain Van Houtte in 2010, will announce Friday a $40-million to $50-million investment to modernize its plant in Montreal’s Saint Michel neighbourhood with new packaging equipment, two sources said. More than 100 new jobs will be created in the move. It’s all part of a larger effort by Green Mountain Canada President Sylvain Toutant to fortify and grow the company’s presence in Montreal since the $915-million takeover three years ago. Building on initial moves to purchase property around the company’s Van Houtte coffee facility in the city’s north end and to occupy a new country head office, Mr. Toutant is now expanding the Montreal manufacturing operations. “This is really a great piece of news for a neighbourhood that badly needs it,” said Frantz Benjamin, the municipal councillor representing the district, adding the company’s modernization is only the first phase of what could be a larger economic development project for the neighbourhood. Related “In the medium term, we’d really like to develop an entire Quartier du Café (Coffee District) in the area,” anchored around Green Mountain, he said. Montreal has other geographical clusters of business activity, but this one in Saint Michel’s industrial district would be among the more remote. The coffee maker sought financial support from the Quebec government for the manufacturing modernization, which it is believed to have won. The funds would be used to add a production line in Saint Michel and diversify commercial activities, the company said in a filing with Quebec’s lobbyist registry. Shares of Green Mountain rose 3% to $74.68 in Nasdaq trading Thursday. They’ve more than tripled over the past year. In December, Mr. Toutant articulated a three-year plan for Green Mountain’s Montreal site to add 50,000 square feet of production space, boost the payroll by 150 workers to 1,000, and refurbish the roasting plant. The site currently encompases the head office, a roasting factory and two distribution warehouses. Green Mountain dominates the single-serve coffee market in the United States with its Keurig-brand coffee makers and K-Cup pods, making money from most of the coffee sold for those machines. The company lost more than two-thirds of its market value during the year ending last October, but has since staged a remarkable recovery, proving that despite the expiry of its K-Cup design patents it can still generate earnings growth. Green Mountain’s product innovation will be an important performance driver in the years ahead, Imperial Capital analyst Mitchell Pinheiro said in a research note Thursday, initiating coverage on the shares with an outperform rating and $95 price target. “We believe the company’s potential on the cold beverage side of the at-home beverage category could create an opportunity that is as large, if not larger, than its current coffee, tea and hot cocoa segment,” Mr. Pinheiro said, forecasting earnings per share growth of 15-25% over the next three years. http://www.nationalpost.com/Green+Mountain+boost+Montreal+operations+with+much+investment/8490304/story.html -
How a Montreal company won the race to build the world's cheapest tablet
un sujet a posté Habfanman dans L'actualité
IAIN MARLOW From Friday's Globe and Mail Published Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011 6:40PM EST Last updated Monday, Jan. 02, 2012 12:32PM EST http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/how-a-montreal-company-won-the-race-to-build-the-worlds-cheapest-tablet/article2282337/ Fantastic story! [...] "Datawind’s main office is located in a bland concrete tower block on René-Lévesque Ouest in downtown Montreal. There’s no sign of the company in the building lobby. The only indication of Datawind’s presence is a white sheet of paper taped to an 11th-floor door that reads, “Datawind Net Access Corporation.” Even that had only been posted for the benefit of a visitor. Behind the door, around 50 of the company’s 150 employees—many of them engineers—toil and tinker with motherboards and mobile operating systems. Datawind was founded in 2000 by Suneet and his brother, Raja, who is two years his senior and holds the title of chief technology officer. The pair have had modest success building and selling wireless devices like the PocketSurfer (a small, clamshell mobile device) and the UbiSurfer (a mini-netbook), mainly in the United Kingdom for use on Vodafone Group’s network. The company has an office in London, and another in Amritsar, in the northern Indian state of Punjab, where it operates a call centre and handles some engineering, testing, accounting and HR duties. Although Suneet and his brother are Canadian citizens—born in India, they arrived when they were 12 and 14, respectively—Datawind is registered in the U.K. Suneet says this is largely because of Canada’s notoriously conservative venture capital market, the U.K.’s funding support for innovation and the fact that Canada’s wireless industry—dominated by just three companies—has had little incentive to supplement its own high-margin smartphones with the kinds of inexpensive Internet devices Datawind designs." [...] "Behind the paper sign on the door, and down a hallway lined with overflowing cardboard boxes, Datawind’s Montreal headquarters becomes a dizzying blur of after-hours engineering. It is the kind of scene more common to bootstrapping Silicon Valley start-ups than a decade-old company run by a pair of seasoned entrepreneurs who have already listed two companies on the NASDAQ. Technicians like Cezar Oprescu, a heavy-set Romanian who not only wears two collared shirts but two pairs of glasses at the same time (they double as a microscope), work in rotating shifts, some lasting more than 36 hours, at desks littered with soldering irons, spare computer parts, discarded motherboards and fast food wrappers. Their monitors flicker with the drip of neon green code that looks like something from The Matrix. While one staff member, seated at an impossibly cluttered desk, sets about re-engineering the piece of hardware responsible for receiving WiFi signals, a colleague, stationed just a few feet away, adjusts the software drivers that will interact with it. Elsewhere, programmers are still testing the code that dictates how the touchscreen user interface deals with the drivers. The pace is unrelenting. Not only are employees ordering in dinner, they’re ordering in breakfast, grappling in real time with the allergies and dietary restrictions of an incredibly diverse staff of Eastern Europeans, Indians, Chinese, Russians and French Canadians, several vegetarians and one person who is allergic to green peppers." [...] -
Traffic management: APPlied logic
un sujet a posté mtlurb dans Urbanisme, architecture et technologies urbaines
Traffic management APPlied logic Sep 13th 2011, 16:10 by The Economist online TRAFFIC lights are crucial tools for regulating traffic flow. They are not, however, perfect. Drivers exchange the gridlock that would happen at unmanaged junctions for a pattern of stop-go movement that can still be frustrating, and which burns more fuel than a smooth passage would. Creating such a smooth passage means adjusting a vehicle’s speed so that it always arrives at the lights when they are green. That is theoretically possible, but practically hard. Roadside signs wired to traffic lights can help get the message across a couple hundred metres from a junction, but such signs are expensive, and have not been widely deployed. Margaret Martonosi and Emmanouil Koukoumidis at Princeton University, and Li-Shiuan Peh at the Massachussets Institute of Technology, however, have an idea that could make the process cheaper and more effective. Instead of a hardwired network of signs, they propose to use mobile-phone apps. For a driver to benefit, he must load the team’s software, dubbed SignalGuru, into his phone and then mount it on a special bracket attached to the inside of his car’s windscreen, with the camera lens pointing forwards. SignalGuru is designed to detect traffic lights and track their status as red, amber or green. It broadcasts this information to other phones in the area that are fitted with the same software, and—if there are enough of them—the phones thus each know the status of most of the lights around town. Using this information, SignalGuru is able to calculate the traffic-light schedule for the region and suggest the speed at which a driver should travel in order to avoid running into red lights. Tests in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where five drivers were asked to follow the same route for three hours, and in Singapore, where eight drivers were asked to follow one of two routes for 30 minutes, revealed that SignalGuru was capable of predicting traffic-light activity with an accuracy of 98.2% and 96.3% respectively, in the two cities. This was particularly impressive because in Cambridge the lights shifted, roughly half-way through the test, from their off-peak schedule to their afternoon-traffic schedule, while in Singapore lights are adaptive, using detectors embedded under the road to determine how much traffic is around and thus when a signal should change. In neither case was SignalGuru fooled. Fuel consumption fell, too—by about 20%. SignalGuru thus reduces both frustration and fuel use, and makes commuting a slightly less horrible experience. -
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Heritage+building+revamped+LEED+certification/5397141/story.html#ixzz1XsiSv9iG
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Anyone who's sat at a red light for minutes on end in the middle of the night when there's no cross traffic can cheer on science for proving what we already knew: lights that adapt to the flow of traffic, instead of dictating the flow of traffic, can improve the flow of traffic. A team of researchers discovered that if you let lights locally decide how to time their signals based on how much traffic they're dealing with, and then communicate that with nearby lights, you get closer to the "green wave" of lights that keeps thing moving smoothly. The issue with the centralized, top-down system of control is that it is geared to address an average traffic situation that rarely occurs as planned. The variations in rush hour traffic mean that lights are trying to apply one solution to a vast number of situations. In their trial in Dresden, Germany the team found that traffic congestion was eased by nine percent, pedestrian congestion by 36 percent, and bus and tram traffic by 56 percent. With rush hours spreading in time and distance, the proof and implementation of this can't come soon enough. Blog: http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/23/study-traffic-lights-should-respond-to-cars-not-other-way-arou/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+weblogsinc/autoblog+(Autoblog) To tame traffic, go with the flow Lights should respond to cars, a study concludes, not the other way around By Rachel Ehrenberg Web edition : Friday, September 17th, 2010 Traffic lights that act locally can improve traffic globally, new research suggests. By minimizing congestion, the approach could save money, reduce emissions and perhaps even quash the road rage of frustrated drivers. The new approach makes traffic lights go with the flow, rather than enslaving drivers to the tyranny of timed signals. By measuring vehicle inflow and outflow through each intersection as it occurs and coordinating lights with only their nearest neighbors, a systemwide smoothness emerges, scientists report in a September Santa Fe Institute working paper. “It’s very interesting — the approach is adaptive and the system can react,” says mechanical engineer Gábor Orosz of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “That’s how it should be — that’s how we can get the most out of our current system.” An ultimate goal in traffic regulation is “the green wave,” the bam, bam, bam of greens that allows platoons of vehicles to move smoothly through intersection after intersection. When that happens, no drivers have to wait very long and sections of road don’t become so filled with cars that there’s no room for entering vehicles when the light does go green. To achieve this rare bliss, traffic lights usually are controlled from the top down, operating on an “optimal” cycle that maximizes the flow of traffic expected for particular times of day, such as rush hour. But even for a typical time on a typical day, there’s so much variability in the number of cars at each light and the direction each car takes leaving an intersection that roads can fill up. Combine this condition with overzealous drivers, and intersections easily become gridlocked. Equally frustrating is the opposite extreme, where a driver sits at a red light for minutes even though there’s no car in sight to take advantage of the intersecting green. “It is actually not optimal control, because that average situation never occurs,” says complex-systems scientist Dirk Helbing of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, a coauthor of the new study. “Because of the large variability in the number of cars behind each red light, it means that although we have an optimal scheme, it’s optimal for a situation that does not occur.” Helbing and his colleague Stefan Lämmer from the Dresden University of Technology in Germany decided to scrap the top-down approach and start at the bottom. They noted that when crowds of people are trying to move through a narrow space, such as through a door connecting two hallways, there’s a natural oscillation: A mass of people from one side will move through the door while the other people wait, then suddenly the flow switches direction. “It looks like maybe there’s a traffic light, but there’s not. It’s actually the buildup of pressure on the side where people have to wait that eventually turns the flow direction,” says Helbing. “We thought we could maybe apply the same principle to intersections, that is, the traffic flow controls the traffic light rather than the other way around.” Their arrangement puts two sensors at each intersection: One measures incoming flow and one measures outgoing flow. Lights are coordinated with every neighboring light, such that one light alerts the next, “Hey, heavy load coming through.” That short-term anticipation gives lights at the next intersection enough time to prepare for the incoming platoon of vehicles, says Helbing. The whole point is to avoid stopping an incoming platoon. “It works surprisingly well,” he says. Gaps between platoons are opportunities to serve flows in other directions, and this local coordination naturally spreads throughout the system. “It’s a paradoxical effect that occurs in complex systems,” says Helbing. “Surprisingly, delay processes can improve the system altogether. It is a slower-is-faster effect. You can increase the throughput — speed up the whole system — if you delay single processes within the system at the right time, for the right amount of time.” The researchers ran a simulation of their approach in the city center of Dresden. The area has 13 traffic light–controlled intersections, 68 pedestrian crossings, a train station that serves more than 13,000 passengers on an average day and seven bus and tram lines that cross the network every 10 minutes in opposite directions. The flexible self-control approach reduced time stuck waiting in traffic by 56 percent for trams and buses, 9 percent for cars and trucks, and 36 percent for pedestrians crossing intersections. Dresden is now close to implementing the new system, says Helbing, and Zurich is also considering the approach. Traffic jams aren’t just infuriating, they cost time and money, says Orosz. Estimates suggest that in one year, the U.S. driving population spends a cumulative 500,000 years in traffic at a cost of about $100 billion. And the roads are just going to get more congested. The optimal way of dealing with such congestion is to take an approach like Helbing’s and combine it with technologies that deal with driver behavior, Orosz says. Car sensors that detect the distance between your bumper and the car in front of you can prevent a sweep of brake-slamming that can tie up traffic, for example. “In general these algorithms improve traffic, but maybe not as much as they do on paper because we are still human,” he says. “It is still humans driving the cars.” http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/63481/title/To_tame_traffic,_go_with_the_flow -
Brick laying machine used for roads
un sujet a posté jesseps dans Urbanisme, architecture et technologies urbaines
[video=youtube;jkVBg_-OviI] (Courtesy of The Inhabitat) -
(Courtesy of CBC Montreal)
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West Island green space sale raises concern The wooded area extends from Cap-Saint-Jacques nature park in Pierrefonds alongside the l'Anse-a-l'Orme Park to Angell Woods in Beaconsfield. (CBC)A call for tenders for green space on Montreal's West Island has caught both environmental activists and government officials by surprise. Quebec's industrial development corporation, the Société générale de financement, which owns the land, has published ads in local papers seeking bids for the 98 hectares of land. The ads announce opportunities for residential and industrial construction. The wooded area extends from Cap-Saint-Jacques nature park in Pierrefonds alongside the l'Anse-a-l'Orme Park to Angell Woods in Beaconsfield. David Fletcher of the Green Coalition said he's worried the land - home to beavers, a herd of deer and rare species of plants and trees - will be spoiled. "We already have enough development," said Fletcher. "We already have enough strip malls. We don't have enough areas conserved." Local environmental groups and officials at the city of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue said they had been told at one time the land would be turned into a conservation area. "When we saw the ad in the paper, we thought, obviously we've been lied to perhaps," said Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Coun. Ryan Young.David Fletcher of the Green Coalition says the land should be preserved.David Fletcher of the Green Coalition says the land should be preserved. (CBC) The city had been planning to change zoning bylaws on its portion of the land this fall, said Young. But some worry it could be too late. A spokesperson for Quebec Environment Minister Line Beauchamp confirmed the ministry had hoped to turn the land into a conservation area. He said she is not happy about the decision to sell it. "I think that speaks volumes," said Young. "I've been speaking to activists inside Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue and there's a move afoot to demonstrate … public support [to save the land]. Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/06/16/mtl-west-island-woods.html#ixzz0r77Ccrlu
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MONTREAL'S FIRST 100% GREEN CONDO AND TOWNHOUSE PROJECT Overview Located minutes from Montreal’s downtown core and the historic Atwater Market, Maison Productive House (MpH) is a contemporary, green living project that offers a contemporary architecture that makes sustainable urban living bountiful and verdant. At Maison Productive House empowers consumers to live intelligently. Maison Productive House offers you two housing choices to meet you specific needs, Condo and Townhouse. Each unity offers a contemporary and green design that is both rich in space and refined in its architecture. MpH residences offer a privileged, refined living environment, which is refined and avant-garde. MpH perpetuates the exceptional architectural style with the most advanced Green (sustainable living) elements. MpH is Montreal’s first ecological design that seeks carbon-neutrality and addresses various productive aspects of a responsible lifestyle: alternative energy, food garden, active transportation, more personal productivity and leisure time. Here are some of the design principles that inspired the vision for the MpH Its walking distance from Charlevoix metro station Amenities MpH is very green. Its infrastructure can contribute to the environment instead of being as drain upon it. Maison Productive House seeks a LEED® Platinum certification and follows zero-emission development (ZED) design principles. What is unique about the MpH project is that it is Novoclimat® certified, uses Solar Panel and Geo-thermal energy; includes EnergyStar® appliances, dual-flush toilets and radiant heated floors. Additional examples of this unique project include: Onsite garden Custom-built doors kitchens and stairways using FSC or reclaimed wood or bottles No use of VOC products in lacquers, and natural fibers wherever possible (insulation, wall structure). Social and productive spaces, mixing ecological and social functions, such as: its year-round greenhouse, sauna, meditation room, and laundry room recovering grey waters and balcony. The sauna is strategically placed to allow for voluntary heat loss that directly will benefit the otherwise passively heated (solar) greenhouse. The greenhouse is supplied with recouped rainwater and filtered gray water for irrigation. Other amenities include: - Attention to linkages between outdoor and indoor spaces with the innovation of SunSpaces and ample roof, garden and balcony spaces for social interaction and growing. - Artisan bakery integrated into the residential development - Creation of possible income-streams to owners through rental spaces - Proximity to public transportation and the provision of a shared car service - Both inside and outside the greenhouse, the roof is maximized for growing vegetables. Cold-frames are integrated in the roof balustrade with seasonal covers to extend the growing season. - This social gathering area will have all the amenities for Bar-B-Qs, sun-bathing and gardening. - The Sauna uses an electrically-powered design which utilizes pine wood and is large enough for 4-6 people. - In addition to the roof greenhouse, every owner has their own private plot for growing fruits and vegetables in the garden as well as access to a fruit orchard and a herbal garden. - Water filtration systems: Units 2,4 and laundry room have recycled gray waters. Also personal units are supplied with carbon filters in the kitchen counters to provide the cleanest possible drinking water. backview They say they have 55% sold. It seems like they have 3-4 condos [only 1 left] (each are 3.5 equalling 809 sq.ft) and there is 4 townhouses [only 2 left] PDF File
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The sale of a rare community garden in the heart of the Montreal's red light district has angered Montrealers who rely on the land. In early April the City of Montreal's executive committee approved the sale of a 14-plot community garden on Berger Street, just east of Saint-Laurent Boulevard and north of René-Lévesque Boulevard to a numbered company for the construction of luxury condominiums. The move has angered people who have plots on the site and were about to start planting this season. Kathleen McMeekin from the St. Jacques Eco Quartier, said the land is vital to people in the area. She said the sale of it sends a wrong message to Montrealers looking to participate in community and green initiatives. While McMeekin said people from Berger Street have been told they can plant at the nearby community garden at Habitations Jeanne-Mance, space there is limited and there is already a long waiting list to get in there, she said "We're destroying again more green space in the centre of Montreal and we're also taking away garden space from people I think really need to have a place to garden and get fresh food in the city," McMeekin told CBC News. Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/04/19/montreal-community-garden-condo.html#ixzz0laBXsEio
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About time. I really like those "test" street signs. They look great! I think I prefer the Green ones though. Green ones (from http://www.flickr.com/photos/montrealstreetsigns/460880559/)
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Tensions build over Roxboro high-rise project by Raffy Boudjikanian Article online since November 24th 2009, 13:00 Holly Arsenault shows the property line dividing her land from that of a developer whose potential project leaves many on Fifth Avenue North in Roxboro unhappy. Chronicle, Raffy Boudjikanian. Tensions build over Roxboro high-rise project Even as some residents of Fifth Avenue North in Roxboro, a dead-end street lined with single-unit bungalows, are concerned over the possible development of a multiple-storey condo at the end of their street, Pierrefonds officials at a lively public meeting last Wednesday night were at pains to explain nothing could move ahead yet. "Before the project can be accepted or acceptable, the developer must present plans that conform to our legislation. For now, that isn't the case yet," said Pierre Rochon, urban planning and business services department director, in answer to citizen questions. However, residents are concerned after seeing land surveyors walk into the swampy wooded area over the last few weeks. Holly Arsenault, who lives in a home right on the property line of the area, even said one of them told her the owner, Jacob Wolofsky, has already acquired all necessary permits and construction will begin in February. "If that's true, he's dreaming in colour," Rochon replied. When The Chronicle went to visit the street last Thursday, Arsenault showed a row of rocks that separates her yard from Wolofsky's property. Planted alongside both sides of that makeshift border are 45 trees, which Arsenault said play a large role in keeping her home from flooding when nearby Rivière des Prairies rises in the spring. "He said he's going to cut them down," Arsenault said, adding about half of them are on the developer's side. Another Fifth Avenue North resident, France Marsant, voiced her displeasure at the Wednesday meeting too. "Our street had a very peaceful, very calm character," she said. "We find it unthinkable to have a big block of eight floors on the street, which could lead to 300 cars going into the street by the summer." Borough Mayor Monique Worth insisted Pierrefonds was doing all in its power to ensure legal norms force the developer to create a reasonable project. "Our norms are getting higher and higher," she said. Rochon said previous bylaws allowed a 12-storey high project on the site, but the borough's revisions have already cut that size down to eight. At least one resident of the street was skeptical anything could be built at all. "I wouldn't even invest a cent into that land, it's a swamp," said Michel Davuluy, who has been living there for several years. After the meeting, Worth conceded the city of Montreal would, in an ideal world, like to buy up that land and turn into green space. "I think, in a way, we would like it to be a part of green space that would start, let's say, west of the Rapides du Cheval Blanc and end with that piece of property," Worth said. "But we can't force him to sell at a lower price because we would like to. It's up to him, it's his decision," she said. Though the land is valuated at about $188,000, a purchase by Montreal would cost millions because it is a public body, Worth said. Montreal had a right of expropriation on the property in question up to last May, but did not renew it after it expired, Marsant mentioned at the meeting. Wolofsky did not return calls for comment.
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Par Radio-Canada, http://www.radio-canada.ca, Mis à jour le: 11 mars 2010 07:01 Hydro-Québec - Le Vermont veut renouveler son contrat La corporation américaine Green Mountain Power, du Vermont, serait sur le point d'annoncer une nouvelle entente avec la société d'État québécoise, selon plusieurs médias américains. Hydro-Québec - Le Vermont veut renouveler son contrat La corporation américaine Green Mountain Power, du Vermont, serait sur le point de conclure une nouvelle entente avec Hydro-Québec pour l'achat d'électricité, selon des médias américains. Le porte-parole de l'entreprise américaine, Robert Dostis, a précisé qu'une annonce officielle sera faite jeudi. Des représentants de Green Mountain Power et de Central Vermont Public Service Corporation sont à Québec depuis mercredi, rapportent des médias américains. Les négociations auraient commencé il y a plus d'un an. Le premier ministre du Québec, Jean Charest, doit rencontrer son homologue du Vermont, le gouverneur James H. Douglas, jeudi. Une « annonce en matière d'énergie » est d'ailleurs prévue au programme de M. Charest, notamment avec le PDG d'Hydro-Québec, Thierry Vandal. « Nous renégocions un contrat [en vigueur depuis] 20 ans, ce qui est un gros accord pour les deux parties », a confirmé M. Charest dans une interview avec une chaîne de télévision américaine mercredi soir. Un fournisseur pourrait disparaître Le Vermont est déjà un client d'Hydro-Québec. Il achète environ le tiers de son électricité à la société d'État, soit environ 310 mégawatts à 6,5 ¢US le kilowattheure, selon le Rutland Herald. Outre Hydro-Québec, la Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station fournit un autre tiers de l'électricité à cet État américain. Mais le sénat du Vermont a récemment voté la fermeture de cette centrale, dont la licence expire en 2012. Quant au contrat avec Hydro-Québec, il se termine en 2015. Le représentant démocrate Tony Klein a déclaré que cette entente était « extrêmement importante » pour le Vermont. « C'est une grande source fiable d'énergie sans émission de carbone », a-t-il ajouté. Il s'attend à une extension du contrat de 10 ans, voire 20. M. Klein tente de faire passer une loi qui accorderait le qualificatif de renouvelable à l'hydroélectricité québécoise, à condition qu'Hydro-Québec s'engage pour 10 ans ou plus, selon la radio publique du Vermont. Radio-Canada.ca avec Associated Press
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that's an interesting line and i agree that both of these areas could use better access to rapid transit. that said, you've probably already seen my take on it, as seen here in it's latest revision (!!!!) : the white line forking off of the green routes north of frontenac serves to irrigate the eastern end of the plateau area, connecting the nord-east of montreal-north & rdp through pie-ix. oh and wouldn't you know it, there is a subway+tram station just east of d'Iberville of course this doesn't do much for the western end of the plateau / mile-end district, but i do believe that both the parc avenue & st-joseph blvd tram routes proposed on my plan would more than bridge the gap between the different subway routes surrounding the area (and you can count 5 of them, which isn't bad at all). they'd also promote short distance commuting within those neighborhoods. rosey12387, got more routes? i'm always curious to see the works of others
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Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- New York’s biggest banks and securities firms may relinquish 8 million square feet of office space this year, deepening the worst commercial property slump in more than a decade as they abandon a record amount of property. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and industry rivals have vacated 4.6 million feet, a figure that may climb by another 4 million as businesses leave or sublet space they no longer need, according CB Richard Ellis Group Inc., the largest commercial property broker. Banks, brokers and insurers have fired more than 177,000 employees in the Americas as the recession and credit crisis battered balance sheets. Financial services firms occupy about a quarter of Manhattan’s 362 million square feet of office space and account for almost 40 percent now available for sublease, CB Richard Ellis data show. “Entire segments of the industry are gone,” said Marisa Di Natale, a senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “We’re talking about the end of 2012 before things actually start to turn up again for the New York office market.” The amount of available space may reach 15.6 percent by the end of the year, the most since 1996, according to Los Angeles- based CB Richard Ellis. Vacancies are already the highest since 2004 and rents are down 5 percent, the biggest drop in at least two decades. In 2003, the city had 14.8 million square feet available for sublease. If financial firms give up as much as CB Richard Ellis expects, that record will be broken. ‘Wild Card’ CB Richard Ellis’s figures don’t include any space Bank of America may relinquish at the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan, where Merrill Lynch & Co., the securities firm it acquired last month, occupies 2.8 million square feet. Brookfield Properties Inc., the second-biggest owner of U.S. office buildings by square footage, owns the Financial Center. Merrill “is a wild card right now,” said Robert Stella, principal at Boston-based real estate brokerage CresaPartners. Manhattan’s availability rate -- vacancies plus occupied space that is on the market -- was 12.3 percent at the end of January, up more than 50 percent compared with a year earlier and almost 9 percent from December, according to CB Richard Ellis. Commercial real estate prices dropped almost 15 percent last year, more than U.S. house prices, Moody’s Investors Service said in a Feb. 19 report. The decline returned values to 2005 levels, according to the Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Indexes. SL Green The Bloomberg Office REIT Index fell 25 percent since the start of January, with SL Green Realty, the biggest owner of Manhattan skyscrapers, slumping 50 percent. Vornado Realty Trust, whose buildings include One and Two Penn Plaza in Midtown, has fallen 36 percent. SL Green of New York gets 41 percent of its revenue from financial firms, including 13 percent from Citigroup, according to its Web site. Bank of America plans to give up 530,000 square feet at 9 West 57th St. as it completes a move to 1 Bryant Park. New York- based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is leaving 1.3 million square feet of offices at 1 New York Plaza and 77 Water St. as it prepares to move to new headquarters near the World Trade Center site. JPMorgan put 320,000 square feet of Park Avenue offices on the market after scooping up rival Bear Stearns Cos. last year along with the company’s 45-story headquarters tower at 383 Madison Ave. Citigroup has put 11 floors, or 326,000 square feet, on the market at the 59-story Citigroup Center at Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street, bank spokesman Jon Diat said in an e-mail. The tower is owned by Mortimer Zuckerman’s Boston Properties Inc. Moving Out “We’ve been having conversations for two and a half years with Citigroup, and it’s been very clear to us that for the right economic transaction, they would move out of virtually any space in midtown Manhattan that they have,” Boston Properties President Douglas Linde said on a conference call last month. Boston Properties is also expecting to receive about 490,000 square feet back from Lehman Brothers at 399 Park Ave. as part of the bank’s liquidation. That space “will be a monumental challenge” to fill, said Michael Knott, senior analyst at Newport Beach, California-based Green Street Advisors. “They’re going to have to really bend over backwards on rate, or make the strategic decision to sit on it for an extended period of time.” Zuckerman said in an interview he doesn’t expect the increase in sublets to be a long-term problem for landlords. “You’re not going to be able to get for the space what you were able to get a year ago,” he said. “But in a year or two, in my judgment, the space will be absorbed.” Future Forecast Landlords must be prepared for a slow recovery, said Di Natale of Moody’s Economy.com. Commercial vacancy rates climbed for almost a year and a half after the last recession ended in late 2001. Still, CB Richard Ellis Tri-State Chairman Robert Alexander said New York’s financial community will regenerate. “In the late ‘80s, we lost Drexel Burnham Lambert and we lost Salomon Brothers, and we lost Thomson McKinnon,” Alexander said. “New York City survived.”
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Ex-Technoparc: la facture de la Ville continue d'augmenter
un sujet a posté ErickMontreal dans L'actualité
Publié le 16 février 2009 à 05h00 | Mis à jour à 10h37 Ex-Technoparc: la facture de la Ville continue d'augmenter Martin Croteau La Presse Depuis qu'elle a acquis le terrain de l'ex-Technoparc à la fin des années 80, la Ville de Montréal a dépensé 5 millions pour capter les substances toxiques qui coulent dans le fleuve, sans jamais réussir à décontaminer les sols une fois pour toutes. Le parc d'entreprises de Pointe-Saint-Charles continue de coûter une fortune à Montréal, et la Ville ne sait toujours pas comment décontaminer ce vaste terrain une fois pour toutes. La semaine dernière, le comité exécutif a débloqué 107 000 $ supplémentaires pour capter les substances toxiques qui coulent dans le fleuve, portant ses dépenses à plus de 5 millions depuis que la Ville a acquis le terrain à la fin des années 80. Ce dernier investissement servira à redéployer un système de flotteurs sur la rive du Saint-Laurent pendant la fonte des glaces. Le dispositif permettra de récupérer des matières toxiques qui coulent dans le fleuve et de les éliminer. «La Ville de Montréal, par souci de protéger l'environnement, encourra des frais additionnels pour maintenir les estacades et les boudins, de manière à capter au maximum les hydrocarbures, pour minimiser la perturbation», a expliqué le responsable de l'environnement au comité exécutif, Alan DeSousa. L'emplacement, autrefois appelé Technoparc, a déjà été une vaste gare de triage ferroviaire et il a aussi servi de dépotoir. Il contient entre 4 et 8 millions de litres de diesel, ainsi qu'une à deux tonnes de biphényles polychlorés (BPC). Des traces de ce produit hautement toxique ont été trouvées dans le fleuve à plusieurs kilomètres en aval. Alan DeSousa estime que Montréal a dépensé entre 5 et 6 millions pour étudier le problème et contrôler les déversements toxiques depuis qu'elle a acquis ces terrains des gouvernements fédéral et provincial. «On n'a réglé aucun problème, admet-il. On a seulement acquitté nos obligations environnementales avec ce terrain qu'on avait pris de bonne foi, mais qui venait avec de lourdes responsabilités dont la Ville n'avait pas été avertie.» Une étude de la Commission de coopération environnementale, l'organisme nord-américain de surveillance de l'environnement, a souligné l'an dernier qu'Ottawa savait depuis le début des années 80 que les terrains recelaient des substances toxiques. Montréal a renoncé à toute réclamation auprès des vendeurs lorsqu'elle les a acquis. La Ville a récemment investi 400 000$ dans un projet pilote pour décontaminer le sol en y plantant des arbres. Elle a commandé l'an dernier une étude de 1,5 million au Centre d'excellence de Montréal en réhabilitation de sites (CEMRS) pour qu'il lui propose des technologies pour restaurer le parc industriel une fois pour toutes. L'organisme doit lui rendre son rapport d'ici la fin du mois. Alan DeSousa espère que les résultats lui permettront de mettre en branle le projet de 70 millions le plus vite possible afin de profiter des programmes d'infrastructures annoncés dans le budget du gouvernement Harper. «Mais même avec ce rapport, ne vous attendez pas à ce que, du jour au lendemain, on puisse corriger la situation avec une baguette magique, a-t-il indiqué. Ce n'est pas réaliste. Mais au moins, si on a cette solution, ça nous donne espoir qu'on peut adopter des mesures concrètes.» La Ville accusée d'inaction Pourtant, le temps presse, dénoncent les écologistes. Le toxicologue Daniel Green, de la Société pour vaincre la pollution, estime que la Ville, par son inaction au fil des ans, est devenue l'un des principaux pollueurs aux BPC du Canada. Il affirme qu'elle s'est traîné les pieds pendant si longtemps qu'il envisage de la traîner en cour. «On est en train de ramasser notre preuve pour être capables d'intervenir, a-t-il expliqué. On parle à des avocats pour voir quelle pourrait être l'avenue juridique. Parce qu'il est clair que ni le fédéral ni la province ne vont poursuivre la Ville de Montréal.» Peu importe le résultat de l'étude du CEMRS, la Ville sait déjà comment réhabiliter le sol de l'ex-Technoparc, poursuit M. Green. Selon lui, il faut drainer l'eau souterraine qui coule vers le fleuve, poser un mur souterrain afin d'encercler le site contaminé et empêcher les matériaux toxiques de s'écouler dans le fleuve à l'aide d'un autre mur. Ce n'est qu'une fois ces étapes terminées que la décontamination du site comme telle pourra débuter. Ce long processus a fait ses preuves ailleurs, soutient Daniel Green, mais la facture sera salée : au moins 100 millions de dollars. -
Canadian retail sales up in 2008: Report By Derek Abma, Canwest News ServiceJanuary 9, 2009 10:04 AM A report released Friday by Canada's largest processor of credit- and debit-card transactions indicates people were spending more money this past holiday season than the year before despite the downbeat economic environment. Moneris Solutions said its data for December sales indicates "resilience" in consumer spending last month and "dramatic growth" for certain categories, such as department stores and clothing retailers. Moneris said it processed two per cent more sales in all merchant categories in December compared with a year earlier. It said sales at department stores — which includes Wal-Mart and Zellers — were up nine per cent, and sales at apparel outlets were up six per cent. "Canadian consumers and retailers are owed a little bit of credit," said Brian Green, senior vice-president of Moneris Solutions. "Despite the inclement weather and despite all the noise about the economy, consumers went out and they bought more this year than they did last year, and retailers gave them a reason to do that." Green said retailers should be credited for their holiday sales performance because they responded to "a more difficult economy" by providing discounts, conducting successful promotions, and ensuring a positive experience for the people that came to their stores. He said in better economic times, the increase in holiday sales processed by Moneris has been as much as seven per cent. Richard Talbot, president of retail-analysis group Talbot Consultants, said he's not surprised by these numbers and never expected this past holiday season to be as bad as some expected. "I was not a great believer in the doom and gloom for Canada that we were led to believe in the media ahead of time because that wasn't the feedback I was getting from the retailers I deal with," he said. Talbot said the economic situation in Canada is not as dire as in the United States, though there could be more difficulties for domestic retailers in the coming year as the downturn for Canada's largest trading partner, the U.S., spills across the border. Moneris' figures for December showed sales for discount retailers, such as the various "dollar stores," were down 11 per cent from the year before. Moneris said it processed nine per cent less sales for wholesale outlets last month, a category that includes Costco. Green said it's possible the bargains being offered by department and specialty stores cut into some of the business for discount and wholesale outlets. Moneris said the average transaction value in December was three per cent less than a year before. Green said it was the first time Moneris, which has been doing these holiday-season comparisons for eight years, has seen a year-to-year decline in the average transaction amount. The company attributed this to a combination of discounting, lower gasoline prices and overall economic conditions. © Copyright © The Montreal Gazette
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Le Canadien Pacifique élimine 600 emplois * Presse Canadienne, * 10:56 Le Canadien Pacifique adopte des mesures de réduction de ses coûts, dont l'élimination de 600 emplois syndiqués au sein de son personnel, afin de faire face aux conditions économiques actuelles difficiles. Le transporteur ferroviaire réduit également son budget pour les déplacements d'affaires par avion en favorisant dorénavant les conférences téléphoniques et par Internet, suspend les primes et élimine les six jours de congés flottants de ses employés de bureau, rapporte le Globe And Mail. "En tant qu'équipe de direction, nous faisons des choix pour des raisons d'affaires que nous préférerions ne pas faire, si nous n'avions que les personnes à considérer, a affirmé Fred Green, chef de la direction, dans un message aux employés. "Ils (les choix) ne sont pas fait à la légère et ne sont pas à courte vue. Ils peuvent être impopulaires, mais lorsque nous aurons passé à travers (la période actuelle), et je sais nous le ferons, ce sera grâce aux décisions que nous avons prises aujourd'hui." M. Green a rencontré des employés à l'hôtel de ville de Calgary mardi dans le cadre d'une série de rencontres commencées vendredi dernier. La suppression d'emplois _ 600 sur un total de 16 000 _ touche les membres de la Conférence ferroviaire Teamsters Canada, les employés à l'entretien de la voie membres du syndicat des Teamsters et les travailleurs qualifiés, tels que les mécaniciens et les électriciens, membres du syndicat des Travailleurs canadiens de l'automobile.
