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Affichage des résultats pour les étiquettes 'lot'.
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saint-laurent Projet possible Jules-Poitras / Henri-Bourassa
un sujet a posté mtlurb dans Propositions
L'immense immeuble vacant depuis des années encerclé en rouge viens d'être démoli... Je passe par là souvent, et je trouvais ça désolant qu'un immense lot reste sous-utilisé quand il y a une gare de chemin de fer à côté (TOD?????). Finalement l'immeuble est maintenant rasé, quelqu'un a entendu parlé d'un projet là?? -
http://www.paullaurendeau.com/ Habitation Mentana Étude urbaine sur la densité - 2010 Montréal, Québec, Canada Surface du lot : 7 013 m² Implantation du bâtiment : 4 465 m² Taux d’implantation : 64 % Nombre d’étages : 6 Hauteur de bâtiment : 20.5 m Surface totale du bâtiment : 21 511 m² Densité : 3.07 Nombre de logements : 152 Stratégie de densité La stratégie de densité consiste à utiliser la typologie le plus efficacement possible afin de maximiser l’emprise au sol et de proposer un bâtiment de 6 étages. Sur ce site, séparé en deux lot par la rue Boyer, le bâtiment épouse l’espace public, laissant peu d’espace résiduel non construit sur le périmètre externe. Les façades sur 4 côtés bénéficient de l’espace dégagé des voies publiques maximiser les ouvertures et les vues, spécialement sur le parc Laurier au sud. Afin de laisser pénétrer un maximum de lumière dans la cour, le niveau 6 est construit partiellement, offrant des terrasses extérieures privatives et des ouvertures. Le bâtiment entre Boyer et Christophe-Colomb, à cause de l’étroitesse du lot, bénéficie de cours ouvertes orientées vers le sud qui apportent une ensoleillement abondant à tous les logements, ainsi que des espaces verts qui bénéficient autant aux résidents qu’à l’espace public. Le projet atteint une densité de 3.07, valeur un peu inférieure aux petits projets de la rue Rivard et de la rue Drolet à cause de la nécessité de laisser la cour centrale non construite sur tout sa longueur.
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In Little Burgundy, close to Atwater Market, The Burgundy Lion, The Corona and Joe Beef. Probably on this empty lot. www.hudsonhouse.ca
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http://applicatif.ville.montreal.qc.ca/som-fr/pdf_avis/pdfav13455.pdf Pas beaucoup d'info pour le moment, ou quelle sorte de projet avec des dérogations mineures (voir l'avis) sera présenté au conseil du 12 juin 2012. Le projet semble être sur le terrain de la Station Esso (entre La Brasserie Brunoise et le Resto Baton Rouge à l'angle de l'ave des canadiens. Le numéro du lot est le 1 851 399
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1421-1425 Crescent is deduced from the 1949 Land Use map (thanks catbus) and the fact that the Havana 1519 building is at 1427-1429 Crescent. I have no idea when or why 1421-1425 went down (presumably in flames) but I would love to know! Currently L.A. Hebert and Pomerleau have trailers on site. Slight possibility this has to do with the Ogilvy extension, but clearly something is happening on this lot. November 11th 2014 November 22nd 2014
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MONTREAL - When James Essaris looks out over his flat concrete kingdom of 20 downtown parking lots that he started collecting in 1956, he sees a precious urban resource where others see ugliness. The much-maligned parking lot, long considered an urban eyesore and enemy of public transit, is becoming an increasingly rare feature on the downtown streetscape. Essaris, longtime owner of Stationnement Métropolitain, sees his barren concrete as more than just a chance for him to pocket some cash on the barrelhead: he believes in the good that parking lots do and considers the spaces to be the lungs of downtown commerce. “The City of Montreal should give free parking to come downtown. We’re chasing people out to the shopping centres,” he said. The new parking lot tax was adopted in 2010 and brings in $19 million a year to fund public transit. The tax is determined by a complicated formula that Essaris says in practice makes city taxes about twice as expensive on a surface lot as it would for another type of structure. The city held public hearings on the issue this spring and response to the surface parking eradication campaign — through the new parking tax and allowing larger-scale buildings on the empty lots — was greeted positively, according to City of Montreal Executive Committee member Alan DeSousa. “It brings more money into the city coffers and removes the scars in the downtown area,” he said. He said that some of lost parking spaces have been replaced by indoor parking in the various projects. But after seeing his taxes double in recent years, Essaris is now doing what many other parking-lot owners have done: He has started sacrificing his supply of parking spaces for housing, most recently building a 38-storey Icône condo tower at de la Montagne St. and René Lévesque Blvd. He has some misgivings, however, knowing that those spots will be sorely missed. “We cannot survive without parking in the city. I wish everybody could take the bus and métro, it’d make things easier, but you cannot force people onto the métro when they have a car,” he said. Urban retailers have long begged their merchants associations to create more places to park, perhaps no more than on the Main where about half of all members regularly plead for more parking, according to Bruno Ricciardi-Rigault, president of the SDBSL. “It would be really nice if we had a few more parking lots,” he said. However, the dearth of spaces is only going to intensify as the few remaining parking lots near St. Laurent Blvd. are slated to be redeveloped. Ricciardi-Rigault is bracing for more complaints from restauranteurs who have lost customers because their motorist clientele was fed up with circling the block. “Some people want to spend the whole afternoon, shop, go to Jeanne Mance Park, come back for a beer. Paying $20 to park on the street, that‘s asking a lot,” he said. Condo towers have been replacing lots in the downtown core at an impressive pace and the result is higher prices at indoor garages, reflected in a recent Colliers study that ranks Montreal as having the second-highest parking prices of any big Canadian city. Rates have risen an eye-opening 11 per cent since last year, as the average monthly price for an unreserved spot in a downtown underground commercial lot was $330.96 — $88 above the national average. The proliferation of private parking lots once inspired many to liken Montreal to a bombed-out city, but that is no longer the case. “We were spoiled by having tons of parking lots, now Montrealers will have to get used to much higher parking costs,” said Colliers representative Andrew Maravita. He credits a lower commercial vacancy rate for pushing prices higher. Up until the 1960s, Montreal tacitly allowed even historic buildings to be demolished and replaced by parking lots and until recently turned a blind eye to the countless rogue illegal lots that dotted the downtown core. For ages, Montreal surface parking lots were fly-by-night operations, changing ownership to avoid bylaw restrictions ordering them to be paved, landscaped. The city always said they couldn’t chase every owner down. But in recent years, authorities have increased taxes and cracked down on illegal lots, combining the stick of punishment with the carrot of juicy rezoning booty. In the past, many property owners failed to see the point of building on their parking lots, as the zoning frequently only allowed for small buildings. Those restrictions have been lifted on many of those properties, resulting in a bonanza for parking-lot owners whose land increased in value. The strategy was put into place with input from architect and former Equality Party leader Robert Libman, who previously served on the city’s Executive Committee. “A lot of projects going on now, on streets like Crescent and Bishop and that area, were previously zoned for two or three storeys. The urban plan capped those at a minimal height. The rezoning has made it more alluring for owners to build instead of leaving it vacant,” he says. Libman’s war against above-ground parking lots is personal. “They’re ugly and they undermine the downtown urban fabric,” Libman said. But he concedes that commerce relies on people being able to drive to a business. “You’ve got to find that careful balance between offering too much parking, making it too easy vs. your objective of discouraging people to take their car downtown and using public transit, that’s the fine line you have to find between the two,” he said. Developers are required to include parking in new projects, but the amount varies from place to place. In Laval, many projects are required to have two parking spaces per condo unit, while in the Plateau it’s close to zero spaces, although a typical recipe calls for one spot per two units. The one part of the city perhaps most challenged by a dearth of parking facilities is the booming Old Montreal area. The issue has long been considered such an urgent problem that one proposal from a decade ago even suggested that the massive silos in the Old Port be used to park cars. More recently, Old Montreal planners have installed an electronic billboard indicating where spaces could be found, but the pressure on parking endures, according to Georges Coulombe, whose real-estate company has been snapping up properties in the area for the last four decades. Coulombe concedes that area commerce has been hurt by a lack of space for cars. “People from places like Longueuil want to come shop on the weekend, but they can’t do it anymore, it’s too expensive to park, they end up going to malls closer to home.” He attempted to address the problem through a plan to build a high-tech robotic parking facility that could accommodate twice as many cars as a regular indoor lot. However, he did the math and found that it wouldn’t make sense because of city taxes. “I had a small 3,000-foot terrain that I would have turned into 300 spaces, but the city wanted to tax not just the building but the machinery inside. It made it impossible.” Much-hyped futuristic robotic parking systems are seen by some as a potential solution to parking woes and have actually been around for quite some time. The city has had at least three pigeon-hole parking systems as the earlier incarnations were known; one was opened on de la Montagne St. in the 1950s and another on Mansfield, where a worker was crushed by an elevator. A third more recent one was in operation at St. Jean and Notre Dame until a decade ago. Authorities frequently cite the fear of being unable to put out a car blaze in their opposition to such facilities. And although a few such high-tech robotic lots could elegantly alleviate parking pressures, one expert says that the standalone dedicated parking buildings will probably never get built. Chris Mulvihill, the New Jersey-based President of Boomerang Systems, a high-tech car-stacking parking lot system, notes that any landowner would most probably opt for a different sort of project. “Take any place where it’s very hard to get a parking spot,” Mulvihill says. “You’d think building a garage and charging for parking would be a good business model, but the economics dictate that if there’s a high demand for parking in that area, it’s because it’s a hot, happening place, so there are real-estate developers who want to build on that land. The demand makes it uber-expensive. A landowner could make a lot more money doing something other than parking on it.” © Copyright © The Montreal Gazette Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Parking+squeeze+Downtown+businesses+feeling/7453989/story.html#ixzz2ASqBCwJE
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Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Montreal+police+Chargers/7123905/story.html#ixzz24F9CEr36 I saw one a few weeks back. I thought it was the SQ until I caught up with it at a light.
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I couldn't find a thread about this subject so I'm making it. What are some bands/singers/soloists from Montreal (and Quebec in general) that you like? French, English or any other language is ok. Send even the obvious ones! If there is already a thread about this subject then just point to it and remove this one if necessary Thanks a lot!
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ouest-de-lîle 505 Clement Ave - 3 étages
un sujet a posté Glen Carter dans Projets oubliés et/ou en suspens
Condo development proposed for site of former Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet Cheryl Cornacchia The Gazette Monday, September 19, 2011 A public consultation will be held Monday night in Dorval on a zoning change that would pave the way for the construction of a three-storey, 30-unit condominium development across the street from the Pine Beach AMT commuter train station. The zoning change would couple two vacant lots into one property measuring close to 16,000 square metres. One of the properties is the empty lot on the corner of Cardinal Ave. and Pine Beach Blvd. where a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet stood until it was demolished about five years ag. The other lot is 505 Clement Ave., a private home until it was torn down two years ago. The middle-density housing development is just one of many going up in the West Island along the transportation corridor. "It’s one of the trends," said Mario St. Jean, Dorval’s director of urban planning. Building along the train line "makes sense. You wake up, take your breakfast and, after a quick walk, you are at the train station." St. Jean said a private developer has already submitted plans to Dorval for the project. A similar although larger middle density project is Dorval Espace MV, St. Jean said. Located on Bouchard Blvd., it includes condos, townhouses on property formerly owned by Novartis Canada, the pharmaceutical company. That project is well on its way to completion. The public consultation is scheduled for 7:50 p.m. in the municipal council chamber at Dorval city hall, 60 Martin Ave. http://westislandgazette.com/news/25286 -
(Courtesy of the Financial Post) Reason I put it in culture, it seems more of a Quebec culture to be more laid back and no really care about material wealth, but that is my own point of view.
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This whole Subban-Richards affair raised a lot of discussion in the media about hockey and the culture of hockey acceptance of things outside of the norm. Lol, in typical Canadian fashion, that's how the discussions were framed, since (white) Canadians are not secure enough or comfortable talking about race, even though race is an under-current of the issue. Not saying that Richards is racist, because I don't know that, but as a Black Canadian myself, the whole discussion raised a lot of questions for me about discrimination in hockey. I never played organized hockey (I don't count the 2,3 games I played in high school back in the mid-1990's), so I don't know. All I know is that when I was growing up I was really into hockey and people would tell me "you shouldn't play hockey", "why are you playing hockey", etc...and that was from my black relatives/family. I've never had a white person tell me those things, but remember that this is Canada, so they may be shy to tell you what they really think. What I do know is that most hockey players who speak a certain way similar to Kirk Muller or Jerome Iginla, get labeled as "good guys" by their teammates, coaches, GM's and media types. I put Iginla's name in there because some of these "good guys" have been black. But is there discrimination in hockey? Yes. I think discrimination does exist in hockey, but I wouldn't go as far as to go "Al Sharpton" or "Jesse Jackson" on their ass, because I don't think it's that widespread. I believe it exist, but at what level, I can't say. I view racism, discrimination and prejudices, like the clouds in the sky: Some days there's more clouds than others. Some places there's more clouds than others. But even on a bright day, with a clear blue sky, If you look close enough at the horizon, you'll see clouds. If you think about it, that's true both in reality and in metaphor. Especially here in Canada where (white) Canadians feel uncomfortable openly discussing issues dealing about race. At least in America, even with the KKK, the Republicans of today and the Democrats of yesterday and other forms of historic institutional racism, (white) Americans can still have intelligent discussions on racial issues on CNN or in other political and/or public forums without fear of being labeled a racist. In Canada, people, especially white Canadians, feel strange talking about that. They "don't want to go there." Are they afraid of speaking their mind? At least in the US you know where people stand. If they don't like you, you'll know. But here in Canada, people are so secretive about their racism that I just keep to my cloud analogy. I'm assuming that analogy is true for hockey as well.
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(Courtesy of © Copyright © The Montreal Gazette)
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Montreal Real Estate Pushes Ahead By DORN TOWNSEND Published: June 11, 2010 MONTREAL — When Patrice Groleau began selling a proposed condo development this spring, he thought it would take about a year to sell all 100 units — even though the site is in Montreal’s historic old city and the project will have all the latest amenities. Half the apartments sold in the first month on the market. “The last few years have been mostly good for real estate, but this year has been phenomenal,” said the 33-year-old broker, who works for McGill Immobilier. “Some of the buyers are from elsewhere but 95 percent are local young professionals. A lot of them will buy several units or whole blocks of apartments.” Real estate markets in many cities around the world are still in the doldrums, but in Montreal, Canada’s second largest city, with 1.9 million residents, the downtown area is experiencing a boom and buying frenzy last seen more than a generation ago. Brokers say that new listings in desirable central neighborhoods can receive multiple offers within hours of going up for sale. Since 2003, when the present rush began, 5,500 to 7,000 new condo units have been hitting the market each year. Many of these homes are downtown in new mid-rise developments. According to the Montreal Real Estate Board, the median price of downtown condos has risen about 9 percent over the period, to 210,000 Canadian dollars, or about $198,000. While some downtown addresses can command as much as 1,000 dollars a square foot, in May the average price per square foot in the central city was about 350 dollars. “A lot of the new units downtown are for people in the suburbs looking to downsize, but you also get about 8 percent of sales going to foreigners,” said René Lépine, president of Groupe Lépine, one of the largest developers of downtown residential housing in the city. “I haven’t seen this kind of activity in the city center since the 1970s, when we had the Olympics.” Montreal’s real estate board reported that prices were up 8 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, with sales up 54 percent. While there is disagreement over whether such growth is sustainable, demand is being driven by historically low interest rates, with a five-year fixed-rate mortgage going for about 3.8 percent. In an attempt to pop what many fear is an expanding housing bubble, the Bank of Canada in April began requiring purchasers to put down 20 percent on investment properties. Brokers, however, say such rules are easily skirted with interim financing. And in the two years since the global economic downturn, Canada’s big-five banking oligopoly has continued granting loans for real estate. But, like in the United States, these banks seldom hold on to the mortgages, instead passing them on to a government entity called the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., which insures buyers against defaults. Since 2005, the agency’s liabilities have grown to around 400 billion dollars from about 80 billion dollars. But many of the new homes insured by this national agency are the tiny studios and one-bedroom units like those in Montreal’s downtown towers. That easy financing helped turn Montreal’s real estate scene into something of a Sleeping Beauty story. For decades the city had a lot of real estate for sale, partly because of the departure of several hundred thousand English-speaking residents from 1976 to 1978 because they feared Quebec might become an independent French-speaking country. Afterward, prices rose slowly, and then took off in recent years. “I’m not one of those annoying people who say that Montreal is the best city,” said Ariane Truong, 30, a Montreal native who spent several years in London working as an architect for SOM. “But there’s this intangible, aesthetic quality here these days and when you’re in other cities, you notice that quality is missing.” Two years ago Mrs. Truong returned to her hometown, paying about 350,000 dollars for a refurbished 950-square-foot, or 88-square-meter, one-bedroom condo in the old city. The building incorporates part of the stone fortifications built from 1717 to 1738 to protect Montreal from native Indians and English attackers. Until recently many residents had spurned the area as a tourist magnet. These days the tourists still are ever-present, but the old warehouses have been converted into apartments with ground-floor cafes and restaurants. A mix of young professional residents has returned to live and work. A small but important part of the market is composed of foreign clients who buy into the city for its particular rhythm. Diane Urbain, 28, a transplant from Paris, is typical of the group. She and her husband spent about 520,000 dollars on a 1,600-square-foot cottage in the Plateau, a large neighborhood of row houses known for its public squares and cafes. The French consulate says about 100,000 French citizens are living in Montreal. “When I first arrived here as a student, I thought I’d never leave Paris,” Mrs. Urbain said “But I’ve come to love the way of life of this city.” She talked about the nearby parks where her children play and about biking to work. Vélo Québec, a cycling advocacy group, says that nearly 20 percent of downtown residents use bicycles as a primary means of transport. Yet the French are not the only people who choose Montreal. This year, almost all the units in one new high-end condo tower downtown were sold to Lebanese. The developer marketed heavily in Beirut, and many purchases were made as investments or as homes for children attending universities in Montreal. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/greathomesanddestinations/11iht-remon.html
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(Courtesy of The Montreal Gazette)
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I don’t have anything particularly against the U de M Outremont rail yards project but I do think that a) the yards could be better utilized in a more residential capacity and b) that the addition of institutional infrastructure could be of more benefit somewhere else in the city. The area I propose the project to be located is the following (in red, with land to redeveloped in blue): For the Habitation Jeanne-Mance portion, I would propose keeping the towers for seniors but demolishing all 260 single-family residences. Those dwellings could easily be replaced by a newer development with more units in another part of the city (perhaps as part of an almost fully residential redevelopment of the Outremont rail yards). A good portion of the Habitation Jeanne-Mance is scattered surface parking lots that really don’t belong downtown. Taking away the parking and the low rise buildings would leave a lot of room for the science campus’ development, but leaves a good amount of green space – perfect for a university campus. As for the southern portion below rue de Broisbriand, the area currently lacks a central purpose, has a lot of available land to be developed and like the HJM portion is serviced by an extremely underutilised metro station. While this area is technically part of the Quartier des Spectacles, it contains none of the 24 existing sites on the Quartier des Spectacles walking tour and none of its developable land is currently slated for any Q de S projects. Not to mention, there is enough vacant land and underutilized buildings that need to get redeveloped between Philips Square and St-Dominique that this area to the east would likely not receive much attention anyways for at least a decade if not more. Placing the new campus (which will be heavily sciences-related) in this location would also have the added benefit of being adjacent to the new CHUM mega-hospital and the resulting Quartier de la Santé, including the U de M’s planned new ESPUM pavilion.
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Voici quelques photos que j'ai pris il y quelques années. Does anyone know a place that still develops 35 mm film? I do not have access to a dark room anymore. I have a lot more but I have yet to scan them. Maybe I should? And for the plaisir, une photo pris dans mon p'tit village : St-Joseph du Lac.
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16 stories planned for south east corner of de la Montagne and Maisonneuve. (still a fucking parking lot) Ground and mezzanine commercial 16 stories of apts 2 story penthouse
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Source, TheStar For the thirsty traveller with a hankering for hops and a soft spot for the little guy, there may be no better place to visit than Montreal. Brew pubs and microbreweries abound and most are within stumbling distance of major hotels, bed and breakfasts and hostels. The city is also home to one of the biggest beer festivals in North America. The June 3-7 Mondial de la biere will showcase some 300 different brands of beer made by upwards of 100 brew pubs as well as large and small-scale breweries – the majority of them from Quebec. Festival spokeswoman Marie-Josee Lefebvre said there are more than 70 brew pubs and microbreweries in the province with three or four new ones opening every year. "They call us little Belgium because of the growing (number) of microbreweries," she said. "I think Quebec people love and enjoy tasting and discovering beer because it's in our roots to share good moments with friends around a good beer." The popular festival, which will mark its 16th year, is free and visitors need only purchase beer tickets at a buck apiece to begin sampling. Lineups, however, could be long, especially on weekends, and a four-ounce sampler could cost as many as five tickets. Lefebvre said the festival, which last year attracted some 80,000 people, is becoming increasingly popular among tourists. "We have a lot of people coming up from the U.S. and Europe," she said. "I receive many emails during the year from people who say, 'I want to plan my vacation in Montreal and I want to attend the Mondial de la biere."' For those seeking a more low-key brew experience any time of the year, Montreal has more than a dozen pubs featuring a variety of home brews. Among the most revered for its innovation is Dieu du Ciel in the city's trendy Plateau-Mont-Royal area. The 10-year-old pub doesn't look like much with its hand-scribbled chalkboard signs and run-of-the-mill finger foods but that's just because at Dieu du Ciel, it's all about the beer. "The goal here is always to brew the best beer possible and to also brew a lot of different beers," says co-owner Stephane Ostiguy. "We like to play with spices and stuff like this. We always like to bring something new to the beer scene." The pub, which has nine on-site fermenters, has experimented with some 60 recipes over the years and offers a large rotation of beers. Ostiguy said there are between 14 and 17 beers available on tap at any given time including favourites like the popular Imperial coffee stout. All are made with quality ingredients, be it coffee, peppercorns or hibiscus flowers and, as such, prices may be higher than they are for the average pint. Students and young professionals between 25 and 35 make up the bulk of its clientele but American beer enthusiasts have been known to stop by for a pint. Another popular brew pub is Brutopia – a three-floor downtown hangout where regulars mingle with tourists and live music and tapas are always on special. In business since March 1997, the pub offers a variety of seasonal beers as well as tried and true staples that are all brewed on site by its brewmaster. While the bar has some 50 different recipes, its staples include a traditional, hoppy pale ale, a light blond, a honey ale, a nutty brown malt and a raspberry beer. It also has such seasonal beers as a maple cream, a chocolate stout and a Scotch ale. "We try to stay faithful to a lot and then we keep a certain amount of production space for seasonal recipes," said manager Jeffery Picard, who describes Brutopia's beer as "delicious" and ``affordable." While he once knew every single competitor personally, he admits there's been a proliferation of brew pubs in the city and believes it could have something to do with Quebec culture. "Maybe it's part of the slightly anti-establishment culture, the alternative culture," he said. Acclaimed beer writer Stephen Beaumont, who has penned a half-dozen books and countless articles about the bubbly elixir, said Quebec has shown more innovation in brewing than any other province. He calls Quebecers "artisanally inclined when it comes to food and drink," and that it was a major market for niche Belgian and French beers long before craft brewing really took off. Blanche de Chambly, he said, was the first Belgian white brewed in North America, while Les Brasseurs du Nord invented the ``rousse." Still, he said, many Quebec microbreweries remain unknown outside of the province and he encourages beer lovers visiting the province's most populous city to get acquainted with them. "I would strongly recommend a Montreal brew pub crawl to anyone with an interest in beer," he said. "Begin the evening with a Czech-style Pilsner on the terrace at L'amere a boire, then head around the corner to Cheval Blanc for their seasonal specialties before finishing the night at Dieu du Ciel trying almost everything they have on tap. "That would be a night well spent."
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Poll Finds Faith in Obama, Mixed With Patience Article Tools Sponsored By By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MARJORIE CONNELLY Published: January 17, 2009 President-elect Barack Obama is riding a powerful wave of optimism into the White House, with Americans confident he can turn the economy around but prepared to give him years to deal with the crush of problems he faces starting Tuesday, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. The latest on the inauguration of Barack Obama and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion. While hopes for the new president are extraordinarily high, the poll found, expectations for what Mr. Obama will actually be able to accomplish appear to have been tempered by the scale of the nation’s problems at home and abroad. The findings suggest that Mr. Obama has achieved some success with his effort, which began with his victory speech in Chicago in November, to gird Americans for a slow economic recovery and difficult years ahead after a campaign that generated striking enthusiasm and high hopes for change. Most Americans said they did not expect real progress in improving the economy, reforming the health care system or ending the war in Iraq — three of the central promises of Mr. Obama’s campaign — for at least two years. The poll found that two-thirds of respondents think the recession will last two years or longer. As the nation prepares for a transfer of power and the inauguration of its 44th president, Mr. Obama’s stature with the American public stands in sharp contrast to that of President Bush. Mr. Bush is leaving office with just 22 percent of Americans offering a favorable view of how he handled the eight years of his presidency, a record low, and firmly identified with the economic crisis Mr. Obama is inheriting. More than 80 percent of respondents said the nation was in worse shape today than it was five years ago. By contrast, 79 percent were optimistic about the next four years under Mr. Obama, a level of good will for a new chief executive that exceeds that measured for any of the past five incoming presidents. And it cuts across party lines: 58 percent of the respondents who said they voted for Mr. Obama’s opponent in the general election, Senator John McCain of Arizona, said they were optimistic about the country in an Obama administration. “Obama is not a miracle worker, but I am very optimistic, I really am,” Phyllis Harden, 63, an independent from Easley, S.C., who voted for Mr. Obama, said in an interview after participating in the poll. “It’s going to take a couple of years at least to improve the economy,” Ms. Harden added. “I think anyone who is looking for a 90-day turnaround is delusional.” Politically, Mr. Obama enjoys a strong foundation of support as he enters what is surely to be a tough and challenging period, working with Congress to swiftly pass a huge and complicated economic package. His favorable rating, at 60 percent, is the highest it has been since the Times/CBS News poll began asking about him. Overwhelming majorities say they think that Mr. Obama will be a good president, that he will bring real change to Washington, and that he will make the right decisions on the economy, Iraq, dealing with the war in the Middle East and protecting the country from terrorist attacks. Over 70 percent said they approved of his cabinet selections. What is more, Mr. Obama’s effort to use this interregnum between Election Day and Inauguration Day to present himself as a political moderate (he might use the word “pragmatist”) appears to be working. In this latest poll, 40 percent described the president-elect’s ideology as liberal, a 17-point drop from just before the election. “I think those of us who voted for McCain are going to be a lot happier with Obama than the people who voted for him,” Valerie Schlink, 46, a Republican from Valparaiso, Ind., said in an interview after participating in the poll. “A lot of the things he said he would do, like pulling out the troops in 16 months and giving tax cuts to those who make under $200,000, I think he now sees are going to be a lot tougher than he thought and that the proper thing to do is stay more towards the middle and ease our way into whatever has to be done. “It can’t all be accomplished immediately.” While the public seems prepared to give Mr. Obama time, Americans clearly expect the country to be a different place when he finishes his term at the end of 2012. The poll found that 75 percent expected the economy to be stronger in four years than it is today, and 75 percent said Mr. Obama would succeed in creating a significant number of jobs, while 59 percent said he would cut taxes for the middle class. The survey found that 61 percent of respondents said things would be better in five years; last April, just 39 percent expressed a similar sentiment. The telephone survey of 1,112 adults was conducted Jan. 11-15. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. The poll suggests some of the cross-currents Mr. Obama is navigating as he prepares to take office, and offers some evidence about why he has retooled some of his positions during this period.
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À force de cohabiter avec ce trou à rat qu'est l'espace entre l'ÉTS et les nouvelles résidences, j'ai décider de me lancer dans un projet de revitalisation. Donc, dans les 15 dernières minutes, j'ai pris une photo aérienne et je l'ai modifié afin de donner une idée d'un espace plus convivial, tant pour les résidents des alentours que pour les étudiants de l'ÉTS qui n'ont aucun espace vert à squatter pour écouler le temps entre deux cours. Donc, voici une ébauche très sommaire de mon idée! (J'ai fais ça avec paint, j'ai pas de talent en dessin, il faut me pardonner ) Avant: Et après: Pourquoi les stationnements? Parce que ce square est le stationnement extérieur pour ceux qui habitent aux résidences de l'ÉTS. Il serait farfelu de faire disparaitre complètement ces places, donc la relocalisation au pourtour du lot m'apparait comme un compromis acceptable. Il y a aussi un espace, à l'est du lot, qui est hachuré jaune. Cet emplacement est requis par l'épicerie Métro pour permettre aux camions de reculer dans le quai de déchargement.
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USA : Food Riots, Tax Rebellions By 2012...Trend forecaster, renowned for being accurate in the past, says LIVELEAK The man who predicted the 1987 stock market crash and the fall of the Soviet Union is now forecasting revolution in America, food riots and tax rebellions - all within four years, while cautioning that putting food on the table will be a more pressing concern than buying Christmas gifts by 2012. Gerald Celente, the CEO of Trends Research Institute, is renowned for his accuracy in predicting fut More..ure world and economic events, which will send a chill down your spine considering what he told Fox News this week. Celente says that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts. "We're going to see the end of the retail Christmas....we're going to see a fundamental shift take place....putting food on the table is going to be more important that putting gifts under the Christmas tree," said Celente, adding that the situation would be "worse than the great depression". "America's going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for," said Celente, noting that people's refusal to acknowledge that America was even in a recession highlights how big a problem denial is in being ready for the true scale of the crisis. Celente, who successfully predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, the subprime mortgage collapse and the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar, told UPI in November last year that the following year would be known as "The Panic of 2008," adding that "giants (would) tumble to their deaths," which is exactly what we have witnessed with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and others. He also said that the dollar would eventually be devalued by as much as 90 per cent. The consequence of what we have seen unfold this year would lead to a lowering in living standards, Celente predicted a year ago, which is also being borne out by plummeting retail sales figures. The prospect of revolution was a concept echoed by a British Ministry of Defence report last year, which predicted that within 30 years, the growing gap between the super rich and the middle class, along with an urban underclass threatening social order would mean, "The world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest," and that, "The middle classes could become a revolutionary class." In a separate recent interview, Celente went further on the subject of revolution in America. "There will be a revolution in this country," he said. "It’s not going to come yet, but it’s going to come down the line and we’re going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D. C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen." "The first thing to do is organize with tax revolts. That’s going to be the big one because people can’t afford to pay more school tax, property tax, any kind of tax. You’re going to start seeing those kinds of protests start to develop." "It’s going to be very bleak. Very sad. And there is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of which we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we’re going to see many more." "We’re going to start seeing huge areas of vacant real estate and squatters living in them as well. It’s going to be a picture the likes of which Americans are not going to be used to. It’s going to come as a shock and with it, there’s going to be a lot of crime. And the crime is going to be a lot worse than it was before because in the last 1929 Depression, people’s minds weren’t wrecked on all these modern drugs – over-the-counter drugs, or crystal meth or whatever it might be. So, you have a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody’s comprehension."
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Quebec businesses to feel pain Our exports set to slow. But local companies well-equipped to weather storm, experts say PAUL DELEAN, The Gazette Published: 9 hours ago It's shaping up to be a winter of discontent in corporate Quebec. Financial upheaval in the United States, Quebec's largest trading partner, has left a lot of companies feeling pinched and dreading the prospect of a full-fledged recession if the U.S. can't resolve its banking crisis. "Winter will be difficult for small and medium-size businesses that export to the U.S.," said former Caisse de Dépot et Placement executive Michel Nadeau, now director-general of the Institut sur la gouvernance d'organisations privées et publiques. "The U.S. economy is slowing. Clients there are squeezed on the credit front. They'll be buying less and wanting deals from their suppliers. And if there's no resolution of the current (bailout) impasse within the next two weeks, Quebec companies risk being being badly hurt." About 80 per cent of Quebec's exports go to the United States, where the credit crunch has put the brakes on consumer spending and ready lending. Suppliers of wood, automotive, industrial and consumer products were among the first to feel the pain. "For businesses selling to the U.S., it's definitely going to have an effect in terms of the revenues they can generate," said Susan Christoffersen, associate professor at McGill University's Desautels Faculty of Management. "So much of the Canadian economy is correlated with the U.S." Jayson Myers, president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said many U.S. clients have stopped paying on time, leaving Canadian suppliers "holding the bag." "There's a lot of real concern (among members)," he said. "Conditions had been tightening for three or four months before all this. There was not a lot of profit margin out there to absorb all these shocks." A couple of factors have helped alleviate the blow so far for Quebec businesses. Most have made adaptations in the past two years to become more productive and efficient to cope with the impact of higher commodity prices and a rapidly rising Canadian dollar. And that same dollar has retreated about 15 per cent from its high, to around 94 cents (U.S.) yesterday, making Quebec exports more competitive. Yvon Bolduc, president and chief executive of the Quebec Federation of Labour's Solidarity Fund, said Quebec companies are better prepared for the current crisis than they were for the one in which the Solidarity Fund was created 25 years ago. "For many years, we were competitive because of the dollar. We surfed on its weakness," he said. Despite the strong loonie and credit markets that were already tighter because of last year's financial debacle, asset-backed commercial paper, the private companies in which the Solidarity Fund is invested actually posted a positive return in the latest fiscal year, Bolduc said. The Solidarity Fund provides companies with capital to help them expand and adapt. At a time when other lenders might be unreceptive, it can be a lifeline. Last year, it provided $730 million to 140 companies. That was $120 million more than it had budgeted, Bolduc said. While exporting companies clearly are most vulnerable to a U.S. pullback, there are also signs of a spending slowdown at home as Canadian consumers grow more cautious. Clothing retailers have seen flat to lower sales in recent quarters, and Canadian housing sales and prices have begun to slip. The Quebec economy figures to get some ongoing lift, however, from the ambitious, multi-year infrastructure-renewal program undertaken by the Charest government. "What we have experienced so far is a banking crisis, not an economic crisis," said Simon Prévost, vice-president (Quebec) of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. "It could become an economic crisis, but we're not there yet." Prévost said there was actually an increase in business confidence in Quebec in the CFIB's last survey in early September, with oil prices and the dollar both declining, and Canadian financial institutions still eager to lend. "Small business owners didn't see any problems getting money from banks (at that time)," he said. "It's changed a little bit, but it's not a big deal yet." In the same survey, 34 per cent of businesses reported growing demand for their products. Fewer than 10 per cent said demand was down. pdelean@thegazette.canwest.com
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En vendant 20% de ses actions à deux sociétés d'investissement de Dubaï, Guy Laliberté a pu monnayer une partie de son avoir personnel dans l'entreprise. Pour en lire plus...
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Merci, Au Revoir,Montreal and Hello New York I had the chance to escape from New York (no not like the movie) and visit Montreal, Canada this long Memorial Day Weekend. Wow was I impressed. This was not my first trip to Montreal by a long shot, but it was my first trip as an adult. When I was in college, Montreal meant three things to me: Hockey, Concerts and Strip Clubs. And not always in that order. I failed to see the beauty and the thriving cultural scene through my beer goggles. The city is charming, as are the people, restaurants and scenery. If you want a little bit of Europe without actually going to Europe, Montreal may be just your ticket. Yes, Montreal is in Canada, and Canada is another country, not located in Michigan as one of my crestfallen fellow countrymen discovered on line at the airport when asked for her passport. Much to her chagrin, she discovered she would need a passport to travel to Canada, as Canada is a country, not a state or a city. So much for those improved New York State Regents requirements in geography. Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I had the opportunity to visit my friends in Montreal, and they, along with the city, were charming and delightful hosts. While I did not get a chance to take in the whole city, they gave me their perspective. It’s always good to visit a city where you know people, they can show you the off the beaten path gems and diamonds in the rough. If you are located in New York or its environs, East Coast, Montreal is about an hour flight and a world away. I can see why it made the list as one of the world’s cleanest cities. Walking around I was puzzled my first day there. I was thinking to myself “what’s wrong with this picture” and then it hit me - the place is so clean you could probably eat off the sidewalk. I mean not a gum wrapper, plastic bag or tossed away soda can anywhere in sight. It’s obvious that people respect their city and the city does a good job keeping things tidy. A small thing to notice, but when you live in New York, where littering is an art form, you notice these things. Don’t worry New York, you are my hometown and I still love you, and you have vastly improved since the days of my youth, I was just dancing with another girl this weekend and in terms of littering and cleanliness, she just danced better than you. Montreal has a lot to offer - if you are into the nightlife, they have a thriving club and bar scene. Food more your thing? Plenty of top notch restaurants. It’s a city of festivals, and a city of fun. Art and culture more your thing? Plenty of that with galleries and museums, and just the architecture and landscape of the city will leave you breathless. I managed to see a great exposition of Cuban art which I probably would not have had the chance to see since that sort of thing is embargoed in the United States (what, you thought I was not going to get political in this post, that it was all going to be travel tips and city reviews, think again, this is me). The city has a famous Formula One Grand Prix coming up in June, not to mention one of the world’s largest comedy festivals, Just for Laughs, and from what I hear, a kick ass fireworks competition. It also has a casino, located near the famous Biosphere from the 1967 World’s Fair (known as Expo 67). I managed to do what I always do whenever I walk into a casino - lose money. But it has great dining and the trip on Montreal’s Metro was an experience. Makes the average New York City subway ride look like a scene straight of “Nightmare on Elm Street”. Okay, as you might guess I have a come down with a bad case of culture envy, city envy, country envy, with a side order of IAS (Inferior American Syndrome). I get this a lot. I travel somewhere and see how things are and begin to feel like a savage. I tend to forget that in terms of culture, America is extremely young on the world’s stage, we are the bratty teenager compared to most of the world. If you have a brain and a conscience, it’s hard not to hang your head in shame these days. My country is prosecuting a war that is not popular abroad, and is currently lead by a man who is despised and looked upon as a clown by most of the world. Try as we do, we Americans are really culturally naive, and I really feel this when I travel. Let’s just say that after Starbucks, Sex and the City and McDonald’s, our cultural lexicon is extremely limited and we are kidding ourselves when we pump ourselves up with this feeling of superiority. Yes, for now, we are a super power, whatever that means. Our motto should not be “In God We Trust” but “The Sword is Mightier than the Pen”. Okay so this blog entry seems like and exercise in self-hatred and country shame. It is. But as my Canadian friend reminded me this weekend, “You Americans are too hard on yourselves.” That was a refreshing point of view. As I continually feel the necessity to apologize for being an American and living in a country who’s government has sponsored and supported war, misery, crime, and tyranny, I need to be reminded of this - that I, and we as a nation, are indeed too hard on ourselves. Like everywhere else, we have our good and we have our bad. Maybe I will never be a flag waving patriot, but I still love my country and want it to grow and thrive, and yes I want us to stand out in the world, not for what we can do to our enemies if they cross us, but what we can achieve once we set our minds to it. There are a lot of challenges that are currently facing us a nation, and indeed as a globe. The environmental crisis, poverty, hunger, tragedies on a global scale, and lack of faith and trust in established institutions have exploded to the surface and kick us in the balls on a daily basis. Now we can turn away, ignore these issues, grab a beer, watch a ball game, become obsessed with “American Idol” or overindulge in the multitude of distractions that are available to us. Or we can see this as an opportunity to take up these challenges and work with others around the globe to come up with creative solutions. The death toll in the Chinese earthquake alone was over 60,000 people. Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar (Burma) has claimed over 140,000 lives. Here in the United States, and estimated 37 milllion people live in poverty according to 2006 data from the US Census Bureau. Domestic violence, addiction, lack of health care coverage, a crippled education system - these are all bigger challenges our country has faced than anything the terrorists can do to us. Soon, we will have the opportunity to select a new President, who will supposedly guide us through this quagmire. But it’s not too early to think about what we can do on the micro level - that means the nation of one - you and I. Can one person change the world - yes believe it or not one person can - one at a time. Keep your eyes open, and you may just see an opportunity to do that.
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Après Céline Dion et le Cirque du Soleil, un autre Québécois pourrait faire sa marque sur le «Strip» de Las Vegas. Pour en lire plus...
