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For a while now I have been thinking about how Canada would be like, if we actually had a decent size population. I found an article from the Globe and Mail from a few years ago, saying we should really consider increasing the number of immigrants coming to this country. How do we get 1.9 million new people to move to Canada and live here, each and every year? Yes, the current major cities like Toronto and Montreal will continue to grow, but we should find ways to get other cities to grow also. If we did manage to get to 100,000,000 people living in Canada by 2050, we would have a density of 10 people per sq.km. That would be almost similar to present day Russia (excl. the annexation of Crimea). The US has 35 people per sq.km. With that we would see Canada explode to well over 300 million people. Yes it would be a lot of more mouths to feed. Plus we would need a rapid expansion in new urban centers across the provinces and especially the territories. We would also need to develop/revitalize current industries and create new industries. I know the energy (petrol) and mining sectors are in the toilet, but if we managed to increase the population, we would probably bring those industries back to life. We may be able to finally fly Montreal to Vancouver or within this country for cheaper or drive through the Prairies and be bored out of our minds or even driving all the way to Iqaluit and not worry about the gas tank, seeing there may be a station close by and not 1000's of km away. Also we can finally see many of the national parks and provincial/territorial parks, that are inaccessible and costs 10s of thousands of to visit. The reason I bring up the territories, they are grossly under populated. If there are more people there and more towns/cities connecting them to the south, the cost of living there will decrease. Plus by 2050-2100, more people will be moving north because of climate change. I found one agency formulate by 2050, we would see Canada's population grow to well under 50 million, we would be one of the wealthiest per capita, but our GDP would be lower. If we could increase the population to 100 million and also find a way to still have a similar GDP per capita as the one forecast for 2050 with 50 million, we would be the 4th wealthiest instead of the 17th. It is a long shot and I know Canada has a lot to do before that time, but we should really think about the future of this country.

Opinion: The pros and cons of life in Montreal A newcomer finds that compared with Toronto, this city has lower rents, but higher taxes; better cycling lanes, but worse roads By Chris Riddell, Special to The Gazette September 2, 2014 4:42 PM MONTREAL — To an outsider, Montreal might seem like the perfect place to live. It has the lowest rents of all the major cities in Canada, it’s the nation’s epicentre of art and culture, and there are more restaurants and cafés than you can visit in a year. When I moved here from Toronto last year, it was mostly for the lower cost of living, but also for the enriching experience of a new culture so different from my own. In Montreal, I could theoretically have a better quality of life than I did in Hogtown, where the rents are some of the highest in the country. But is living in Montreal really all it’s cracked up to be? I hit the streets, speaking to everyday citizens about why they moved to Montreal, and tried to nail down some of the advantages and disadvantages of living here. What I found was interesting. Jesse Legallais, a 31-year-old musician, moved to Montreal from Toronto 10 years ago and hasn’t looked back. Sitting on a bench outside Café Social on a sunny Friday afternoon, he says: “It’s a bit of a slower pace than some of the other major cities and there is a diverse community here. There are a lot of talented people, so you’re kind of kept on your toes, but you don’t have to constantly scrape for work as hard as, say, New York or Toronto or L.A.” Montreal turned out to be the perfect place to nurture his craft as a musician. The cheaper cost of living was one of the main factors drawing him here, along with the bilingual nature of the city. Some people come to Montreal and find it’s a great place to open a business. Take Andre Levert, for example. Originally from St. Catharines, Ont., he moved to Montreal in 2000. Today, he and his wife own a head shop on Prince Arthur St. E. called Psychonaut. “I found that because commercial space and the cost of living is cheaper in Montreal, for starting a business it was less risk in the beginning,” he says. “I went and checked the rent for stores like mine in Ottawa, and it was way more expensive.” Levert stresses that it really is the people that make the city such a great place to live. Many other aspects of Montreal are lacking: language laws and infrastructure are problems that need to be addressed, and the city has its work cut out for it in those areas. It certainly isn’t all sunshine and roses in Montreal. While there are some great advantages to living here, there are also a number of drawbacks. Here is what I’ve noticed. Pro: Cheap rent. I can definitely say that I am not the only person who moved to Montreal from Toronto at least partly for the cheaper rents. According to Numbeo.com, the average rent in Montreal for a one-bedroom apartment in the city centre is $877. In Toronto, a one-bedroom apartment in the city centre goes for an average of $1,463. If you came to Montreal more than 10 years ago, you would have paid even less. “After the referendum they were just giving them away here,” says Legallais. “Especially up in this neighbourhood (Mile End) before it became so trendy. You’d get 6½s, first month free, for $400 or $500.” Con: Taxes are higher. Although the cost of living might be lower here, you are also paying some of the highest taxes in the country. In Quebec we pay 16 per cent provincial income tax on amounts up to $41,095. Add that into the federal rate for the same bracket (15 per cent), and you’re losing almost a third of your paycheque in taxes. Sales tax is also high. Here you pay five per cent goods and services tax and also 9.975 per cent provincial sales tax. This, along with the high income tax rate, could be enough to offset any savings you might enjoy from the cheap rents. Pro: Dépanneurs. Since I’m from a province where the sale and distribution of alcohol is extremely regulated, I think the ability to buy beer at my local corner store is amazing. No matter where you are in Montreal, you’re never too far from an ice cold case of Boréale. Some dépanneurs take it a notch higher by adding extras like sushi bars, craft beer rooms and sandwich shops. Con: The SAQ. I have often said that Montreal is a kind of purgatory for scotch or bourbon drinkers. Finding a bottle of Wild Turkey involved looking up online which SAQ store to go to, and then travelling across town to buy it before the store closed at 6 p.m. Ally Baker, an arts student at Concordia, agrees. She hails from Edmonton and has been living in Montreal for 2½ years. “Coming from a province where it’s not government regulated, I find the selection is a lot less, you’re paying a lot more for whatever you’re getting, and you have to travel a lot more to get to different stores. The hours aren’t that great as well,” she says. Pro: Great parks and cycling lanes. In 2013, Copenhagenize rated Montreal the best city in North America for cycling, and it’s no wonder why. The bike-lane network is excellent, and I have been taking a great deal of time this summer to make effective use of it. The separated lanes especially are fun and make you feel safe. Coming from Toronto, a city with a terrible bike network, this is a very attractive feature for an avid cyclist. The parks in this city are second to none. There are tons of green space to spend time in when the weather is nice, and many of the large parks have facilities for just about every sport you can think of. You are also allowed to drink in public (as long as you have some food), so picnicking is always a popular summer activity. There is certainly no shortage of things to keep you busy in Montreal once the weather warms up. But of course that means ... Con: Cold and snowy winters. Montreal is notorious for long, cold, snowy winters. This past winter was especially brutal, and many Montrealers would agree with me. During these cold months, the city is comparatively dead. This doesn’t mean there is nothing to do, however. There are still events like Igloofest, for example, if you know where to look. But if you expect to survive the season, you will need to adapt. “I’m coming from Michigan, so it wasn’t so much of a shock for me,” says Rochie Cohen, a mother of four in the Côte-des-Neiges area. She has been living in Montreal for 12 years. “We just have to leave the house a half an hour earlier. There is a lot of bundling up: coats, scarves, gloves and boots. It takes a lot longer.” Pro: A world-class cultural scene and laid-back attitude. Montreal is a magnet for young artists looking for a place to develop their craft and connect with like-minded people. Numerous artists, writers and musicians of renown were born here. Not only that, the citizenry is much more laid-back than elsewhere in Canada. “My brother asked me, ‘What can you do in Montreal that you can’t do in Ottawa?’ and I told him basically nothing, but everything you do in Montreal is more entertaining,” says Levert. He adds: “You go to a grocery store and shoot a few jokes with the people in line. It’s a joie de vivre that you don’t get anywhere else.” Con: Language barriers. Language issues have been in the spotlight for a long time in Montreal. It’s virtually impossible to get a decent job if you aren’t bilingual, and it can also be isolating for some people. This is true for anglophones who don’t speak French, but it also goes the other way. Aurore Trusewicz is a freelance translator from Belgium. She came to Montreal to attend McGill University in 2007, and French is her first language. “Even though I was attending an English university, I was just listening to English all the time and not really speaking it,” she says. “I was concerned about that because I knew that in Montreal a lot of people speak English, and I was intimidated about how I would speak with (the customers at work).” Although it was intimidating at first, she stuck with it and polished her English skills with diligent practice. The same can be said for learning French. It can be scary to practise speaking it when you aren’t good at it yet. But if you show a genuine effort, you’ll find there are many people out there willing to help. Pro: Affordable public transit. When I moved here, I looked forward to using Montreal’s affordable and extensive transit system. The cost of a monthly pass is much lower than in Toronto, and the métro covers more of the city, so it’s easy to get around. The stations are also designed with better esthetics than the system of my hometown. “The public transportation system is quite nice compared to other places,” says Trusewicz. “Last year I had the chance to go to Miami, and really, you can’t do anything without a car over there. It’s nice to have a métro and buses, even in the middle of the night, to go wherever you want to go.” Con: Traffic and infrastructure problems. This city is disintegrating around us. After riding my bike around these streets, it’s plain to see that some of the roads are in a pitiful condition. After driving here, it’s also plain to see that the design of some of the highways and intersections is very confusing to someone who hasn’t been living here all his life. Combine this with the heavy amounts of roadwork and construction going on, and you’ve got some very bad traffic problems. The roads and sewers have been neglected for years, and now the city has a tremendous amount of work to do with upgrading its ailing infrastructure. City hall is also hard pressed to find the financing to pay for it. It seems this is one problem that Montrealers are going to have to suffer through for years to come. - - - For and against relocating to Montreal The good: Universities have the lowest tuition rates in the country, making Montreal a popular city for students. Residents enjoy the cheapest electricity in Canada, thanks to Hydro-Québec. Daycare is affordable, due to the reduced-contribution spaces for children 5 or younger; parents pay $7 per day. Operational costs for running a business are the lowest in North America, according to a 2013 KPMG survey. Approximately 2,000 hectares of public parks are spread across 17 large parks and 1,160 small neighbourhood parks. The bad: Many people leave Quebec each year for better job prospects in the rest of Canada (28,439 people left from January to September in 2013). Political corruption and allegations of ties to the Mob have besmirched the city’s image. Montreal has some of the worst traffic congestion in the country. It seems essential to be bilingual in order to build a life here; that can be hard for newcomers. Part of the city’s water system is well over 100 years old and prone to leaks. Boil-water advisories have been issued in the past. Chris Riddell is a freelance journalist and copywriter who lives in Côte-des-Neiges.

Publié: 2015-08-24 Canadian Press Newswire Skyward growth CHICAGO _ On an abandoned Chicago railway line cutting between the treetops, bike commuters zip by walkers and joggers, all traversing a ribbon of concrete undulating through a lush landscape where clattering freight cars once ferried everything from coal to furniture. This relic of the city's industrial past is now a vision of its future. Chicago and cities throughout the country are transforming hulking pieces of obsolete infrastructure into useful _ even inspiring _ amenities: In this case, a park in the sky that doubles as an alternative transportation corridor. Since opening in June, the nearly three-mile elevated path, called the Bloomingdale Trail, has changed how residents move through a section of Chicago's northwest side that in many places is starved of parks and inviting pathways for pedestrians and bikes. ``This trail opened up a lot of opportunity for me,'' said Luke Young, a 30-year-old web developer who now bikes the 10 miles to his job downtown instead of taking the train; it takes roughly the same time. Moving by bike, though, is more fun and a way to relieve stress, he said before tearing down a ramp that links the trail to Milwaukee Avenue, a busy thoroughfare popular with cyclists. ``This is really an innovative park for a resurgent city and it's an example of the way cities are coming back to life in the U.S.,'' said Ed McMahon, a senior fellow at the non-profit Urban Land Institute in Washington. After decades of decline, American cities are getting creative in rolling out new green spaces to sell their brand. With little real estate to expand on, McMahon said, cities are turning instead to the wreckage of past eras: old rail yards, landfills, utility corridors and riverfront areas cut off by freeways. Dallas built a deck over a freeway to create Klyde Warren Park. Virginia Beach, Virginia, turned a landfill into an expanse of lakes, hills, playgrounds and a skate park that it playfully calls Mount Trashmore. Savannah, Georgia, buried a parking garage to restore one of the original town squares laid out in the 1700s. Elevated rail lines especially have beckoned, tapping into utopian visions of parks and pathways in the sky. There's Manhattan's High Line and Paris' Promenade Plantee. But the Bloomingdale Trail pushes into new territory: It's longer, allows bikes and links a string of ground-level parks. The park and trail system is known collectively as The 606 _ a reference to the first three digits of the city's zip codes. Its linear shape extends access to a huge number of people across four neighbourhoods. The 17-foot-high rail embankment, once a physical dividing line, is now a connector and a gathering place for communities as diverse as Humboldt Park, the centre of the Puerto Rican community, and Bucktown, a recently gentrified neighbourhood that's home to cool cafes and doggy daycare centres. But some neighbourhood groups fear it could push lower-income residents out by contributing to rising property values, rents and property taxes. City leaders say they want to prevent that. ``How are working families going to be able to enjoy this trail and also be able to afford living where they're living?'' said Juan Carlos Linares, director of the Latin United Community Housing Association. On a hot August morning, bikers shot up and down The 606, office IDs fluttering, GoPro cameras mounted to helmets, earbuds piping in the tunes, as they zoomed to jobs, meetings and construction sites. In the glow of sunrise, joggers and moms with strollers glided along a narrow, rubbery strip along either side. An older man buzzed by in an electric wheelchair. Dina Petrakis, a 57-year-old remodeling consultant, biked with her tiny dog, Lucy, poking its head out of a shoulder satchel. Petrakis mainly uses the trail to get to yoga class. ``I used to have to drive because you can't really ride your bike over there. Streets are too busy,'' she said. Designers carved pleasing dips and curves into the path. Short gravel side loops take walkers into shady tree-filled groves. The embankment widens in places into spacious overlooks. The western trailhead includes a spiraling earthwork in the design of an ancient solar observatory, and there are plans for a skate park and art installations. The safety of the trail got Jim Trainor back on the bike that he'd ditched after his wife got hit by a car door while cycling. Now, the 54-year-old professor of animation at The Art Institute of Chicago rides every morning for exercise and serenity. ``It's kind of a godsend for me,'' he said. Follow Jason Keyser on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jkeyser1

http://spacingmontreal.ca/2010/05/25/parc-lahaie-transformation-underway/ Résultat du parc Lahaie: C'est très laid ! deux tables dans le milieu, c'est le seul truc qu'ils ont trouvé à installer ? Je crois qu'il serait mieux de détruire la rue si ont veut vraiment la transformer en place publique. Je laisse Étienne vous présenter ses rendus qui sont extra !

City promises services for Montreal's homeless in remodelled parks MONTREAL, QUE.: APRIL 15, 2015 -- A view fence around the perimeter of Emile-Gamelin park, which is closed for renovations, in Montreal city hall in Montreal on Wednesday, April 15, 2015. (Dario Ayala / Montreal Gazette) Dario Ayala / Montreal Gazette With two months to go until Cabot Square is accessible again and the recent closing of Place Émilie-Gamelin, many of Montreal’s homeless have lost two main, relatively safe, gathering spots. But despite the upheaval, officials are promising that once reopened, the spaces will not exclude or forget the city’s most vulnerable citizens. Fences sprang up around Émilie-Gamelin park on April 7, and will remain in place until early May, when a large block party is expected to herald the park‘s rebirth as a concert venue, public garden, food court and outdoor beer garden. It’s a significant overhaul that could have a long-lasting impact on the people who live and work in the neighbourhood. That includes the homeless men and women who spend their days in the park, said Marie-Joëlle Corneau, spokesperson for the Quartier des spectacles Partnership — a not-for-profit organization that co-ordinates and manages many of Montreal’s best-known cultural offerings. Corneau promised that the new park will continue to welcome outreach workers. A food distribution point for those in need at the northern end of the park will not be moved either, she said. “We have noted over the years that in Émilie-Gamelin, and in la Place de la Paix, the homeless will stay around during outdoor performances and events,” Corneau told the Montreal Gazette in an email. “Many have told us that they appreciate the ambience that is created and the presence of other members of the public, which makes the spaces more secure — even for them.” It’s a hopeful message, but it might come as cold comfort to the people who have no roof over their heads and who rely on public parks and buildings during the day. Émilie-Gamelin is one of several spaces frequented by the homeless that has been closed off or forcibly emptied in recent months. In January, city crews dismantled a makeshift camp in Viger Square, using machinery to sweep up more than a dozen beds in the area. Cabot Square is also undergoing a major year-long renovation, and local advocacy groups have warned that its closure has displaced dozens of homeless aboriginals. “We have not noticed a huge impact yet (at Émilie-Gamelin), but I would suspect that our café that’s open during the day would be even busier now,” said Matthew Pearce, president and chief executive officer of the Old Brewery Mission, which is located just a few blocks away from the park. “It may become the kind of park where the homeless are feeling less able to stay. … I hope that those individuals will then understand that the Old Brewery Mission has open arms for them.” According to a spokesperson for the Ville-Marie borough, the city will have eight police cadets stationed in Place Émilie-Gamelin this summer who will help maintain order during public events, but they will not issue tickets to the homeless. As part of an overall intervention strategy in the park, the city has set aside $48,000 to help pay for two dedicated outreach workers through local organization Présence Compassion, along with another $8,000 to assist with needle cleanup. One of the outreach workers works year-round while the other is only employed for the summer, when traffic in the square is much greater. As for the notion of serving alcohol in a public park that has long been home to people with substance abuse issues, Pearce acknowledged that it may not seem like a great idea. “You know, my own take on that is that it won’t be pivotal because people who have substance abuse issues in Montreal, if they don’t go one place they can go to another,” he said. “The challenge is to increase the level of services for that population to help them better cope with dependencies.” Over in Cabot Square, the reopened space is expected to include a number of policing and cultural programming initiatives designed to better serve the homeless and those at risk. A café in the park’s gazebo will employ aboriginal people, and two outreach workers will be establishing a permanent office adjacent to the café. “I think we’re on track with everything,” said Rachel Deutsch, manager of the Cabot Square Project, an umbrella group helping to co-ordinate new programs and services in the park. “We’re looking at cohabitation and issues of safety for everyone. We’ve worked really closely with Ville-Marie borough and they have been very, very supportive.” While Cabot Square is closed (it is expected to reopen in July), the Old Brewery Mission has been shuttling people from that area to the mission’s facilities in the east end, and to other locations — all on the city’s dime. According to Pearce, “if the city wanted us to, we would do it for Viger Square and Émilie-Gamelin as well.” sent via Tapatalk

http://www.archdaily.com/535628/free-cad-files-of-241-major-world-cities/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter 241 CAD files of metropolitan areas, for architectural and urban planning applications. These .DXF files are prepared for use in programs such as AutoCAD and Rhinoceros. How to UseChoose "meters" as the unit of measurement when importing these files. Models are two-dimensional and organized into 8 feature layers: Central Park in new-york.dxf roads_1 major highways roads_2 major roads roads_3 minor roads buildings railways parks parks, stadia, marinas, gardens... water rivers and lakescoastline sea level 0m AboutFiles are derived from OpenStreetMap, a free, collaboratively edited document of the built environment, and distributed under the Open Database License. Improve these files by contributing your knowledge to OSM. Data and web page are based off work by Mapzen and Michal Migurski's Extractotron. Questions? Suggestions? Reach me by email or Twitter.

Dear all, I have been a member of MtUrb since day 1, less active with posts now than I was a few years back, but always an avid reader. So, new developments in Montreal are really surprises when I go back "home" every few years. For you see, I have been living in Hong Kong for the past 5 years, enjoying life in the most transit-efficient city in the world. But this post is not about Hong Kong, it is about re-discovering Montreal... Last time my wife and I came back to Canada was 3 years ago. As usual, we enjoyed our time and visited our friends and family in Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa (where we lived and worked for over 12 years) and Toronto. I remember thinking back then that while Montreal was cooler, Toronto was the boom town, and Ottawa was the sleepy, quaint, moneyed high tech capital. How things changed in 3 years. Ottawa seemed to us like it went down the drain; unbearable traffic, no high-tech rumble anymore (loss of Nortel?), a feeling as it somewhat had lost its soul somewhere in suburbia... Not quite sure how to pin it down but it felt empty. Quebec City didn't change much; we never cared for it much as we always thought the old Quebec to be an island of pretty in a sea of bland. Toronto is still booming, but still looking for its heart... As I said, none of the real-estate development in Montreal should have surprised me since I was aware of every single one of them, thanks to you guys, but they did, in a big way. I could feel the vibrancy. In the new buildings, parks, squares, sure. But also in the attitude; I felt positivism and renewed joie-de-vivre. Food trucks that hasn't been allowed for decades are now back in full force, Ste-Catherine no longer felt like an unfortunate and sometimes decrepit metaphor for the two solitudes. Yeah, coming from Ottawa on the Metropolitain, or crossing the bridges made a Hong-Konger think that North-America hasn't quite gotten out of the stone-age of transportation. But I saw more people in the city of Montreal than ever before; people working, living and playing within urbanity. I also, for the first time, really saw the concept of urban villages materialize before my eyes, be it downtown in the condo environments, in NDG with its eclectic combination of tree-hugging concepts such as urban-gardens, and the sense that people truly understood that in order for sustainability to exist, it needs to be financially viable (overheard of discussion of a green entrepreneur planning how he was going to make his rooftop gardens profitable). Like it or not, one also cannot deny that Ferrandez has changed the face of the Plateau; I thought the density of people biking was a sight to behold. Maybe I was dreaming and under the influence of so much amazing food (and ok, a good amount of red wine too...) that I partially lost my mind but beyond all of the impressive public money investments (CHUM, parks, new Metro trains, etc, etc), I thought, talking to people and "feeling" the city-beat, that I could feel a paradigm-shift or the beginning of one: the private sector investing in Montreal, believing in it (naysayers just have to spend 5 minutes at the corner of René-Levesque and De La Montagne to be convinced), and residents that seem to have moved on from the rut, looking forward instead of back... I hope that continues when, hopefully, one day, I decide to move back to Canada and, maybe, settle down in Montreal. We thoroughly enjoyed our time. I leave you with 2 pictures. Hard to say that Montreal is at a standstill. The old 'Carriere Miron' is becoming one of the largest park in Montreal, here's what I would do with it. Picture was taken from the north-west corner. I'm not an artist but, you get the idea... Have a great rest of this wonderful summer! JC

http://www.thrillist.com/drink/montreal/montreal-s-first-map-of-bars-near-the-metro-montreal-metro-bar-map <article itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Article" id="node-3601078" class="node node-article-view" style="max-width: 640px; margin-bottom: 1em;">INTRODUCING MONTREAL'S FIRST METRO BAR MAP PUBLISHED ON 5/21/2014 BY KATHERINE SEHL For all its greatness, using the Montreal Metro can occasionally be an experience that leaves you needing a stiff drink, so we’ve put together a guide to help you do just that -- by plotting out the best bar within a 5-10 minute walk of every one of the most popular stops on the map (and therefore excluding the industrial bar-wasteland of the Orange Line’s Northwest corner, the drinkery-free parks & suburbia tagged onto the ends of the Green Line, and the Yellow Line’s teetotal island layover). Check out a blown-up version of the map here, and see below for each line in its individual glory. </article>

I have noticed in the past months in this forum and many others in SSP/SSC the amount of rants about ugly suburb sprawl and design. These days, Many neighborhood planners just build and go. Sure they might build a park here and there, but nothing that might add uniqueness to a city or town. Personally i had the chance to live in Calgary and I once visited a neighborhood called McKenzie Towne which is by far i think one of the best examples as to how i would develop suburbs in Canada. All the amenities in the central area with beautifully constructed houses on the outside with great parks, fountains and bicycle trails. At night the neighborhood is surprisingly vibrant (only 11, 000 people) with restaurants and fantastic pubs. I can only imagine in 30/40 years how this little town will look with all the trees and vegetation matured! I would love to see these kind of developments around Montreal or Toronto! http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=mckenzie+towne&hl=en&ll=50.913702,-113.964581&spn=0.015315,0.042272&z=15&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=50.913702,-113.964581&panoid=rzCDkdLVVG2sB2fGzF2jrg&cbp=12,280.66,,0,8.68 http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=mckenzie+towne&hl=en&ll=50.913536,-113.9698&spn=0.003863,0.010568&z=17&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=50.913536,-113.9698&panoid=lrnqlqsqoGl1FuR1rrDQdQ&cbp=12,100.14,,0,5.57 http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=mckenzie+towne&hl=en&ll=50.913296,-113.969818&spn=0.003863,0.010568&z=17&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=50.913156,-113.970046&panoid=-L2scdoFHHHP5r2uuY0RQg&cbp=12,228.7,,0,4.39 http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=mckenzie+towne&hl=en&ll=50.91634,-113.960246&spn=0.000014,0.021136&z=16&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=50.91634,-113.960246&panoid=u2VS_zIsxUsGQd0xAhB3Pg&cbp=12,74.85,,0,7.49 http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=mckenzie+towne&hl=en&ll=50.91525,-113.960637&spn=0.000003,0.005284&z=18&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=50.91525,-113.960637&panoid=gTpjEsRS8yDtkiCpBpnCOw&cbp=12,222.93,,0,15.08 http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=mckenzie+towne&hl=en&ll=50.913757,-113.962308&spn=0.001931,0.005284&z=18&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=50.913757,-113.962308&panoid=BuvKEP1o_b7-0o-KyMAItw&cbp=12,79.11,,0,2.74 http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=mckenzie+towne&hl=en&ll=50.91337,-113.968863&spn=0.007725,0.021136&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=50.913584,-113.968534&panoid=stfZebx-Ap8oFn19zAJ3RQ&cbp=12,17.37,,0,9.78&z=16

Many cities bum rush towards bankruptcy, raising taxes instead of cutting spending, but one city – Colorado Springs – has drawn the line. When sales tax revenues dropped, voters were asked to make up the shortfall by tripling their property taxes. Voters emphatically said no, despite the threat of reduced services. Those cuts have now arrived. More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled. The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter. Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks… City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a handful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding to stay open. I bet they do find private funding. That and community involvement is a better solution than throwing more money to government bureaucrats. A private enterprise task force is focusing on the real problem; the city’s soaring pension and health care costs for city employees. Broadmoor luxury resort chief executive Steve Bartolin wrote an open letter asking why the city spends $89,000 per employee, when his enterprise has a similar number of workers and spends only $24,000 on each. Good question, and also the subject of my Fox Business Network show tonight. Government employee unions are a big reason cities spend themselves into bankruptcy. Some union workers in Colorado Springs make it clear that they are not volunteering to help solve the budget problems. (A) small fraction of city employees have made perfectly clear they won’t stand for pay cuts, no matter what happens to the people who pay their wages. The attitude of a loud minority of employees, toward local taxpayers, sometimes sounds like “(expletive) them.” Maybe those workers should sense change in the air. Colorado Springs residents understand that if you can’t pay for it, you can’t have it. And if a rec center has to be closed, or the cops lose their helicopters, or government workers get a pay cut, so be it. Read more: http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/02/11/colorado-springs-walks-the-walk/#ixzz0fH4d5Mpd

Pourquoi je mets cette nouvelles sur le site, Six Flags est le propriétaire de La Ronde. Source: CNN.com In an effort to shed $1.8 billion in debt, popular theme-park chain Six Flags announced Saturday that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The filing will not affect the operation of the company's 20 parks in the United States, Mexico and Canada, said spokeswoman Sandra Daniels. "This restructuring will have no impact on families who come out to our parks. They will not see an inch of difference," Daniels said. In an online letter to employees, President and CEO Mark Shapiro said Six Flags inherited a $2.4 billion debt load that "cannot be refinanced in these financial markets." "This process is strictly a financial restructuring of our debt and that's how you should view it and speak about it," Shapiro said in the message posted on the Six Flags Web site. He said Six Flags was seeking expedited approval from the for the District of Delaware of a pre-negotiated plan of reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. He said the company actually performed well in 2008, attracting 25 million visitors and making $275 million. But it could not keep up with its debt obligations. That's a balancing act you just can't risk year in and year out," he said. "Today, we are moving to rectify our balance sheet once and for all. Believe me when I say we will emerge from this process stronger and more competitive than ever." The restructuring would reduce the company's debt to $600 million. Shapiro told employees that the company was on "solid ground" and the bankruptcy decision was "difficult." He assured them their paychecks and jobs were safe.

Sharing the streets JULIA KILPATRICK, The Gazette Published: 6 hours ago Skateboard users risk fines as well as injury when they travel on public arteries like sidewalks or bike paths. But while aficionados complain about the regulations, police say their goal is safety Turning his back to the traffic screaming past a small skateboard park east of the Gay Village, Kyle Naylor pulled his board out of his backpack. The skateboard was split in two jagged pieces. A car had run over it earlier, when Naylor was skating to the park for an afternoon session with friends. "My friends all put in some cash so I could buy a new board," Naylor, 18, said. Email to a friendEmail to a friendPrinter friendlyPrinter friendly Font: "We didn't want to miss out on our skate day." Skateboard commuters like Naylor risk more than a broken board when they choose to ride on the street. Bylaws prohibit skateboarding on Montreal's roads and sidewalks. Fines for ignoring the rules range from $30 to $300. Commander Daniel Touchette, of the Montreal police traffic division, says the fines are justified because skateboarders are not equipped to share the roads with other vehicles. "The regulations exist for the safety of skateboarders," he said. "If they are on the street and they fall, there's no saying where they might go." Naylor's broken board appears to support that argument, but the statistics don't. Montreal police issued 116 tickets for offences related to skateboarding or inline skating in the street in 2006, Touchette said. Police records don't specify when a motor vehicle accident involves a skateboarder, yet Touchette said that, to his knowledge, there have been no serious or fatal accidents involving skateboarders in the past year. Last year, the city added 25 kilometres of bicycle lanes on the island in an effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions and encourage the use of alternative transportation. But while those lanes are open to cyclists and inline skaters, they are closed to skateboarders, leaving many frustrated by the city's refusal to see skateboarding as a legitimate means of transportation. "It's ecological, and you can take public transit with it, which you can't with your bike," said Alex Jarry, 31, manager of the Underworld skateboard shop on Ste. Catherine St. E., near Sanguinet St. He travels to and from work daily on his skateboard, and says concerns about the safety of boarding in the street are overblown. "People who skate in the street, they control their board," he said. "If you don't feel confident to ride in the traffic, you don't do it." Naylor said he would rather try his luck in the street than compete for space on the sidewalk, as some less experienced skateboarders do. The issue made national headlines recently after Fredericton resident Lee Breen, 25, spent a night in jail for refusing to pay a $100 fine for skateboarding on city roads. Naylor and his friends Alex Potter, 19, and Ryan Baird, 18, ride their boards everywhere - and pay the price. All three have been fined for skateboarding on public property, including streets, sidewalks and parks. "Everybody I know, they've got fined for skateboarding," Jarry said. "It's legal to sell skateboards and illegal to practise it." That's not the case, Touchette said: "It's not illegal. You have parks and other places where you can use them for sport." Skateboarders can hone their skills legally at more than 30 outdoor parks across the city. But commuters who would rather skateboard than drive a car do so at their own risk - physically and financially. "For transportation, you cannot use a skateboard to move from place to place in the streets of Montreal," Touchette said. jkilpatrick@thegazette.canwest.com http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=7d7951ab-8d48-4b4c-bafa-3fa2843eac88

Sometime during the week I was watching the news and now the city of Montreal giving out a $140 fine if you bring your dog to certain parks. Honestly its stupid. There is barely any green space in this city and most of it is on the mountain, or in the west island or east end. Plus one park near me is one of the parks I know of that you get fined the $140 if you bring your dog, in my case if I bring my dog there. One thing I find weird. Quebec / Montreal people like thinking they are "French" yet certain life styles we do not have like the "French"