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13 avril 2007 Rien n'y fait. Malgré la récente flambée des prix, le marché de l'immobilier de Québec demeure l'un des plus abordables de la planète, avance une étude de la Century 21. Les résultats d'une enquête menée auprès de 31 villes du globe démontrent surtout que Québec arrive au deuxième rang des marchés les moins chers. À l'achat d'une première résidence en banlieue, les acheteurs typiques travaillant au centre-ville de la capitale paient en moyenne 93 $ du pied carré, calcule la Century 21. À l'échelle de la planète, seul le marché immobilier de la ville de St. John's, à Terre-Neuve (55 $ / pi²), demeure le plus accessible. Au troisième rang, Québec est chauffée de près par la ville d'Istanbul, en Turquie (94 $ / pi²), suivie de Halifax (97 $ / pi²), de Charlottetown (104 $ / pi²) et de Sydney, en Australie (105 $ / pi²). À l'opposé, les villes les plus chères au monde par pied carré demeurent Paris (1051 $), Moscou (688 $), Séoul (630 $), Vancouver (577 $) et Londres (532 $). Les deux plus grandes villes canadiennes, Montréal et Toronto,arrivent en milieu de peloton avec des coûts respectifs au pied carré de 276 $ et 209 $. La ville de la grosse pomme, New York, arrive au huitième rang, à 375 20 minutes en auto L'étude de la Century 21 s'est aussi attardée au temps à parcourir en voiture (ou en métro) pour arriver au lieu de travail. Les acheteurs typiques de Québec doivent ainsi compter chaque matin 20 bonnes minutes avant d'atteindre le bureau au centre-ville. À ce chapitre, Vancouver est particulièrement compétitive, avec un temps moyen de cinq minutes entre le lieu de travail et la maison. À St. John's, le temps à parcourir s'élève à 10 minutes ; à Montréal, à 10 min.; à Paris, à 5 min. ; à New York, à 45 min. ; à Tokyo, à 50 min. ; à Halifax, à 25 min. ; à Winnipeg, à 12 min. et à Calgary, à 20 min. Des bémols Dans son enquête, Century 21 note que les acheteurs d'une première propriété paieront environ 129 000 $ pour une résidence de deux étages (1380 pi²) dans la région de Québec, plus précisément à Val-Bélair. "Or, à ce prix, peu d'acheteurs risquent de trouver une maison", précise l'analyste Jean-François Dion à la Société canadienne d'hypothèques et de logements (SCHL). À Val-Bélair, comme partout dans la région, le prix des maisons est en forte progression depuis janvier (+10 %). Au cours des trois premiers mois de 2007, le prix moyen des transactions s'est élevée à 162 000 $. L'analyste de la SCHL reconnaît toutefois que les maisons de la capitale demeurent parmi les plus abordables au monde. Depuis le début de l'année, le prix moyen pour mettre la main sur une maison individuelle se chiffre à 182 000 $ dans la région. avantage aux vendeurs À Québec, dans le secteur résidentiel, le marché actuel serait toujours à l'avantage des vendeurs, indique la SCHL. "On retrouve environ six résidences offertes pour un acheteur", précise M. Dion en ajoutant que, dans un marché dit équilibré, le ratio est de huit pour un. Les marchés immobiliers les plus abordables au mondeVille $/pi2 St. John's 55 $ Québec 93 $ Istanbul (Turquie) 94 $ Halifax 97 $ Charlottetown 104 $ Sydney (Australie) 105 $ Bogota (Colombie) 114 $ Mexico (Mexique) 119 $ Source : Century 21

Voici un projet fort intéressant... qui pourrait peut-être s'appliquer pour notre fleuve. Vous savez, il y a deux options pour le l'environnement et le design : High design/Low tech Vs. Low Design/High tech.... je prèfère de loin la première! Oyster-tecture: Scape Studio Plans to Build a Park Filled with Millions of Oysters to Clean the Gowanus Canal NYC has some great oyster bars, but its most in-demand shellfish yet may soon be coming to the Gowanus Canal instead of to your favorite seafood restaurant. Scape Studio has received funding for its ambitious Oyster-tecture project – an oyster park for millions of mollusks at the mouth of Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal. Oysters have the unique ability to ‘eat’ toxins and dirt, so the new park could be just the way to clean up what is currently one of the nation’s most polluted waterways. “We propose to nurture an active oyster culture that engages issues of water quality, rising tides, and community based development around Brooklyn’s Red Hook and Gowanus Canal,” explains Kate Orff of Scape Architecture on their website. ”An armature for the growth of native oysters and marine life is designed for the shallow waters of the Bay Ridge Flats just south of Red Hook. This living reef is constructed from a field of piles and a woven web of “fuzzy rope” that supports oyster growth and builds a rich three-dimensional landscape mosaic. A watery regional park for the New York Harbor emerges that prefigures the city’s return to the waterfront in the next century. The reef attenuates waves and cleans millions of gallons of Harbor water through harnessing the biotic processes of oysters, mussels and eelgrass, and enables neighborhood fabrics that welcome the water to develop further inland.” This ‘oyster-tecture’ has been described as a 21st-century approach to creating new waterfront infrastructures where long-gone shellfish can be brought back. Construction has already begun on the new pier area that is to host Orff’s reef. In fact, oysters are one of nature’s best cleaners as they have the ability to filter 50 gallons of water a day! Oysters were once plentiful in the waters around New York, but died out by the turn of the 19th century due to industrial waste, sewage, diseases and the dredging of the harbor to make room for shipping and development. Now, marine scientists believe that new beds of oysters could break down pollution in areas where the water temperature, currents, chemistry and other conditions are right. Of course, due to their ‘cleaning’ of toxins, these oysters will never be eaten and any poachers aiming to harvest them for profit will be prosecuted. http://inhabitat.com/nyc/oyster-tecture-scape-studio-plans-to-build-a-park-filled-with-millions-of-oysters-to-clean-the-gowanus-canal/

(Courtesy of CJAD) One new step for Vermont to leave the US and join Canada?

Picture in question: From what I can determine, the church in the middle of the picture is the one at the corner of Saint-Jacques and Vinet in st henri, and the slope on the side is where the Ville-Marie highway is now. Based on the size of that church and its position, I say is between staint-jacques and notre-dame around Guy street. Things I hope you guys can help with, the church on the left, with the single steeple, where is/was it? The building on the right, in the background, with all the chimneys, what is it, it looks really familiar, I'm sure someone will recognize it. And finally, does anyone have a map of the rail lines in the general area around the turn of the century, there is a platform on the extreme right in the middle, and knowing where they were would help greatly. Thanks for the help in advance, I love trying to figure these old ones out.

YANKEEDOM. Founded on the shores of Massachusetts Bay by radical Calvinists as a new Zion, Yankeedom has, since the outset, put great emphasis on perfecting earthly civilization through social engineering, denial of self for the common good, and assimilation of outsiders. It has prized education, intellectual achievement, communal empowerment, and broad citizen participation in politics and government, the latter seen as the public’s shield against the machinations of grasping aristocrats and other would-be tyrants. Since the early Puritans, it has been more comfortable with government regulation and public-sector social projects than many of the other nations, who regard the Yankee utopian streak with trepidation. NEW NETHERLAND. Established by the Dutch at a time when the Netherlands was the most sophisticated society in the Western world, New Netherland has always been a global commercial culture—materialistic, with a profound tolerance for ethnic and religious diversity and an unflinching commitment to the freedom of inquiry and conscience. Like seventeenth-century Amsterdam, it emerged as a center of publishing, trade, and finance, a magnet for immigrants, and a refuge for those persecuted by other regional cultures, from Sephardim in the seventeenth century to gays, feminists, and bohemians in the early twentieth. Unconcerned with great moral questions, it nonetheless has found itself in alliance with Yankeedom to defend public institutions and reject evangelical prescriptions for individual behavior. THE MIDLANDS. America’s great swing region was founded by English Quakers, who believed in humans’ inherent goodness and welcomed people of many nations and creeds to their utopian colonies like Pennsylvania on the shores of Delaware Bay. Pluralistic and organized around the middle class, the Midlands spawned the culture of Middle America and the Heartland, where ethnic and ideological purity have never been a priority, government has been seen as an unwelcome intrusion, and political opinion has been moderate. An ethnic mosaic from the start—it had a German, rather than British, majority at the time of the Revolution—it shares the Yankee belief that society should be organized to benefit ordinary people, though it rejects top-down government intervention. TIDEWATER. Built by the younger sons of southern English gentry in the Chesapeake country and neighboring sections of Delaware and North Carolina, Tidewater was meant to reproduce the semifeudal society of the countryside they’d left behind. Standing in for the peasantry were indentured servants and, later, slaves. Tidewater places a high value on respect for authority and tradition, and very little on equality or public participation in politics. It was the most powerful of the American nations in the eighteenth century, but today it is in decline, partly because it was cut off from westward expansion by its boisterous Appalachian neighbors and, more recently, because it has been eaten away by the expanding federal halos around D.C. and Norfolk. GREATER APPALACHIA. Founded in the early eighteenth century by wave upon wave of settlers from the war-ravaged borderlands of Northern Ireland, northern England, and the Scottish lowlands, Appalachia has been lampooned by writers and screenwriters as the home of hillbillies and rednecks. It transplanted a culture formed in a state of near constant danger and upheaval, characterized by a warrior ethic and a commitment to personal sovereignty and individual liberty. Intensely suspicious of lowland aristocrats and Yankee social engineers alike, Greater Appalachia has shifted alliances depending on who appeared to be the greatest threat to their freedom. It was with the Union in the Civil War. Since Reconstruction, and especially since the upheavals of the 1960s, it has joined with Deep South to counter federal overrides of local preference. DEEP SOUTH. Established by English slave lords from Barbados, Deep South was meant as a West Indies–style slave society. This nation offered a version of classical Republicanism modeled on the slave states of the ancient world, where democracy was the privilege of the few and enslavement the natural lot of the many. Its caste systems smashed by outside intervention, it continues to fight against expanded federal powers, taxes on capital and the wealthy, and environmental, labor, and consumer regulations. EL NORTE. The oldest of the American nations, El Norte consists of the borderlands of the Spanish American empire, which were so far from the seats of power in Mexico City and Madrid that they evolved their own characteristics. Most Americans are aware of El Norte as a place apart, where Hispanic language, culture, and societal norms dominate. But few realize that among Mexicans, norteños have a reputation for being exceptionally independent, self-sufficient, adaptable, and focused on work. Long a hotbed of democratic reform and revolutionary settlement, the region encompasses parts of Mexico that have tried to secede in order to form independent buffer states between their mother country and the United States. THE LEFT COAST. A Chile-shaped nation wedged between the Pacific Ocean and the Cascade and Coast mountains, the Left Coast was originally colonized by two groups: New Englanders (merchants, missionaries, and woodsmen who arrived by sea and dominated the towns) and Appalachian midwesterners (farmers, prospectors, and fur traders who generally arrived by wagon and controlled the countryside). Yankee missionaries tried to make it a “New England on the Pacific,” but were only partially successful. Left Coast culture is a hybrid of Yankee utopianism and Appalachian self-expression and exploration—traits recognizable in its cultural production, from the Summer of Love to the iPad. The staunchest ally of Yankeedom, it clashes with Far Western sections in the interior of its home states. THE FAR WEST. The other “second-generation” nation, the Far West occupies the one part of the continent shaped more by environmental factors than ethnographic ones. High, dry, and remote, the Far West stopped migrating easterners in their tracks, and most of it could be made habitable only with the deployment of vast industrial resources: railroads, heavy mining equipment, ore smelters, dams, and irrigation systems. As a result, settlement was largely directed by corporations headquartered in distant New York, Boston, Chicago, or San Francisco, or by the federal government, which controlled much of the land. The Far West’s people are often resentful of their dependent status, feeling that they have been exploited as an internal colony for the benefit of the seaboard nations. Their senators led the fight against trusts in the mid-twentieth century. Of late, Far Westerners have focused their anger on the federal government, rather than their corporate masters. NEW FRANCE. Occupying the New Orleans area and southeastern Canada, New France blends the folkways of ancien régime northern French peasantry with the traditions and values of the aboriginal people they encountered in northwestern North America. After a long history of imperial oppression, its people have emerged as down-to-earth, egalitarian, and consensus driven, among the most liberal on the continent, with unusually tolerant attitudes toward gays and people of all races and a ready acceptance of government involvement in the economy. The New French influence is manifest in Canada, where multiculturalism and negotiated consensus are treasured. FIRST NATION. First Nation is populated by native American groups that generally never gave up their land by treaty and have largely retained cultural practices and knowledge that allow them to survive in this hostile region on their own terms. The nation is now reclaiming its sovereignty, having won considerable autonomy in Alaska and Nunavut and a self-governing nation state in Greenland that stands on the threshold of full independence. Its territory is huge—far larger than the continental United States—but its population is less than 300,000, most of whom live in Canada. http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2013/features/up-in-arms.html

I thought this was interesting: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/ikea-is-assembling-its-own-london-neighborhood.html IKEA is Assembling its Own London Neighborhood IKEA is going into the business of selling walls, floors and roofs, in addition to furniture, housewares and rugs. Inter IKEA Holding Services, the intellectual property owners of the home-goods retail monolith, recently announced plans to build an entire neighborhood in Stratford, East London, just south of the Olympic Park, where the 2012 Olympics will take place. The new district, Strand East, will include 1,200 homes, of which about 40 percent will have three or more bedrooms. Strand East will also have a 350-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel, 480,000 square feet of offices, shops, cafes, restaurants, a school, a nursery, and a health-care facility, allowing residents to accomplish daily errands and needs without having to drive. The 26-acre neighborhood-in-progress is being designed to include car-free pedestrian zones, courtyards and landscaped grounds, while the planned underground parking means vehicles will be stowed tidily out of sight. The parcel is bordered on two of three sides by waterways, so the community might take on a Venice-like feel, with a water taxi service, a floating cocktail bar, and moorings that will be available for residents’ use Strand East will be constructed by Landprop, a unit of Inter IKEA. Harald Müller, the managing director for LandProp and the business development manager for Inter IKEA, emphasizes that while IKEA values such as family safety and smart design will be represented, this project is completely separate from the retail branch — so don't expect the apartments to come fully furnished with IKEA catalog items. Müller isn't saying exactly how much the land cost, but the amount was higher than the speculated £25 million (about $39 million) cited in The Daily Mail. It was obtained at "a very interesting low price, but not this price," he said. Of the total land buy, Müller says that two big parcels were foreclosures. One foreclosure was bought from a bank, and the other was from the Olympic Legacy Company. Inter IKEA had the advantage of making an equity-financed purchase, which has allowed it to create similar developments in Poland, the Baltics and Romania. Demolition has begun in what was once an abandoned industrial area of Stratford, dating from the 15th or 16th century. Gin was distilled in the area during the last century until the war, but in the intervening time it became "completely empty and rubbish and ugly," says Müller. Although some planning approvals are pending, construction is planned to begin in 2013 — after the Olympics — and is expected to take about five years. However, one section, Dane’s Yard (pictured at top) has been approved. It will feature a 40-meter-high (131-foot) illuminated sculpture in its public square, and a Grayson’s restaurant that will focus on ethically and locally sourced foods. It will also retain renovated versions of some of the historic buildings. "We will turn it around for sure," says Müller. "Not being arrogant, but for sure it will be a new hotspot in London."

Malgré quelques commentaires étranges ("Surely the fare served here is as bleak as the weather in this city" - venant d'un anglais, parler de bleak weather alors que nous avons beaucoup plus d'heures d'ensoleillement, c'est particulier!), et l'article comporte des erreurs de faits ("the Atwater market in Saint-Henri, which has the added attraction of being set in an Art Deco former railway station" - ah oui?), mais le ton est, encore une fois, plutôt flatteur. To get a flavour of Montreal just tuck in Canada is hardly famous for its culinary scene. Yet this city is as close as you can get to foodie heaven, says Kate Simon Sunday, 22 June 2008 Maple syrup: that is the most distinct flavour I'm expecting on my foodie tour of Montreal. Surely the fare served here is as bleak as the weather in this city, where the locals spend the winter months going about their daily business in an underground city of corridors, created to protect against glacial temperatures that can plummet to -40C. Of course, I'm wrong. The food is as extraordinary as the Montrealers' preoccupation with it. I'd like to trace this culinary prowess back to the days when the French ruled the banks of the St Lawrence River, but they were only here for about a century and far more interested in the fur that clothed an animal than its meat. And while the Quebec French have a strong Gallic appreciation of the art of dining, there are more than 80 ethnic cultures represented in this city of four million, with all the attendant flavours that such a mix brings. Breakfast proves the point: the feted Montreal bagel made its way here from Eastern Europe. I eat mine with my guide, Ruby, at St-Viateur Bagel & Café in Le Plateau. It is simmered in honey water and baked fresh in the wood-fired oven and tastes nothing like the usually doughy wheel that sits heavily on my stomach – this one is crisp on the outside, chewy in the centre and sweet-sour on the tongue. It's a flavour to be savoured: "You'll never see a Montrealer eat breakfast on the run," says Ruby, "even if that means being late for work." But I have only a day to get a taste of foodie Montreal, so we move swiftly on. Our next stop is the Jean-Talon market in Little Italy, home to the Italian-Canadians, the city's largest ethnic group. They first came here in the 19th century, then later after the Second World War; and though the community is now spread across the city, some still live in the staircase houses on Jean-Talon and Drolet Streets. These multi-dwelling rowhouses with their exterior iron stairs are a quirky signature architectural style of this city and a sight in themselves, built as a nifty solution to maximising space, containing heat – and raising taxes for the authorities. Ruby tells me Montreal's chilly climate hasn't deterred the Italians from growing grapevines in these backyards – the Mediterranean sun still lives on in their souls. At first sight the Jean-Talon market stalls, laden with workaday fruit and veg, look of little interest to the visitor. Indeed, this is the haunt of locals rather than tourists, who prefer the Atwater market in Saint-Henri, which has the added attraction of being set in an Art Deco former railway station. But Ruby guides me to Le Marché des Saveurs du Quebec on the south side, which is packed with produce from the fertile St Lawrence Valley and beyond – smoked meats, mussels from the Iles de la Madeleine, goat's milk cheeses, and, in a side room, beers from nearby microbreweries and the famed icewines of Niagara. It's the perfect place to pack a picnic for lunch on the run. We find more to tempt us in the boutiques along avenue Laurier Est back in Le Plateau. At Olive & Olives the array of oils could rival any Mediterranean emporium. At Maison Cakao the young owner, not long out of college, offers a modern interpretation of the art of chocolate making, adding inspired ingredients such as Earl Grey tea. While at Le Fromentier & Maître Corbeau we dip downstairs to discover a subterranean hall dedicated to bread and cheese. It also does a roaring trade in deli fare and gourmet prepared meals for that extra-special take-out. Over on rue Laurier Ouest at Les Touilleurs, Ruby gives a real insight into how seriously the Montrealers take their cooking when she shows me a kitchen equipment store that treats its wares as art exhibits. These culinary sculptures provide a good excuse for utensil junkies like me to stand and stare and who will not be able to resist buying a strawberry huller or other such nonsense gadgets as a souvenir. You can linger even longer in Les Touilleurs if you sign up for one of the after-hours cookery demonstrations at its open kitchen, where local chefs show off their skills to small groups of dedicated foodies. I pick up a copy of the Quartiers Gourmands annual guide at the till, which lists shops subscribing to the Slow Food movement and selling an alphabet of foods, from apple tarts to zabaglione. This city knows its food. I'm full and we haven't even tried a drop of maple syrup yet. The city's staircase houses provided the authorities with a handy way to raise taxes COMPACT FACTS How to get there BA Holidays (0844 493 0758; ba.com) offers four nights at the W Hotel in Montreal from £945 per person in July, including return flights on British Airways from £621 and accommodation only from £324 for the duration. Further information Quartiers Gourmands (quartiersgourmands.com). Tourism Montreal (tourism-montreal.org).

In the 1920s, Toronto, eager to overtake Montreal as Canada’s financial centre, had several building busts By Joe Martin Financial Post I n Wednesday’s Financial Post, Steve Hanke of Johns Hopkins wrote of the relationship between large buildings and investment crashes — the theory being “that businesses overestimate the value of long term investments and an investment-led boom ensues ... The boom ends in busts.” He cited 40 Wall Street and the Empire State Building in the early 1930s and more recently the Burj Dubai in Dubai. Canada, and more specifically Toronto, experienced this same phenomenon in the late 1920s, early 1930s with the construction of a major hotel, the Royal York, and the head office buildings of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and Canada Life. The background to this investment excess was the boom, bust, boom phenomenon Canada experienced in the early part of the 20th century. In 1907/08 the U.S. economy experienced a severe setback which required J.P. Morgan personally to “save the street,” which led to the creation of the Federal Reserve Board. While the setback was not as severe in Canada it was a bad year. GDP per capita declined by nearly 8% — far, far worse than the decline in the current “credit crisis.” Then the economy took off and boomed until 1917, with the exception of one year of sharp contraction in 1914. But from 1917 to 1921 the country experienced the second worst depression of the 20th century. Then, once again, the economy boomed and grew rapidly from 1921 to 1928, the year the Great Depression began in Canada, a year ahead of much of the industrialized world. Growth was particularly dramatic in Toronto, which even then was showing evidence of its desire and ability to overtake Montreal as the major financial and commercial centre in Canada. Ontario and Toronto were helped a great deal by U.S. foreign investment — American corporations preferred to invest in English-speaking Ontario rather than French-speaking Quebec and geographic access was easier to southern Ontario, as well. Three companies that responded to the dynamic growth of the 1920s with major investments in Toronto were Montreal-based Canadian Pacific Railway [CPR] and the two dominant Toronto financial institutions of the day: the Canadian Bank of Commerce and the Canada Life Assurance Company. Almost from its inception the CPR entered into the hotel business as a complement to its rail business, building chateau-like hotels such as the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City and the Royal Alexandra in Winnipeg as well as resort hotels in Banff and Lake Louise. In Toronto, though work on Union Station had begun in 1905, it was not opened until 1927. To take advantage of this event, the CPR began constructing the Royal York in that same year. The location had long been a favourite hotel site in Toronto and the opening of the Union Station only made it more attractive. The hotel opened in 1929 as both the largest hotel and the largest building in the British Empire. While it remained the largest hotel for decades it was surpassed as the largest building in the Empire the next year by the Bank of Commerce’s new building on King St. The Canadian Bank of Commerce, which had been founded the same year as Confederation, was by far the largest of the Toronto-based banks, although not as large as Montreal-based Royal Bank or the Bank of Montreal. In 1927, the bank began planning a new head office, one that would be the largest building in Canada at 34 stories. Completed in 1930, it was the largest building in the British Empire/Commonwealth until the early 1960s. While not nearly as big as the Bank of Commerce, Canada Life was both the oldest and largest insurance company in the country in the early part of the 20th century. Work began on the new head office on University Avenue in 1929, after the country had entered into recession. It opened in 1931 as the country was reaching the depths of the Depression. While not as tall as the Bank of Commerce, Canada Life was a massive building with over 90,000 square feet of space. During this same period, North America, and Canada in particular, were the hardest hit nations by the Great Depression. In Canada, the Depression began earlier and lasted as long as it did in the United States with dramatic declines in employment, trade and GDP. The stock market, which peaked in 1929 after an even more frenetic increase than in New York, declined with even greater rapidity. Other Beaux Arts building plans for University Avenue were shelved indefinitely. Thus Toronto experienced the phenomenon described by Steve Hanke — overinvestment in buildings immediately prior to a major crash. Financial Post Joe Martin is Director of Business History at the Rotman School of Management, and author of Relentless Change, A Casebook for the Study of Canadian Business History.