Balloon view of west side Ottawa

Aerial shot of the west side taken from the CTV balloon on Sunday. Double click to enlarge. The view is looking south, the islands in the Ottawa River and former paper mills are in the foreground.

Place du Portage in the foreground, Parliament beyond.

Thanks to Danielle for the photos.

Hoarding Sidewalk Space

From time to time we all come across ideas that just seem so right, we wonder why no one came up with it before.

Consider the ugly plywood and 2x4 fences or construction sheds put over sidewalks while a building is being constructed or renovated. Can you picture the ones recently used in downtown Ottawa? Minto Place? The new Export Canada building?

Now consider these:

This incredibly elegant and yes, beautiful sidewalk covering supports scaffolding and keeps the sidewalk open and accessible. Merchants in the adjacent building have full visibility.

How much more do you think a city would be willing to pay for this sort of sidewalk hoarding instead of plywood sheds? According to my source blog, this design actually costs LESS than plywood and 2x4s. http://www.urbanophile.com/2010/01/28/another-epic-public-space-win-in-new-york/nsider

If true, this strikes me as a marvellous business opportunity for someone to acquire some of this scaffolding system and rent it out for construction sites. Mind, we haven't yet met with the City burueacracy that might impose its own conditions, like solid 3' high walls, etc.

Lansdowne Live - More sole sourcing?

I note with interest that the City has given the go-ahead to the Lansdowne Live proposal with certain conditions, one being that there be a design review or something headed up by George Dark. He is a consultant. He is not cheap.

Was the review contract put up for tender? Or is it sole sourcing? Will all the opponents of sole sourcing Lansdowne Live take to the streets to complain about sole sourcing the process to "improve" the urban design?

Of course, maybe it's not sole sourcing at all...

West Wellington streetcar?

While walking along West Wellington Street I noticed work crews had uncovered many ties in their excavation. Presumably these were from the Ottawa Electric street railway service. I went looking online for a route map of the old Ottawa streetcars, but could not find one. If anyone knows of a map, I would love to look it up.

Library Location Location Location

While heading back from City Hall via the Library the other day, I noticed how few potential sites there are for a new Library. Recall that the new site is supposed to be on land now used for a parking lot, in the area bounded by Wellington-Bronson-Gloucester-Canal. That isn't a very large area. And I suspect the library people will want a fairly sprawling building rather than trying to fit one onto a tight site, given their desire for public visibility, easy access, and desire for a multi-purpose building with meeting rooms, etc.


So as I walked I speculated on the various lots in the downtown core.


The most obvious first choice location would be the Concert Hall site behind Friday's Roast Beef House on Elgin. It has three street frontages, is only half a block from the existing library (wouldn't want to get lost), there is already a developer who expressed interest in a public-private partnership, and it wouldn't surprise me if the concert hall made another appearance, perhaps disguised as a multipurpose auditorium/hall. This would certainly satisfy a lot of interested parties. Plus it's close to the political sources of funding (city hall).


The next most likely choice would be the old Ottawa Tech High School site. The school board cannot sit on it forever, essentially vacant. The recently approved Escarpment Plan identified the site for a lot of high rise development, provided a chunk of the site is given over for parkland. It would be such nice cover for the board to sell of the site for both a library (public good!) and high rises (back pocket money). It would kick start the redevelopment of the west side of the core. It could also incorporate the old Ottawa Tech auditorium. It would tie directly into the first downtown underground transit tunnel station. It would be harder to criticize by lefties since the buyer, seller, and developer are all "the public".


Another potential site is the entire city block currently owned by the CS CoOp. The east part of the lot, by Constitution Square office building, is ideal for office development whereas the west part of the site is better for residential development. This makes the development attractive for a common podium building holding the library. It could be directly connected to the DOTT.


Other vacant lots include the lot behind Barbarella's Club, facing the Crowne Plaza; and the three tower lot facing Holt Renfrew. I think the former site is too small and rather far north for the library. The Holt site is large enough but its owners probably see a lot more money in 100% commercial development unless the city is willing to pay top dollar. There are proposed developments around Christ Church Cathedral, a prestige site but Libraries do not need sites with a view.

So the three sites I rate most likely, in order, are the Concert Hall site, the Ottawa Tech site, the CoOp site. Where else might it go? Let me know your speculations please.

Funding Municipal Politicians

In the Citizen today: Cullen is preparing a "motion asking the provincial government to give the city the power to ban all corporate and union donations to municipal election campaigns, and it’s bound to be controversial. Cullen, and some other left-leaning councillors, already choose to reject donations from these groups, but other city politicians accept them."

It will be interesting to see the wording of this motion. Back in my civil service days, I was a union steward for about 7 years. Marion Dewar was running for office, and the union called all its reps out "on union business" for one day, which means we would be paid our regular CS wages by the taxpayer. The purpose of the union business? To go campaigning for Marion Dewar.

I didn't go.

Will Cullen's motion ban canvasing, donated materials (eg printing) or donated services (eg graphic services)?

Urban Planning Nostalgia

Over at the blog The Ottawa Project is a story of visiting Lorne Ave and the not-unreasonable assumption that what is visible on Lorne represents that which was demolished on the Flats in the early 1960's.

I think that overview is overly sympathetic to the demolished areas. I do not wish to take the view that it was right to demolish whole neighborhoods/built up areas in favor of total rebuilding, which was the big government view of urban renewal then (note to today's amateur city rebuilders and commentators who too often wish for bigger govt action - be careful of what you wish for ... ).

The Flats was a mixed use neighborhood. There were grotty warehouses and rail tracks and SLUMS there as well as some nice houses. We dont do ourselves a favor by sugar coating or idealizing the old neighborhood. Granville Island or Old Montreal or old Halifax represent the effects of millions of dollars of disneyfication and not the normal evolution of old mixed use neighborhoods. Sometimes cheap housing is just that - it serves a purpose and then should be demolished and replaced by something better. As successful as Granville Island is, Vancouver is busy demolishing old stock in the adjcent neighborhoods for redevelopment from scratch. And who in Ottawa is clamoring to declare Hintonburg or Mechanicsville historic districts with every building preserved from demolition? If not Mechanicsville, then why LeBreton?

It is just plain wrong to assume that Lorne avenue represents what was built and demolished on the Flats. The NCC demolition targetted the polluted lands, the obsolete industrial uses and the structurally impaired housing. Their demolition continued south only as far as the worst structures went ... for eg they went half way up Booth and stopped at Primrose but left the houses backing onto these from Lorne because the Lorne houses were structurally sound (and when I moved here 30 plus years ago, certainly not nice nor trendy). Similarly, only some units were demolished on Rochester, Preston, Primrose ... leaving a gap-toothed landscape. But it was the bad-condition houses that were demolished and the good ones were left in place. Once a high percentage of the area is demolished, there were no doubt some structurally sound and maybe even attractive structures demolished simply because they were isolated in a non-functionable landscape.

Fortunately, the era of widespread urban demolition is past. Or is it? Will the Carling-Bayview CDP, which Councillor Holmes has agreed to try to resurrect, aim to preserve the old industrial buildings and every old house? Or will we view this area as a brownfields to be majorly redeveloped with townhouses and apartments and new park space?

Phase one of Lebreton flats in 1980 built new housing around some of the survivors and this makes a fortunate transition zone from new townhouses to old community. Note that it was the city/government that built the remarkably ugly and ill-suited townhouses at the Albert St end of Lorne Ave that blight that otherwise admirable streetscape.

In short, many of the houses on the Flats were demolished because they were substandard, slums, or structurally compromised. Certainly today, we MIGHT spend vast sums of public money to "save" and reposition such a neighborhood. Look at neighborhoods that were better than the Flats that were left alone - like Hintonburg, Mechanicsville, etc - which evolved to what they are today, with a lot of infill development of mixed quality and scale.

I dont think we should idealize the past and be nostalgic for a quality residential neighborhood that exists more in our imaginations than reality. Eddy McCabe wrote a lot about what it was like to grow up in that neighborhood, and it was anything but wonderful.

Plouffe Park sodded

Last Wednesday, May 13 about 1/3 of the park was sodded. There was no further action until Tuesday, May 19 when the remainder of the park was sodded. Fences have been constructed to try to keep people and animals off the fields. Limited activities (not including soccer) will be permitted during the summer when the Plant Pool Rec.Assoc (PPRA) holds summer camps.

The big green swatch in the middle of the ward is really welcome given all the construction and dirt elsewhere. This neighborhood has the least amount of City greenspace of any ward in the City of Ottawa.

Green Roof - Bronson Place

The roof of the parking garage at Bronson Place has lots of greenery planted, including some thriving trees. The roof includes an indoor pool area and an outdoor totlot with soft floor.

Out with the Playstructure

Centennial School on Bay St near Gloucester. Playstructure demolished by work crews.

DCA - AGM Tonight

There is a community association for the neighborhood bounded on the east by Bay St - on the north by the Ottawa River - on the west by the O-Train tracks - and the south by Carling Avenue. Called the Dalhousie Community Association (DCA) after the now-retired ward name for the area, the association concerns itself with planning, traffic, and social issues in this mixed income changing neighborhood that incorporates both "Chinatown" and "Little Italy".

Their Annual General Meeting is tonight at 7pm at the Dalhousie Centre, corner of Empress and Somerset, 3rd floor. Free cookies. I'll be baking my special nutritious unfatening gingerbread/peanut butter combo cookies. Be sure to come on time in order to get a few. Don't deprive your children of these treats, bring them too.

There will be short panel discussion on (the lack of) park space in the community. Did you know our neighborhood has the lowest amount of city park space of any neighborhood in the city? Now this might now be a disaster if the area consisted of detached homes on large green lots, but this is a fairly dense neighborhood on small lots with what green space remaining is under threat from property owners paving their yards and the City which is eager to convert our green space into transportation corridors. But a number of opportunities exist to improve and quickly add to the park space, if the city can be convinced to act.

Should be a pleasant evening, somewhat interesting, and maybe even fun. Come-on out !

Green Roofs in Ottawa

A view of Minto Place podium green roof, this one showing an area with public access. The three tepee skylights are over the pool over the Hasty Market; the larger skylight on the right is over the main lobby/concourse. A similar green roof is barely visible in the background on Constitution Square. Access to the roof is from the slightly larger tepee skylight which houses a stair up from the pool deck.

I think it is interesting to note how much of the green roof is actually decking and other "not so green" features.

Spring blooms at the Ex

Snowdrops (?) blooming this week in the Experimental Farm, near the magnolia trees.

Uglification Award

quality work ...

looking south on Booth

looking north on Booth

Chado and his Cousin Eddy run body shops on Booth Street between Somerset and Gladstone. Let me clarify that these are automotive body shops, thus legitimate enterprises.

If you double click on photo one, you may notice a row of demised trees along the front of the building. Also evident are abandonned tires and what appears to be the remains of a Subway restuarant bench.

Photo 2 shows a tree stump, all that is remaining of a city boulevard tree. There is another one by the Insurance deductible sign. If you look at the next property along Booth Street you will see how large the trees were before they mysteriously died in front of Chado and his Cousin Eddy's businesses. Double click to enlarge each photo and admire the streetscape.

I guess they can save the insurance deductible but not the landscaping along the boulevard. Amongst the garbage and wreckage of a lawn can you spot their tactful, tasteful signage? Does anyone wonder why the condos nearby at Balsam and Booth are selling like hotcakes with neighborhood amenities like this?

It make take a village to raise a child, but this village seems to have adopted the Slob Cousins. I wonder if their groundskeeping is indicative of their mechanical skills.

Bureaucrats are not Marketeers

aquaduct east of Booth

Beirut Flats

When Urbandale or Minto or one of the large reputable developers begins to build out a new suburban neighborhood there is usually some park amenities available with the first phase of the project. Then each year the parkland is further developed as more houses are built. These builders do not say "this is a twenty year buildout, we will do the public landscaping when the construction is all finished..." Developers realize that to entice residents there have to be amenities from day one, with tangible promise of more amenities to come.

Contrast that with the bureaucrats at the City and NCC on LeBreton Flats.There are unsold condos in the first building. It must be difficult for Claridge to sell $400-700,000? condos in a 'luxury' building when the foreground is of ... mine tailings? Beirut before reconstruction? And Beirut was reconstructed faster than the Flats is being built out so buyers will view the open excavations shown above for years if not decades, as there are no immediate plans to develop the twin office towers called for in the subdivision plan.

There is a long-term conceptual plan for building out bike paths and parkland around the development, but each little bit is to be built as the adjacent building is constructed. Did no one ask what use a bike path is if it goes nowhere for 30 years? The pedestrian/cycling Pooley's Bridge, reconstructed at great expense and opened with much political grandstanding before the cameras, remains closed to this day, a bridge to nowhere, unconnected to the paved roads and nearby bike paths because the adjacent lots haven't been built out yet (and there is no schedule for the build out either). NCC concept plans for the project show commercial space in the base of apartment buildings, with cafes along the aquaduct. None of this commercial space will be leasable if the paths are not there, if there is no traffic, no street level vitality.

The aquaduct through the centre of the Flats is to be the spine of a parkland corridor through the Flats, with adjacent pedestrian and cycling paths, leading to a larger park around the inlet pond at the west. The NCC reconstructed and restored the aquaduct years ago, its intended landscaping is nice. But once the politicians unveiled the plaque commemorating the event, the City hasn't been back. Photo 1 above shows typical conditions along the canal: tall weedy grass and shrubs choking out the lilly beds and rose beds. Dead trees have not been replaced. The zone between the bike path and canal wasn't mowed all last year, and the garbage left there after Bluesfest remains to this day.

There have been some landscaping efforts in the area: the tailrace was expensively redone by the City water dept. to reduce the danger of landslides in the ravine (!); the NCC has started landscaping the vacant lot north of the new condos (with bike paths that don't quite connect to any of the other paths or roads in the project); and of course the initial phase of LeBreton park was built as part of the War Museum project. But the spaces in between ... rubble and garbage strewn pits ... segments of abandonned bike paths ...

WWMD? [what would Minto do]: I suspect they'd make sure the designated parkland areas are mowed so they look green and inviting. Bike paths would be connected in areas where construction is not imminent. Trees would be planted now so that parkland is even more enticing when later phases of housing is built (and would thus yield better returns).

If the City and NCC would cooperate on the basic parkland plan exercise, then a few trees could be planted every year, paths laid out and eventually paved. Then in 2020 or 2030 when residents move in they would be attracted by green parkland and mature treed areas. I fear these future residents will only find promises of parkland, pictures of pathway cafes, and the occasional toy tree.

Shrinking Condos

original Z6

revised Z6

The Z6 is a condo building to be built at the corner of Balsam and Booth, facing St Anthony's schoolyard and the yellow brick convent. Photo 1 shows the 5 storey building orignally proposed for the site, having 26 units. The second photo shows the building "downsized" to 17 units, only four floors now, with the rounded cornice line at the front now removed. Construction is to commence 1 May with completed scheduled for spring 2010.

Immediately to the left of the Z6 are a series of land parcels owned by Fanto. They applied for rezoning to permit a seven storey condo at the corner of Balsam and Rochester, with two more 'future' buildings to be built on either side of it. They did not get the desired rezoning, facing opposition from the Councilor and Dalhousie Community Assoc. I gather they are now considering a lower rise building or stacked townhouses for their site.

Landscaping Goes In, Dow's Lake pathway

Recall that in late fall, 2008, the NCC reconstructed the pedestrian and cycling path along the south side of Dow's Lake (along Commissioner's Park). The new path is wider and in many places a foot higher, which should reduce puddling. There are more bench sitting areas too, set back from the path.


Workers are busy this week cleaning up the unfinished details, including laying cobblestones between the path and the Queen Elizabeth Driveway.

Luigi Makes Appearance on Preston Street

Preston Street businesses and nearby residents are in for another chaotic year. Construction is starting now on the street, and we will be in for a repeat year of holes, mud, dust, and surprises.

As evidenced from the two sections of street that were largely finished in 2008, the results should be worth it. The wider sidewalks will improve street function. The streetscaping is desperately needed.

The BIA is introducing Luigi on construction signs and advertising to add some personality to the situation. I hope Luigi survives the construction and continues to play a role in the community.

On Parole - The Meeting

The Parole Office meeting was last night at the Bronson Centre.

Meeting Format
Correctional Services tried to have a series of little workgroups, but was talked out of it. Work groups are find when a large percentage of the attendees share a certain knowledge level, but when facts are scarce this format serves to create little silos of (mis)information and keep people unaware. The question and answer format instead allowed people to get some additional information and judge the agendas/merits of others and their opinions. The wiki format wins hands down in this case.

The Pros
The moderator was excellent. I found myself thoughout the meeting amazed at her calmness, flexibility, unobtrusiveness, and patience. Kudos to CSC for hiring her.

The representatives from CSC were calm and articulate. They didn't try to bore the audience to death. Their difficulty in providing some facts seemed to genuinely stem from the complexity of the situation. Nonetheless their credibility continually took a beating as the meeting went on and contradictions became apparent. Make no doubt they were selling 1010 Somerset as a site; their protests that no decision was made, it was a genuine consultation, etc didn't convince me.

The audience was an interesting mix. There were cheerleaders for the parole office, people seeking more info and expressing their suspicions, and a vocal NO WAY portion.
Everyone was polite, listened to others, and learned. It was not a "no" rally as I had feared.

The Cons
Fuzzy factoids: too much time was spent chasing down basic facts that CSC should have provided beforehand if they genuinely wanted discussion. And when CSC gave the facts, they too often proved elusive. Here's some examples:
1) less than 3% of offenders re-offend violently - but over what time frame? Is this in their lifetime or while on parole? how does one reconcile this to...
2) 36.6% of ex-criminals are sent back to jail
3) 20% (40 persons) are lifers, ie murderers. Are these the same ones that re-offend violently?
4) the parole office operates during normal business office hours. It won't attract parolees to the area at night. Oops, except for the occasional night it might be open. Which is maybe 3 times a week. This sort of slow extraction of information from CSC damages their credibility. The ordinary citizen has to wonder what else they are hiding/not acknowledging.
5) Only 8 to 10 offenders visit the office per day for meetings. Later this became 6 -8 per day. Then six. This is about 2000 visits per year. These are for interviews, programs, and other nice things. Oops, except for those invited back to the office so they can be rearrested. [My source working in the parole office estimates it's 16 people per day, if you include those who come in for urinalysis tests, and this number may increase as half-way houses exit the sampling market.]
6)they already live here. 75 parolees live within 1km of the site; 12 more if the boundary goes to 1200m; totalling 100 in "wider centretown", which later turns out might include Vanier. But a ten square mile area is not the same as one site on Somerset St.
7) the main advantage of the site is bus access. Few parolees ever need to visit the office.
8) another advantage of 1010 Somerset is it is PWC owned. So why not look at other PWC buildings, in the downtown, Tunney's, or elsewhere. This smells too much like CSC won't put them in a civil service office building but will put them in our community. What's wrong with 240 Sparks, where the Holt Renfrew crowd could brush shoulders with fellow citizens?
9)Fed offenders commit only 1% of crimes, so don't worry, its other people who are dangerous. This ignores the nature of the crimes (small property crimes vs crimes against the person, including murder) and skips over what percent of the population the offenders are. If they are .5% of the population, then their likelihood of committing crimes - and community risk - is twice as high. Fuzzy factoids >> distrust.
10) will the crime rate go up because of the parole office? (ie, risk). No, CSC says, because parolees won't hang around the office with its 30 peace officers. But their clients are the ones that got caught, ie are the stupid ones, the impulsive. And it won't cause any problems to treat pedophiles close to schools and daycares (except for the ones that can't come in because they can't be trusted to be close to schools...) or have alcholics walk past bars to get to the office.

Alienating Allies
I was glad to see a contingent of pro-parole office people at the meeting. It takes guts to go out for a unpopular cause. Unfortunately, they did not win over anyone because of their intemperate tactics. It doesn't help to call those questioning CSC "bigots", " buncha hicks", "moral panic", "NIMBY". I didn't hear anyone question the utility of the parole system let alone attack it. The focus was admirably direct: where should it be, should it be here, what are the risks. Yes, there were a contingent who were opposed; they were not a howling mob, and could have been won over. I understand why it makes some sense to locate it near the cons, I want to know what the risks are too; this is not intolerance: it's intelligence.

Bad Odor
If it hadn't been for all the fuss about the Elgin/Cooper (current) location, I probably would not have had much interest in the CSC office. But CSC is not proposing to put it in Rockcliffe, New Edinburgh, or the Glebe, where high concentrations of senior bureaucrats can run endless battles. They are proposing to put it in the lowest income neighborhood of the city, between its main public school and main park & rec facility, where all traffic is funnelled onto the one street that runs in front of 1010 Somerset. I just gotta ask myself: if the affluent and well-connected don't want it, if the civil servants don't want to share their office buildings with it, why should I want it? Recall in my previous post I asked a CSC parole office worker about locating it near their house: "NO! I think not."

Missing in Action
Devonshire School, the Plant Pool Rec.Assoc. and Hintonburg and Dalhousie associations, amongst others, were active in this issue. It was good to see local business owners out too: I recognized Luciano Gervasi and Silvano Musca. Councilor Holmes was there and made an admirably direct and platitude-free brief statement. Our MP and MPP had office assistants at the meeting, expressing "concern" but I did not hear the same firm degree of opposition to this site as they had expressed against the Elgin site. No mention was made of St Francois d'Assise school and the 280 kids there, have they been consulted? (Disclosure: one of my kids went to St Marys and the other to St Francois - both walked the Somerset route every day for years).

Also missing was any indication that CSC might engage in further community consultation. The short-notice consultation process seems to be done.

Composting Thoughts on Garbage Collection Day

After putting out the full blue box of bottles/cans/tetrapaks I went looking for the Glad bag of household garbage. The garbage can in the driveway was empty. I went into the kitchen, and discovered the little plastic bag from Luciano's was stuffed rather full of household garbage. Once I gathered up the wastecans from the bathrooms and bedrooms, I still had barely half a green bag of garbage, and this is in a household of two adults, one teen (with a weekend crowd of five more teens living in). So I cleaned out some stuff that I otherwise hadn't yet parted with, in order to not waste the space in that garbage bag. I know this logic is somewhat ... lacking ... in coherence.

On garbage day through the winter I frequently had a stuffed-full green bag or sometimes two. The difference between then and now is composting. I went into the last winter with the compost bins in the backyard already full. Therefore during the winter I threw away the carrot peels, eggshells, potato peels, brocoli stems and other compostables. As the compost bins thaw, the piles inside are shrinking, and I have begun composting again. Can these organics really amount to half a green bag or more of garbage, per week? Guess so.

I am always impressed by the townhousers around the corner from me on Walnut Court. About 45 townhouses all put their garbage out at one curbside collection point. The pile of blue or black boxes, and leaf bags, is always several times larger than the collection of a dozen or so green bags. The sheer volume of recyclables is visible to even the dimmest observer. Once green bins are introduced, the volume of green bags should go down even more. Lesson: sell your shares in Glad Bags.

Now, if only whomever stole my black newspaper bin a few weeks ago would return it ...