New and Improved ?

It has stopped raining. These puddles at the corner of Louisa and Preston are a real wet foot hazard and splash hazard to summer pedestrians; and will be slush and ice hazards in the winter.

We can put a man on the moon, send a politician to a conference, but somehow can't quite get the water to drain off crosswalks or sidewalks.

The race is on ...

Preston reconstruction is almost complete. Final details are going in ... like the traffic loops.

The loop shown above is going to be installed right outside May's Chinese Restaurant at the corner of Somerset and Preston.

Except ... on August 3rd Somerset is going to be dug up big time for the same treatment as Preston got for the last few years: new pipes, utilities, and protected parking bays. Guess what -- the spot shown above will be getting a six foot or so wider sidewalk. And four trees.

Will the city get the wiring installed in enough time to get it torn out in August? Or will they be so slow the installation crews will arrive to find the road already gone??  Stay tuned for the great race...

Arty mainstreets

precast block awaiting its hole

Shown above is a precast foundation block for urban sculpture. When planted into a hole, only the top portion shows. Upon this plinth will be mounted civic art work. On Preston, these will be Italian-style columns. On West Wellie will be sculptural renditions of fire hydrants. The Preston art pieces will arrive mid-August, according to city officials supervising the final touches on the street.

precast block inserted in hole, surface pavers relaid 

I really look foreward to seeing these art pieces, as they will be the first of their type for an Ottawa main street, as far as I am aware. They are very different from the Bank Street bike racks, which are an artful rendition of a utility device. Clever. The west side sculptures coming this year will be sculptural art for its own sake. Two very different approaches, both valid, both enhancing the streetscape (we hope) and leading to more lively streets ... streets that are about more than just parking cars.

Sidewalk sales

One of the purposes of the new wider sidewalks on traditional mainstreets is to encourage merchants to display merchandise outside, which enlivens the environment with changing displays. Recently, Preston Hardware has started taking advantage of the very wide sidewalk in front of their store.

Part of the display is pretty ordinary hardware stuff: wheelbarrows, lawnmowers. The BBQ on a stone-faced cabinet is more different, and reflects the trend to "outdoor kitchens", although a visit to any of the remaining Italian households in the neighborhood will reveal a kitchen in the garage for summer cooking and pickling. There is a house near mine where the Asian residents have a large outdoor grill (perhaps removed from a chip wagon) attached to the window frame and they cook outside by reaching through the window.

In the fall, I expect the hardware store to have wine barrels, crates of grapes, etc on the sidewalk, like Musca's does now on Somerset Street.

What else would be interesting for a hardware store to put out on the sidewalk? Sledge hammers? shower stalls? waterless toilets? A door knob display? Let me know what you think would be neat on the sidewalk, and I'll pass the suggestions on to Preston Hardware.

Toronto Late

The latest issue of Toronto Life magazine arrived. In it is a major article on the many reasons to love Toronto. Number 24 is the proposed building of an underpass art gallery. Upon closer reading, it consists of putting 24 mosaics or painted panels onto the walls of an underpass. This is definitely trendy and  cutting edge nifty stuff ... for Toronto.

For local West Side residents, it should seem familiar as the Preston underpass has had both painted panels (some with 3D elements) and murals showing the immigration process with a ship arriving at Pier 21 in Halifax, and Preston street life yesterday and today.

Welcome to the modern city, Toronto. Better late than never.

Preston street truffle hunt

Seen growing along the Cyclopiste de Preston trail along the O-Train corridor. Maybe they are truffles ... it is Little Italy after all. 

Rich Trend

I spotted this school bus in the municipal parking lot along Preston. Its cargo was walking en masse across Preston to attend a yoga studio.

It says ... something ... that the denizens of affluent Rockcliffe Park and the city's elite private academy are migrating to Preston Street. Not long ago, aspirations ran the other way. Amazing what wider sidewalks will do.

Mack sees Bell

This particular cement truck is often to be found on Preston Street. Mr Simpson on the front grill makes the truck distinctive. When walking on West Wellie near Holland, I met him there too. Busy man.

He is going to continue to be a familiar sight on Preston near Primrose. Bell has decided that since the street has been reconstructed, the sidewalks put in place, the landscaping done ... they are now going to dig up the above intersection and put in an underground vault or chamber. Not content with digging up the corner for three weeks, they are then going to dig up another block of Preston to run new underground cables ducts to Elm Street.

It's enough to make one cry. Except that my shares in Bell went up in value. It's hard to figure out why.

Tree planting excitement

double click to enlarge

For some time now, spring tree and shrub planting has been going on along West Wellie and Preston streets. It seems every day reveals a tree or shrub bed somewhere new.

Shown above is the supply dump for the trees and shrubs being installed on Preston between Albert and Somerset. It is incredibly exciting to see the greening occur, especially since in the case of Preston the streetscaping process has been going on for more than sixteen years before big results finally appeared on the ground. But it was worth it!

A few of the trees planted last year suffered nicks and snowplow damage over the winter. Tree guards/fences/cages are now being considered for Preston. Trees are vulnerable to just one careless equipment operator, so I think it is worth the expense of protecting the trees.

Hundreds of potted spirea await planting.

Sidewalk Life, Sidewalk Patios

One of the key arguments the Preston BIA made for wider sidewalks throughout its territory was to permit sidewalk patios. These enliven the streets, put people on the sidewalks for hours at a time, and promote the sort of spontaneous interactions that make city life enjoyable and that are simply not possible in drive-everywhere-by-car "suburban" lifestyles.

Much of Preston Street is predominately commercial in flavour, especially to the south end. Residences are still scattered amongst the businesses, and upstairs "above the store".  But in the north end of the street, it is predominantly residential at ground floor and above, with scattered businesses. The planning exercise done over the last decades opted to keep this residential end vs commerical portion in the zoning. There are even some provisions to try to maintain the live-above-the-store nature of the street.

Pubwells is a restuarant-bar (I use the terms loosely, not in a legal descriptive sense) at the corner of Preston and Spruce. It is the last business of the last block of commercial frontages. Most everything north of it is residential. Across the street from it is residential, although the vacant lot will be developed commercial. Pubwells wants to install a front patio. It will not be very large: two rows of tables along the window frontage.

I like the idea of animating the sidewalk. Many of the frequenters of Pubwells are local regulars, from the seniors coop, from adjacent residences, from the commercial zone along City Centre Avenue, etc. Yet I am acutely aware of how intrusive outdoor dining can be, mainly because it is night after night all through summer.

the row of housing across the street

Here is a hierachy of situations:

• outdoor dining on a roof, back second floor, back yard abutting residential side street - generally against it
• outdoor dining on a side yard facing the residential side street - proceed only with extreme caution and consideration of what is adjacent
• outdoor dining on a front sidewalk of a commercial street, even if residential across the street, on the side street, or above: generally in favour of it. 

city map, 1895

Double click on the map to enlarge it, and scroll around it for a bit to explore Ottawa in 1895. Notice the area called "Dalhousie" - our community name goes a long way back.

Notice that a number of streets have the same name. The Queensway is still a railroad right of way. Carling Avenue is simply "Macadam road"(Macadam invented asphalt paving). Notice that Gladstone doesn't exist, but many of its segements do, which goes some way to explaining why that street twists and curves the way it does as it connects up bits and pieces of older streets on not-quite-matching grids.

I also like seeing the lost creek that exits Dow's Lake and travels down what is now Preston to Nepean Bay. At some point, this creek was swallowed up into the brick sewer built under Preston Street about 1898. The construction of the Somerset Viaduct just west of Preston raises the ground level enough to prevent the entire Preston basin from continuing to drain towards the River, which resulted in a century of flooding basements during heavy storms.

Integrating streets, sidewalks, with ped-bike paths

There is a pedestrian-cyclist path along the east side of the Otrain cut from Carling to Young Street. Hopefully this path will be rebuilt and extended next year (a study is underway) to become a really useful cycling link "Cyclopiste de Preston".

Some careful thought needs to be given to how the path will connect to the sidewalks and pavements of the adjacent dead-end streets - there are many of them.

Currently, only one street has its sidewalk (and only on one side) properly connect to the recreational path. This works well for pedestrians, but what are cyclists supposed to do? Walk their bike? (unlikely); ride on the sidewalk then swerve onto the road? (likely) and the movement is even more awkward for those going from the street to the path as the connection is only on the wrong (left) side of the road.

For many of the side streets, there simply isn't a proper connection between the city sidewalk and city pedestrian path a few meters further along:

And sometimes the informal goat trail connection cannot align well with the sidewalk at all. These trails are muddy, some are steep, all are awkward and unmaintained.

New housing on Preston

when landscapers plopped in the nice sized trees along the Preston boulevard a few weeks ago, this tree came with a housing unit. No sign if the occupant came with it ... or if this is the start of  condo mania on Preston.

Tree planting resumes

In the late afternoon yesterday, workers planted about 12 more trees along Preston, just north of the Queensway. Some of the trees surprised me by their caliber and size -- these are not delicate twigs being planted here. As summer goes on, pedestrians like this lady going to yoga class, will be walking on sidewalks in the dappled shade.

Think Thin

Downtown neighborhoods can have a tremendous variety of amenities, depending on the neighborhood history, road allowances, and other oddities that pre-date modern standards that too often result in in a blah uniformity of environment. I particularly like this narrow sidewalk, one block north of Beech, off Preston.

This sidewalk is less attractive, mostly because of the close proximinity of the rough stucco wall of the adjacent restaurant, and the presence of the lamppost (pardon... street furniture) plopped down in the centre of the walk along with a stop sign that is about 25' from the corner. The kitchen staff of the restaurant often sit out on this tiny sidewalk for a smoke... sort of like a sidewalk patio for the lower paid rest of us.

In marked contrast, the new wider sidewalks of Preston offer lots of room for pedestrians and patios and other street activities. The completing touches, such as trees and shrubs, will be arriving shortly. By June, the streetscape should be remarkably green and pleasant. Then it is up to the merchants and residents to make the best use of the new spaces.

Cyclopiste de Preston (iv) Gladstone to Young

The Cyclopiste de Preston is a cycling arterial running from the Ottawa River - Bayview - under Somerset - cross Gladstone - under the Qway using an existing underpass - and joining the existing ill-maintained path running from Young Street along the Otrain corridor to Carling and then further south. The path is in the Official Cycling Plan, but since work started in 1962 has been stymied by lack of an underpass under Somerset street. Detailed design work for the underpass is underway now, as part of Somerset reconstruction. If enough people support the idea (tell your councillor!) the underpass would be built in 2010-11 and presumably the missing bits of paths too.

Previous posts covered the distance from Albert/City Centre Ave (the temporary north end of the route pending the East-West LRT construction) to Somerset, under Somerset, and slightly upslope to Gladstone.

Once the cyclist or pedestrian crosses Gladstone, there is already a well used informal goat track along the route:

The path proceeds south between the city signals storage facility (on the left) and the Otrain cut (on the right). Despite looking rather narrow and maybe a bit forbidding these tire marks indicate some cyclists know about this route. I cycle it numerous times each summer:

The path approaches the existing Qway underpass from the south, but first it has to make it way past the unpaved (and uncleaned up) parking lot on city land behind the St Anthony Soccer Club. This is an important parking lot for events there (despite its disorganized and dirty state) so I expect the cyclists will simply use one paved aisle of the parking lot to cross it:

The city has kindly installed signs to remind cyclists and parkers that this is city property. Somewhere along here, a Gladstone/ Preston LRT station is planned. It would be down in the cut, with access up to ground level at various locations.

The picture below shows the underpass under the Qway. It is wide but bleak and forbidding; some imagination will be required to make it more attractive and user friendly:

Lastly, the route comes out at Young Street, which has a turning circle, and a convenient pedestrian-cyclist overpass over the Otrain cut into the Civic Hospital neighborhood, and a short jaunt east to the Preston Square/Adobe office complex on Preston:

Somerset Streetscaping Plan Unveiled

After numerous meetings of stakeholders, the City and its consultants (Delcan) have come up with a proposed streetscaping plan for Somerset Street. It is excellent.

Readers will recall that the West Wellie reconstruction got as far east as Spadina last year. Starting next month, more of Somerset will be dug up and new sewers and water installed, and then comes the fancy paving, protected parking bays that guarantee on-street parking (instead of rush hour traffic lanes), pedestrian lighting, benches, trees, etc.

The section from Spadina east to the start of the viaduct (bridge) at Breezehill will be landscaped like the parts of West Wellie done in previous years. The bridge itself, which runs over the Otrain cut and then slopes down to go over City Centre Avenue, will be given a distinct treatment of lights, planters, and trees, which will turn this well-used pedestrian and cyclist bridge from a bleak windswept eyesore to a pleasant urban street that should be a delight to all.

From City Centre Avenue (roughly #1010 Somerset on the south side, Musca Wine on the north side) along to Preston, there will be a new style of streetscaping. The benches and ped lights will be same as on Preston Street, as it is part of the Preston BIA. The brick pavers, parking bay pavers, and tree planting pattern will be unique to the neighborhood. These paver and sidewalk patterns will continue up Somerset hill to Booth Street when that section is reconstructed in 2011. The lighting and street furniture going up that hill will be a Chinatown style.

Suffice it to say it was a real ... discussion ... to get to this compromise position that generates a coherent landscape and furniture arrangment that covers 3 BIA's (West Wellie, Preston, Chinatown), two community associations, and multiple neighborhoods, and one street. You can see for yourself if the resultant plan will knit together these diverse interests when the City has an open house on Wed March 24th from 6.30 to 8.30 at the Plant Rec Centre (corner of Preston and Somerset).

One of the features of the plan everyone working on it is proud of, is that we got bulb outs, parking bays, trees, bus stops, and shorter crossing distances ... all without major disruption to on street parking. Last count I saw, we got all the benefits and only lost one legal parking space.

Undoing streetscaping

Millions of your water bill dollars was spent on beautifying Preston street over the last few years. A lot more trees and shrubs will be installed next month to complete the project.

Vigilance is required to keep it nice. We have already seen homeowners and property owners eager to pave over landscaped boulevards to make legal or "informal" parking pads. In the case above, the gas company dug up about 6 linear feet of landscaped area along the sidewalk to install a valve. They backfilled with sand but did not replace the mulch. Nor did they bother to replant the shrub, shown lying on its side towards the left. I wonder if that was the only shrub pulled out ... or if other ones got trucked away with the waste.

I called the city. It would be nice to know if the contractors ever get their hands slapped for this carelessness.

A incident a number of years ago discourages me. Bell dug up a whole row of shrubs at the corner of Rochester and Albert, laid them out on the sidewalk, and banked up the rootballs with dirt. All very good ... except that they left them there for about a month, never watering them, until they all died. They they replanted the carcasses in a neat row and headed off into the august sunset.

First expansion of Cycling Sundays in years ...

there is a fragmented path along the east side of the Otrain corridor in Little Italy

The Preston Street BIA (PBIA) is working on a marketing idea for closing Preston on cycling Sundays. The Preston street closure would connect the Ottawa River bikeways to the Rideau Canal paths. The PBIA is in logistics discussions with NCC and City. The idea is to make Preston street a useful link in the bike network, opening up new routing combinations, and making the street and its café’s a destination for cyclists. They are trying for July 2010 only as a trial. The street should be attractive to cyclists and roller bladders as it will be freshly repaved and very smooth.


 If the whole street is closed, volunteers or paid staff would be needed for each cross street/intersection. For that reason, they are also examining a model whereby only one half of the street would be closed to cars, for example, the southbound land would become a bike zone and cars would use the street northbound to access restaurants and residential street.

 They are planning to use the Preston “extension” which leads out to a legal crosswalk over the transitway and then connects to the existing NCC cycling paths. This route is also of keen interest to Bluesfest for crowds to access the park in front of the War Museum.

Cycling Sundays on Preston is a welcome initiative on the part of the PBIA. It may lead to further development/completion of the cycle path fragments along the Otrain corridor. The city cycling plan identifies this corridor as a cycling arterial. Maybe the PBIA will promote the improved path and see it branded as the CycloPiste d'Preston.

Rapid Transit in the 1950's

This photo is taken on Somerset Street in front of the Plant Pool, looking east up the hill into the heart of the Little Italy district which is now Chinatown.

Preston runs left - right across the photo. The Rainbow grill on the corner of Preston and Somerset is now May's Chinese restaurant. The Atlas tire billboard is now Frisby tires. The buildings on the far left corner of the intersection houses Azar Signs amongst other businesses. The buildings burned down in the late 60's I think. At that time, my elderly Italian neighbor once told me, one of them housed a topless shoeshine parlour, which were popular venues back then. Further up the hill, beyond the Atlas sign, was the Vendome bar, which became a strip club and All Star Hotel before it burned down.

I note that the streets do not have a painted centre line, stop lines, crosswalks...

The lamppost in the right foreground is a streetcar rail on end. It was removed only about 10 or 12 years ago when the posts were moved back behind the sidewalk. All of the traffic control signals and signs are mounted on telephone poles, none had their own posts that so clutter or enivronment today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbqoBnhiak4 is a link to a short movie that shows the streetcars moving around this intersection at minute 7.35. There are shots at 4.20 and 6.10 showing the streetcars on Elm street leaving the Champagne Streetcar Barn.