The Unfinished Deck

I first noticed this steel girder structure in early Spring. There is a similar one on the other side of the concrete pier that extends out to the Dow's Lake Pavillion (surely one of the better NCC projects, it adds needed life to the Lake).

It looks like the steel should be topped with thick wood planks or concrete pavers, to widen the pier and improve the alignment to the new entrance to Mexicali Rosa's and Malone's Restuarant.

Anyone know why the project has not yet been finished?

Naval Flotilla on the Rideau

I got rather excited to see Navy uniforms on Saturday cruising up the Canal. Mind you its not as fast as the Bras d'Or (hydrofoil)* or big as the Magnificent or Bonaventure (aircraft carriers), all now noticeably absent from our navy fleet.

My dad was in the Navy forever, and being a navy brat, moved every year or two. I attended 9 schools before I graduated from high school. Maybe that's why I haven't moved from my Dalhousie neighborhood in the last 30 years.

*I recall this story, I don't know if it is true. Trudeau was PM. To make a dashing impression, he had the Bras d'Or taken down to Baltimore and then rode it, fastest warship in the world, skimming 2m above the waves, up the Potomac to the tidal basin, to see the US President on his (much larger) ship. If you can't swing a bigger d...k, go for style.

More Woodpeckers

One of the first blogs I ever posted, in April past, was of a large woodpecker on Primrose Street. It got lots of comments and people stopped me on the street for weeks afterword to tell me what type of bird it was.

Maybe it was fruitful and multiplied, because I have been watching two much smaller ones in the Flemish Beauty Pear tree in my backyard all week. Only the red-headed one is shown in these pictures; sometimes there is a very similar bird without the red head.

To find the previous post, use the word cloud at the right, find woodpecker (hint, look to the bottom of the list) and click on it to go to the post.

New Dalhousie Community Association Blog

The Dalhousie Community Association has a new information blog. It can be found at http://www.dalhousiecommunityassociation.blogspot.com/.

The DCA represents the area from Bay Street on the east, to Bayview/O-Train on the west;
from the Ottawa River/LeBreton Flats south to Carling Avenue.

Dalhousie is one of the least known neighborhoods in the City, and its name is seldom recognized. With the new blog, they aim to improve communication and reach more residents.

Be sure to subscribe to the blog to get updated news.

Icebergs ... on Preston Street

A few days ago, I wrote of a meteorite - made of Luigi-ite - being found on Preston.
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Now, icebergs !
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Icebergs float, but just barely. Most of their bulk is unseen underwater.
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Who knew that fire hydrants had a similar tale? Shown here is a nice four-pack of hydrants, waiting for installation along Preston Street. Below the bright yellow tops, is a red pipe and way way down, is a valve point, to which a pipe runs to the water main.
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I have made a point of looking for fire hydrants in a number of foreign lands. I never saw any. They seem to be a north american piece of streetscape furniture.

New plans on Booth Street

Shown is the old Desjardins IGA/Loeb Booth Street, located just a few metres south of where Booth crosses Somerset.
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The building has been vacant for several years. Attempts to find a new grocer have failed. A government funded study on installing a food coop floundered. The building has a typical industrial facade, but behind the facade I hear there are several old houses joined together. The result is uneven and shifting floors bridging stone foundations.
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Thirty years ago Desjardins had the current Loblaws marketing plan in place. There were grocieries, and furniture, a hardware aisle, and upstairs a baby furniture department (remember when this Dalhousie neighborhood had kids? they are pretty scarce now...).
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While the "for sale" signs are posted outside, I hear that it will shortly be demolished to permit the construction of a 40 unit apartment building for seniors. This is good news. It removes one of the uglier underused parts of the street and replaces it with something new and vital.
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The Z6 condo building now under construction a few blocks south will add a jolt of fashion and style to the streetscape. Now, if only Domicile or someone would replace Chado's/Cousin Eddey's garage, the biggest eyesore of all, just a few blocks further south, then Booth could resume its role as a respectable street in our Dalhousie neighborhood.

Blog Radio

A number of MSM (Main Stream Media) read this blog. Several stories I have written about appear at day or two later in the local dead trees, twice as front pagers. Coincidence no doubt.

A few days ago I wrote about police foot patrols in my Dalhousie neighborhood on the west side of the downtown. CBC radio did a followup interview today.

Broadcast is estimated for Friday, 7.15am, 91.5 on your dial.

NCC Oversight ?

roof deck


spiral ramp up



in all its majestic ugliness


Scene of the crime: Remic Scenic Overlook, along the Ottawa River Commuter Expressway at Tunney's Pasture, between the parking lot and the river
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Object: brutal concrete round structure with spiral ramp up to viewing area on its "roof". The Guggenheim museum it is not.
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Function: cobwebby door to interior. Sound of large pumps or motors working constantly. Probably pumps cool Ottawa River water through heat exchangers to chill the cubicle farms located in high rises immediately to the south (in area called a "Pasture").
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Worth climbing to viewing platform? No, not really. The roofscape is ugly, utilitarian. The view not worth the climb.
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Alternative attractions: geese, ducks in river. Sculptures in river. People watching. Picnicing while warding off gulls. Bird feeding. Smooching. Social relationships unfolding in the surrounding bush areas.
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Not known as The Canadian Area 51. No recent sitings of UFO's.
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Conclusion: the NCC has forgotten this ugly structure exists. Our national gardeners could not possibly view this structure as an asset to the site. It is too brutal, too man made, too coarse, too plopped down.
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Audacious Hope: NCC garden crews are on their way, sirens blaring, bearing truckloads of shrubs to plant around this abandonned foreskin and hide it from civilian eyes. If they cannot afford shrubs, then the old perennial fallback to hide architectural blots on the landscape should be dragged out: boston ivy.

Large Dead Tree

This large dead tree is along the Ottawa River parkway. Closer inspection reveals that busy beaver had removed most of the bark from the base of the tree.

Memorial on Bike Path

A small bouquet of plastic lillies and a funeral folder sit behind a small charred spot of grass where the Ottawa River bike path goes under the Prince of Wales railway Bridge. The charred spot looked like maybe a sweetgrass fire yesterday; today it has a votive candle in a holder there.

The spot is so peaceful, a steady stream of cyclists, joggers, and pedestrians goes by. The sun shines. Geese swim by. The water looks cool and refreshing.

Are we doing something to be remembered by?

Cylist Paul Kenneth Dabene was murdered there on July 27, 2009.

Preston Street meteorite identified ?

The large stone-like lump arrived on Preston Street near Albert earlier this week. Its about 2m on each dimension, and very heavy.

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It has no handle, ductwork, conduits, cables, bolt holes, or other humanly useful features. Why on earth would someone have made this giant lump of concrete? Or maybe no one on earth made it ... its a meteorite made of Luigite !

Look W-a-a-a-y Up

Baloons, viewed look southeast from LeBreton Flats. The church tower of St Jean Baptiste and the Dominican Monastry on Empress are clearly visible. They dominate many skyline views from the Dalhousie neighborhood.

Blinding Urban Development

It's not often that I feel dazzled by the Claridge condo at 200 Lett Street on the Flats, but this sunset corrected that. BYW, the condo finally has a street number near the front door, but curiously confuses the viewer by showing the street number but not the street name, instead it is accompanied by the NCC marketing phrase LeBreton Flats. It's not really 200 LeBreton Flats, it's 200 Lett Street.

Lanark cycling curiousities

pedestrian sidwalk link from Lanark to Latchford, no sidewalk dip


view west from Premier at midblock closing




view from Lanark toward Latchford

Photo 2 is looking west on Premier Avenue where it intersects Remic Avenue (these streets are just north of Scott, near the 30 storey Metropole condo, opposite the WestVillage townhouse complex). Both sides of the traffic calming closure are Premier Avenue, but the street is not open for cars to carry on to join Lanark Avenue just ahead. This prevents car commuters from short cutting through a residential neighborhood. It is open to cyclists and strollers on the south side with a narrow lane. It works just fine for cyclists.

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A short half block north, photo 3, Lanark Avenue itself performs a tight turn that cuts it off from what appears at first glance to be its logical route, which is named Latchford. This turn and island separating the Lanark from Latchford was rebuilt in 2008-9.

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I don't think it was well thought out. Cylists on Lanark have no curb break to take the few meters of pavement linking the two streets for pedestrians. This encourages cyclists to mount the concrete sidewalk some distance before the join, at a driveway curb dip. They then have to make a 90 degree turn onto the connecting sidewalk (engineer mentality at work ....). Cyclists coming south have it worse, since the alignments are even more awkward.

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I wonder if this was deliberately designed to discourage cyclists from using these streets, or just unthoughtfully done. Doesn't anyone review the proposed street curb and sidewalk details for actual utility by pedestrians and cyclists? It could be easily rectified by replacing a few of the Lanark sidewalk squares with a dip to curb level just where the connecting sidewalk goes to Latchford.

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I believe if the City is serious about encouraging cycling it will rush out in the next few weeks to fix this sidewalk oversight. There is no reason in this location for cyclists to be treated like cars (car commuters must have cut through here in the past to reach Island Park at Clearview) and every reason to give a slight advantage to cycling over car commuting when it is so cheap and obvious.

Real Bike Lanes

I must confess to being a fan of real marked bike lanes, and not at all enamored of the "its an unmarked lane on a wider car lane" policy favored by our fair City.

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The above two pictures are on Island Park Drive, which has wide, quite well maintained bike lanes on both sides of the street from Gatineau through to at least Westgate/Hampton Park (you can guess how far I rode on the street...). Throughout the trip, cars stayed off the bike lane and well into their own lane, except for two taxis that drifted all over it.

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As the first picture shows well, cyclists get to go to the head of the line at traffic lights, which is a nice perk.

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I was trying to recall where else I have seen separately marked bike lanes in the City. There is one on the short section of Somerset where it crests over the O-Train tracks; there is the section of Albert where it goes from Elgin to Ottawa U over the MacKenzie King Bridge (even has its own bicyle traffic light at the east end). I cycle mostly on the west side of the downtown, and cannot readily name other streets with exclusive bike lanes. Suggestions?

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As James kindly points out in the comments, separate lanes in centretown and near west end include Bronson south of the canal; Percy & Bay; and Alta Vista Drive.

Also, Prince of Wales from Preston up towards the Sir John Carling Building. Bank St by Billings Bridge. What several of these "bike lanes" have in common is bad / hazardous road strips where the bike lane aids in traffic sorting in a difficult / badly executed roadway.

The 100 mile diet

As seen on Wednesday, on Primrose Ave, some local residents have very much taken to heart the exhortation to eat locally. I am proud to call these young male residents my neighbours.

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The dozens of pizzas certainly support local businesses and pizza-farmers; and the variety of beer cartons shows we are dealing with gourmands who are taste-testing their way through the local artisanal beverages (click to enlarge photo to inspect the brands). Such dedication is (fill in your adjective here).

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My biggest complaint here is that the garbage is being put out on a Wednesday, when collection day is Monday, except for this holiday weekend when it will be Tuesday. More and more often I see people just put out their garbage on whatever day they please, without bothering to think about when collection is and certainly without consulting their calendar for blue box - black box - leaf bags - and soon, green compost bins. For some people, everyday is garbage day.

Scott Street bike/multipurpose path repairs

I use the Scott Street multipurpose/bike path at least weekly. It takes me from my house to Loblaws in Westboro. Any user will know the paving is in bad shape (as is the design of the path, but that is for another day...).

Some paving repairs have begun by the City. One of the worst sections just west of Tunney's Pasture Station has lengthy sections marked for repaving. Previous repavings have often been half-hearted patches. I look forward to discovering that this time proper repairs will be done to bring the path back up to point where it is a pleasure to ride on the path again.

Transitway water bill

Picture 2 shows water burbling up from the base of this concrete structure. It comes up so fast it creates a 6-8" high stain on the concrete. The large puddle of crystal clear water (likely from a water main) forms a large puddle then runs down a ditch to a catch basin.

The site of the puddle is the northwest corner of the western transitway station at Queensway. It is bloody obvious, and must be apparent to OC Transpo maintenance crews. Yet it appears to have been there for some time as aquatic plants are growing the in the runoff and if you click picture one to enlarge it, you can see the asphalt bike path has agae and moss growing on it from the surplus of water.

Yes, I called 311 to report it.

Greenroofs - CWM

The bottom photo shows the lower roof of the Cdn War Museum green roof. The grass is green. Further up the slope, beyond the admin offices with the gorgeous views of the River, the green roof is decidedly brown.

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There is a N/S bicycle and foot path up the centre point of the museum which takes you to the roof and down the other side. The views are interesting. The path is supposedly open whenever the museum is open (there is a locked gate other times) but I often see it locked mid-day. If you are lucky and see it open, ride up and enjoy the view and unique windblown grass roofscape.

Bore Hole Drilling at City Centre Complex

The City Centre complex is a combo office tower and industrial bays located on City Centre Avenue just east of and south of Bayview Station. Built in 1960 as part of the federal-funded railway relocation project, it was a intermodal terminal for offloading rail cars onto delivery trucks. Now it is industrial bays, with a surprisingly large number of printers located there. The largest tennant in the whole complex is my old company, Cielo Print.

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All last week there were two drilling rigs working the parking lot, drilling bore holes around the perimeter of the parking lot along City Centre Avenue and up close to the building. Surely, after so many delays, the owner, Equity Management, isn't planning to resurrect the 2 million square foot office-residential already-approved plans for the site?

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Or maybe they are just drilling for other purposes. Whatever, the project is unlikely to appear soon since it depends on a decided transitway LRT alignment and Otrain right of way project, both of which the City seems unable to make its mind upon. In any case, the tennants do not have demolition clauses in their leases, so it could easily take a decade to vacate the bays.

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The plans made a 15 years ago had the first (smallest) tower being built in the parking lot east of the existing tower, so no demoliton was necessary. Tower 2 was to be at the south end of the parking lot along Somerset, and only it or tower 3 actually required demolishing the southmost bays in order to proceed. More problematic, is who would rent all this space with the industrial uses still scattered amongst the new towers.

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Note that Phoenix DCR bought the vacant triangle of land to the north, 801 Albert Street, and is pushing the city for approval to build two 30 storey condo towers. Most motorists and passersby do not realize how very close this site is to the Ottawa River (Nepean Bay, unfortunately a lot of it was filled in while implementing Greber's plans) which means great views from the condo.

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The whole beehive of interest in this area (recall earlier posts on Arnon's proposed developments at the 855 Carling end of the Otrain corridor) reminds of me of the City's dumb decision to postpone the Carling - Bayview CDP which was to implement a coherent zoning and development vision for this whole underutilized corridor. Rumours abound the CDP is getting back on track, but nothing is firm yet.

Why Not Ask First? We May Have Other Plans!

There's a lot of hoopla in the mainstream media these days with everybody and their brother popping up with new plans for Lansdowne Park.

The alternative plans tend to share some elements in common:

The Glebe will get a big grassy and treed park. Someone else's money will restore some older, architecturally significant buildings into marvellous wonders for the local neighborhood. Locals will wander in on bicycles and by foot to buy directly from the friendly farmer locally-grown no-downside produce. After that they can linger by Venetian canals sipping coffee from organically grown (in the shade) responsibility harvested 100 mile coffee beans, while the breeze waffles in the gentle strains of the NAC orchestra playing in the park. Tourists come (by transit, of course, or maybe electric vaporettos or bixi bikes) to wander, mouths agape, at the wonder that is the heart of The Glebe. The vital canal side sidewalks are enlived by the thousands of residents who live in the park ... except for the plans that insist no one may live in the park, unless maybe they are renters.

Gone will be the football stadium, soccer stadium, and outdoor concert venue. Where did they go? Over to Bayview, of course. Nothing attracts amateur planners like a big "empty" lot.

What happens to the plans already in place for that neighborhood? What happened to their plans for lively cafes along an historic aquaduct? Fun riverside walks? Vital mixed income condo developments? Ethnic shopping nirvana?

Gone. Replaced by a giant stadium or stadii, deafened by outdoor concerts, swarmed by hodes or car parkers (not everyone will arrive and depart by magically silent bullfrog-powered transit). For most days and evenings, the stadium areas will be vacant wideswept voids, interrupted by tractor trailer bays and large parking structures (pressed into cost-recovery use as park and ride facilities to encourage car commuters to drive to the edge of the downtown core and take free transit...).

Oh, think maybe the locals might prefer the "other plans" already developed and approved by Council and subject to subdivision agreements and into which millions of tax dollars in infrastructure development and land remediation have already been poured? Well, here, toss them a library building, now that's an intellectual+jock=happy formula. Nevermind that the City already has a new library on track, approved land purchase, and has a library board and ward councillor opposed to moving to Bayview, well they can be changed, just a triffling issue.

Too much of the Lansdowne Park dreaming seems hinged on dreams of the Glebe getting a urban area high-culture park to foster their Florida-inspired nirvana while fobbing off the noisy and troublesome stuff to another neighborhood, without bothering to ask if the recipients of all this largesse want it.

Just for the record, I am not totally opposed to the idea of a utopian-dream stadium at Bayview, but I am sure concerned about what sort of stadium the neighborhood would actually end up with.

Bike Film Fest

Not as well-known as the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Toronto held a bike film festival last weekend. Note that cyclists, at least for this special occasion, had on-street parking. Note too how many bikes fit into the space that would have serviced at most two cars.

Exercise and Drugs

While cycling home from the Parkdale Market the other day I tried to avoid both West Wellington and Scott due to the construction. This took me through the centre of Hintonburg, past a fireplace store.

I came accross one guy on a bike, the other on roller blades. Cyclist had a pager.

Roller blader: puff puff, "He wasn't there."
Cyclist: "he must be, he just called five minutes ago" (holds up pager).
Roller blader: "want me to go back?"
Cyclist: "naw, gotta another call" (cites address).
Blader skates off madly down another street.
Cyclist: checks pager, heads west at a fast clip.

Now what these two gents were doing could be totally innocent. I am sure many 30-40year old scruffy males enjoy cycling and roller blading. Or maybe they were mixing "business" with exercise or economical transportation. Whatever, it was low carbon footprint and will positively reflect on Stats Can surveys about mode of transport to employment in inner city neighborhoods.

Knock Knock, Ottawa Police

While creating the following post on double-tracked pathways in Toronto (punnily entitled: InAction), there came a knock at the front door of my house. Two Ottawa police persons were there, giving competition to the UPS men in short pants category. One officer was hanging off the end of my verandah to peer over my driveway gate, which is 7'6" high.

The cause: my elderly Cdn tire 6speed commuter bike was parked in my driveway, the front door of the house was open (although the glass aluminum door was locked). It seems there is a burglar active in our area, age 35-45, druggy-skinny, scruffy, riding an old bike. They advised I call 9-1-1 if seen, regardless of what he is doing, and the police will check it out. It looked to the police officers that they may have stumbled onto a b&e in action. No such luck for them, however, and after a social chat, they wandered off. On foot. No police car in sight.

I then realized that it must be fairly serious for the dept to have two constables on foot wandering around the neighborhood hoping to catch a burglar in action. Of course there are other benefits to having them foot patrol residential streets, but the rarity of this impressed me that the b&e's must be awfully frequent and blatant to warrant this response.

In 25 years, we have had only one b&e, which my (then) seven year old son interrupted in progress. Since then, the front window has been nailed shut and a driveway gate constructed. I maintain I live on a very safe street, and in a safe spot on said safe street. Nonetheless, resident vigilance is required (and this is not blaming the victim).

Separate Bike Path InAction

from left: gravel path, asphalt path, concrete walk



note the wide wide curbs on the bike path and jogging path

Before we spend lots of money double-tracking bike and pedestrian paths, it is important to know if double tracking is warranted and if it works where tried elsewhere. I am not opposed to double paths, but I want to know that the expenditure would be worth it, both for the paths and compared to alternative uses of the money.
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Pictured are two views of the same path in Toronto. Click to enlarge. There are actually three paths here: a concrete sidewalk, about 5' wide; an asphalt path about 8' wide, and a gravel path about 3' wide. The gravel path is separated from the other paths by a boulevard of grass and sometimes trees.

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We walked on the asphalt part. Cyclists rode on the asphalt part, or the gravel part. Runners ran on the asphalt or gravel. No one favoured the concrete squares. This is based on only 15 minutes observation:

1. no signage indicated which path was for which user

2. every type of user used every type of path

3. it did not reduce conflict except by diluting traffic over a broader range of path

4. no self selection of path type was apparent except everyone avoided the concrete path

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I was really puzzled by the obvious expense of installing really wide curbs along the asphalt and gravel paths. The curbs, flush with the surface, were twice as wide as regular roadside curbs that corral traffic and buses, and about a foot deep. Why were they so big, and why were they there at all? Surely 2"x8"deep precast concrete curb pieces would have done just as well.

Decapitated

I came across a row of decapitated parking meters on Lisgar Street on Sunday morning. If you look closely the green arched hood of the unit has been forced up, possibly with a pry tool. The coin mechanism was then lifted out, and the coins removed. The mechanisms can be seen disgarded in the shrubs in the background.

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At one time parking meters were located between the pedestrian and the curb line, which helped separate pedestrians from vehicular traffic. Now, all the meters are located on the far side of the sidewalk, forcing the pedestrians to walk on the zone considered too dangerous to locate innanimate parking meters and where snow is "stored" in the winter.

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When the city switches to pay and display central parking kiosks on a post next year (?) will the larger kiosk go on the curb side, or will it be on the far side where it offers more obstruction to the pedestrian? Since our city insists on calling these obstructions "street furniture" my bet is they will get the prime space and pedestrians the left over space.

Playing with Bus Shelters

Bus shelters can quickly become background items we seldom notice. A few years ago, I noticed some advertising firms converted a whole shelter into an advert, or built a roof structure that totally modified the appearance of the shelter.
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Around Ottawa, we have seen the Casino de Lac Lemy ads that convert a glass shelter into a Carribean-looking poker hut.
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I enjoyed this shelter, in Toronto, with fake frost on the windows and snow on the roof. It's part of a beer campagin to complete the phrase "colder than..."

200 Lett St condo by Claridge

Claridge built the first yellow brick condo tower at 200 Lett Street in LeBreton Flats. While not my favorite building, it looks a lot better with (most) landscaping now installed.

Construction has begun on tower 2, immediately to the south of the first building. It will be joined to the first building on the 4th through 6th floors, and will have another tower (not all glass) at the east end of the final U-shaped structure.

The picture shows the bottom floor of the two floor garage. Blue drainage pipes for all the down runs have been installed, the floor gravel (crushed on site) has been laid. Next step will be scaffolding to support the garage floor on top of the poured pillars.

Caterpillar

It has scaly body like a cabbage. It's length can be guaged by comparing it to the pathway line width. It made it safely accross.

Why the wider corner ?

SW corner of Albert/Preston.Note the red line that cuts off the sidewalk.

I really do think our city has too many roads, too wide, and despite the claims of being cycle or pedestrian friendly, too much of what gets done is car traffic friendly first and foremost.

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I recall working with city staff on a project for Booth Street with the specific mandate to calm traffic and to reduce the volume of traffic on the street. The engineers/planners came back with ideas to widen the intersections, add additional lane space, etc.

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Now Preston Street, after 16 years of planning and lobbying, is being rebuilt. There will be two through traffic lanes, and generally one parking lane (which alternates which side of the street it is on block by block). At the intersections, there are three lanes for traffic, as a left turn centre lane is added on each side of major intersections.

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Yet at the corner of Preston and Albert, this new narrowed street alignment from four to three lanes somehow generates a WIDER intersection than before. Pedestrian death and injury hazard increases with intersection exposure. Lengthier crosswalks = more exposure >> more death. In the attached photo, a red painted line shows the excavation line for the new curbs. Pedestrians crossing the new, narrower Preston at Albert will have a longer, more dangerous crossing than before.

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Surely an oversight? Ha, its deliberate. Members of the public advisory committee on the project, the BIA, and the Councillor all objected to the wider intersection. The planners insist on it. Why: to make it easier for 55' tractor trailers to make the turn from the right lane. No one can ever remember seeing a tractor trailer make this turn. What would they be carrying? Petrified silly servants from Tunney's Pasture? Beer from the Holland Cross outlet?

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Under the excuse of making roads "safer" our planners continually make them flatter, wider, straighter, overlit, junior freeways in training. Of course, cars go faster, making the environment less safe, not more safe.

Young Street Infill Housing

view from Champagne S. looking west

Champagne S will extend a hundred feet more to the Qway right of way, presumably it will eliminate this parking lot

rendering of houses seen from the south

The vacant property runs along the south side of the Queensway, starting near St Mary's Church, opposite the City Living housing, and running down towards the OTrain railway cut. It has at varies times been proposed for townhouses, apartments, or Qway off ramps. At the foot of Young is a pedestrian bridge over the cut to the other segment of Young, where Young St Motors is located, and then opens onto Preston/Little Italy right at the Qway by Ciccio's Cafe.

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The latest proposal is for 18 townhouses. The center group faces Young Street, with a rear yard parking access; the west group faces a small parkette created out of a closed street right of way, with access to their ground level parking spaces from the same courtyard; the east group also runs at right angles to Young, but has garage access from an extension of Champagne Ave S (which will remove the small parking lot serving the commercial building between this lot and the OTrain right of way).

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All units have ground floor parking garages, most also have second car parking in their private driveway (the west units won't have the second parking space). The unit design is modern, boxy, colorful, affordable, and aimed at young, first time home buyers. The properties have no yards, but have two balconies. About 1400 sq ft.each.

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Apparently the upper floor windows fall slightly below the top line of the Qway fence, but since the Qway slopes down toward Preston, they will have views of the traffic in the distance.

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The site plan is quite clever, delivering three very different amenity sets to the buyers: the west have only one parking space, no driveway, but face a parkette; the middle set faces a street in a traditional street setting, and is furthest from the Qway; the east set has a private driveway to a public street rather than a courtyard.

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The units will most likely be air conditioned and may have filters on the air exchangers to reduce airborne dirt and pollutants.

Naked Intersections, Naked Streets, Woonerf

The net is an amazing place. Following links on the Greater Ottawa blogsite to stories on naked intersections, I end up a dozen sites away, I can't remember how I got there, and sometimes only peripherally related to the original story that started the links. Other times the links are exciting reading, and I find myself wanting to subscribe to this or that RSS feed (astoundingly, so many sites do not make it easy to subscribe or follow them...).



Naked streets, or naked intersections refers to the latest Dutch planning fad of removing all traffic signs, signals, and painted lines, curbs, bollards, or other guidance, from an intersection or street and letting every user figure out how to use the space. The results are supposed to be marvellous cooperation, a veritable wiki, wisdom of the users.



I wonder how many of these spaces originated in pre-auto cities where pedestrians have a fighting chance against autos. Or in legal environments (like Holland) where anyone who hits a cyclist is presumed guilty). Our cities, in contrast, are built for cars and trucks, with only a slight nod to pedestrians as a necessary evil to be coraled away. We North Americans also have a real sense of entitlement, that everyone must yield to what we want, when we want it.



I notice that the Dutch examples all use cobblestones and some obstructions to direct traffic and guide the interaction. This reminds me of the first wave of Dutch traffic calming. In the late 1970's early 1980's, the woonerf was the imported rage. In my west side neighborhood of LeBreton Flats, about 600 housing units were built between Albert Street and Primrose.



The numerous off-street courtyards were sold as wonufs - mixed use spaces where children played on their trikes while moms chatted and the odd car moved slowly amongst them to the front door parking space provided for every unit. These wonufs were always shown with trees scattered through the paved areas, shrubs beds along the side, fancy brick pavings instead of asphalt. What we got, of course, was seas of asphalt because it was cheap and the housing was to be delivered at affordable prices. The trees and shrubs disappeared, ruled out by the fire dept and the needs of snowplowing. Or, in the case of City Living, once the units were occupied lawn areas were paved over to become parking, and guest spaces became reserved for residents.



Subsequently, some woonerfs appeared on much more expensive housing (still without tree islands) as courtyards paved in decorative paver patterns. But they never come close to the artist impressions when the concept was first all the rage.



When cycling in France a few years ago I was impressed by the aggressive traffic calming measures employed in new suburbs, but like Holland, these were in areas with minimal snow fall, no frost, and upscale buyers. For the ordinary joe, traffic circles are giving way to signalized intersections (or that bastard hybrid, signalized traffic circles), roads are wider, straighter, faster, and the pedestrian is being left behind.



Labelling a giant asphalt parking lot or a townhouse laneway as a woonerf did not make it one. Glueing sidewalks to suburban cresents does not a pedestrian environment make.

Contrary results ...

NCC path (foreground); City path beyond


what will the yellow line do?



There must be a law or maxim somewhere that the more planning is done, the more expensive the administration, the worse the results.
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A few blogs ago I lamented the apparent mismatch between the NCC section of the bikepath from new Wellington that goes south along the aquaduct behind the new Claridge condo at 200 Lett Street in LeBreton Flats.
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I still cannot believe that despite all the planners, all the coordination, the high city taxes ... that the City-spec'd path is two feet narrower than the NCC path it continues.
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I remain curious as to what the yellow line will do ... jog to the centre of the city section? continue straight on leaving one lane wider than the other? Or maybe the city won't have a yellow line, because their path isn't a bike path, its a pedestrian only path?

Edit: 25 August 2009: as noted in the comments, it is an illusion that the NCC path is wider than the City path. Both measure the same with a tape measure at several points along the paths. However, there is a side path joining the NCC path just a few feet north of the switchover to City path, and the problem lies at the junction. Basically, the NCC contractor did not build a proper radius or curve on the side path and it joins the NCC path rather sloppily, leaving only the few feet from the where the paths join to the joint with the City path being too wide by about a foot. The correct solution is to trim the NCC path back for about 10' on its radius so it blends into the main path better. So, the City and NCC are coordinating their paths correctly. Whew.
-Eric Darwin

Alternatives to pathway apartheid,ii

worn dirt trail along path. Arrow indicates NCC will sod this strip to repair it.




sod laid last August, presumably to be removed and replaced agin this year as joggers wear it out





typical worn jogging path along asphalt




I am always curious when cycling the path as to why joggers run along side the path instead of on it. (Being a non-jogger, I can only believe people who claim the gravel, dips and hollows, and hard-packed dirt path is softer than the asphalt).

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Eventually, they wear a complete dirt trail along the path, killing the green stuff that grows along the path in an effort to jog amongst the green stuff ... what was that song about pave paradise and put up a parking lot?

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Anyhow, the NCC eventually takes umbridge at the dirt paths, and removes the compacted soil, adds new topsoil, and then sod. The pictures above show some sections along the western parkway.

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But the new sod doesn't last long, the relentless pounding of Nike beats it back into dirt. Now I see paint markings on the path showing the NCC is about to dig out last year's sod and put in new sod. The cycle of life...

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In other cities I have used bike paths on which the outermost 1 foot portion of asphalt was over laid with a yellow or brown softer material just for joggers. In Curacao, this material was embossed with a wood pattern, like a boardwalk. Elsewhere, it had a raised dot pattern, presumably for grip and drainage.

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Maybe we don't need a separate set of pathways and the grief that comes from trying to regulate who rides or jogs on (or beside) which pathway. A softer edge strip won't affect my cycling on the central lane of the asphalt path, and might keep joggers off the greenery and in an expected location, to the better cooperation, sharing, and enjoyment of all. This won't solve all our conflicts, but it should be cheaper than doubling the paths.