Every time there is a new Liberal government in Ottawa, VIA Rail appears, exactly on schedule, to promote spending money investing on a dedicated passenger rail network in The Corridor (Windsor-Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec City, or some subset thereof). While the “solution” is always … Continue reading VIA Rail, Climate Change, and Naiomi on a streetcar
Leap year offers an opportunity that seldom comes to look backwards a bit. I’ve been blogging here for 7 years or so. There’s been 2000 articles. Daily readership of about 400. Originally I chose to focus on the west side of downtown Ottawa for a number of reasons: it was (and often still is) a skip-over area. There’s downtown extending over to Bronson, and then the world resumes somewhere west in mid-Hintonburg. Just ask Bookmark the Core. the entire neighbourhood has no accepted name. Realtors call it centretown west. As do some city maps. The community association prefers Dalhousie, as it … Continue reading WestSideAction: time for a change?
On roads, one seldom interacts directly with other people. Sure, your car might sniff the tail end of another car. But people-to-people interaction is extraordinarily brief. It’s different on a pathway. Eye contact with other people walking, with people cycling, … Continue reading Snowboarding on the MUP
There is something I find very appealing to heated sidewalks, especially at transit stations. Maybe it is the magical aspect of it – it snows … I walk with dry feet … I ride in a vehicle sans 2″ of … Continue reading Snow removal at new LRT Stations
Am I alone in feeling that the bigger Ottawa gets the worse basic services are? Even keeping the sidewalk plowed AT A MAJOR TRANSIT STATION at morning rush hour seemed beyond the City’s ability. See these pic at LeBreton Station … Continue reading Modern snow removal
If it weren’t for the private building owners of Constitution Square, Minto Place, and others, the downtown sidewalks would have been worse — totally impassable — during the recent snowfall. Many larger buildings have small tractors and dispatched their maintenance … Continue reading Better snow removal
I visited another Santiago Calatrava bridge, this time in Venice, but this time I was looking for it. The ped bridge crosses the Grand Canal at the main bus terminal, a bit southwest of the train station. The neighbourhood around it is … Continue reading Ped Bridge at Venice bus terminal
This deceptively simple picture shows just how easy real traffic calming can be accomplished. The concrete planter / bollard on the right holds the traffic calming sign, reminding motorists the maximum speed limit is 30. But that doesn’t mean you are entitled to do 30 kmh. The speed limit sign and its pedestal take up half the traffic lane. In the distance (double click picture to enlarge) are concrete planters smack dab in the middle of the traffic lanes. It is necessary to fully move over into the oncoming traffic lane in order to pass, as does the traffic coming … Continue reading Traffic calming with meaning
So, we have two development proposals for the remaining bits of the LeBreton Flats site. There’s been lots of public debate and discussion about which one is better, which one you prefer. There’s been no discussion of financial viability, as … Continue reading LeBetter Flats (xi) Which proposal will win?
Guest story from Richard Eade; excerpted from a longer on-line conversation. Just pretend you are coming onto a conversation that has been going on for bit, so you have to figure out just what is being discussed: I’ll point out … Continue reading LeBetter Flats (x) programming the site
The two current LeBreton Flats proposals are not on islands — they abut existing or proposed city spaces on all sides. How well do the proposals play with their neighbours? To the North, the Zibi plans are approved and under … Continue reading LeBetter Flats (ix) No Development site is an Island
It would be nice, but naive, to think that the two proponents for redevelopment of the remaining portion of LeBreton Flats simply put out their best proposals and the NCC gets to choose Eeny vs Meeny (Miny and Mo having … Continue reading LeBetter Flats (viii) on the role of lobbyists
So, maybe you are going to the NCC open house on LeBreton Flats, today from 4 o’clock onwards (presentation at 6pm) or Wednesday, all day, presentation at 6pm. What questions should you be asking? Here’s a starter list: DALHOUSIE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION 755 Somerset Street West, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6R1 What Residents Should Look For At Lebreton Flats Open House With the NCC holding a public open house for the two bids to redevelop Lebreton Flats on January 26th and 27th at the Canadian War Museum, the Dalhousie Community Association (DCA) is highlighting key issues that residents should consider when evaluating … Continue reading LeBetter Flats (vi) Questions to ask
We certainly hear continual wails of horror at that big empty space on the west side of the downtown business district. A wasteland. Toxic. A former charming quaint modest income neighbourhood of friendly folks always smiling who were cruelly expropriated. … Continue reading LeBetter Flats countdown (iv) – the mythical empty space
Both submissions to rebuild the last portion of LeBreton Flats include sport arenas, and I expect both will include a new central library. This is both for marketing purposes, ie broadening the appeal of the project to cover both stereotypical … Continue reading LeBetter Flats countown (iii) – libraries and “culture”
The NCC’s latest call for ideas on what to do with the Flats seems to me to be purpose-written with the idea for a stadium/arena. It won’t be the first, or the last, political document crafted with the results in mind. Strategic planning in Ottawa is never found in official strategic plans, it is found in developers’ foresight, aka spotting an opportunity. So what might an arena on the Flats look like? First, it shouldn’t have more than 20 surface parking spots, unlike, say Kanata. Here is the current Sens arena and parking lots superimposed on the Flats: An arena with … Continue reading LeBetter Flats countdown (ii) the arenas
Just over a week to go before the NCC unveils its latest master plan(s) for the LeBreton Flats area. I’ve lost count how many trial balloons, concept plans, master plans, and other schemes have come and gone over the decades. Here’s a 1973 one with sunken freeway, two subways, bus platforms, a megabuilding (including space marked library) over top, and a forest of looming highrises in the core:. Over the years, this website has had a number of articles on LeBreton Flats. Some are worth reviewing. Last January, we compared Portland’s South Waterfront redevelopment area to LeBreton: South Waterfront is … Continue reading LeBetter Flats countown (i)
Let’s go back to Milan. As part of their transformation project towards a Green City, they have recently reconstructed a multi-block street to make it more urban, less car-dominated. They got mostly good results, but with a number of caveats. … Continue reading Building a Better Street, an example from Milan
Bureaucracies can always be depended on to make everything complicated. So complicated, only they can figure things out. Thus creating a dependency on their expertise to get what we want. At great expense, of course. All those complicated rules, you … Continue reading You may run over a kid now
The artist F Hundertwasser and architect J Krawina constructed a treed building in Vienna in 1985. It is public housing. That is not to say it is economic in normal terms. Hundertwasser advocated for apartment building that were highly individualized … Continue reading Hundertwasser Haus treed building
WordPress kindly supplies some data on how many times WestSideAction gets read. For 2015, it was 91,000 times. I posted articles for 10 months of the year, skipping October and November due to other events in my life. The busiest days were the ones about the potential senators ice rink on the flats. Since I started writing this blog bout 7 years ago, there have been 2000 articles and about 400,000 views in total. I have no idea if the blog is useful, who actually reads it, or what people prefer to read about other than real estate porn and … Continue reading For the Numerate
The ground level floors of the Bosco buildings were just plate glass. Heavily frosted at that, so you couldn’t see much past the wide shoulders of the security guards, err… doorman. It was so blah and disappointing and cold I … Continue reading Bosco Verticale, at ground level (part 3)
The climate of Milano is w-a-a-a-a-a-y milder than Ottawa. There, the temperature rarely dips below 0 Celsius, and only for a few days in January. Milan is classified as a sub tropical climate, with abundant rainfall year round. So, don’t expect similar forested condos in Ottawa until global warming continues for a long time. Wind is a factor in any high rise forest, just like it is for trees growing on mountainsides. The Bosco stabilizes its trees with vertical guywires. Enlarge the photos to see the wires. The trees have seatbelts too. Trees planted in the Somerset Street planters near … Continue reading Bosco Verticale, woodlot on balconies (part 2)
I’ve seen some pic of the Westgate shopping centre redevelopment. It’s totally underwhelming. Here’s why. Our city, like many others, is littered with L-shaped malls set far back from the road, promoting acres of “free” parking out front. The design is 100% aimed at people driving cars. For bus users, its either a stupid detour off the street into the mall and circle back out (still going on at Carlingwood) and for pedestrians – well its a pedestrian paradise shopping street set behind a vast purgatory of dangerous parking lot that must be endured first, provided you aren’t just walking … Continue reading Underwhelming RioCan proposal for Westgate
Claridge’s Icon project at Preston and Carling has reached a new low. The 8 or 9 storey underground parking garage hole has been dug and I hear cement will be pouring before the year is out. The 45 storey, 485′ high condo tower includes several floors of office space in the podium with some retail at grade. This is about twice the height of the next tallest building in the area, Ashcroft’s yellow-brick rectangular student residence building on Champagne, located beside the first glass tower of SOHO Champagne. Ashcroft’s residence will be completed by August 2016, at which point they … Continue reading Claridge’s Icon going up
