Hmm, is this mop-haired, pouty-lipped hunk with the exposed nipple really giving out city maps? Well, sort of. It’s a edisplay billboard, and once the camera pans down the hot bod fellow you discover Adonis is advertising boots or something … Continue reading Urban Detail (xiii) Urban wayfinding, signage
How do other western cities reconstruct major areas of their inner urban core? I set off to visit 7 such major urban renewal projects in Europe. I added a few more neighbourhoods on the way, bringing the total to over … Continue reading A Walk in Paris
Today’s episode of The Friday Traveller should be called the Christmas Traveller. Christmas in Miami Beach. Warm weather: daytime 80 degrees and sunny. Evenings just cool enough that old fuddy duddies like me wanted a jacket, but many younger things … Continue reading The Friday Traveller: Miami Beach observations
As part of the “plan” for the “southern gateway” collection of high rises being built at Preston and Carling, the City decided that street wiring should be buried around the new towers. This wasn’t a neighbourhood priority, as we know … Continue reading Is it worth burying the wiring? Who should pay?
So, having seen in Part i, what is planned (subject to change) for STO buses in downtown Ottawa once the Confederation Line LRT opens in or around August 2018 … let’s look at the OC Transpo routes. These OC Transpo … Continue reading Buses in the downtown in LRT era, part ii, OC Transpo
The City is hosting an “open house” on Tuesday (Nov 28, 5.30pm onwards ) to show their plans for the future Albert and Slater Streets between Empress (the Good Companions) and Waller (Rideau Centre, UOttawa U). Here are some things … Continue reading West Side Transportation Cornucopia, part viii – Albert-Slater alert
There are so many transportation bits and pieces related to the west side I’m just going to throw a whole bunch of stories up in the air like confetti, and you’ll have to try to figure out if what lands … Continue reading West Side Transportation Cornucopia, part i
Miwate is the new autumn light show on the Chaudiere Falls. It is by the same folks who brought us the Kontinum, the light show in the underground subway station at Lyon Street. Like Kontinum, its all about the lights, … Continue reading MIWATE, dazzled by the lights
As west side portions of the Confederation Line advance in construction, more fall landscaping is going in, like these trees planted on the north side of Bayview Station: I vaguely recall that the terms of the NCC lending the rail … Continue reading Confederation Line Forest
When the Ottawa Humane Society left Champagne Avenue there was some sort of contractual agreement they had to offer the land to the city. For parkland. Nothing said the city had to buy it. So they didn’t. And as a … Continue reading City sleeps while mystery bridge decays
So much to learn from a simple picture. Take a gander at this bus stop from … somewhere… [ late edit: photo by Klaus Beltzner, in Santa Cruz, CA] So what’s so special? First, look at the bus stop. It’s … Continue reading Bus stop, bus stop, where’s the bus stop?
So YES, there are successful examples of place making from Ottawa streets. Let’s look at two. To promote a special autumn festival event, the Italian Canadian Community Centre has installed fall-themed decor at many intersections along Preston. They instantly change … Continue reading Placemaking on streets
Am I paranormal? Do I see opportunities where others (for eg, the City) see nothing? Are the skeptics about government right when they charge it cannot miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity? In the three short weeks since I … Continue reading When Opportunity knocks …
Was it just a few weeks ago we looked at this new crosswalk at Fisher / Tunis / Farm Driveway? And then the situation yesterday… … as city crews grind down the asphalt and create a slope towards the catch … Continue reading The crosswalk puddle grind
Some downtown blocks I am familiar with from regular use, at one time had somewhat healthy — well, at least ALIVE – trees. But these live trees are getting scarcer and scarcer. Many are anaemic, tattered, three quarters dead sticks. … Continue reading Tree Pits of Death
One of my acquaintances at City Hall absolutely hates when I show a certain picture of the new raised brick intersection for Queen at Bank. “It’s the fault of the snowbank !” he insists. And he is right, assuming we … Continue reading Rain behaving as planned
Back in 2012 I showed you the picture below. The first apartments on the current rebuild of LeBreton Flats (Claridgeland) had been occupied for a year or so, and baby toys were starting to appear in windows. I asked, how … Continue reading Tot Lot Not
First, the good corner. In Beechwood Area, a brick bulbout has been patio’d by the adjacent pub. Notice the sidewalk runs between two parts of the outdoor patio. Do servers cross the sidewalk ? In Ontario ! Ooooohhhhh ! The … Continue reading A Tale of Two Corners
Sometimes community groups or neighbours successfully kill a project. One prominent developer told me at a Champagne Avenue area meeting that if they succeed in killing a project, it only goes away to come back bigger. Because the next proponent … Continue reading They only come back … bigger
So I was walking at Elgin / Lisgar intersection last week when someone called my name. We spoke for a few minutes. He obviously knew me, and reads this blog, but I don’t know / recall his. [The price of … Continue reading Fixing the Elgin Redesign
Apparently, DIY Decks aren’t the only infrastructures that can be disasters. At the corner of Preston and Laurel a little apartment building infill is almost complete. Landscaping is underway. And soon, I suspect, to be torn up and redone at … Continue reading DIY Sidewalk Disaster
The recently constructed paved Trillium Pathway currently terminates as it crosses Carling Avenue, in the top left corner of the above aerial view. Those who persevere can follow the worn out remainders of the NCC’s 1963 stonedust pathway along the … Continue reading Trillium MUP Phase 3, aka OTrain path extension
From time to time the city rebuilds residential streets. Loretta Avenue, which runs north-south between the Trillium Line tracks and Bayswater Avenue, is one such street. It crosses Hickory, a busy east-west cycle and ped route, and crosses Laurel, which … Continue reading Loretta Avenue rebuild
John Turner and Jim Watson have lots in common. In a crisis, both claim they can’t do something. It didn’t work out well for Mr Turner. So people get killed moving about in Ottawa. Anyone looking at the traffic fatalities knows … Continue reading Yes you can, Mr Mayor
The existing Trillium multi user pathway (MUP) on the EAST side of the OTrain tracks has been a hit with the commuting and recreational public. Its popularity grows weekly. Less well known is the planning “win” when the community obliged … Continue reading Bit of new west side Trillium MUP opens
