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
Longfields Station is on the transitway. In Barrhaven. Someday, probably not in my lifetime, it may be a LRT station. But it works just fine now as a transitway station for buses. It is not a major hub. I dont … Continue reading Is this the best we can do at a transit station?
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?
There is a classic west side semi-detached home at the corner of Oak and Preston, opposite Plouffe Park. Many decades ago proud homeowners planted matching young trees on the front lawn. Here’s an aerial photo from 1928 showing the trees … Continue reading Killed from the roots
Q: How is a tree like a pancake? A: When it’s on Somerset Street. I wonder how someone managed to hit it so hard, and with what? That metal “tree guard” (designed mostly to ward of bicycles) didn’t help much … Continue reading The tree pancake
It seems Queen Street has been under construction for so long I’ve forgotten what it used to look like. I shudder to think of what it would be like if the City had opted for cut-and-cover along that corridor rather … Continue reading Queen Street perambulations
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
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
Shoppers at the Real Canadian Superstore along Richmond Road in Westboro are certainly aware of the ongoing renovations during the summer. Re-opening is this Thanksgiving Weekend. What has happened, other than obvious things like replacing the gaudy “bargains here” yellow … Continue reading Real Canadian Big Box Blights Richmond Road
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
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
An ambitious community gardener is working to improve a long-abandonned street verge on the West Side. This particular strip of street edge is the neglected “back” of a large institutional lot that fronts the next parallel street. Their front side … Continue reading Community Gardening works everyday
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
There are two interesting (well, to some of us …) takeaways from regarding the landscaping starting around Bayview Station. First, that the landscaping is underway while major construction continues. But as soon as a patch of ground is finished active … Continue reading Pedestrians protected from overland flooding
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
As a society, we take it for granted that there is a lot of car infrastructure around. But we built most of it from scratch, at great expense. When that money came in the form of grants from higher levels … Continue reading Making better use of existing infrastructure
ALT seems to be a trendy new word. Here’s how it applies in downtown Ottawa. We now have an Alt sidewalk. Go on, go walk on it today. The Alt Hotel occupies part of condo building on Slater. The building … Continue reading The Alt Sidewalk Design
Sidewalk toilets interest me in inverse proportion to the City’s denial that anyone ever needs one. Alas, I didn’t have time nor inclination to scope out these Boston ones, but they look expensive: My faves remain the Portland Loo’s. Cheap. … Continue reading Sidewalk toilets
On a stop-over in Montreal’s Le Plateau neighbourhood I noticed how well their curbside planters thrived. Is it fertilizer? Watering regularly? Deep soil? Or just that they have someone to care for their trees and plants? They don’t hesitate to … Continue reading Curbside Planters are the New Parks
You can whine about the decreasing greenness of our city, or you can get out and plant. Many community associations have a greenspace or gardening committee. Hopefully they do more than just hold meetings. And while lobbying for more green … Continue reading Guerilla Gardening
