The city likes signs. Sometimes we run out of sidewalk or curbside space to put signs on posts and so we paint them onto the roads. Or, in the case of sharrows, they are a sort of lane marking. But winter, plowing, and general wear and tear means we have to repaint most pavements annually. Why can’t the city use the same size stencil from year to year? And why can’t work crews align this year’s stencil directly over last year’s?   Continue reading Taking pride in your work

Taking transit for a trip isn’t usually the whole adventure. Somehow, one has to get to and from the transit stop. Transit boffins know how far people are willing to walk to a bus stop. They are willing to walk further to a train — or LRT — stop or station than to a bus stop/station. The catchment area of a BRT station or a LRT station is also extended if people find it convenient to ride their bikes to the station. That convenience requires some care and thoughtfulness in the provision of safe cycling routes. And at the station, the … Continue reading Priority parking

Loblaws has an outlet in Westboro called the Real Canadian Superstore. And we all know Real Canadians don’t complain. But we apparently do steal shopping carts. They show up all over the neighborhood: The RCSS in Westboro recently got a fleet of new carts. The half-size carts in particular are a welcome alternative to the tractor-trailer sized ones the dominate the store and invite you to load ’em up with more stuff than you need and then clip the heels of the fatigued shopper ahead of you.. The new carts have wheel brakes on them. Once you leave the parking lot, the brakes … Continue reading Chariots of Ire

So, I was walking down the street the other day (not in Ottawa) lookin’ at the cycle track and bumped into Jeffrey Hoffmann. He is the five-time astronaut on the various space shuttles, including stint(s) as commander. He has logged over 21.5 million miles in the shuttle. Note that you get free upgrades for life on terrestrial airlines when you fly 1 million miles. He is also the guy who held the screwdriver that fixed the Hubble Space Telescope. While walking in space.  I did not ask if it was a Phillips head. He’s now a professor of engineering at … Continue reading Meeting the Man with the Screwdriver

The fabled silk road ran from Europe to China, on the route blazed by Marco Polo. Charlene Lafontaine named the sculptural glass pieces of art on the recently reconstructed bit of Somerset after the silk road. Here is a nifty YouTube video that explains the title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VKAWVD5PkOg The Preston sculpture by cj fleury just south of the intersection of Preston / Somerset is called Marco Polo and shows his route. It celebrates the meeting of (Little)Italy and China(town), expressed by the Italian palazzo on the bottom and dragon on the column. The unfurled map at top shows his route. (There is an explanatory brochure for … Continue reading Where east meets west

When Jacques Greber, a French planner was hired to redesign the Capital of Canada in the 30’s and 40’s, he came up with a number of ideas that sort of worked (riverside parkland everywhere, accessed only by scenic “parkways”) , and … Continue reading The late, unlamented Champagne Freeway

above: a plumber’s garden box, that ironically needs no watering above: scene outside a coffee shop. Plastic mugs, plastic grass. What was the java made of?   Moral: never throw anything out. A pile of similar junk can be carefully curated into a  collection, eventually evolving into a potential bit of folk art. Continue reading Alternatives to flowers

Andy Haydon park has a nice kids waterplay feature, a leftover from the Nepean days, the sort of admirable and interactive play structure Ottawa’s park planners love to avoid. I suspect that as bits wear out they won’t be replaced with like, but the play structure will diminish until it ceases to exist. It’s called maintenance. Adjacent the structure is a public washroom building. It has outside showers, presumably to hose off the little tykes who get their pants loaded with wet sand from the play structure. The showers have been running full tilt, for quite some time /for months /all summer, with muddy soggy … Continue reading Waste not, want not

Survey crews were out in force on Monday marking the route of the new north-south multi-user path (MUP in planner jargon; bike path to the rest of us mortals). The path parallels the OTrain corridor on its east side. It starts at the Macdonald Parkway (aka Ottawa River Commuter Expressway) by the historic Prince of Wales railway bridge and runs south through Bayview Station, through the new tunnel under the Somerset Street viaduct, and further south to cross Gladstone. The section from Gladstone to Young runs behind the St Anthony Soccer Club parking lot and under the Queensway, where construction work … Continue reading Construction on new west-side bike path begins

I accompanied my dad to the Dieppe remembrance service at the cenotaph on Sunday. The sun was hot; the speeches were blessedly cliche-free (mostly). Sitting in the sun gives ample time to consider some things. Most of the vets are old. Very old. Considerations abounded: there were two articulated OC buses to drive people from the NAC garage to the War Memorial. Below, a facilitator rubs sunscreen onto bare hands that have seen too much hot sun. There was a giant duffel bag of Tilley hats to plop onto the heads of those who arrived bare-headed. Water, of course: There was music, including The Maple Leaf Forever, … Continue reading Veterans on Parade

Spotted Thursday, Aug 16, 2012. Suspicious car, containing Ogres Continue reading The Ogres of Preston Street

Some of the bike paths now have yellow dotted lines on them, instead of the solid yellow line, as shown on a post a week or so ago. And now, this curious combination of white and yellow dashed lines on the road, in front of the airport terminal. I am slow in discovering new traffic rules and markings, or are these things proliferating? Continue reading I am curious – yellow

From time to time, social scientists flip pictures at subjects to find out what makes a “good street” or good neighborhood. Time and time again, tree-lined streets hit the emotive jackpot. Why then are so few streets well treed? And if hotter summers are to be the new normal, it’s not to late to plant trees now. Certainly, the residents of Daniel Avenue in Champlain Park can appreciate the complete canopy of dappled shade. What heat wave?   Meanwhile, on the adjacent streets, trees are smaller, irregularly planted, and the pavement radiates oppressive heat at mid-day: Continue reading Treed vs less-treed street

Ottawa’s Chinatown runs along Somerset from Bay Street to Bronson to Booth to Preston. The Chinatown Royal Arch, of course, is immediately west of Bronson. Do you recall that its primary colours are red, turquoise, and gold? Most people remember only the red: The bit of Somerset from Booth to Rochester to Preston has been reconstructed over the last year. Out of the big mess has come some nice textured red pavers, a significant number of locust and other trees. And now, benches. The new benches are in turquoise and red. They are laser cut steel with a pattern of wind-blown lanterns. … Continue reading Chinatown gets new street furniture

Back some years ago, the city was considerably more decorative. Take the base of this lamppost … shell-like covers for the bolts. Honestly, you’d think that Botticelli’s Birth of Venus was immanent. And in some ways, municipal lighting was the birth of civilization, driving away the animals and thieves that prowl by night. Securing property seems a rather old-fashioned municipal concept today, a ready object for scorn, but I think that is because we have so much of it (stuff, that is). Thus we can afford to be dismissive of property rights. But they are a hallmark of western civilization, and … Continue reading When little things mattered …

A few days ago, a post showed the view from the roof of the Adobe/Xerox towers at 333 Preston. Thanks to Debbie, a reader, here are some really fresh views from the CMPA buildings on Carling at Sherwood. This will give you some idea of what people on the mid- to lower-floors of the plethora of condo towers along Champagne and Carling might have for their view. The views also go a way to explaining why there is a demand for condo apartments. Ironically, the clustering of towers (a direct result of city policy strongly backed by neighborhood demands) often blocks … Continue reading What condo dwellers will view

Continue reading What every participant in city planning needs …

You probably have a ground fault detector plug in your bathroom. It’s an ordinary plug but with a little button in the centre. It prevents you from electrocuting yourself when you drop your electric eyebrow pencil into the water-filled sink. Strolling along Preston, trying to escape the ever-present thumps of Noisefest, I spotted this unique electrical installation. Judging by the position of the wires, the device must diffuse electricity into the air, to prevent one from being electrocuted when touching the steel tree guard. Pretty clever. Personally though, I prefer my plugs installed the other way around, so the two slots form eyes and the roundish-one … Continue reading Shocking photo of air fault detector