Several years ago I became aware of Yucca plants. Once aware of them, I started noticing them everywhere. These have heavy spiked leaves at the bottom, and once a year send up a spectacular bloom stalk. Despite being a cactus-type plant, they survive the winters here if left outdoors. The yucca shown above is on Spruce Street, but the blooms have now fallen off. The bloom stalk was about 7′ tall: Continue reading Yucca gardening in Ottawa
On the Ottawa River Commuter Expressway just west of the War Museum, the road ascends a long gentle hill up and over the north-south railway track that connects to the Prince of Wales Bridge over the Ottawa River. The bridge is very high, allowing lots of room for an electrified double O-train track to the POW bridge. Soil sampling and core drilling is going on the corners of the bridge. Maybe the bridge is up for replacement at the end of its natural life … but it appears in good repair. I wonder if it has anything to do with the long-lost-in-action … Continue reading Drilling for STO?
So a City Councillor has suggested we tax bicycles, perhaps by levying a license fee. I suspect he pictures in his mind a miniature license plate, similar to the full size plates that a car has, or what bicycles in the 1950’s used to have. Some places use stickers instead of metal plates, but these are hard to read, and certainly cannot be read while an offending cyclist speeds off into the sunset after his or her dasterly deed. I agree with Councillor Monette. The municipality should license bicycles and indeed all vehicles driving in the City. Right now, the City … Continue reading YES ! to municipal bike tax
A little while ago I heard a CBC radio program about weird and unusual street names. Apparently there is an Elvis Lives Lane in Ottawa. So I made a point of looking for it when out at MEC. Low and behold, the street sign is stolen. Given the name, that is probably a common occurence, and explains why was not promptly replaced on this sign post. That might be a CCTV camera on the wall to right, I wonder if its focus included the sign post. The sign on the building beyond lines up nicely with the sign post and … Continue reading Elvis Anonymous
This video link,courtesy of Urbanophile, promotes cycling in Rotterdam, whether by regular bikes, sport bikes, utility bikes, mangos, and for all types of people. Notice particularly the teen boy from the opening scene who delivers the newspapers and eventually is handed the yellow leader’s jersey from the old cyclist. Rotterdam is slightly bigger than Ottawa. Can you ever imagine a similar video of Ottawa? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRksR1jdt3c&feature=player_embedded Continue reading In praise of urban cycling
I came across this example of traffic calming in Port Hope. A residential collector street obviously suffers from excessive speeding traffic. And Port Hope certainly had an abundance of jacked-up pickup trucks and elderly cars with look-at-me “mufflers” (amplifiers?). I suspect cruisin’ the streets is a vehicular passeggiata for the Hopeful. This long thin traffic island, repeated every block, effectively narrows the available lane space and forces a certain percentage of vehicles to slow down a bit. I was impressed by the intensive landscaping in the medians, which even included trees: Trees were planted both in the island and on both sides … Continue reading Hope for traffic calming
The Laurier Separated Bike Lane — SBL — opens July 10th. Considerable criticism has been levelled that it goes nowhere from nowhere to nowhere. I guess these critics want a SBL that never starts nor stops… they just don’t want it at all. At the western end of Laurier, the bike lane stops at Bronson. Considerable volumes of bike traffic will have moved off the route to go north and west or south by time the lane reaches Bronson. But for traffic continuing into Dalhousie, Chinatown, or desiring to go south parallel to Bronson, some new measures have been put into place … Continue reading Unintended benefits of Laurier SBL
This post was originally written for Spacing Ottawa, www.spacingottawa.ca, and is reprinted here in case you are so negligent you do not subscribe to that site. You should have read it there! Spacing deals with geography across Canada; Spacing Ottawa deals with geography in Ottawa. WSA, of course, is a smaller focus on the neighborhoods on the west side of the downtown. But it’s all geography! There is some new content at the bottom of the post. ________________________ As an urban society, we have to shift our focus away from exclusively serving motor vehicles as the norm, and towards serving people, regardless … Continue reading Get Lost
In the old model, the City (ie, taxpayer at the Fed, Prov, or municipal level) provided roads at no charge to motorists. The Fed and Prov level recovered some of the money through taxes on gasoline in excess of the general sales tax rate. For non-motorists, there are sidewalks, and Ottawa is very good at having sidewalks along most major roads, including some rather isolated ones where pedestrians are rare. For transit users, the cost is shared between the user, who pays a per ride or monthly fee, and the taxpayer. A number of municipalities have experimented with no-fare transit, and find … Continue reading Ottawa needs a T-pass
The scene is disconcerting. Shouldn’t a sidewalk café at least have a sidewalk? But Art-is-in bakery proves otherwise. First, their gritty industrial bay at City Centre becomes a trendy popular breakfast and coffee spot. Tables sprout, light fixtures appear… And now, a minimalist patio appears on the apron to the loading docks. These patrons seemed delighted to sit out, encircled by a row of cars and trucks. If this was a Disney movie, those animated vehicles would be plotting how to steal the baking… The front of the City Centre building is a total heat trap, the curvilinear two-story warehouse bays … Continue reading Cafe culture does not need a sidewalk
Whilst cycling along the Britannia bike path near mud lake, I was lucky to overtake this Ottawa resident. She took a moment to rest. I like to think she was comfortable with me guarding her. She was returning to Mud Lake having just laid her eggs in the soft grass-seeded dirt on the south side of the path. Ample scuff marks showed where the nest is. Back to the lake … I wonder just how safe her precious cargo of eggs are. She laid them in the top soil covering a recent City excavation. The soil has been sprinkled with grass … Continue reading Slow in Ottawa
Yes folks, the scene is the commodious parking lot in front of the much-maligned City Centre office building on City Centre Drive, which, despite the name, is not exactly downtown. It is, however, home to rare cheap industrial space in oh-so-tidy Ottawa where bureaucrats prefer to view cubicle farms rather than people actually working with their hands. Dateline Hollywood, WSA: time: Saturday morning Action: film crews busy at work around the doors of the building. Did they just need a door shot, or were they relating to the building that houses so many lost causes? The Trailers of the … Continue reading Hollywood, WSA
Scanning the Citizen online today, I came across a story about a young man debarking a bus and getting hit by a sidewalk cyclist. It is not clear if the problem is the cyclist on the sidewalk or the speed of the cyclist. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Video+Struck+down+sidewalk+cyclist/4966618/story.html What’s also offensive is opening of the video with a commercial inserted by the Citizen. It’s of a speeding car, the joy of the zooming, and comes complete with a floating text that boasts “hands free”. Now, where was I, oh yeah, the offence was related to driving … Continue reading Irony
The Preston BIA has installed these cast metal signs on many of the decorative lampposts along Preston. Presumably they remind you that the Italian restaurants, card clubs, and delis are in Little Italy. I expect they will appear around the corner on Somerset running west from Preston, which is also being done over in the Preston Street style; and up the hill on Gladstone to St Anthony Church and soon-to-be-redone Piazza Dante in front of it. I also think they would make a great top half of a wall plaque with street address numbers on them, and maybe the name of the business too. … Continue reading Know where you are
Last Saturday, readers who also listen to the CBC awoke to a real nightmare. My dulcet tones were on the morning news, talking to Laurie Fagin about the lack of markings on the multi-user path (MUP) that runs along the north side of Scott Street and Albert Street.” Is it a bike path?” was the theme of the story. (It’s OK, you can listen to the radio today, it is Eric-free). Long time readers may recall that last May or June I reported that the City decided to paint a yellow line down the path to clearly indicate that it is … Continue reading BikeWest
What is it? This little round opening is in the wall surrounding the doors to City Hall. My first thought was that it was for newspapers… but upon another instant’s reflection, all sorts of ideas came to mind. For the rats to escape … for snakes to enter since they cannot pull the door handle … for when they need to hose down the place because the BS is too deep … for injecting tear gas … for super high tides once in a blue moon … ceremonial entrance for Topo Gigio. Ah, those were fond thoughts for about 30 … Continue reading Rat Hole
I met Colin White when he was sketching the Preston Food Market. I put up a blog post with this picture of him at work: He has just hung the Confectionaries series at the Raw Sugar Café, where anyone can check it out. The show will be up for the month of June, and includes various stores from around West Centretown (though a few from Glebe as well). In the picture below, you can see what he was sketching, . The series is also on his website: http://www.colinwhitestudio.com/confectionaries-2011 but you should go to the Raw Sugar and see it in person, as well as enjoy the funky … Continue reading Disappearing Corner Stores Captured
Somewhat earlier this Spring I ended up at the Timmy’s on Merivale Road. We had an excellent view of a lady driving the tractor, planting … something. What other City lets us sit in a coffee shop on a busy arterial and watch tractors out the front windows? It’s a great day for gardening, whether your farm is a flower pot or a thousand acres. Now get out there and get your fingers dirty! Continue reading Gardening — a matter of scale
Above: a pic of Polley’s Bridge as seen from Fleet Street, beside the new Claridge condos on leBreton Flats. The City closed the Bridge for several years as Claridge used Fleet as a construction staging site for the new condos. Then in June last year, it became possible to cross the bridge going west provided you were willing to follow a narrow goat trail along the tailrace, skirting the construction site for the yellow-brick tower, to join the path built two years ago at the base of the first part of the building. Much more promptly this year, Claridge has … Continue reading Pooley’s Bridge quietly re-opened
First, a note to readers who sent in helpful suggestions to get WordPress working again, or telling me to buck up and learn how to do it right. Thank you. Personally, I think WP felt bad and decided to do better, since it once again is sort of working fine for new posts, but the few posts done on the weekend I’ve had to scrap, they are permanently … confused. So, from the church of the reincarnated deadwood and recycling, I’m back, and here’s a recycling post: ________________________________ I live in an old house. Renovation projects result in left-over wood, … Continue reading Recyling stuff …
… it fills the street … ”’even onto the sidewalks … … and stretches in both directions as far as the eye can see … … young and younger … These were participants in the 10k Ottawa Race Weekend. Continue reading West Side popular with active people
Bridgehead will be opening their Preston location in the fall. While the building faces Preston, their entrance will be just around the corner, off Anderson, approximately where the Preston&Leif Glass doors are now. Above: view of building along Preston St Above: view along Anderson Street. The boulevard along the sidewalk will be much improved and landscaped, and will include a patio. Bridgehead is proposing some major renovations to the building façade, closing up some doors, opening new ones, extending openings the full height. The mis-matched brick, which apparently is not original to the building, will be reclad in new material. The coffee shop … Continue reading Inside the new Bridgehead
While out for an after-dinner stroll, I came across this woody knoll of trilliums. I was fortunate to stumble on them at the height of their blooming glory. The well-worn path indicates many others have been here before me. There were a few little pot holes too, indicating gardeners have been here to try to take some plants home. I have three trillium plants in my garden, one I got from a vendor at the Parkdale Market a few years ago. The other two I bought from Artistic Landscape on Bank Street at Johnstone Road (about $7, I think) which … Continue reading Trilliums
This mobile home, a real land yacht, might look normal somewhere else, but parked along Preston Street during the tulip festival it looked huge and oddly impressive. In addition to the two side-extending rooms, the luggage bay also expanded. Awning, door mat, what else could be wanted? Ahh, the “little” runabout on a hydraulic lift, that by itself is very large: Is this the marriage of a cottage and car? The modern version of gypsy caravan? Suburbia on wheels? Someone’s houseboat with wheels? And what of our reaction to seeing this … Would we approve or disapprove of this vehicle if … Continue reading Mobile home in Little Italy
The internet is a funny place. I came across this article http://americancity.org/buzz/entry/2989/ , which is reprinted from a Washington DC article, about corner stores in Detroit, Cleveland, and the American midwest, that features as its illustration the corner store from Elm and Rochester Streets right here on the west side of beautiful downtown Ottawa. School teachers are right: be careful about what you post on the internet, you never know where it might end up. Life is curious. Continue reading Local store goes international
