Category: WalkSpace

WalkSpace2 Comments

Spacing Ottawa magazine launch

Westsideaction

  Spacing Magazine has a new issue on the bookstands. There is a launch party for it on Tuesday evening at 7pm. I have a teensey tiny little wee article     articlette in this issue. I have to tell you here, since you are likely to skip right over it when you read the mag (and you will buy it won’t you?). Now, for the price of the mag — just a fiver — you can meet the national and Ottawa editors, hear some neat panelists, and meet me in person if you have thus far managed to avoid that dubious pleasure. … Continue reading Spacing Ottawa magazine launch

bike path, bikewest, cycling in Ottawa, cyclopiste de preston, NCC, parks, Uncategorized, WalkSpace4 Comments

Get Lost

Westsideaction

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

design, downtown, parking, pedestrians, streetscaping, WalkSpace4 Comments

From mediocre to worse

Westsideaction

  This post originally appeared in the WalkSpace series at  www.SpacingOttawa.ca. The loss of amenity is noticeable when an attractive bit of the pedestrian realm or sidewalk is adversely affected by adjacent developments. The contrast is less sharp when a mediocre space becomes worse. Yet the result is the same: the pedestrian zone gets impinged and impoverished. I always find the C D Howe building in downtown Ottawa to be an underachiever. The building is somehow less than the sum of its parts. Inside there’s a waterfall, winter garden, soaring three storey spaces, pedestrian bridges, Jetson elevators, retail spaces, food court …. And outside offers an extra-wide sidewalk with some … Continue reading From mediocre to worse

Claridge, condos, pedestrians, Preston street, Primrose, sidewalks, WalkSpace5 Comments

Good neighbours on snowy sidewalks

Westsideaction

Note: this post was originally written for WalkSpace over at www.SpacingOttawa.ca site. I repeat it here just in case you don’t also read Spacing — shame on you! Go subscribe right now! ______________________ Whether or not you enjoy well-plowed winter sidewalks depends on where you live, when you use them, and your neighbours. Sidewalks get a lot of use in the urban bits of the City. Especially where the road is a grid pattern, pedestrians can get from point A to B directly and easily on a route easily understood. The City plows the sidewalks in winter. If you are an early riser … Continue reading Good neighbours on snowy sidewalks