I am all in favour of mixed use neighborhoods. The success of mixed use depends on compatible uses and neighborly spirit. Unfortunately, our neighborhood has several examples of ill-fitting or incompatible land uses.

In the past, I have high lighted the blight of Cousin Eddy’s and Chado’s body shops on Booth Street. As a result of complaints by myself and other members of the Dalhousie Community Assoc the clutter of signage was reduced, garbage, old tires etc was picked up. However, the mysteriously absent trees from the side boulevard remain unreplaced.

A blog reader (Thank you !) has alerted me to the fact that these properties are for sale for a redvelopment site.http://www.ottawarealestatenews.ca/357BoothStreet08January2009.pdf . Perhaps the construction (now begun) of the Z6 condo will encourage other developers to look closer at Booth St. A nice infill here could totally rejuvenate the streetscape.

A a slightly pessimistic note, the real estate listing is from January, so buyers dont appear to have been beating down the doors.