Congregants at the Peace Tower Church on Bronson face a difficult road to heaven. The way needs to be proclaimed, work must be done, respect paid, songs sung.
The traffic engineers have it easier. Their road is wide, straight, paved, and about to be even wider. Truly a fast road straight to heaven hell.
At the Peace Tower Church, City engineers propose chopping off the main front door steps. And removing the trees on their lawn.
The City hides behind innocuous statements. Like, “minor widening”, or “improvements to lane width”. What does it mean out on the street? Rescue Bronson activists marked the trees the city has decided need to be cut down. Just so you know.
The City’s meeting is at Centennial PS gym off Gloucester Street (behind Bronson Centre) at 6.30 pm on Thursday. Will you tell your children you acquiesced to urban road widening even in the 21st century?
sometime between 7pm and 7am this morning, most of the tree RED X signs were removed by someone. I will put up more on Thursday morning after the snow melts.
The civil (I use the term advisedly) authorities can somehow manage to take down signs on a road that is already hostile to pedestrians, but it It takes a couple of months to clear Confederation Park of its Occupy campground?
Perhaps the Occupy Ottawa folks can be convinced to set up camp along Bronson. They could use some of those skids lying around Confederation Park to extend the sidewalk out into the road.
Forget Rescue Bronson! You need to Occupy Bronson!
If memory serves, environmental issues – which this certainly qualifies as – are part of the Occupy Movement’s list of continuing concerns.
And they’re holding a meeting tonight – Friday night – at the park to discuss “What next?” You might want to bring it up with them directly.
I’m always trekking down the stretch from Somerset to Gladstone. If you email me a PDF/Word, I’ll keep extras in my bag to post.
Thanks for this update. I can’t make it to the meeting tomorrow, but I watch the project with bated breath…
Interesting how the CIty has a by law to protect trees but at the same time will cut them down for a marginal increase in the width of a row.
A few extra posters are now up between Somerset and Gladstone. Hope they help!
Thanks, Lana!
I sent a note to all city councillors and to the mayor, letting them know that Bronson needs to be narrowed, not widened. It’s counter-productive to claim that we want to be a pedestrian friendly city, while making Bronson into more of an expressway downtown than it already is.
I think we need a PhotoShop image of the Mayor with a chainsaw attacking a tree – “Chainsaw Jim” has a nice ring to it.
i will be putting up some new Big Red X posters on thursday at 10am for the benefit of pedestrians, residents, and a film crew.
I do love the idea of a Chainsaw Jim poster though. We will have to keep that in mind for another time.
eric
I’m imaging a photoshop creation showing Bronson 3 lanes in each direction and the houses missing their front walls. Someone walking by on a 16″ sidewalk, glancing at someone taking a shower on the second floor. Title it “Enhanced Pedestrian Experience”.
Forget having your privacy invaded by Google Earth as some have been complaining, then!