95 Norman9 Comments

Squawking about Norman

Westsideaction

The City has solicited comments about the proposed high rise on Norman Street. This is my letter to the City: The project as current proposed by Taggart is unacceptable, and must be rejected. The rezoning and OP amendment request are coming just a few months before the CDP is completed. Delay the application until the CDP is received. The proposal does not meet the criteria of good planning. It puts a heavy traffic generator at the dead-end of a narrow street that is already congested. There are no provisions for a turning circle, para transpo service, taxis, or moving vans or … Continue reading Squawking about Norman

Ottawa6 Comments

Hickory – Adeline Street ped-cycling bridge

Westsideaction

It doesn’t have the glam or excitement of the big river crossings of the Somerset-Donald connection through Strathcona Park; nor the curvilinear crossing of the Canal at Fifth near Lansdowne Park. But for West Side residents and cycle commuters, news of the Hickory Street bridge is very welcome. It goes to Transportation Committee on Tuesday for approval; but it probably was already included in the 2013 budget approved last week. The Hickory Street bridge goes over the OTrain cut just north of Carling Avenue. It connects the next-to-be-reconstructed-by-the-NCC multi-user path (MUP) on the east side of the cut, with the coming-in-2014 … Continue reading Hickory – Adeline Street ped-cycling bridge

planning5 Comments

Zoning is dead; long live zoning

Westsideaction

We’ve all had someone at the workplace that knew the rule book frontwards and backwards. And in my experience, it wasn’t the person who was cheerful, helpful, and a great team player. Usually, it was the Eeyore of the workplace, always seeing things negatively. When rules get complex, like they do in City planning, Eeyores run amuck. Consider zoning. Originally designed to separate incompatible land uses (keep the cement plant away from the primary school sort of thing) it got adopted by the bureaucracy. Which accreted additional rules, terms, categories, and subcategories until it was an impenetrable code, a language interpretable … Continue reading Zoning is dead; long live zoning

95 Norman, Bayview-Carling CDP, CDP, housing policy, intensificatioin7 Comments

The Dark-side condo shower

Westsideaction

Back in October, the City hired George Dark to conduct a “charette” – a planning exercise for the Otrain corridor and neighborhood along Preston, south of the Queensway. As related here previously, the charette charade seemed little more than an exercise in bombarding the neighbourhood with high rises. Mr Dark presided over a large plan of the neighbourhood,  chummily accompanied by the city’s leading developers and their agents, raining down Styrofoam cut-outs of high rise apartment buildings. (https://www.westsideaction.ca/charettes-or-is-it-charades-on-the-west-side/) The local community association is holding a public meeting of upset residents in the area. The poster below pretty accurately captures their feelings. Less obvious is the sense of betrayal, … Continue reading The Dark-side condo shower

Ottawa3 Comments

Condo Tower deja vu all over again

Westsideaction

Claridge has proposed the highest building in Ottawa for 505 Preston, the corner of Preston and Carling. Now they have a new face for it. But the new face looks decidedly familiar.  The Claridge Icon comes in about 42 floors; it would be 30% higher than the Soho Italia, approved for 500 Preston. Recall that when Starwood Mastercraft first proposed Soho Italia it had a design derived from the Aqua Tower in Chicago:   Below, is the Soho Version:   However, once they acquired a larger ground plot, Mastercraft Starwood changed the building to a more prosaic glass tower. Many Councillors expressed … Continue reading Condo Tower deja vu all over again

Claridge, condos, design, intensificatioin, little Italy, Soho Italia3 Comments

Condomania on Carling: Domicile joins in

Westsideaction

Domicile has a proposal winding its way through the bureaucratic maze at City Hall. It’s for a 18 storey condo building on Rochester Street, between the Queensway and Carling Avenue, near Dow’s Lake. Here’s what the street looks like now: Domicile owns the lot running from Pamilla Street and Rochester (the intersection in the foreground) all along Rochester to the red brick wall of a 3 1/2 storey low rise.  Domicile already has permission to demolish the elderly house in the middle . Here’s an aerial view of the lot set within the south Dalhousie neighborhood: The Queensway runs east-west across the … Continue reading Condomania on Carling: Domicile joins in

Albert St, Dalhousie, heritage4 Comments

Actual treasure map to the “beer train tunnel” under Albert Street

Westsideaction

Today’s Citizen has a fun story * by Ian McLeod  on the fabled beer train tunnel under Albert Street (this section was formerly known as Wellington Street). Every time there is major work in the area, the rumours spread of vast underground caches of beer, chilled and ready to take home by the lucky workers who can find them. This was a great motivation for the Perez workers who built the 1980’s townhouses on Walnut Court (the southwest end of the tunnel and former brewery site). Let’s just say there was lots of excavation superintendents at the time. Ditto for the workers … Continue reading Actual treasure map to the “beer train tunnel” under Albert Street

design, hintonburg2 Comments

If Ikea and Disney built infill

Westsideaction

I love walking by this house. Everything is slightly off square. Disney of course is famous for its use of forced perspective and other tricks to make you think you see something you don’t. And Ikea has some great kids design furniture, with bowling pin legs and curvy sides. Why restrict it to kids? . To find those things on a simple infill – renovation in Hintonburg is something else. What else can be said? It’s a fun house.     Continue reading If Ikea and Disney built infill

Bronson, Ottawa, road diet, streetscaping4 Comments

Will Art on Bronson be better than lipstick on a pig?

Westsideaction

Bronson is downright butt ugly. And it’s unsafe too. Now the City proposes putting some public art on the street verges to “humanize” the experience. The City didn’t believe the community when we lobbied for a better, safer design (see previous Rescue Bronson stories). Instead they opted for a remake of the 1950’s horror show version. That nightmare unfolds daily.  Can public art be more than putting lipstick on a pig? Battered and bruised community residents came into the Bronson Centre earlier this month seeking to find out. Seven artists had proposals on display. The City had “steered” the artists to … Continue reading Will Art on Bronson be better than lipstick on a pig?

Ottawa2 Comments

In Vanier perhaps?

Westsideaction

Okay okay, don’t kill me. I shouldn’t have suggested a suitable neighbourhood for a street address like this.And yes, I realize I am working on the assumption most people will mis-read the word. But it does take a lot of self-confidence for people to accept a street name so likely to be understood as something else. But it is fun to postulate where it might be, if it was … Continue reading In Vanier perhaps?

Preston street, somerset street, streetscaping1 Comment

One small victory

Westsideaction

Dealing with the City, or property owners, can be tiresome. Sometimes there seems to be so little progress. Or progress gets undone by strange decisions, like the City’s push to rezone most of the low rise residential areas south of the Queensway on both sides of Preston, to high rise, now that the neighborhood has been stabilized… But there are victories. Little bits of progress that make one come back and try again. Do you recognize this? Its on Somerset Street, opposite the Plant Rec Centre. It’s the back wall of Luciano’s and May’s Chinese Garden restaurant, beside their parking … Continue reading One small victory

Bayview Otrain, bike path, cycling in Ottawa, O-Train, OTrain bike path, pedestrians, Preston street1 Comment

Eric Darwin commemorative gate CLOSES soon

Westsideaction

Intrepid follows of this blog may recall the brou-ha-ha over the gate at the north end of Preston (aka the Preston Extension) where for decades residents have accessed the Ottawa River parklands. We even had a legal crossing of the Transitway ! Then one day — shock: Several times the NCC has tried to close the gate, but we beat them back. Some kind soul even put up a sign naming the gate after Qui- Moi? That sign is long gone, and today the NCC announced our gate and access to the Flats, the River, the bike paths … is … Continue reading Eric Darwin commemorative gate CLOSES soon

Bayview, Bayview Otrain, cycling in Ottawa, OTrain bike path

OTrain bike path paved

Westsideaction

Okay, I mislead you a bit with the title. It’s not a bike path, it’s a multi-user path, since cyclists, pedestrians, dog-walkers and their guardians are all welcome. And it’s not all paved, just the section from Somerset north to the Ottawa River. I suspect the section from Somerset to Young didn’t get paved due to the heavy equipment installing the staircase at Somerset. But I am hopeful we will get it paved before this winter. Herewith, the pic:   Continue reading OTrain bike path paved

heritage, hintonburg, west wellington, Westboro

Heritage repair

Westsideaction

Many west siders will be familiar with this, reputed to be  the oldest house in Ottawa: It is located a half block east of the Westboro Loblaws. Work has been going on for a while to stabilize and repair the structure. Like a lot of building restoration work, or art restoration, much effort goes into undoing the previous version of restoration. In this case, the previous work involved adding a smooth coat of mortar between the stones. Alas, that mortar dried hard and waterproof. This trapped moisture between the stone inside the wall, which then liquified/eroded the sand-lime mixture inside … Continue reading Heritage repair

Ottawa1 Comment

Markings of things to come

Westsideaction

Before much of anything happens in this city, survey crews mark out the scene of the crime change. I recently noticed two markings. One is along the OTrain corridor. These markings appear to delineate where the OTrain is being double-tracked in spring, 2013. Double tracking will be required for some portions to handle the additional train sets and more frequent service. Alas, the trains will run very slowly on the double track section between Gladstone and Bayview as the city is not [yet] building Gladstone/Little Italy station. Users will have more frequent, albeit slower, service on the Bayview-Carling segment. The … Continue reading Markings of things to come

pedestrians9 Comments

On safely crossing a street, aka taking your life in your hands

Westsideaction

I see in the paper there was another collision between a motor vehicle (in this case, a bus) and a pedestrian (14-year old girl) on St Laurent Blvd. While I don’t know the exact location of the collision, I find it odd that there could be 500m without a crosswalk. I suspect there may be 500 m between signalized intersections, but even where it is an unsignalized intersection, a crosswalk exists, whether marked or unmarked. Recall also that it is NOT ILLEGAL to cross a street. Some people think we should cross only at intersections, or signalized intersections, or at marked crosswalks. There are … Continue reading On safely crossing a street, aka taking your life in your hands

Bayview Otrain, cycling in Ottawa8 Comments

Spreading the dirt

Westsideaction

Work continues on the OTrain bike and pedestrian pathway (the multi-user path, or MUP, in planning jargon). It looks awfully close to being ready to pave. Contractors are spreading topsoil along the edges of the path. On Monday I saw this gizmo spreading the topsoil over large areas: Here’s another picture of it, showing the source truck with the topsoil: A few days ago, both CTV and CFRA ran stories on the path. I can only imagine what CFRA found awful; but I did see the CTV report on their website. It was pretty pointless. They interviewed several cyclists along … Continue reading Spreading the dirt

bike path, Boston, cycling in Ottawa, Ottawa

Cycle tracks, beginning and end of

Westsideaction

In a previous post on cycle tracks (segregated cycling lanes set back from the general motor vehicular traffic, sometimes protected by parked vehicles)  –illustrated with pictures from the Cambridge MA cycle track installed a number of years ago — a reader inquired for more details on how the track segments begin and end. Ever mindful of faithful readers, here are two ends, alpha and omega: And just for completeness, the middle: Continue reading Cycle tracks, beginning and end of

Chinatown, somerset street5 Comments

A little rain for the Urban Food desert

Westsideaction

Much of the west side of downtown Ottawa is a food desert. Consolidation has been happening in the grocery business for a long time. Individual vegetable mongers and butchers gave way to the one-stop shopping convenience of the groceteria, then the larger grocery store, and most recently the Superstore, whether in big-box malls or spread across the urban fabric. The resulting decline and disappearance of the smaller stores inevitably leaves some greater distance between the remaining or new grocery outlets. This space is sometimes called a food desert. Like any ecosystem, it also offers a niche for the nimble and specialized. Walking … Continue reading A little rain for the Urban Food desert

Ottawa

Give a dog a drink

Westsideaction

We’ve all seen doggy bowls outside stores and restaurants, subtly encouraging dog owners that it’s “all right” to come in an shop, the pooch will be OK. Here’s a drinking fountain with the usual adult-height spray; and a lower child-height / wheelchair height. But press the top left button, and the doggy-height bowl delivers fresh water that hasn’t been left standing around  where it might be dirty. And no sharing doggy saliva either. I know more than one little child that would have been delighted to get down on hands and knees to try out that nifty low bowl. Continue reading Give a dog a drink

Ottawa10 Comments

95 – 101 Norman Street: blockbusting begins

Westsideaction

Norman is a little dead end street, lined with small single family homes on the south side, and a mix of homes and a defunct garage on the north side. Vehicular access to the street is from Preston only, beside the Black Cat Cafe. It’s a narrow street, not cute in the generally accepted way in its current form. But it is home to many families. And most importantly, it is surrounded by many similar streets stretching between the OTrain greenway corridor and the government office complex along Rochester Street. The last few revised plans from the city actually showed the … Continue reading 95 – 101 Norman Street: blockbusting begins

design, LRT, O-Train, OLRT, Ottawa, streetscaping2 Comments

Multi modal transfer station design

Westsideaction

Ottawa will soon be getting a dozen or so LRT stations. We don’t know what the “final” design will be.  The PAC for those stations hasn’t met for months. I do hope it gets one last kick at the penultimate designs of the winning contractor. PACs can and do offer good advice, very practical, from the user perspective. Until then, here’s a look at the Hyannis MA multi modal transfer station. Located in the downtown (such as there is in low density America) on former rail yards, it has a passenger rail terminus, the inter city bus station for buses … Continue reading Multi modal transfer station design