Much chided as the ugliest building in Ottawa, the City Centre complex on City Centre Avenue has been spruced up over the last few years. First the stubby office tower sign was removed, and then it was painted beige and black. Now the lower warehouse bays are being painted. Some of the highlights are picked out in black, as are the doors and railings. The lowest 12′ or so has now been painted beige. This painting has taken most of the summer. Sometime in our lifetime we may see the whole thing painted. Here are some before and after pic of the tower: Continue reading Slow as watching paint dry …

Regular readers of WSA will be well aware of the community proposals for a Bronson “road diet”. A road diet tries to fix urban arterial roads that were mis-widened to four lanes in the 60’s-80’s in a vain attempt to handle more traffic, but which blighted the neighborhoods along the road instead. A three lane configuration – one through lane in each direction, plus a two-way centre turn lane – can usually handle the same volume of traffic, safer. The City’s contractors have managed to rule out a road diet on Bronson between Laurier and Gladstone. But the stink Rescue Bronson raised about the unsatisfactory four … Continue reading Road Diet Approved

The City is reconstructing Somerset  west of Booth. As part of the reconstruction, there will (eventually) be new, wider sidewalks; protected parking bays; decorative ped lighting; and lots of new trees. Existing trees are being protected, somewhat. First, inconvenient lower branches were pruned away. Then the trunks were wrapped in boards to protect them from impact damage. Alas, the roots are not so protected, and numerous trenches have been dug through the root system. But regardless of the care, some trees just won’t make it. Four existing trees have been marked for removal. The largest one is shown here (squint and you can make … Continue reading Tree Petrified with fear of the big red X

The Preston “extension” running north from the Preston/Albert intersection, is a popular paved path for pedestrians, cyclists, dog walkers, and people walking to Gatineau. The NCC recently closed and locked the gate (scroll down to see two previous posts…). Typically for the NCC, it did so after saying it would leave the link open. And it closes the link without explanation. Well, Madame Chairman Marie Lemay has finally responded to a resident. Here is her letter (I added the bolding to the key phrase):  “Thank you for your e-mail of September 30, 2011, regarding the closure of an informal passageway leading … Continue reading NCC passes buck to City, with eyes wide closed

It was really encouraging to see such a large and positive crowd come out this morning. I saw many familiar faces, a few politicians, cyclists, pedestrians, people with walkers …. . . . . . . . . . To the reader who asked if I was going to organize a ride for every pedestrian or cyclist killed. No. And I didn’t organize this walk either. But I might be convinced to organize a celebratory ride if a certain someone got pancaked. Continue reading Some Pic of Memorial bike/walk procession

The Preston BIA arranges with an exterior decorator to supply storefront, lobby, and window decor on a seasonal basis. This allows businesses that wouldn’t normally fuss about window decor to have professionally done seasonal displays. It also spruces up the whole street. The abundant and lush display above evokes the right mix of fall colours with an Italian element. As the leaves drop from real trees, those remaining dead tree trunks maintained by Ottawa Hydro (or Bell, or cablevision) reassert their dominance of the urban streetscape. I can’t help but regret the City’s policies of obliging suburban businesses to install underground wiring while … Continue reading Autumn colours

My kids have grown past the school bus stage. But I have numerous unfond memories of meeting the bus. My son had several contra-temps with the drivers. Once, the driver drove the bus, in winter, down Upper Lorne, a very narrow dead end with cars parked on both sides. She had to get someone from the bus company to come and direct the long backing out. Next day, someone’s son, who shall remain nameless, supplied the driver with a map showing all the dead ends in the neighborhood. He ended up in the office, and shortly after that gave up tormenting … Continue reading School daze

On Sunday, the gate to the Preston “extension” was still locked (if you are unfamiliar with the issue, skip back a few posts …). On the holiday Monday at 11.30 a reader alerted me to the gate being open. I nipped over and took these pic at 12.50:   But what is this? At 1.10, barely hours after the lock being cut off …   A couple of “conservation of locks” officers arrive at the scene. They knew the gate was open, as they hopped right to dragging out a new lock from the cargo bay and swinging the gates closed: … Continue reading Madame Chairman relocks the gate

Readers will recall the proposed Soho Italia project at 500 Preston (near Carling) by Mastercraft-Starwood: (Use the search button to find more posts on the previous projects. The main posting is found at http://westsideaction.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/soho-italia-the-developers-proposal/)   Members of the community had a number of problems with the tower. First, it had above ground parking garage, meaning the bottom 6+ floors were a black box. The building had apartments facing outward on all four sides, right up to the lot line. It didn’t do an acceptable job of enhancing the streetscape, and struck pretty much everyone as being too much building on too … Continue reading Soho Italia: back from the drawing board

Shopping centres and strip malls incur enormous costs in providing “free parking”. The costs of these spaces are buried in the price of merchandise, paid for equally by walk-ins, cyclists, and transit users as well as those who park there. As cities get larger, “free” parking lots attract “freeloaders” who want to park there but not necessarily shop. St Laurent Shopping Centre, for example, has to rope off parts of the mall lots early in the morning and take other measures to prevent their parking lot from becoming a “park and ride”. The shopping mall below, in Cambridge MA (beside Boston) has … Continue reading Rewarding transit customers