If you are out cycling or walking this weekend, make a point of passing by Clarendon and Iona Streets on the West Side. There you will see Ottawa’s first officially sanctioned, artist-supervised street painting exercise. It is mid-block, whereas most street painting projects I have seen on-line favour intersections (to slow vehicles down) or along main streets (same reason). Ottawa, of course, is still very much under the thumb of conservative traffic engineers who seemingly cannot distinguish a road (for getting from point A to B) from a street (which is for local access, and therefore reduced speeds). In their minds, anything that keeps a road from looking wide open and straight is a danger. So mosey over to the west side and take a gander at this revolutionary (for Ottawa) expression.  And then wonder where you think it might work in your neighbourhood, or even on your block.  I suspect the City doesn’t yet have a formal policy for approving street painting, authorizing inclusive colours (see title above), vetting the images to be shown, etc etc. If someone knows of such a policy, please share it.

Examine the prototype street painting. Figure out what works and what doesn’t. And then, happy painting.