Ottawa's Byward Market

[Acajack]

I hear lots of comments in my entourage about the Byward Market - good and bad.

The complaints about parking have always been there - even during the area's heyday with my friends and family. (Which wasn't that long ago.)

Have the frustrations with parking intensified? Maybe a bit but not that much really.

What I do hear in terms of newer complaints: the area has gotten a lot more sketchy, and that what is on offer there doesn't feel that unique anymore. It's a lot of the same types of restaurants, bars and cafés, and shops, that you now find in other parts of the city and across the region (even in suburban areas).

None of these people are refined urbanists so obviously they don't have specifics to provide, much less suggestions for what the market is missing or has lost. But they are of course potential customers and so for them these days there is less in the market to draw them than before.