Downtown Ottawa Revitalization Initiatives

[rocketphish]

Five tips from other Canadian cities that could help Ottawa’s nightlife economy

Marissa Galko, OBJ
May 22, 2025

Canada After Dark, a two-day summit exploring the future of nighttime economies, was held in Ottawa this week, with more than 150 professionals in the nightlife and music industries gathering at the National Arts Centre Wednesday and Thursday.

The event is part of the city’s first Capital Music Week and was co-presented by the City of Ottawa’s Nightlife Office and the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition.

On Wednesday, a panel of nightlife stakeholders from Canadian cities was convened with the goal of sharing best practices and experiences.

Here are five issues that were mentioned that could be applicable to Ottawa as the city seeks to grow its nighttime economy.

Allow artists to use vacant commercial spaces

Maud Salvi, executive and artistic director of the Sled Island Festival in Calgary, explained that that city has lost many of its music venues and artistic spaces over the past few years.

At 1.4 million residents, Calgary’s population is close to that of Ottawa and cultural spaces remain “few and far between,” she said. Also, since Calgary is a sprawling city with low population density, most of the nightlife infrastructure is located in the downtown core.

To help combat the problem, Salvi said that in 2023 Calgary championed a “meanwhile lease” program, which makes vacant commercial spaces temporarily available to artists at a lower cost.

While Salvi sees the program as a step forward for artists, she said there is still work to be done, especially as artists get limited notice before they must vacate the space.

“Once artists activate a space, that space becomes more enticing to corporate interests. I really hope that we’re going to see a development of that program with maybe a little bit more insurance for the arts organization. There could perhaps be a six-month buffer … I think they give you a maximum of 30 days,” she said.

Make sure residential development can live beside music venues

John Weisz, executive director of Les Scènes de musiques alternatives du Québec and president of Indie Montreal, said a common issue in Montreal is the need to protect smaller entertainment venues.

He pointed to an “agent of change principle,” which is “when you make a change to the neighbourhood and the infrastructure, you’re responsible for mitigating the consequences for that change.”

Last September, Montreal music venue La Tulipe closed its doors after noise complaints coming from residents of the residential space upstairs.

“In this context, if you’re a real estate developer and you put condos up next to a venue, you have to make sure that those condos are soundproofed. It’s not solely on the venue to make sure that they soundproof their walls,” Weisz said.

He said that in Toronto there is often an acknowledgement in contracts of sale stating that the resident is close to a music venue and may be subjected to more noise.

Get creative with transit options

In Calgary, much like in Ottawa, residents in more rural parts of the city have a difficult time getting to the city centre to enjoy nightlife, Salvi said.

She explained that she got in touch with Calgary Transit, asking if it were possible to extend transit operating hours to accommodate her festival’s events. However, the transit authority said the increase in ridership wouldn’t justify the cost.

As a result, Salvi said the festival has been championing other sustainable solutions to get around such as cycling.

“We took it upon ourselves to install temporary bike racks in front of all of our major venues since year one of the festival. Over the years, some of those bike racks have become permanent fixtures, either installed by the city or paid for by the property owners,” she said.

Zach Atkinson, who owns Fredericton music venue The Cap, said that city has made progress when it comes to reliable and safe transportation after dark with a Safe Ride program operated by the provincial liquor corporation.

“It’s a mix of the public transit plus they pull out school buses and run routes from downtown to certain neighbourhoods,” he said.

Make sure residents know what’s going on

Atkinson also said that Fredericton is brimming with talented people and has the space to accommodate them, but lacks the marketing and media presence to make sure residents know what’s going on in their city.

“It’s such a challenge when you’re literally tearing your hair out, trying to get people to engage and to convert them to a ticket-buyer,” Atkinson said.

Part of Ottawa’s Nightlife Economy Action Plan focuses on creating a digital resource to bring together information on the city’s events as well as resources on related by-laws, training and more.

Create a curated experience that speaks to younger generations

Ali Shafaee, regional vice-president of Live Nation Canada and founder of Ottawa’s Escapade Music Festival, said the nightlife industry is feeling the squeeze from a lack of engagement from gen Z.

“That generation essentially got glued to their phones and didn’t know anything about going out or ‘living life,’” he said, adding the economy has further discouraged young people from going out.

The way to win over the younger generations is to curate an experience rather than just lining up artist after artist, he said. “We have spent the last few years not only building an experience but to teach that younger generation what an experience really is.”

As the founder of Escapade, Shafaee said he has rejected sponsors that weren’t able to commit to curating an experience for the consumer. “There was a lot of time where we took a partner that potentially was less money but was building us an experience that was really driving engagement for that consumer when they were there.”

https://obj.ca/five-tips-canadian-cities-help-ottawas-nightlife-economy/

[rocketphish]

Ottawa’s waterways could be the next frontier for developing a nightlife economy, expert says

Mia Jensen, OBJ
May 28, 2025

A morning dip in Dow’s Lake? A rock band touring on a barge on the Rideau Canal?

Germany’s Thomas Scheele says European cities are experimenting with ways to bring community activities to the water and Ottawa has the opportunity to do the same.

“More and more cities are redefining their relationship with the water,” Scheele said during his talk at last week’s Canada After Dark conference, a two-day summit exploring the future of nighttime economies. The event was co-presented by the City of Ottawa’s Nightlife Office and the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition. Ottawa isn’t a complete stranger to using the water as a cultural space – the Rideau Canal Skateway is one of the city's most popular tourist destinations in the winter. But the rest of the year poses a different sort of challenge.

Scheele, who is based in Berlin, Germany, is the senior project manager for international research and advocacy agency Vibelab, which supports the development and preservation of nightlife culture. He said his visit to Ottawa for the nightlife conference at the National Arts Centre was his first time presenting the organization’s waterways research outside of Europe.

“Nightlife, for me, means we need to break the codes and I feel there’s a hunger for this in the city,” said Scheele during his presentation. “If people ask me, do you think we can become a cool city? I say yes, of course. You can do it, but you need to want it. You need to want that for your city.” While the use of waterways might look different in the Canadian context, Scheele pointed out that waterways – including rivers and canals – make up nine per cent of Ottawa’s urban surface, representing a significant “untapped spatial resource” for community and cultural development.

The relationship of cities to their waterways is constantly changing, Scheele said.

“Ottawa wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the river – it’s a natural resource that allowed a settlement,” he said. “And then, with the Industrial Revolution, rivers became a kind of dumping ground for cities, where all the sewage was thrown away. With the post-Industrial age, a lot of factories were re-thought as residential buildings and cultural centres and cities rediscovered their waterfront.” Nowadays, he said waterways are used and viewed primarily as transit routes.

“They’re public spaces, but they’re usually used like liquid highways,” he said. “In most cities, they are traffic routes for commercial or touristic shipping. They’re not leisure spaces.” Scheele said part of the problem is that innovation has stopped at the shore. Cities developed parks, housing and community centres next to rivers, but left the water alone. With climate change expected to raise temperatures, Scheele expects more people will seek proximity to cooler spaces.

That means the water itself, he said, is the next frontier. “If we can turn liquid highways into liquid cultural spaces or public spaces, a lot can be won,” he said.

One example he used was the Fluctuations Festival, where a 40-metre barge was transformed into a floating stage that travelled along various European rivers, docking in different cities for events. Festival-goers would gather on the riverbanks for music performances, art displays, workshops and talks.

Scheele called it a wild and complicated endeavour, but its success from city to city was eye-opening.

“I realized we need to look at the much wider phenomenon across Europe,” he said. “Who’s starting stuff on the water and how do they do it? There’s no guide. There’s no playbook or formal system. No city in the world has a creative river strategy or policies.” As part of Vibelab’s subsequent research, Scheele said 36 vessels of various shapes and sizes were identified across the continent, all of which had found different ways to provide cultural experiences on the water.

One was a former deep-sea fishing vessel that had become an award-winning nightclub. Others were smaller motorboats that would gather in packs for guerilla concerts that didn’t always follow the letter of the law, he said.

“It’s such a huge diversity,” said Scheele. “Each of these ships is a strategy to stage culture on water, to bring creativity to the water. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy.” Scheele said some cities are starting to put considerable funds behind waterway revitalization. Paris, France is a significant recent example. Ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Scheele said the city invested 1.4 billion euros ($2.1 billion) to clean up the Seine, which was then used in the opening ceremony and multiple aquatic events.

But months after the athletes left the city, Scheele said the Seine is still teeming with activity as a result of the investment, which included building infrastructure in and around the waterways. Ottawa has already started its own experiments. In addition to boat tours that are popular among tourists, the National Arts Centre got creative last summer offering free boat concerts along the Rideau Canal. Members of the NAC Orchestra serenade walkers and runners, as well as music enthusiasts, as they sail past.

This year, the National Capital Commission opened a recreational dock on Dow’s Lake as a pilot project to encourage more people to connect with the water and, perhaps eventually, go for a swim.

With so much water available, Scheele said Ottawa has plenty of opportunity to experiment.

“You have a great diversity, with the Ottawa River, the Rideau River and the Rideau Canal,” he said. “There are natural waterscapes, there are bays, there are lakes, there’s built canals and there’s natural shorelines … We should zoom in on particular places and think, how can we be more nuanced in the way we think about rivers and start prototyping new ideas in certain pockets.”

https://obj.ca/ottawa-waterways-next-frontier-nightlife-economy-expert/

[rocketphish]

Ottawa to deploy Night Ambassadors in ByWard Market this summer

By Josh Pringle, CTV News
Published: June 04, 2025 at 3:24PM EDT

Night Ambassadors will be deployed in Ottawa’s ByWard Market this summer, providing an additional pair of eyes on the streets in the popular tourist area late at night.

The City of Ottawa announced the launch of a Night Ambassadors pilot program, designed to improve community safety and visitor outreach during the evening and early morning hours. The Night Ambassadors will also work with late-night venues to identify needs and share program information.

Between June 27 and early November, the Night Ambassadors will be in the market on Fridays and Saturdays from 9:30 p.m. to 4 a.m.

The city says the Night Ambassadors will “enhance community and safety wellbeing” by practicing bystander intervention and de-escalation, helping patrons and employees find a safe ride home and connecting people with emergency and social services.

The program is being funded thanks to a $35,000 grant from the City of Ottawa’s Nightlife Office. According to the job posting, the salary for the ByWard Market Night Ambassador is $25 an hour.

“The ByWard Market Night Ambassador Program is a pilot community safety and visitor outreach initiative driven by the City of Ottawa’s Nightlife Commissioner, executed by the ByWard Market District Authority (BMDA),” the job posting on the ByWard Market District Authority said. “The program, inspired by similar initiatives in Montreal and Vancouver, the Night Ambassador team will support a safe, inclusive, and welcoming evening environment for visitors, residents, and venue operators.”

The city says the Night Ambassadors will be part of a “visible, on-the-ground team” offering support, including promoting consent and respectful nightlife, “offering a calm, approachable presence in high-energy settings,” and assisting “intoxicated or vulnerable individuals.”

According to the job posting, the key responsibilities include “de-escalate disruptive or unsafe situations using non-violent communication,” engaging patrons in “conversations regarding consent, bystander intervention and harm reduction,” and “offer supports, such as phone charging, navigation, and access to information.”

https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/ot...mbassadors-in-byward-market-this-summer/

[rocketphish]

Welcome to the magical world of ByWard Market 'ambassadors'
In Ottawa, apparently, we are so inept at going out for the evening that we need assistance to do it in the prescribed manner.

By Brigitte Pellerin, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jun 12, 2025 | Last updated 22 hours ago

Every time I think we’ve hit rock-bottom, this town manages to go one further and burst through the membrane that separates our special city from the rest of the normal world. The ByWard Market “night ambassadors” pilot project is so profoundly weird I had to rewatch the Barbie movie to make sense of it.

The program, which sounds like it was invented by Will Ferrell’s Mattel CEO character, will see ambassadors roaming the Market looking for trouble to prevent, people to orient and drunks to separate from their car keys. Because goodness knows that we in Ottawa are so inept at going out that we need assistance to do it in the prescribed manner.

You know when Barbie and Ken get to the real world with their fluorescent rollerblades and find everything jarring? I think our night mayor, Mathieu Grondin, assumes visitors are as baffled by Ottawa as the plastic couple is by Venice Beach. Do we really think tourists wouldn’t understand how to enjoy life after sundown without smiling guides helping them find brewski beer or a safe ride back to their dojo mojo casa house?

Ambassadors are also expected to play social workers and de-escalate potential conflicts between the overly inebriated, and offer phone chargers to the forgetful and water bottles to the parched. First aid, too. On the plus side, the pilot project for our human Swiss army knives will only cost $35,000. We can be ridiculous inexpensively, I guess. Grondin calls this a safety program but “also a well-being and caring program,” and while I never want anyone to think that I’m against people being their best selves, let’s just say the Ken-ergy is overwhelming.

“I want people who may have had bad experiences here to come back and know that there’s going to be people watching their back for them,” Grondin added, which only made things worse. Now it feels like Ottawa has won the Nobel prize in horses.

Out of curiosity, are we ever going to get actual value out of this night commissioner gig? The joke is getting a little stale.

As for bad experiences, what exactly are we talking about? Getting lost? The Market isn’t big enough. Terrible service and bad food? What can ambassadors do to fix that? Safety issues or unwanted experiences of a sexual nature? Same question.

I guess if your past bad experiences in Ottawa include not knowing where to get a Band-Aid for that heel blister your new shoes gave you, then you’re covered. I’m really struggling to find anything more useful for ambassadors to do. Sure, they can help people who feel unsafe by walking with them to their vehicles. But if the Market feels that unsafe, shouldn’t we deal with the problem instead of relying on smiling ambassadors?

I need to know how we got to be this pathetic. We’re no longer the town that fun forgot. We’ve become the town fun doesn’t want to be seen with. And it gets worse with each new idea.

Maybe what we need is a sensible, middle-aged mom to help us snap out of our loser trance by exposing the cognitive dissonance required to think that night ambassadors armed with charging cables will fix decades of terrible, car-centric planning.

You know what we need to have a vibrant nightlife? Human-friendly places where it feels safe to hang out, and where we don’t have to buy anything to use the (clean, accessible) bathroom.

We don’t need ambassadors who smile at strangers like we’re in a magical world of Barbies and Kens where all that’s needed for success is a caring attitude. We need to get cars out of the Market, improve public transit by massively investing in night and weekend service, and create welcoming and well-designed public spaces. Then people will come and with them, their wallets.

Stop with the weird ideas and get going on the basics, please and thank you. They are Kenough.

Brigitte Pellerin (they/them) is an Ottawa writer.

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/magic-byward-market-ambassadors

[rocketphish]

New downtown event space Uncommon will be key to revitalization, BIA says

Marissa Galko, OBJ
June 13, 2025



A new event space in Centretown will play a key part in downtown revitalization, the local BIA executive director says.

Uncommon, a new event space at Snider Place between Bank, Laurier and Slater streets, is open to the public, with a bar, food, bathrooms and sound and lighting.

SabriNa Lemay, executive director of Centretown BIA, told OBJ on Friday that the project is a collaboration between the city’s public realm and economic development team, Somerset Ward Coun. Ariel Troster, real estate developer Morguard, Senate Tavern owner Steve Ryan, and the BIA.

It started last year, Lemay added, with a vacant space, $100,000 in funding from the city and a desire to create a community hub.

“We’ve always wanted to do something with Snider Plaza. We wanted to create place. We’ve been working closely with Morguard, who are huge community-building advocates within our city and the downtown core. Last year, the city came forward and said, ‘We have $100,000 if you want to put it to some placemaking.’ We decided to put it into Snider Plaza and create almost like a Tavern on the Hill vibe,” Lemay said.

Lemay said the space is designed to be a gathering place for the community, including a downtown worker taking a lunch break, friends getting together for a drink, or a business hosting an outdoor event.

The BIA has worked to create a place where people will want to hang out, Lemay said, with wall art, music and, eventually, Wi-Fi, so it can also be a co-working space.

Uncommon’s food and drink space is in an old shipping container turned mini kitchen. It’s the brainchild of Ryan from the Senate Tavern and is designed to produce curated food items and serve an array of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.

“Steve Ryan partners with our members to bring food in and he’s always open to collaboration. So if somebody wants to go in … to do something with a hot plate, the world is their oyster,” Lemay said.

While the kitchen space is currently only equipped to make small plates, Lemay said the BIA will be looking at ways to expand it next year.

Uncommon is also at the disposal of Ottawa businesses to use for events, for free. Choose a date, complete the form on the BIA’s website and “you’re good to go,” Lemay said.

This is the beginning of new projects for the area, Lemay said. The BIA has also recently launched its “street seats” pilot project, temporarily converting MacLaren, Florence and Frank streets into pedestrianized areas from mid-June to mid-October.

“If we do what we’ve always done, we’re going to get what we’ve always got. So we’re stepping outside of the box,” Lemay said of the project.

Florence Street will cater to group activities; MacLaren Street will showcase the arts, in collaboration with the Urban Art Collective and Wallack’s Art Supplies and Framing; and Frank Street will offer various workshops such as culinary experiences in partnership with local restaurant Fauna.

As with any major project, Centretown’s revitalization has elicited concerns from residents, Lemay said, especially with issues surrounding homelessness.

“Anytime you pedestrianize (a street) or create a space like Uncommon, there’s a fear of congregation. I think what this is actually doing is bringing our community together and shedding light on the unhoused, who are a part of our community. We’re working with community groups,” Lemay said, adding that there will also be added security and cleaning teams as well as florists in Centretown’s spaces.

The addition of new spaces as well as the beautification of streets, including upcoming renovations to heritage buildings along Bank Street, will have a “snowball or ripple effect” throughout the city, Lemay said.

“I heard this at the City Building Summit. ‘If the core of an apple rots, the entire apple does.’ Our core, our downtown, needs to be thriving … If our core is thriving, then (there is) more tourism. People want to be in our city,” she said.

“I think it means evolution and bringing life back into Centretown. It’s change. It’s evolution. It’s instilling hope, which I think is something that our businesses need more than anything,” she said.

“To actually have something physical to look at this summer, with the spaces and activation and beautification, I’m just so excited for our community,” Lemay said.

https://obj.ca/downtown-event-space-uncommon-key-revitalization/

[kwoldtimer]

Well, that certainly makes me want to spend time on Bank St.

[DarthVader_1961]

The downtown portion of Bank street maybe getting a facelift..

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/struggling-bank-street-could-be-in-for-a-facelift-1.7554997

[lrt's friend]

If we really want to revitalize Bank Street, we need a subway, and it should be connected to the Aylmer project. It is a hopeless dream but would be a huge city building project that would actually serve urban Ottawa.

I don't know how we can densify the Bank Street corridor without a subway. On Friday night, Bank Street was at a standstill and transit was the worst option.

It didn't help that we were locked out of Greenboro station. Still no solution for ticket holders to get through fare gates? Ridiculous.

[Richard Eade]

I agree. Something needs to be done about Bank Street (and MANY others).

OC Transpo’s Trip Planner recently gave me a couple of options to get to TD Place. One was 1 minute faster than the other.

The first one had me take the # 6 from Billings Bridge to TD Place. The second – and faster solution – was to take the # 6 from Billings Bridge to Bank at Aylmer and WALK ACROSS THE BANK STREET BRIDGE.

When the Trip Planner is saying that walking is the faster option, there is a problem!

[lrt's friend]

They need a solution to keep traffic moving at TD Place before events. You could walk much faster, and we are now defeating the transit option, which is caught up in traffic worse, being in the curb lane. The experience was poor. We are now returning to the old days when you drove to the area, parked, and walked in, which makes the traffic situation unsustainable. We want towers at Lansdowne and Billings Bridge. How is that supposed to work? We have finite road capacity.

[J.OT13]

Either bus lanes on Bank Street or turning QED into a Transitway. Really show the demand by providing good, reliable, frequent transit, and then we can talk subway.

[Richard Eade]

Yeah. Driving and parking locally on side streets was one of staff’s arguments for such a small parking lot under Lansdowne. However, the other day I wandered around a number of streets south of the canal and was surprised to see a bunch of 1-hour parking restrictions. Even the 'normal' 3-hour limit is tight for some sports. If the city is serious about having a REGIONAL facility in that area, it needs to provide GREAT (not just good) public transit to it.

Unfortunately, Bank Street is – and will always be, due to Ottawa’s geography – a major north-south vehicle route. Reducing vehicle capacity on Bank is folly (unless the city is willing to build a new parallel north-south vehicle corridor – which it seems loath to do). Reducing the capacity of the main form of transportation simply chokes-off the economy. It does very little to FORCE a conversion of the mode of transportation.

Public transit needs to start to be the preferred option for travel to regional attractions. Just making it harder to go to those places is not an answer. If public transit becomes the best way to get somewhere (anywhere), then it will become the first choice.

There should be a Bank Street subway, and you are correct, lrt’s friend, it should connect to Line 1 and then continue across the Ottawa River. A shallow subway should have been built with Cut & Cover when Bank Street was completely torn up to replace the underground utilities. The best option now is a TBM, which would likely run about $500M for two, lined, 5-metre, bores. Station entrances would be additional cost and be constructed using Cut & Cover from side streets, to minimize disruption of Bank. The estimated cost for the Lansdowne 2.0 project is approaching $500M. There needs to be GREAT transit to make this a useful expenditure.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

They need a solution to keep traffic moving at TD Place before events. You could walk much faster, and we are now defeating the transit option, which is caught up in traffic worse, being in the curb lane. The experience was poor. We are now returning to the old days when you drove to the area, parked, and walked in, which makes the traffic situation unsustainable. We want towers at Lansdowne and Billings Bridge. How is that supposed to work? We have finite road capacity.

The transit solution for Lansdowne is the frickin' QED.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

The transit solution for Lansdowne is the frickin' QED.

No, it isn't. The traditional desire lines for every day transportation is north-south on Bank Street. In fact, because transit and car traffic is so slow on Bank, we have moved much of the traffic over to Bronson. QED again skirts our transportation needs especially from the south. This does not revitalize Bank Street at all. For someone who wants higher order transit on Montreal Road, you should understand this. A secondary east-west line needs to be on Baseline and I would also support revisiting using the almost unused crosstown railway done cheaply like the original O-Train as a fast cross city transit option.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

No, it isn't. The traditional desire lines for every day transportation is north-south on Bank Street. In fact, because transit and car traffic is so slow on Bank, we have moved much of the traffic over to Bronson. QED again skirts our transportation needs especially from the south. This does not revitalize Bank Street at all. For someone who wants higher order transit on Montreal Road, you should understand this. A secondary east-west line needs to be on Baseline and I would also support revisiting using the almost unused crosstown railway done cheaply like the original O-Train as a fast cross city transit option.

I don't remember saying take transit off Bank Street, though.

[rocketphish]

Could new 'Street Seats' revitalize downtown Ottawa?
Business owners see a brighter future in the downtown with a new pilot project that will invite passers by to take a seat.

By Alexa MacKie, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jun 28, 2025
Last updated 6 hours ago



During his “too long” tenure as chair of the Somerset Village Business Improvement Area (BIA), Union Local 613 restaurant owner Ivan Gedz led multiple summer weekend street closures since the pandemic.

But in 2025 — after Gedz led an unpopular two-week street closure the year before — the Somerset Village BIA voted against any road closure at all.

“There was a lot of consternation with regards to the manner I went about it,” he said, adding that he didn’t get other business’ approval for the longer closure. “Fair enough.”

When Gedz stepped down as chair last May, he wrote a note and posted to his business’ Instagram.

“City planning for the foreseeable future will continue to limit car access, reduce parking, and prioritize public transit, cycling, and pedestrian infrastructure,” he wrote. “Rather than resist this shift, Somerset Village can thrive by leaning into it.”

“It gives more vibrancy,” he said. “If you’ve been to Barcelona or countless other places in the world … things that enhance city streets, that enable people to engage one another on a more regular basis in-person, certainly is always a great thing.”

Now, just down the road from Somerset Village, the city’s Street Seats pilot program is a step towards leaning into that.

In partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and a team lead responsible for pedestrianizing New York City’s Times Square, Street Seats transforms sections of Centretown’s MacLaren, Florence and Frank Streets into pedestrian-oriented public spaces from early July to mid-October.

“It’s designed to have more places to sit, places for communities to do programming, places for public art, for performance (and) for restaurant vendors,” said Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster. “That’s something we’re hearing that people want more and more of.”

<more>




https://ottawacitizen.com/news/new-street-seats-revitalize-downtown-ottawa

[MarkR]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Could new 'Street Seats' revitalize downtown Ottawa?
Business owners see a brighter future in the downtown with a new pilot project that will invite passers by to take a seat.

By Alexa MacKie, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jun 28, 2025
Last updated 6 hours ago



During his “too long” tenure as chair of the Somerset Village Business Improvement Area (BIA), Union Local 613 restaurant owner Ivan Gedz led multiple summer weekend street closures since the pandemic.

But in 2025 — after Gedz led an unpopular two-week street closure the year before — the Somerset Village BIA voted against any road closure at all.

“There was a lot of consternation with regards to the manner I went about it,” he said, adding that he didn’t get other business’ approval for the longer closure. “Fair enough.”

When Gedz stepped down as chair last May, he wrote a note and posted to his business’ Instagram.

“City planning for the foreseeable future will continue to limit car access, reduce parking, and prioritize public transit, cycling, and pedestrian infrastructure,” he wrote.
<more>

(rest snipped)

How does blocking the entire road help cyclists? If you live on that or adjacent streets and you're on a bike, to get to Bank you'll now have to get over to either eastbound Gilmour or Gladstone. (Or, just ride on the sidewalk past all that lovely seating...)

[acottawa]

I have no idea who this is supposed to benefit. Is the expectation people would come downtown to sit in pink chairs? Is the expectation local residents would chill out in the pink chairs? Is the expectation homeless people would use the pink chairs instead of Bank Street?

[phil235]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I have no idea who this is supposed to benefit. Is the expectation people would come downtown to sit in pink chairs? Is the expectation local residents would chill out in the pink chairs? Is the expectation homeless people would use the pink chairs instead of Bank Street?

This isn't exactly revolutionary - it's a technique that has been successful all over the world. And the answer to your questions is yes. It will provide new public space that can be used by people in the neighbourhood and people visiting the neighbourhood.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by phil235

This isn't exactly revolutionary - it's a technique that has been successful all over the world. And the answer to your questions is yes. It will provide new public space that can be used by people in the neighbourhood and people visiting the neighbourhood.

Yes assuming they pair it with to go food and god forbid drinks they will be used by people. I don't think the homeless are really taking over seated places where present. It's places to sleep they are mostly after.