Ideas/Visions for Ottawa, Canada's Capital

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by silvergate

This discussion seems to relate a lot to central planning, but some of the most dynamic cities in the world, the ones you go to to experience the culture, or some local scene, got that way because the people in them made it that way.

It's been discussed here before that local BIAs will fight tooth and nail for street parking, but maybe it's time to consider decentralizing local rule making further. Especially on traditional main streets like Bank, Wellington/Richmond, or Beechwood, maybe a local citizens committee with BIA representation should be at least part of the design of rules for that area.

It may not always work out favorably in terms of parking or bike lanes or on-street patios, but it would help to add a distinctive feel to every main street, and the most effective techniques could be copied by other neighbourhoods.

You might travel to a city to see the major sights, but what makes you fall in love with a city is how it feels to be there. Bringing the people who live into the design conversation is one way to improve the feel.

I agree,we should be doing a better job promoting our traditional main streets to tourists. With Stage 2, a few of them will be far more accessible/visible.

I would love for the City to rename Gladstone station to Little Italy and Carling to Dow's Lake. I think Dominion station is better situated to be called Westboro (for the beach and the village), though I don't know what the best name would be for the current Westboro station.

Local area maps at Transit stations should highlight traditional main streets and other nearby designations and maybe list local businesses. Add signs pointing the way outside the stations.

[OTownandDown]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Is it? You mean Stag Shop and Boston Pizza? My impression is that the Glebe strip has been in decline for several years now.

Not decline, no. It's moved laterally now for a couple years. Old guard shops have closed, and new blood has moved in.

Coupled with lots of new construction, the likes of which hasn't been seen in years, and the next 12 months in the Glebe should be very exciting.

One big 'missing' piece in Ottawa is St. Catherines or Queen West, with larger multi-national chains coupled with local shops. Why don't we have this? Too many malls?

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by OTownandDown

Not decline, no. It's moved laterally now for a couple years. Old guard shops have closed, and new blood has moved in.

Coupled with lots of new construction, the likes of which hasn't been seen in years, and the next 12 months in the Glebe should be very exciting.

One big 'missing' piece in Ottawa is St. Catherines or Queen West, with larger multi-national chains coupled with local shops. Why don't we have this? Too many malls?

We used to have this with Rideau and Sparks. Both were "high-streets" lined with large, local, department stores. Those areas had been declining for a few years with the surbanization (including malls), and the Rideau Centre was the last nail in the coffin for many.

I think maybe we were/are too small to support such a shopping street, in addition to the malls.

[OTownandDown]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

We used to have this with Rideau and Sparks. Both were "high-streets" lined with large, local, department stores. Those areas had been declining for a few years with the surbanization (including malls), and the Rideau Centre was the last nail in the coffin for many.

I think maybe we were/are too small to support such a shopping street, in addition to the malls.

I've lived here for 15 years, and Sparks has never been anything but lunch for public servants and tourist shops. High street it is not. High streets require a population centre. Maybe in the 1910's-1950's when there was a streetcar line and people came for the extra-large department store experience.

After work, public servants walk down bank and elgin to frequent the local shops and bars.

Queen Street is doing a better job than Sparks lately. Could it be *gasp* the horrible, disorganized, ineffective, overly-complex landlording of the NCC?

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

We used to have this with Rideau and Sparks. Both were "high-streets" lined with large, local, department stores. Those areas had been declining for a few years with the surbanization (including malls), and the Rideau Centre was the last nail in the coffin for many.

I think maybe we were/are too small to support such a shopping street, in addition to the malls.

Both too small and too tight - it has been noted before that Ottawa really doesn’t do high-end retail (in Ottawa).

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by OTownandDown

I've lived here for 15 years, and Sparks has never been anything but lunch for public servants and tourist shops. High street it is not. High streets require a population centre. Maybe in the 1910's-1950's when there was a streetcar line and people came for the extra-large department store experience.

After work, public servants walk down bank and elgin to frequent the local shops and bars.

Queen Street is doing a better job than Sparks lately. Could it be *gasp* the horrible, disorganized, ineffective, overly-complex landlording of the NCC?

Late 1800s up maybe the 1970s. Sparks has been little more than a glorified food court over the last 40-50 years.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Ottawa has been maligned as the city that fun forgot. I believe that is not really true.

What does Ottawa need to add or change to end that perception?

Ottawa just needs to readjust its workbase and diversify its economy further so that government employees and their offshoots don't comprise such a large percentage of the population. Any government town is sleepy by its very nature and Ottawa is no different. The majority are boring and naturally passive by nature.

[FutureWickedCity]

A few ideas..

More clubs/music venues for sure. Maybe some on the top floors of high rise buildings.

One thing I would love to see is a winter garden, a big indoor park with a greenhouse roof. The roof of Rideau Centre would be ideal. A place to escape the winter.

If DND fully withdraws from their downtown former HQ, I would love to see that site transformed into a huge public space akin to the RA center but with other amenities and possibly residential as well.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by grooveduster

Uhuniau, I dig this city...I'm just trying to envision it as world class, because I think it's possible. You disparage my points, and that's OK, but don't you think we should "raise the bar" and not be satisfied with mediocrity?

Oh, we absolutely should be raising the bar and not settling for mediocrity.

Unfortunately Ottawans are too cheap to spend much of their own public resources to raise said bar, the province of which Ottawa is a part barely knows anything exists out of clear-day sight of the CN Tower, and federal priorities for spending on the national capital are mired in radiantgardencitybeautiful thinkin of 70 and 80 years ago.

The 'proposed park' I was referring to was imaginary...it could be Lebreton...some useless piece of disputed unused land turned into something cool. It bugs me that there are so many unused parks in Ottawa, and not a single "central" park.

I question the very idea that a "central" park is needed or desireable, or that Ottawa suffers from any shortage of parks. It really, genuinely, honest-to-godly baffles me, the mindset that is absolute and unquestionable orthodoxy in Ottawa, that we lack parks and that various of our urban problems could be solved by just making more of them.

I'm not advocating for more green space, just a single really cool big green space, you know? Work with me here....we're on the same forum....we're on the same page.

Why is a "single really cool big green space" a necessity, and why don't our existing, under-used big green spaces not already fit the bill? Those are the questions I'd be working on.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

I question the very idea that a "central" park is needed or desireable, or that Ottawa suffers from any shortage of parks. It really, genuinely, honest-to-godly baffles me, the mindset that is absolute and unquestionable orthodoxy in Ottawa, that we lack parks and that various of our urban problems could be solved by just making more of them.

Agreed. Ottawa has a ton of parks and adding more of them won't make the city more 'exciting'. People don't move to cities for parks.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Acajack

As much as it pains me to say it, Winterlude has become a pathetic excuse for a winter carnival.

Winter carnivals are withering almost everywhere in Canada, even the cities and towns and rural areas that have more reliably wintery winters than Ottawa.

Depending on the pandemic situation in the coming winter, this could be an excuse to re-invent them as a way to get people doing activities outside, in a safe and social way, that helps with both commerce and pandemic mitigation.

If the bar and restaurant industry wants to make it through to a vaccine or whatever else will get us back to "normal", they have to be considering ways of winterizing their industry, and quick.

[ssiguy]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Have you ever been to Ottawa?



Have you ever seen a map of Ottawa?

Why are so many people in Ottawa convinced that (a) Ottawa is lacking in parks, and (b) parks are the key to make a city more "dynamic/vibrant/exciting", etc.?

Yes, I know Ottawa very well and lived there 4 years while going to Carleton.

I love Ottawa and I know it has many nice parks but no real significant one downtown. If you were to ask the average person what Ottawa's main park is you would probably get 100 different answers.

Large parks right downtown are not just a pleasant amenity but can also be the focal point of the arts, festivals, and community events. Successful downtown parks are far more than just green spaces. In many cities their downtown park is similar to a city plaza or public square....... a central point where the city meets.

Unfortunately Canada, which has many beautiful city parks, has very few cities with a downtown/meeting place park. It's quite odd as few have a true and great downtown square or plaza. Ottawa being a planned city built on gobs of government largess would seem a natural but it is sadly lacking.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by acottawa

But most of the parks in central Ottawa are tiny, at best suitable for neighborhood use.

The two biggest "civic" parks in central Ottawa (not even counting the Parliamentary lawn) are Major's Hill and Confederation... both of which are comparable in size, if not larger than, urban places like Dorchester Square - Place du Canada in Montreal, or Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto.

If anything, larger-sized parks in a central setting only serve to deaden the urban fabric, especially considering that the main way of mitigating that effect - avoiding "vacuums" on the edges - is a subject of shock and horror in Ottawa.

Even much smaller cities like Waterloo or Kingston have a larger park in the city centre.

Kingston's large park is comparable in size to the large ones in central Ottawa. Waterloo's has waterside functions that in Ottawa are served by the very precious and nationally-significant strips of grass along the canal and riverbanks.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Shades of Jean Chrétien ....

To be fair, Marcel Beaudry.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Yes, I know Ottawa very well and lived there 4 years while going to Carleton.

I love Ottawa and I know it has many nice parks but no real significant one downtown. If you were to ask the average person what Ottawa's main park is you would probably get 100 different answers.

Large parks right downtown are not just a pleasant amenity but can also be the focal point of the arts, festivals, and community events. Successful downtown parks are far more than just green spaces.

As I said in a post earlier today, I doubt a new large park in central Ottawa would be the focus of any type of sustained "animation". If we go by past and present experience.

There are lots of spaces both green and hard surfaced that are available right now with nothing going on in them 99% of the time.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by harls

I've had a Scottish friend remark, "Ah.. moderately-sized Ben."

Isn't the Peace Tower taller?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Agreed. Ottawa has a ton of parks and adding more of them won't make the city more 'exciting'. People don't move to cities for parks.

Well, I'd say that some people do. But for those people, I'd say even without adding any greenspace, Ottawa (+ Gatineau) has got a pretty advantageous position on that front.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Isn't the Peace Tower taller?

By two metres. I compared pictures earlier today and I actually do find the two towers look quite similar.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

I love Ottawa and I know it has many nice parks but no real significant one downtown.

Confederation.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

I love Ottawa and I know it has many nice parks but no real significant one downtown. If you were to ask the average person what Ottawa's main park is you would probably get 100 different answers.

I'd consider that a feature, not a bug.

Large parks right downtown are not just a pleasant amenity but can also be the focal point of the arts, festivals, and community events. Successful downtown parks are far more than just green spaces. In many cities their downtown park is similar to a city plaza or public square....... a central point where the city meets.

If that's what we want, we can do it with one of the existing underused spaces, which are, contrary to popular belief, not small.

Unfortunately Canada, which has many beautiful city parks, has very few cities with a downtown/meeting place park. It's quite odd as few have a true and great downtown square or plaza. Ottawa being a planned city built on gobs of government largess would seem a natural but it is sadly lacking.

"Planned city"? Only to the extent that all but one or two major cities in Canada are "planned"; the central form of Ottawa was laid out before it was the capital. This ain't Brasilia or Canberra, and thank goodness.