Ottawa under the snow

[Mille Sabords]

Some pictures from a trek to the market I embarked on this afternoon after the snowstorm of the century. I'm saving these pictures so that one day I can tell my kids: "You kids are weak! You don't know what a real winter is! In my days we had snow up to here (and I'll have proof)."

Here goes:

The alley behind my place before we started shovelling:


Augusta Street, barely passable:


Daly Avenue, narrow enough as it is in normal times, looking like a canyon:


Contrast between a section of Augusta that was freshly plowed, and Besserer still waiting for its turn:


One way of trying to locate the car under all the snow:


Rideau street sidewalk with a metre-wide snow berm separating it from the street:


Snowy, quiet urban beauty:


Claridge Plaza from the LCBO snowbank:


The Galleria construction site:


LCBO peaks next to the Rideau Street sidewalk:


Cumberland Street:


Rideau Street:


Ya man, the snow got "mighty high" this weekend...


William Street mall (remember this shot in July and that 35 degree heat won't appear as oppressive...)


This place in summer is usually packed with tables and people drinking and eating on the sidewalk...


US embassy from in front of the Empire Grill:


The street that never sleeps, Clarence, looking eerily quiet...


90 George taking shape under blowing snow:


Claridge Plaza looking like it was always meant to be there:


Hey Baird, can we get our subway soon? It's kinda cold out here...


Didn't I just buy a pumpkin here a couple months ago?


I've never had such a clear shot of this streetscape before...


Little William Street...


A rare shot of the vista down William Street with Sears visible in the background, now that the Rideau Centre's parking garage demolition is finished. By November we won't have this view anymore:


Close-up:


Hey dad, can we get a beavertail?


Another one of these rare "empty street" shots... this place is usually so full of people and market stalls, it's neat to see how big the Market Square really is when you can see through it.


Old synagogue lost in the urban jungle:


Proudly holding the torch, with Claridge Plaza chipping in a friendly backdrop:


Viva la revolucion! Now let's grab a coffee. Bolivar, you buying?


Think I'll get my paper somewhere else...


Claridge Plaza again (it's turning out to be a great addition to downtown)


Claridge Plaza retail starting to reveal itself (notice the metal cornices above the store entrances that match the building's):


Deamarais building looming behind the Galleria construction site:


Great day to catch a flick:


Time for the snow to beat it:

[Cre47]

Nice pictures, I'm wondering if you can put one or two of them at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_A...izzard_of_2008 as all of the winter photos there except one are from the Cleveland and Columbus regions

[harls]

Awesome stuff.. Should put this in city photos!

I took a tour yesterday of the neighbourhood, camera in hand. I'll post some later.

[clynnog]

Originally Posted by harls

Awesome stuff.. Should put this in city photos!

I took a tour yesterday of the neighbourhood, camera in hand. I'll post some later.

Ditto goes for me Mille...great photos...I'm hoping that Ottawa can beat the record...we are so close, it would be a shame to not meet the record...however Mayor Larry may have to implement financial cuts to meet the budget costs of ploughing.

[harls]

Here's a few from Aylmer, yesterday. I posted some others in the "how much snow?" thread in the Canada Section as well.

No, this isn't my street. Don't kill me.







Gatineau's non-famous 'wine district'.





Like Mille Sabords kids, one day he'll be able to tell his grandchildren how he survived the terrible snowstorm of ought-eight.

[sync]

wow.

[clynnog]

Originally Posted by harls

Here's a few from Aylmer, yesterday. I posted some others in the "how much snow?" thread in the Canada Section as well.

No, this isn't my street. Don't kill me.



Gatineau's non-famous 'wine district'.

Why would we want to kill you....I gather you live near these pseudo McMansions but don't want to admit it.....

BTW...is there a rue Lonesome Charlie or Night Train in the wine district of Gatineau.

Great pictures of the snow.....I'm hoping for CYOW to beat the previous record.

[harls]

I live near there, yes.. but not in the McMansion area. My place is in a more mature neighbourhood not too far from here (late 60's bungalows and aluminum duplexes abound).

No Lonesome Charlie, nope Honestly, who comes up with these ideas.. a few streets over you have "Chardonnay", "Malbec", "Buzet" etc. Still better than the 'astronomy' district in the Plateau

Here's a few more..









(sorry for hi-jacking your thread, Mille S.)

[Mille Sabords]

Nice pictures too Harls (I don't consider it a jack, no worries).

Speaking of street name themes, I have a buddy up in Hull's Hautes-Plaines area where the names are all after "stuff kids do outside": rues de la Comptine, de la Marelle, du Plein-Air, du Cyclisme, de la Course... and a bit further south it's streets named after stuff grown-ups do outside: rues de l'Aviron, de l'Escalade... (actually they stopped the subdivision there).

There are a few other pictures I want to take and I haven't found the time yet but some streets where the sidewalk is buried have these trails people have made to "create" sidewalks, which look like mountain trails, zig-zagging around peaks, going up and down, getting wider or narrower... all of this next to pizza places and computer repair shops. Pretty wild. I'll see if I can get out there later today.

[harls]

Originally Posted by Mille Sabords

Speaking of street name themes, I have a buddy up in Hull's Hautes-Plaines area where the names are all after "stuff kids do outside": rues de la Comptine, de la Marelle, du Plein-Air, du Cyclisme, de la Course... and a bit further south it's streets named after stuff grown-ups do outside: rues de l'Aviron, de l'Escalade... (actually they stopped the subdivision there).

Yeah, I've been up there. My wife rolled her eyes at those names (like so - ). I guess the planners are forced to be imaginative when it comes to street names in new developments - even moreso since the city amalgamation takes away repetition.

[Mille Sabords]

Originally Posted by harls

Yeah, I've been up there. My wife rolled her eyes at those names (like so - ). I guess the planners are forced to be imaginative when it comes to street names in new developments - even moreso since the city amalgamation takes away repetition.

I don't know if it's the same in Gatineau but here, it's the developers who propose street names (then a bureaucrat checks them against the Grand Master List of Street Names to make sure it isn't taken, about to be taken, rude, obscene, unpolitically correct, etc.) Hence names like Kochar Drive and Claridge Crescent or whatever, which I'd bet my bottom dollar no staffer would ever come up with.

Yeah, I know... de la Marelle...... pleazze.

[Aylmer]

They have a boat neighbourhood in Aylmer...

People are creative! (Imagine rue street, avenue road, house road...)

[harls]

I was waiting for you to show up.

[clynnog]

Originally Posted by Mille Sabords

here, it's the developers who propose street names (then a bureaucrat checks them against the Grand Master List of Street Names to make sure it isn't taken, about to be taken, rude, obscene, unpolitically correct, etc.) Hence names like Kochar Drive and Claridge Crescent or whatever, which I'd bet my bottom dollar no staffer would ever come up with.

Are you inferring that City Staff are biassed against DCR Phoenix and Claridge Homes?

Here is the City website to check and see if the name you want is already pre-approved and ready to go.

http://app01.ottawa.ca/roadbrowser/

[Acajack]

Gatineau, like all other Quebec municipalities of reasonable size, is required to have a Comité de toponymie (Placenames Committee). Quebec being a very bureaucratic place, the choices made by the city’s committee then have to be validated by the provincial Commission de toponymie, which meets several times a year to OK the names submitted by municipalities across the province.

The rules are fairly strict, and stuff like developer names (forget about Rue Brigil) and even people who aren’t dead yet (I saw Wayne Gretzky and Marion Dewar on Ottawa’s list!) are verboten in Quebec.

Regarding neighbourhood themes, there is actually a second wine-themed area in Gatineau near Montée Paiement, with rue du Pinot, rue du Cabernet, rue de Sauternes, etc. (Wine is a big deal in Quebec, doncha know.) It’s actually not too far from my neighbourhood, which itself has a theme based on Montreal streets close to Mount Royal (Mont-Royal, Prince-Arthur, Duluth, Côte-des-Neiges, Outremont, etc.).

If you ask city officials, they’ll tell you the themes in newer areas are necessary because so many names are already taken. But that’s not actually true, and the real reason is that these people are often totally lacking in imagination. For example, Gatineau doesn’t have streets named for Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Robert Bourassa or even former mayor Gilles Rocheleau, all of whom are deceased. It doesn’t have streets for late hockey great Maurice Richard, or for deceased local players like Michel (Bunny) Larocque or Doug Harvey. Neither does it have a street named for Guy Sanche, a late Hull actor who was and still is known to millions of people in Quebec as the children’s TV character Bobino. (There was actually a significant grassroots campaign to get the new boulevard des Allumettières named boulevard Bobino, but it failed.)

Personally, I hate developer names. Across Quebec there are streets named for developers’ wives, moms and kids (rue Bertha, rue Chantal, rue Stéphane, rue Louise). Thankfully, the commission and municipal committees have put an end to this nonsense.

One of the tackiest street name examples in the entire area I’d say are adjacent streets named Scully and Mulder near the corner of Trim and Innes roads in Orleans…

I’d actually like to see more names in Ottawa reflecting local heritage or Canadian history, or perhaps the names of other capital cities around the world.

And I don’t see what (Ben) Affleck has to do with Ottawa, although his name – along with those of some other Hollywood stars - is on the city’s approved street name list. (Unless there’s an important Canadian Affleck out there I’ve never heard of.)

[eemy]

I wonder if developers might shy away from naming streets after notable people, especially politicians, since they might be a bit divisive, and thus lower the marketability of the properties on it.

[p_xavier]

People will say that I hate suburbs, but again, with suburbs, many roads are twisted and dead ends and that adds many names compared to the square patterns of olde. Also, that removes anything called 99th avenue and such (which is in the Glebe). I really like numbered streets and avenues, as it makes it looks like a big city and removes any idiotic name that can be proposed. It's simple and efficient.

[Acajack]

D Jeffrey:

I never thought about that but it's an excellent point. The grid system requires fewer names because streets run for longer distances.

On the other hand, except for Manhattan (the origin of the phenom and therefore it's part of the innate personality of the place), I'm not too fond of numbered streets. Sure, it's a lot easier to get around but I'd find it pretty bland to have my urban culture identified only by numeric characters. Guess I'm not cut out to be a robot!

[harls]

Acajack, re: Maurice Richard.. isn't the autoroute 50 supposed to be renamed after him?

[Acajack]

Eventually, perhaps. There was a request to rename it for him but the MTQ and the Commission de toponymie said they would reserve their decision on this until the highway was actually completed. Currently it’s called the “Autoroute de l’Outaouais”.

Don’t know if the Rocket ever played in Hull (at the time) or Ottawa (junior? semi-pro?), but there is the 50 goals in 50 games thing that matches the number of the highway.