Parkdale Plays Ball
About 3 dozen orange balls appeared at the newly renovated park behind Parkdale market. Are they art? or play structures? If play structures, how do little kids play on/with them? Any ideas?? Continue reading Parkdale Plays Ball
Month: November 2010
Mysterious construction
Travellers along Albert west of Booth can justifiably be mystified by the construction project in front* of the Ottawa Community Housing project. The new wood fence constructed a year or two ago has been demolished and the gardens dug up. No ped detour is necessary, it seems. According to OCH, the problem is that the brick wall is on a concrete foundation. It isn’t very far out from the building foundations. Moisture gets trapped in the soil, saturates it, and cause leaks and mold in the housing. The amount and repetitiveness of repairs to these units has astounded me for … Continue reading Mysterious construction
A tree grows … on Laurier
While trees all around Ottawa are turning colours and dropping leaves, this paper birch in front of the Laurier Ave public library remains bright green and possessing all its leaves. For a few feet this bit of sidewalk seems to time travel back to summer time. Must be an alternate fantasy universe. I wish more landscape architects could find trees like this. We could extend the feel of summer until global warming finally gets here. Continue reading A tree grows … on Laurier
Cycling routes – part of roads? or sidewalks? or all on their own?
Timo Perala spoke at the CFSC agm on Tuesday evening. One point he made about cycling infrastructure in Oulu, Finland, got me thinking again about how cycling infrastructure should be regarded. In Copenhagen, cycling tracks are adjacent the curb, with parking lanes out closer to the traffic lanes. Cyclists cross intersections in two stages, like pedestrians, rather than in one left-turn movement like cars. This is the model Bedard liked after his trip to Copenhagen, and I earlier blogged about how I thought Vivi Chi liked this one too as it can be implemented consistently throughout an urban area. Although how she could fit this onto the freshly … Continue reading Cycling routes – part of roads? or sidewalks? or all on their own?
Tidy peastone vs au naturel
A number of cities keep peastone beds around trees in the sidewalk neat and tidy. Ottawa is not among them. Toronto and Vancouver are. The peastone shown above is glued down to a porous mat which is cut to shape for the tree well. Moisture runs in; weeds do not grow out. The stones stay in place. Wheelchairs and strollers roll right over them. Little boys are frustrated. Dogs continue to pee on them. Smokers find one less spot to dump their butts. These mats are commonly available at stores for use as a foot mat on your front doorstop. On the other hand, while … Continue reading Tidy peastone vs au naturel
Public gets chance to Rescue Bronson
This flyer is making the rounds of the west side neighborhoods abutting Bronson Avenue. The above photoshopped illustration shows just ONE potential way to improve Bronson so that it meets the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, transit users, adjacent businesses and residents, as well as motorists and commuters. There are alternative ways to improve Bronson so that it makes more people happy. Anyone who travels on or across that blighted street knows that the 1950’s thinking that gave us the current “four lane” urban arterial didn’t work. Yet Ottawa seems on the way to fifty more years of a disfunctional … Continue reading Public gets chance to Rescue Bronson
From Ugly Utility to Street Art
Have you noticed the growing proliferation of utility boxes on our sidewalks? Our engineers call them street furniture, but they are truly obstructions that they don’t dare put on the roadways. Utility functions that used to be down a personhole are more and more often mounted on posts. Those little yellow boxes that used to hold traffic signal controls are now big gray cabinets 6′ high and 3-9 feet wide. And they are always put in the primest locations, at corners, in front of commercial storefronts, etc. I had the opportunity to look inside several utility boxes this summer. The giant gray ones along Preston … Continue reading From Ugly Utility to Street Art
Doppelganger
The suburbs get a bad rap for having endless rows of simlar houses. In fact, many streets in older areas such as the west side of the downtown also have clusters of similar if not identical houses in a row. But after 60 to 100 years, variety creeps in. I especially like spotting two or more identical/mirror image houses that have evolved very differently. Here’s a pair that tell tales about the socio-economic status of the inhabitants. Continue reading Doppelganger
Cycle parking with imagination
This old house on a corner has its ground floor converted into a cafe, with side/back yard patio area. It’s in a walkable/cyclable area, and provides no vehicle parking but does provide this attractive bike parking pad that entertains as much as it functions. Continue reading Cycle parking with imagination
Trees don’t get no respect
This tree suffers from a double whammy of disrespect. Continue reading Trees don’t get no respect
More Green Roofs Promised
Green roofs are nice; however we should identify what we want to achieve and then let the market find the means, rather than adopting the solution first and demanding it be implemented.
Continue reading More Green Roofs Promised