Walking Portland’s SouthWaterfront streets

Here’s part 2 of the Portland series, from 2015. They did an excellent job of creating lively streets. We haven’t done nearly as well here in Ottawa. Yet the formulas for success are out there. Do note that since this story was first written, Claridge’s Flats project has greatly improved, with benches and gardens and resident participation and involvement growing. (We might look at that in a future story). Alas, the city continues to shun the area, except to collect fees and taxes, but not providing so much as a tot lot for the scads of kids that live there. … Continue reading Walking Portland’s SouthWaterfront streets

Trillium Path Extended to Carling Avenue

As promised by the City, the extension of the Trillium (OTrain) pathway from Young to Carling Avenue is essentially complete. I think it is wonderful. Multi-user pathways (MUP’s) get better with every new build. The most significant new feature for a MUP is a physical separation of people who cycle from people who walk, or animals who walk their humans. The bike path portion remains full width; the pedestrian portion is additional, bonus width. There is a very low curb between the two paths to separate them. The lowness of the curb prevents a pedal from getting caught. The separated … Continue reading Trillium Path Extended to Carling Avenue

Fences Fences Everywhere a Fence

Fences, fences, everywhere a fence ! IF it’s not a song yet, it should be ! But I’m not sitting on one, there is no doubt in my mind that these fences are trouble. It is truly amazing the City (or is it RTG) spending so heavily on fences along Albert and Scott. These ones, along Scott, are wooden … … to keep the salt and slush from splashing on the houses when the 2500 buses a day go crusin’ by. They will also block some of the residential views of the bus lanes, albeit at the price of a … Continue reading Fences Fences Everywhere a Fence

Surface drainage appeals to politicians more than sewers

I am glad to see Federal funding for reducing the pollution of the Ottawa River. It is about time governments — Federal, Provincial, and Municipal — stopped giving themselves free passes to pollute public waterways. The City of Ottawa has on numerous occasions averted its eyes from the sewage it dumps in the river. I think it is because politicians don’t see much political value in underground sewers. Once built, you can’t see them.  Much better to spend money on visible projects, especially if they are visible around election time. As we reached “peak sewer” in the 1990’s and realized … Continue reading Surface drainage appeals to politicians more than sewers

Westward Ho ! (part iii) the curse of stations and transit users

The Cleary Avenue end of the western LRT and motor expressway corridor is shown here:   The westbound trains enter the picture from the right, along the orange line. Cleary Station is shown in dark blue. The Unitarian Church and apartment building is shown a bit further west (left). The underground track alignment swings gently under the Unitarian parking lot to get out towards its (under) Richmond Road alignment. The swing out to Richmond will occur under a car repair shop and/or Kristy’s restaurant. These businesses will not remain in place during construction. Since dig-the-ditch-and-cover construction won’t start until 2017 … Continue reading Westward Ho ! (part iii) the curse of stations and transit users

Westward ho ! (part ii) Western LRT along the parkway

  Rochester Field, now to be a condo development site with a green corridor to the parkway along its western (left) edge, is shown on the above map just above the word Richmond [Road]. The new LRT line, in a shallow cut-and-cover tunnel, with the eastbound traffic lanes of the Ottawa River parkway piggybacking on top, is shown as a thick orangey line extending straight along the parkland. This kilometer-long straight section I find very alarming. The “Parkway” is already derisively known as the Ottawa River Commuter Expressway because of its current high volumes and speeds that rarely descend to the posted … Continue reading Westward ho ! (part ii) Western LRT along the parkway

Building a Better LeBreton, part 9, Walking Portland’s SouthWaterfront streets

  The South Waterfront neighbourhood is very well landscaped. Intensively landscaped, with interesting bits of planters, plants, gardens, courtyards, and squares tucked into the smallest corners. The contrast to Ottawa’s LeBreton Flats couldn’t be stronger. Some of this may be due to a milder climate in Oregon. Or a project that has had vegetation in the ground and growing for longer. Or maybe a much more generous budget for greenery. The Flats look good on paper, and on the ground the “right elements” are laid out, but the execution makes me wince and thus far is poorly maintained. The City has … Continue reading Building a Better LeBreton, part 9, Walking Portland’s SouthWaterfront streets

More exciting drainage swales, in industrial parks

Seattle and its suburbs had an abundance of drainage swales. That might reflect the high seasonal rainfall. In a suburban industrial park (in Redmond or Bellevue, I’m not sure) , about half populated with businesses and the other half being vacant lots, the existing roads had been retrofitted to accommodate swales. The existing infrastructure looked to me to be about a decade old. At each half block, a pair of bulbouts had created a “neckdown” or pinch in the road. A crosswalk was installed, simply marked with a zebra stripe and fluorescent sign (Ottawa traffic engineers are horrified at this … Continue reading More exciting drainage swales, in industrial parks

Exciting drainage swales in urban areas

Traditional engineering tries to remove as much rainwater as fast as possible. Rain falls, pavement directs it into storm sewers. Outa sight, outa mind. More recent storm water management for Ottawa streets reduces the permeability of the catch basin grate so water self-stores on the street (that’s  “puddles” to the rest of us) and runs off over time. Preston has this feature. Unfortunately, it makes walking the sidewalks within an hour or two of rainfalls a drenching experience. Some puddles remain for 24 hours. It rains a lot in the pacific northwest.  They have installed a lot of “drainage swales” in … Continue reading Exciting drainage swales in urban areas

De-paving Ottawa; and Permeable pavements

De-paving is a trending catchword in the urban vocabulary. It describes removing already-paved areas and replacing them with porous surfaces. A number of years ago, St Anthony schoolyard on Booth Street won a prize as worst schoolyard in Canada. For winning, they got to dig up a lot of the asphalt and replace it with trees and shrubs and well-composted woodchips. It still looks great. [conventional playstructures are falling rapidly out of favour due to expense, lack of interest and lack of challenge for schoolkids, and are being replaced by … naturalized wood lots]. It’s always curious that school boards … Continue reading De-paving Ottawa; and Permeable pavements

Money pipe

I notice the happy promise from the City that we will have a continued great water supply, provided we spend wa-a-a-y more than the rate of inflation to replace the water pipes. Several mainstream media stories acknowledged that we short-changed pipe repairs and replacement for decades in favour of more visible photo-op-friendly initiatives. Well, hello politics… So now we have to pay to replace ageing pipes pay to “catch up” for the skipped work and this will cost us big time. But, of course, it’s not a higher tax increase, no sir-ee it’s just user-pay, etc etc. Some people even … Continue reading Money pipe

Somerset dog-and-pony show — new priorities

The City held an open house last evening to explain to the public what is being done on Somerset Street this year. It was a mix of old news — the section west of Preston remains  unchanged from last year except for some details — and new news for the section east of Preston up to Booth. The new stuff comes in several formats. The consultants and city staff had all the public consultation team members on hand, with name badges, to explain what is proposed and to tell their neighbours about some of the tradeoffs that were made to get to these results. … Continue reading Somerset dog-and-pony show — new priorities

The race is won …

A little while ago I posted this picture of the “loop” wires that were to be installed at the Preston intersection with Somerset. The street was also scheduled to be dug up … would the street diggers remove the street before the wires got burried, or would the wire people install the wires only to see them dug up the next week … The diggers won. Bell and Enbridge are busy doing their infrastructure stuff before the sewer work is done later this month. So the traffic people won’t find a street there to put their loop into. Unless … … Continue reading The race is won …

The race is won …

A little while ago I posted this picture of the “loop” wires that were to be installed at the Preston intersection with Somerset. The street was also scheduled to be dug up … would the street diggers remove the street before the wires got burried, or would the wire people install the wires only to see them dug up the next week … The diggers won. Bell and Enbridge are busy doing their infrastructure stuff before the sewer work is done later this month. So the traffic people won’t find a street there to put their loop into. Unless … … Continue reading The race is won …

city map, 1895

Double click on the map to enlarge it, and scroll around it for a bit to explore Ottawa in 1895. Notice the area called “Dalhousie” – our community name goes a long way back. Notice that a number of streets have the same name. The Queensway is still a railroad right of way. Carling Avenue is simply “Macadam road”(Macadam invented asphalt paving). Notice that Gladstone doesn’t exist, but many of its segements do, which goes some way to explaining why that street twists and curves the way it does as it connects up bits and pieces of older streets on … Continue reading city map, 1895

city map, 1895

Double click on the map to enlarge it, and scroll around it for a bit to explore Ottawa in 1895. Notice the area called “Dalhousie” – our community name goes a long way back. Notice that a number of streets have the same name. The Queensway is still a railroad right of way. Carling Avenue is simply “Macadam road”(Macadam invented asphalt paving). Notice that Gladstone doesn’t exist, but many of its segements do, which goes some way to explaining why that street twists and curves the way it does as it connects up bits and pieces of older streets on … Continue reading city map, 1895

Sewer lids, access hatches, etc

It probably reflects some deep psychological disturbance in my early childhood potty training … but I find I notice sewer lids, (wo)manhole lids, catch basins, access hatches, etc on our streets and sidewalks. They do add interest to our quotidian walkabouts … at least to those who notice them. The photo above is of a new fancy sidewalk made of interlocks. The stones are cut in an even square around the access hatch, and the perimeter filled in with cement. There may well be practical reasons for this, but it does somewhat spoil the look. I notice that on Wellington … Continue reading Sewer lids, access hatches, etc

Rabid Sewers

The foam caught my eye first. Then I heard the roaring sound of falling water under this access point (aka manhole), where one sewer pipe cascades “water” into a lower pipe. Now, we’ve all heard that Ottawa’s sewage is cleaner than that in most other cities (due to the NCC buying out most industrial land users, and due to the large amount of relatively-clean storm water we stuff into our sewage-sewers) but I did not expect to find soap suds cleaning the pipes. Continue reading Rabid Sewers

Recall all those “raw sewage in the River” stories?

The media has had a field day with stories of raw sewage being dumped into the Ottawa River from ancient sewer control points, a number of which date from the late 1800’s. Typically, the focus is on the obvious: raw sewage. Ignored is why those sewage facilities are over a hundred years old. My view is that successive councils have favoured glamorous higher profile spending projects that buy them favour with select voting groups. The go for the glitz, they delay and postpone the core civic expenditures. Hello Walkerton, decades of not-upgraded water works, cosy featherbedding, porkbarrelling, etc. At the corner … Continue reading Recall all those “raw sewage in the River” stories?