green roofs

Greenroof on Gloucester Street

Westsideaction

Two blocky apartment towers, one belonging to City Living and the other CCOC share a common podium made up of a city parking garage with entrances on opposite streets. It’s hard to tell from the ground how well the greenspace is doing on the roof of the tower(s) but the trees on the parking garage roof terrace that joins the two towers is obviously thriving. With no south exposure, and a difficult above ground location, this demonstrates that green roofs can thrive in difficult urban environments. Continue reading Greenroof on Gloucester Street

infill, little Italy, Preston street

Foundations when ground is soft

Westsideaction

Preston Street is the former runoff route from Dow’s Great Swamp down to the Ottawa River at Nepean Bay, until Colonel By built the dam that QE Driveway runs along the top of. This means significant portions of the ground along Preston are peat or soft materials. At the site of a new three storey infill on Preston (six apts above 3 retail) crews bored supporting pipes deep into the ground. The pipes were cut off at the same level down in the future basement. A concrete “box” was poured in place on top of each post. Gravel was poured … Continue reading Foundations when ground is soft

Booth St, infill

Booth Street Infill

Westsideaction

This building is located on Booth Street just north of the Queensway. It has been underway for several years, with long pauses in construction. The exterior walls are made of foam blocks that are stacked up and then filled with poured concrete to be load bearing, insulated both sides. It appears to be three units: a three storey unit facing the side street w/ garage; a three storey unit facing Booth, w/garage; and a stair down to a half-basement unit that runs under both of the upper units. The exterior parging / stucco is almost complete. A bit of roof … Continue reading Booth Street Infill

Bayview, Bluesfest, LeBreton Flats, Library, NCC, O-Train

Lansdowne Live

Westsideaction

Some misc observations on Lansdowne Live, and in particular the meeting last night at arena Tom Brown arena. 1. Opponents are well organized, sporting custom printed apparel and carry bags (made of recycled hemp, I hope) and handing out reams of photocopied green paper that may have required the souls of every tree in the Glebe. Of course, the Glebe trees are still there (at least along Ralph and Percy when I walked up those streets yesterday) so trees from some other place were sacrificed. Sacrificing somewhere else seems a common theme. 2. The green shirters took off their shirts … Continue reading Lansdowne Live

Chinatown

Festival Asia parade on Satuday

Westsideaction

No Chinatown event would be complete without dragon dancing. On Saturday, there were three dragons, plus drummers and cymbals. Gentlement always wear skirts kilts. Umbrellas were brought for rain, but the son shone. Sword fighting. Stilt walking troupe from China. The only child member seen here at the front left is only 8 years old. After the parade, they performed complicated dance routines, hopping, and acrobatics on stitlts. Yours Truly pays due homage to China Doll’s 90 carot diamond ring. Dance routines on the City stage. All photos by M.Lafontaine. Continue reading Festival Asia parade on Satuday

Chinatown

Red Friday Rally at Dundonald Park

Westsideaction

Pleasant folk songs in Dundonald Park. The ever-popular Andrew Lay’s SunnyDays cart catered the event. Andrew’s cart was missing from Bank/Sparks for two years while he lived – and catered – in China. And got married. In the background, Igor Gouzenko’s apartment building. The Federal plaque manages to avoid mentioning his defection started the Cold War in earnest. The City plaque manages to be unreadable. The Gouzenko’s apartment building on Somerset beside The Beer Store. The composition of the Glashan girls school choir reflects the Dalhousie neighborhood: all religions, creeds, nationalities, ethnicities. Neighborhood MP Paul Dewar welcomes the rally. A … Continue reading Red Friday Rally at Dundonald Park

Chinatown, chinatown arch, Dalhousie, DOTT, LRT

Baird on the Ottawa Transit Tunnell

Westsideaction

Last evening there was a banquet in Chinatown. It had several purposes. It was a birthday celebration for the 60th Anniversary of the current ruling regime in China, and the Chinese ambassador was present. It was a fundraiser for the new archway that will grace Somerset St at Cambridge later this year, and for that welcoming beacon and sign of the Chinese-Asian presence in the Dalhousie neighborhood of Ottawa, significant funds were raised. The final arch design was revealled: it is a royal arch, because Ottawa is a capital city, as is Beijing, which is contributing to the archway here. … Continue reading Baird on the Ottawa Transit Tunnell

sewage and drains

Rabid Sewers

Westsideaction

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

downtown

Centretown music practice

Westsideaction

By coincidence, having just finished reading several books set in the Scottish highlands, I came across this collection of bagpipes and government vehicles in a downtown parking lot one Saturday. Imagine rural peasants in the medieval period who never experienced the world more than 5 miles from their home village. The loudest sounds they heard were thunder and coos (that’s “cows” in English). Now image the excitement of being rounded up for duty in some military action: new countryside to see, castles and fortified manors, and then over the hill comes the enemy group, with loud drums and making really … Continue reading Centretown music practice

little Italy, Preston street

Philip Craig, artist

Westsideaction

While reading the October 09 issue of Cdn House and Home magazine, I noticed in their article on redecorating an historic showhome in Toronto there was a painting hung above a fireplace that looked vaguely familiar. I may never have seen the painting before, so it was probably the style of the artist. Sure enough, the sidebar credited the painting to Philip Craig. He has his studio just off Beech Street in Little Italy. If you visit his studio, the entrance is off the to left side of the building in an alleyway. The artist’s loft is everything a loft … Continue reading Philip Craig, artist

aquaduct, Dalhousie, LeBreton Flats, Nature, Wildlife

Twilight on the Aquaduct and the … come out to play

Westsideaction

A number of earlier posts show damage caused to large trees in the LeBreton Flats area. The Dalhousie neighborhood hosts a surprising number of animals and birds. These two twilights shots show the local vampires, err, beaver out to prey on unsuspecting urbanites. In the photo with a fine stone-arch bridge in the background, the beaver can be jut seen in the right foreground. Click picture to enlarge. The second picture shows him up close … he was about 20 feet away from me and curious about the flash on my camera. After several shots, he dove leaving only a … Continue reading Twilight on the Aquaduct and the … come out to play

Dalhousie, little Italy, Preston street, sewage and drains

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

Westsideaction

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?

Dalhousie, drug issues, drugs, injection site, parole office

Crime, Supervised Injection Site, transition housing, etc.

Westsideaction

Throughout the past months, the issues related to drug dealing, drug using, supervised (safe) injection sites, shelters, transitional or supervised housing units, a proposed parole office, and the impact on the rest of the community, have been visited a number of times on this blog. Recall the supervised injection site focus group. Recall the impact of shelters like Shepards of Good Hope or Union Mission on adjacent neighborhoods. The parole office issue. Recall there is another proposal coming forward for supervised transitional housing units on Booth Street, perhaps with a shelter element, we don’t know yet. Dalhousie is still a … Continue reading Crime, Supervised Injection Site, transition housing, etc.

Chinatown

Red Friday rally Friday

Westsideaction

There will be a rally on Friday Oct 2 at Dundonald Park in support of the families of Cdn troops. Here is a press release: FestivAsia Celebrates Red Fridays OTTAWA –FestivAsia, in partnership with the Canadian Forces, will formally kick off this year’s festival on Friday, October 2nd, with a Red Rally at Dundonald Park (Somerset Street W. between Lyon & Bay Street). This is an opportunity for the Asian community and the Canadian Forces to show their appreciation and support for each other. Vice-Admiral Dean McFadden, Commander Maritime Command and the Canadian Forces Champion for Visible Minorities, will be … Continue reading Red Friday rally Friday

roads

Rational Road Pricing

Westsideaction

Back in the 80’s I worked at Transport Canada doing strategic planning and policy advice. A big study back then was on Rational Road Pricing, by Zeiss Haritos. My memory of the study is this: the basic principle was to take the gas tax, subtract the portion that was equivalent to the general sales tax rates (since fuel should not be exempt from general tax revenue) and attribute the rest as revenue required to build and maintain the road network. From there, compare what all levels of governments spend annually on roads with revenues earned. Of course, there are many complicating … Continue reading Rational Road Pricing

Albert St, bike path, bikewest, Booth St, LeBreton Flats, LRT

More on Bike West – part vii

Westsideaction

The story of BikeWest began at the point where the transitway meets Albert-Slater where they split in front of the Good Companions centre just west of Bronson. It began there because the block between the split and Bronson used converted bus lanes which won’t be required once the downtown LRT is built and BRT is suspended. For all points west of the Albert-Slater split, BikeWest does not use any street lanes but is a separate route all the way west to Dominion Avenue using the City-owned right of way on the north side of Albert and Scott Streets. Alternative Route … Continue reading More on Bike West – part vii

bike path, bikewest, LRT, NCC

BikeWest – part vii – westward from Westboro

Westsideaction

The previous posts followed BikeWest from the downtown at Bronson westwards along Albert, past Bayview, then along Scott to Dominion Station. This straight route is the crucial portion of BikeWest. To extend the route further west becomes more complicated, since it would involve other agencies such as the NCC, and depend on LRT routing and timing. The essence of BikeWest from downtown to Westboro was that it is almost entirely along a straight right of way owned by the City where major planning studies and reconstruction projects will be underway for the next decade. Incorporating BikeWest into these plans is … Continue reading BikeWest – part vii – westward from Westboro

Bayview, bike path, bikewest, cycling in Ottawa, Scott street

BikeWest – part iv – Scott Street from Bayview to Dominion

Westsideaction

The Scott alignment is much straighter than the riverside path and passes through major residential and employment areas For most of its length along Scott, BikeWest is pretty simple. The two-way paved surface would be set back from Scott Street whenever possible. At major signalized intersections, the bike route might snuggle up to Scott. Signalized intersections at Holland, Island Park, and Lanark would operate as described previously: through east-west traffic on both the road and BikeWest would proceed on green; all left and right turning traffic that might cross BikeWest would go only on green arrows when through traffic movements … Continue reading BikeWest – part iv – Scott Street from Bayview to Dominion

bike path, bikewest, cycling in Ottawa

BikeWest – part vi – some path photos

Westsideaction

Click each photo to enlarge. Photo above shows a raised pedestrian crossing. Vehicle traffic moving across the walk has about a six inch rise, which has to be steep enough to slow traffic down without (excessively) angering motorists. This design effectively gives priority to pedestrians. A similar crossing would be employed for cyclists in the BikeWest project. A segment of bike path directly adjacent the curb of a vehicle road. A number of Ottawa River bike path segments closely parallel the Ottawa River Commuter Expressway, with only a 1 to 3 meter boulevard between the two surfaces. At dusk this … Continue reading BikeWest – part vi – some path photos

Bayview, bikewest, cycling in Ottawa, LeBreton Flats

BikeWest – part iii – from Booth to Bayview

Westsideaction

Above: looking west from Preston, approaches to the Bayview Station area From Booth, the BikeWest bike road would continue as a two-way road separated from the car traffic by a curb and possibly a boulevard, and coloured pavement, with a raised sidewalk to the side of the bike road, all the way west to Bayview Station. Note that the City already owns the right of way along the side of Albert to Bayview, it is where they buried a high-pressure water pipe and where a vague multipurpose paved path was installed two years ago. The path will pass between the existing Dalhousie … Continue reading BikeWest – part iii – from Booth to Bayview