Pigeons

This pair of pigeons at a house on Flora were almost posing for a painting, mirroring each other's position on the third-floor windowsill. Though I think the symmetry was a coincidence.

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Bixiiiii

This photo is from back in April, on the bidirectional pathway along Mackenzie Avenue toward the Alexandra Bridge. I took it on my foray up to Nepean Point. This was very shortly after the launch of the Capital Bixi program: I saw five people on Bixis coming along, and managed to catch them all in the same shot on my first (and only) try:

Parliament Hill is in the background, but I had neglected to consider its appearance in the photo.

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Follow the yellow line

Sorry for the absence. I was busy running the bicycle parking at Bluesfest 2011, which is a 100-hour-a-week volunteer gig. You'll be happy to hear that I've got over two weeks of posts pre-scheduled, so there won't be another gap for at least as long!

Most of the time, when a pathway in the national capital region splits, the yellow line will follow the direction where the pathway continues in whatever direction. For example, if you're trying to navigate the pathways under the Portage Bridge to get westward from behind the Parliament buildings, following the yellow line will help you get back to the pathway along the Ottawa River.

Many cyclists don't realize this, but they do get it at an unconscious level. Take here for example:

This is just under the Laurier bridge heading North toward the convention centre and Byward Market, on the pathway that runs along Colonel By Drive. This is a notoriously difficult place to navigate because it's not clear at all how to get from here to the other side of Rideau/Sussex.

Unfortunately, when I stopped to watch for a bit, I saw most cyclists followed the yellow line up to the abutment of the Laurier Bridge, which led them to a dead end and a hard curb along Colonel By Drive. They, as I had done just before them, ended up going down the steep cobbled footings of the bridge to get back to the pathway along the Rideau Canal and continue toward Union Station.

Unfortunately, even if this line gets fixed (which it might, there was still some construction going on when I took this photo in May 2011), there's not much place for people to go once they pass the bridge, it's still every cyclist to him- or herself to navigate Colonel By, Sussex, and the rest.

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Happy Canada Day from Ottawa! #ottbike

Happy Canada Day! Here's a photo of my bike decked out in red and white Christmas lights at Capital Vélo Fest.

Mine was one of the many HPVOoO bikes on the June 4, 2011 night ride. There are more photos linked from the HPVOoO 2011 events Gallery and on the Capital Vélo Fest website

I'll be busy at the Bluesfest Bicycle Parking for Citizens for Safe Cycling the next couple weeks, so I might miss a few posts. See previous posts with the Bluesfest label.

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CCOC Housing Pays Off

This 1975 issue of the Centretown News reported on the very first building purchased by what would grow to become the Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation, which owns nearly 50 properties worth over $80 Million, providing affordable housing to over 2000 people.

As their history page explains (though I think it's a bit out of date), the CCOC started as an offshoot of one of the two groups that later merged into the CCCA. Irving Greenberg (of Minto development fame and brother of former Ottawa mayor Lorry Greenberg) was president of the CCOC at the time that they got their first grant and loan to buy and repair the rowhouse at 530-540 McLeod (at Percy).

35 years later, that loan is now paid off and the CCOC can now use the rental income from this property to invest in more affordable housing for Ottawa. The CCOC celebrated their first "Mortgage Burning Party" yesterday:

Centretown Community Design Plan Open House this Wednesday!

Sorry, no time to post photos today. Among other things, I'm preparing for the Centretown Community Design Plan open house this Wednesday from 5:30pm to 8:30pm at the Museum of Nature (which, if you read the draft report, you'd think was centre of the universe). You've probably seen the yellow posters the CCCA has plastered about town.

This is an important document, especially if you live in Centretown between Kent and Bronson, or in the Golden Triangle east of Elgin. That's because this plan was conceived as the "Mid-Centretown Community Design Plan" and was to only cover Elgin to Kent. So people and groups outside of this area were not notified and were not consulted until this last open house.

Wherever you live in Centretown, this will be an important document to direct where growth is going to go. It's not just a Community Design Plan: the consultation process underway will also lead to changes to the zoning by-law, and possibly even the Centretown Secondary Plan, which is enshrined in the City's Official Plan.

It's important that Centretown residents come out to hear what is being proposed for the future of your neighbourhood. You can also read the draft plan online.

The Centretown Community Design Plan
Community Open House

Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Canadian Museum of Nature, The Salon Room
240 McLeod Street
Open House: 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Presentation: 6:30 p.m.

Please join us to discuss the draft Community Design Plan (CDP) for Centretown. This is your opportunity to learn more about the CDP's plans to:

• More effectively respond to Centretown's development pressures
  
  
• Negotiate new community benefits in exchange for allowing developments that exceed existing height and density limits
  
  
• Upgrade existing parks, identify locations for new ones and introduce smaller open spaces
  
  
• Introduce guidelines ensuring new development is compatible with the existing neighbourhood and to help create a positive sense of place.

Join us to share your ideas and help shape Centretown's future

Visit the City's Website and community blog to read what others are saying and share your thoughts.

For more information, contact:

Bob Spicer, Planner III
Planning and Growth Management Department
City of Ottawa
110 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, ON K1P 1J1
tel. 613-580-2424 ext. 13858
e-mail: midcentretown@ottawa.ca
blog : midcentretowntomorrow.com

Ottawa Earthquake anniversary. Where was I?

Special Thursday post: Today is the one-year anniversary of the magnitude 5 earthquake that rocked the Ottawa area on June 23, 2010. This morning I woke to many messages about where people were during an earthquake in my Twitter feed, and since Twitter reads reverse-chronologically, I'd thought I'd slept through an earthquake this morning until I saw the original question from the Ottawa Citizen's twitter account asking people where they were last year.

I was on a private tour of the former OBE Media Centre on Bronson just south of the 417(the "Bronson Shops"). During the earthquake, we were on the lower roof. Since the building is right next to the queensway, a couple of us thought there were just some big trucks driving by. Centretown's northern skyline (beyond the lowrise zones) is visible beyond the Queensway.

But Jack Corry, the OCDSB's area supervisor was with us on the tour and told us that it was in fact an earthquake. We got to hear the live updates from schools across the city over his radio, including schools closing in the western suburbs and pleas from the head office for schools to stop asking for how to proceed while they figure out a plan.

I'd organized the tour (which consisted of Jennifer McKenzie, OCDSB trustee for Somerset and Kitchissippi and now Chair of the school board, Jack, my friend Richard Guy Briggs and me) because of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation's plans to buy it and demolish it to straighten the 417 Bronson offramp (currently cars continuing straight must jog south at Bronson and wait to turn left, which backs up traffic all the way to Gladstone). When I was attending McNabb public school, every day I'd see the building as the school bus came off that ramp and turned north on Bronson, so I was always curious what was inside.

I took hundreds of photos of the inside and plan to post them in a series sometime, but I wanted to get something up for the quake anniversary. Richard posted some photos on his site, and URBSite has a post on the history of the building.

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Gladstone Sun

Last week as I was checking out the progress on the Centropolis condos, there was an Ottawa Sun balloon floating to the south. The red-and-white colours match the signs of Gladstone Auto Repair just underneath it!

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