Yellow again

It's been a couple years since I last posted photos of yellow houses in Centretown, but this little one on Gilmour just east of Salisbury Place, in the Golden Triangle, is just so adorable, with its green trim:

It's a bit dominated by the also-well-kept house next to it, not to mention the highrise of 20 Driveway looming behind it.

Over in the west part of Centretown, on Florence Street, is another yellow house that had escaped my 2010 inventory:

I recently noticed on Holmwood in the Glebe a house that bears a striking resemblance to the first yellow house I blogged about, which was on Arlington. Perhaps this one on Holmwood is what the house on Arlington could have looked like in an alternate universe.

Another yellow-ish house in Centretown is the Embassy of Armenia at Delaware and Robert, which is also notable as it's part of Doors Open Ottawa 2013.

I likely won't get around to a standalone Doors Open post this year, so this will have to do. Find all the info you need at ottawa.ca/doorsopen, or get a hard copy of the guide at your local Bridgehead. Doors Open 2013 will be this Saturday and Sunday, June 1-2, 2013.

Peds on Weds: Sidewalks for drivers

While attending the opening of the new O-Train pathway two weeks ago, Walk Ottawa co-chair John Woodhouse alerted me to a sidewalk issue on Young Street , the end of which was hosting the pathway opening ceremonies.

It seems that when the City switched from parking meters to Pay & Display machines a couple years ago, they repaved the sidewalk west of Preston on the north side of Young Street with asphalt, and put in pads at the road level for the P&D machines:

As John demonstrates here, you can't really get past that on a wheelchair. Not only isn't it wide enough, but it's so slanted he'd fall right into the machine.

Not that the sidewalk is good for anything but the car parkers. It ends before getting to the cul-de-sac, with a sheer curb..

Since it's the parking/traffic department that created this problem, we'll be following up with them to fix it.

More on the O-Train pathway is available on Eric Darwin's West Side Action, and on my blog series on the Somerset Street West reconstruction, starting with this instalment.

[Tune in on Wednesdays at noon for a new pedestrian-themed blog post. View the Pedestrians label for previous Peds on Weds posts]

Bronson and Somerset still closed

Construction on Bronson Avenue resumed a while ago, with the Somerset and Bronson intersection closed from the beginning of April to the end of May. Other work has also been going on, such as the finishing touches of the segment south of Somerset, in particular the sidewalks and landscaping between MacLaren and Gladstone (which Eric Darwin has recently blogged about). The impact on Chinatown can be expressed in this single photo:

This next picture gives a bit of an idea of why the intersection has to be closed for so long. There's a mess of stuff underneath that needs to be replaced. It's a three-dimensional soup of cables, wires, pipes, drains, and sewers (much of the latter were installed late last year and over the winter).

3D Thursday: 1966 Batmobile at Ottawa City Hall in 3D

This mornming, the Batmobile is visiting City Hall as a publicity stunt for Ottawa Comicon, and will be at Marion Dewar Plaza at 11:45am. I grabbed a 3D shot of it as it was being prepared for its appearance. Click for full size:

I also tweeted a photo of four By-Law officers (including a By-Law supervisor) eyeing the car, but none of them were up to giving it a parking ticket.
[Tune in on Thursdays at noon for a new 3D image. View the 3D label for other posts with 3D images. 3D FAQ] [Look for more one-photo posts under the label Singles]

Cruising on Elgin

The Ottawa Police Service has new cruisers, based on the Ford Taurus, rather than the familiar Ford Crown Victoria, which has been discontinued. As reported by the Citizen, these were released in February, after a technical hiccup.

Here's one heading up Elgin Street in front of the former Elgin Theatre (now Harvey's, Quizno's, and Johnny Farina)

Back last July, the Ottawa Sun wrote about the new cruisers, and a video on their article gives a tour of some of the features inside.

[Look for more one-photo posts under the label Singles]

Jane's Walks this weekend!

In case you haven't heard, Jane's Walk Ottawa happens this weekend. I haven't given any since the Rescue Bronson Jane's Walk I gave two years ago. It was fun, but a lot of work. So instead I'll try to go out on a couple of other people's walks. Here are some I'm looking at that are within Somerset Ward, with the description on the Jane's Walk Ottawa website linked to the headings:

Apt613 Blog Walk of Somerset
Saturday, May 4, 2013, 2pm-3:30pm
Meet at Dundonald Park, Somerset and Bay

Staying on the Bronson theme of my 2011 walk, Apartment 613 is holding a walk in Chinatown, whose businesses are suffering from the closure of the Bronson/Somerset intersection. This one has a neat format, where they'll interview some of the business owners in the same way they do interviews for their blog entries, only it'll be live and you'll be there!

Local Confectionaries
Saturday, May 4, 2013, 4pm-5pm
Meet at Somerset and Preston

A great segue from the Apt613 walk, local cartoonist/illustrator Colin White is giving a tour of the corner stores which feature often in his drawings. I don't think I've met him in person, but I like his depictions of familiar hyperlocal landmarks.