Bronson reopens for the last time

After two years of construction, Bronson Avenue reopens to through traffic today, whereas it had been closed between Laurier and Somerset (the headline of the linked PSA wrongly states Gladstone). I thought I'd post some snapshots to summarize the progress.

As with last year, the reopening isn't necessarily something to celebrate, as Bronson will no doubt return to its status as a traffic sewer for hasty drivers with little or no connection to Centretown, the roadway is the same width as before the reconstruction (despite the Community's strong desire to get it rebuilt otherwise), but without all the potholes to slow them down. There will hopefully be some degree of relief on the side streets which have been host to cut-through traffic when Bronson was closed.

Recall how disruptive the closure was to road users of all modes. Not only did it disrupt the patterns of people who were just passing through, but when the intersection of Somerset and Bronson was closed, bus riders had quite a walk to get to the nearest bus stop. Customer traffic to the businesses along Bronson slowed to a trickle when Gladstone was closed. There were some attempts to maintain temporary sidewalks for pedestrians also, as seen here in the muddy mess of a street, looking north along the former east sidewalk:

3D Thursday: Accessible McNabb

McNabb Park Community Centre has been having some work done on the front of the building (although the "front" is set far back from Percy Street). I believe they're installing an accessibility lift to provide access to the basement and main floor, so you don't have to wheel yourself up the long ramp.

Source photos for the 3D image: Left, Right

Incidentally, there is an ongoing public consultation on the redevelopment of McNabb Park.

I took the above photo on my way home from purchasing my new camera, a waterproof Sony Cybershot the size of a small wallet. It ostensibly has a "3D mode" which uses software to extrapolate depth information from multiple rapid exposures at different focus settings, but the "3D" photo it creates is very shallow, and doesn't beat exposures from two separate points.

I had two cameras of the previous model I used (a Pentax Optio W series) which allowed me to take two simultaneous photos side-by-side. This meant I could take photos of moving objects and people (like so), but so far I only have the one Sony camera, which will limit my 3D photo-taking opportunities. Luckily I have a lot of them banked up.

[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]

Clever McNabb kids swing high

I was walking along Gladstone McNabb Park about a month ago, back when we still had lots of snow, and noticed this rather clever adaptation of the swingset: because the packed snow had raised the ground level so high, the children (of all ages, I'm sure) wrapped the chain around the bar to lift the seat to a more useable height.

I have fond memories of playing on those swings when I attended McNabb Park (back when it was a public school).

The City will be redeveloping the park to make better use of some of the spaces, using Cash-in-Lieu of Parkland funds. In particular, the local skateboarding community is very interested in getting an outdoor skate park at McNabb, getting over 100 skateboarding enthusiasts to attend last Wednesday's public consultation meeting.

The display panels from the meeting aren't up on the City website yet, but I suspect there will be a link to them on this page of the Councillor's website when they are available, which hopefully will be the case by the time this post goes live.

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

Annual Centretown meeting on Wednesday

This Wednesday, November 21, 2012, the Centretown Citizens Community Association is holding its Annual General Meeting at McNabb Community Centre. In addition to the regular business of the association's members, such as electing directors to the Board, there will be presentations about issues affecting Centretown.

Back in May, the CCCA held a meeting, also at McNabb, to bring attention to the Centretown Community Design Plan. The meeting was very well attended by Centretown residents, many of whom hadn't heard of the CDP before the meeting.

The plan was already a year overdue in May and is still. After the City recently released a "final draft" of the plan a few years into the process, the development industry produced a lenghty document with line-by-line edits they want made to the plan. An update will be provided at the AGM on this recent development (pardon the pun) which will yet again postpone the plan going to Planning Committee for approval by City Council.

There will also be two presentations at Wednesday's meeting: "Achieving Results for Communities at City Hall," by Christopher Collmorgan, President of our neighbour association, Action Sandy Hill; and "Development — Yes! Lifeless Streetscapes — No!" by Paul Kariouk, Centretown resident and Associate Professor of Architecture at Carleton University.

The agenda and reports are available on the CCCA website (permalink), and the flyer contains bios of the two keynote presenters.

You can become a CCCA member (so long as you're from the area bounded by Bronson, the 417, the Ottawa River and the 417) at the meeting for only $5 per year, or if you can't make it you can also join and/or donate online. Your participation of time or money is what keeps the CCCA going as a voice for residents at City Hall on decisions affecting Centretown, and will also help us finance what promises to be an expensive OMB appeal of City Council's decision to rezone 96 Nepean Street for a 27 storey tower (I discussed that project and its context in this lengthy post.

At the meeting on Wednesday, you can also put your name forward for one of the eight positions (6 for two years, 2 for one year) on the Board of Directors for the election. As it happens, I am chairing the Nominations Committee, whose report is at the end of the longform agenda (a briefer one will be in hard copy at the meeting), so you can contact me (centretown dot ottawa at gmail dot com) if you would like to put your name forward or if you want more information. As you can read in the report, there is a shortage of candidates in the area west of Elgin and north of Somerset, and there are so far only 7 candidates. The Board members elected at the AGM will join those of us in the second year of our terms and from this group will be selected the Executive members: Vice-President, Corporate Secretary, Membership Secretary and Treasurer.

See you on Wednesday!

PS: Bronson Avenue should partially re-open to traffic tonight or tomorrow, one lane in each direction from Gladstone south. Ongoing work in the intersection at Somerset means a the section from Gladstone to Somerset won't reopen to through traffic for some months yet. Somerset to Laurier will fully close for construction some time next year.

Garbage in Centretown

If you're wondering why your garbage hasn't been picked up today, it's because the City has changed the garbage collection dates in coordination with the switch to collecting curbside garbage only every other week (green bin is still collected every week, and black and blue box pickups are still on alternating weeks). The best I can tell is Centretown east of Bank is on Wednesday and west of Bank (to Bronson) is on Thursday. Homeowners should have gotten letters by now, but if you're a renter like me, you can use the City's online tool to find out your new collection date.

On a less disruptive note, the CCCA recently heard back from Ontario Electronic Stewardship about the e-Waste dropoff site fundraiser we had earlier this month. As the CCCA tweeted this past weekend,

Our #Centretown e-Waste site on Oct 6 saved 4.91 tons of electronics from going to landfill. Double our June yield! ^C twitter.com/CentretownCCA/…
— Centretown Citizens(@CentretownCCA) October 27, 2012

People came from across Centretown and beyond (one person said he was from Manotick!). The tracking form they give you only asks you to list the number of cars that pull up, but since only a quarter of Centretowners use a car as their primary mode of transportation, we had just as many walk-ups.

Centretown time capsule: August/September 2007

Happy Labour Day everyone!

For today's post, I want to do something a little different. I wanted to give a snapshot of what was happening in Centretown five years ago in August and September 2007. With a high proportion of renters, many Centretown residents—even those active in community affairs—weren't here five years ago (nor was this blog!). For the rest of us, it'll be a trip down memory lane.

The 2007 Labour Day parade, organized by the Ottawa and District Labour Council, ended as usual at McNabb Park for the annual festival with free hotdogs, corn on the cob, and other attractions (if you're reading this post shortly after it goes up, head out there now! They should be there from the end of the parade until 4:30pm). You might recognize this photo of the wading pool as one of the four at the bottom of the CCCA's 'promo cards':

September 2007 marked the official opening of the Corktown Footbridge on the 11th (the bridge opened to traffic the previous September). Municipal politicians and interpreters in 1830's period dress were there to cut the ribbon.

Deep Bronson

Since the end of March, anyone who lives or works within a block or two of Bronson Avenue has had to endure the nearly constant hammering of the bedrock under the street by the excavators as part of the Bronson Avenue reconstruction project. This photo shows why: the feedermain is a considerable distance under the surface. The bottom of the pit is at least three times as deep as these two workers are tall:

The feedermain—that black-sheathed concrete pipe—isn't what splits off to bring water to each property, that's for the regular watermain. The feedermain is the spine of the water system that feeds the watermains. This one that runs under Bronson is installed in precast segments about four feet in diameter, and delivers water at high pressure, eventually, to the south end of the city.

Some Winter left at McNabb

It's been unusally warm, even for Ottawa's wacky winters, to the point that most of the snow has melted, leaving only the black crust visible on top.

Our last hope may be the arenas at City Hall and McNabb, both of which have zambonis.

Here's hoping we get some more snow and cold to enjoy the rest of the winter! I miss skating on the canal!

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

Another repair: McNabb Park

In mid-October, I noticed a problem with this sign for McNabb Park at 320 James Street:

In case you can't see quite what the problem is, here is a different view showing how warped this sign has become. Give it a bit more time and it'll break, leaving us with either a neighbourhood in tatters or a bill for an expensive new sign.

I sent the above photos to Councillor Holmes' office, who then forwarded them to the appropriate person in the Parks, Recretation, and Cultural Services department in early November. In less than two weeks, the signpost had been realigned and re-welded:

These little easy-to-do repairs are just another thing that the City can do to keep Centretown functional and looking good. All it takes is a call to 3-1-1 or e-mail to 311@ottawa.ca, and occasionally a follow-up. Once they know about these problems, they're fixed pretty quickly!

Yet another sign of winter

The Rideau Canal Skateway chalets recently made a trip through Centretown, and in a similar expression of Ottawa's love of the skate blade, the ice rink boards set up at area parks for the winter. Here's a shot of the City workers delivering the Boards to McNabb Park.

I have fond memories of this ice rink. When I attended McNabb Park Public School (which has since closed and re-opened as an alternative school), I remember skating on the rink for my fifteen-minute recesses. After walking down to the far end of the yard, putting the skates on and taking them off, I only got about five minutes of actual skate time!

When I was in grade 2 or 3, there was a kid in grade 4 or 5 who was much taller than all the others. He had quite the reputation for being one of the most athletically proficient kids in school. But when it came to ice time and hockey, he didn't so much skate as he walked with skates on. It was a reassuring lesson that nobody's perfect.

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

Rescue Bronson Avenue - next steps

Lots of people came out to the community forum to Rescue Bronson Avenue last night. Representatives from the CCCA, DCA and CCOC joined Councillor Diane Holmes to present our vision of the Rescue Bronson project, and give people in the room a chance to speak.

(skip meeting summary)

Somerset Ward Councillor Diane Holmes introduced the project and its context. You can read more on the background in my previous post, Rescue Bronson Avenue this Wednesday! The photo below shows just the front third of the crowd at the McNabb Park Community Centre's assembly hall

Next, Eric Darwin, President of the Dalhousie Community Association and blogger at West Side Action gave a great presentation talking about Road Diets and why one can work for Bronson Avenue.

Many people were interested in Eric's references to research that shows that a road diet can carry the same amount of traffic with a different lane configuration.

The next speaker was Robert Smythe, who has been active in Centretown as far back as the 1970s. Robert gave a presentation on the Escarpment Plan, which was generated a couple of years ago after two years of solid, extensive consultation with the community and stakeholders. The Escarpment is the area near the Ottawa Tech playing fields, down the hill at Albert/Slater toward Lebreton Flats. The Escarpment Plan, which has been incorporated into the City's Official Plan, contains a number of recommendations relevant to the north end of Bronson Avenue (which the Bronson Avenue consultants didn't bother to look at).

I then gave a social media report and talked about Rescue Bronson's web site, Twitter feed, Facebook page, and online petition (which is now at over 150 signatures!)

I highlighted some of the comments made by Rescue Bronson supporters on the petition, on our website, and on various news outlets' comment sections.

Next, people in the audience got a chance to give their comments. There was such a variety of comments, it is clear that the reconstruction of Bronson should be put on hold so that the City and the consultants can actually look at the problems identified by the community instead of pretending Bronson works the way it's built now.

We've received many compliments that this was one of the best consultations people have been to (some suggest it's because it wasn't organized by City staff!), and others are glad that we took the time to present this information to the community members, many of whom were unaware that a reconstruction project was going to happen in their own back yard.

Next Steps

While Eric spoke to the media (above), attendees filled out a big stack of comment forms that we're going to go through as quickly as possible so we can tell people about what happens next. We could use a volunteer or two to help with that data entry today and tomorrow--contact councillor Holmes' office if you can help out with that.

In addition to continuing to spread the word and get people to sign the petition, we'll be establishing a working group so that interested volunteers can help get more involved. E-mail rescuebronson@centretowncitizens.ca if you want to volunteer for Rescue Bronson Avenue's working committee.

Rescue Bronson Avenue will also be making a presentation at the CCCA's Annual General Meeting, next Tuesday, November 17, 2010 at 7pm at City Hall (Colonel By Room). If you live between Bronson and the Canal, between the Queensway and the Ottawa River, you are eligible to be a member of the CCCA. Why not come out and support your community association!