Sparks Street
 

Sparks Street

http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/image...building01.jpg

http://www.worldofstock.com/slides/ANB1527.jpg

http://www.currencymuseum.ca/grfx/shared/map2.jpg

Sparks Street should really have a thread in this section. I was walking down Sparks today and it was really busy and looking pretty good. There are a few new restaurants and bars between Bank and O'Connor and the newly renovated facades beside the CBC building are almost all complete. There may not be many people moving to Sparks, but the number of condo units being built at Mondrian and Hudson Park will bring a lot more action to the Sparks Street area.

A few points I'd like to raise:

It'd be great if the CBC building actually had a public entrance from Sparks Street.

The NCC needs to install better cultural/historical interpretive signage on the street to relate its significance in the history of Ottawa.

Some of the facades of the street's buildings are downright dilapidated. I'm not sure the exact ownership breakdown of the buildings on the street, but if it is indeed PWGSC that still owns the majority of the buildings I'm thinking of, they need to get on that.

Those dreadful concrete medians need to be redesigned or moved altogether.

The west end of the street and Escarpment Park provide a great physical opportunity to connect the cultural amenities within the Confederation Boulevard area with the NCC's new development at LeBreton Flats. The NCC might want to look into a way of making Sparks Street more accessible to the new community, thus strengthening its role as a thoroughfare.

LRT.

That's it from me for now. ;)

How many decades is it now that people have been predicting Sparks St will finally start functioning Real Soon Now ®?

About the same number of years that people have been predicting large movements of population into the downtown core, it's actually happening now.

Sparks Street
 

I think this is basically true. Sparks used to be in the core of a mixed-use district. You can see what the population pattern looked like in the Greber plan diagram.

http://qshare.queensu.ca/Users01/gordond/planningcanadascapital/greber1950/plates_doc/300/plate_4.jpg

Downtown would have been full of middle and upper class residents going to and from work, to the train station, to shop on Rideau Street... Sparks was a channel for people moving around the city. (And of course it was a streetcar street.)

Turn the clock forward, stick all the civil servants out in the suburbs, and you've got Sparks stuck in the middle of the CBD / Financial District. It's like having a pedestrian shopping street across the middle of downtown (business district near the NYSE) New York - after 5 PM, it's dead (in Ottawa and even in New York). Sparks goes from nowhere to pretty much nowhere - there's no major destination points close to the ends of the street, and even if there were, there's no pedestrian traffic to be moving between those destinations anyway.

IF you had Lebreton as a source/destination with good pedestrian connections (neither of which is true now) and IF you had something on the other end of Sparks rather than the tangle of traffic around the War Memorial, and IF you had more people living along that Sparks/Queen east-west corridor, then Sparks might work.

As it stands, it's way more likely that with Mondrian, Central I and II and hopefully a few more developments near or on Bank Street, it's Bank that will start to become a good walking street (albeit not pedestrianized, although if I were in charge they would be running trams up and down Bank like the streetcars used to).

CBC Radio Ottawa Morning
 

Sparks Street Mall Part 2 (audio) - March 3, 2010

via Apartment 613 / Spacing Ottawa

Sparks Street Zipline
 

After the success of their $100,000 New Years Eve party, the Sparks Street Business association is proposing buying a 1000 foot zipline from a Las Vagas company.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa...n.html?cmp=rss

like Fremont Street in Las Vegas

https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Fremon...2.69,,0,-14.26

Ah you beat me to it! I just heard about this on CBC this morning. I honestly don't know what to think of it... We have world class ziplining 12 minutes away in the Gatineau's, will people line up to pay $10-20 to ride a few hundred feet down Sparks Street? Maybe they will...it is kind of novel...

I think it's a good idea. Yes, there's a zip line over in Gatineau Park, but a zip line in an urban area is a completely different experience.

I'm pretty impressed with the new ED of the Sparks Street BIA; he's really trying to transform the street. I emailed him with a suggestion and he responded almost immediately, and said he would act on it. While I don't think Sparks will ever be truly transformed until they improve the mix of stores they offer, all of these new initiatives are a step in the right direction.

This could be the future of public transport :D

...of course, it's only one-way...

Are you talking about Aventure Lafleche? I think they might be going out of business.. there was a story about it not too long ago.

edit - here's the story in french

http://www.lapresse.ca/le-droit/econ...-financier.php

I'm glad they are working on improving Sparks Street, I'm ecstatic that they are redoing the pavement, but a Zip-Line would be ultra-cheesy, it would look stupid and only in use part of the year. A block south of Parliament, Sparks should be high-class.

I was thinking of Camp Fortune. Lafleche is a little further in Val-de-Monts. There's also Chutes Coulonge even further and the big ripline at Great Canadian Bungee only 20 minutes away.

I think the Sparks St. thing will be very cool and different, I'll try it!

Seen urban ziplining in Vancouver. Nothing cheesy, let alone ultra-cheesy, about it.

Ottawa needs to take the splintery board out of its ass.

Sparks Street will allow cars to park on Sparks Stree, free with $50 purchase. A sad way for them to get money to the street.

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/regions/o... la rue Sparks

Yet riding a bike on Sparks street is still forbidden...

The problem with Sparks isn't as much the lack of parking as it is the lack of attractive tenants. I read the report they commissioned a few years ago and one of the recommendations was for anchor tenants. Years later, where are they? I like the events they're putting on, but they can't replace having stores that are attractive to consumers (especially residents as compared to tourists).

Is it?! Sparks Street is perfect for safe cycling, and if the street were uncluttered and we got some decent retail, sparks would be wonderful.

Really good restaurants and retail on Sparks is important, but we also need more people living close to use it. Tonnes more people living in close proximity, some anchor tenants and even necessities like a grocery store someplace on it (Ha! Like that would happen) get more people there. It might even help with Bank Street.

I'm thinking... uncluttered, some cycling up and down it, maybe some trees to form a bit of a shaded, green (maybe spring-time blossoming canopy?), good retail and residences nearby would be important for revitalizing Sparks. Until then, Sparks will be dead.

Cycling is forbidden on Sparks St and it is at times enforced. The BIA even had locks cut for people who locked their bike at the wrong spot.

I completely agree though that cycling should be allowed on Sparks St most of the time except maybe when big events (like Ribfest) are being held.

Lack of parking does affect the retail mix, as it limits it to things people are willing to carry for a few blocks. Forget furniture stores, stereo stores, art galleries etc. etc. That lack of retail mix means that you can't do all your shopping in one place, so you end up going elsewhere when you do your errands for efficiency's sake. That's what has killed Sparks. Being able to park near a store makes a huge difference, even if it's just loading zones.