A park with no benches coming soon to Rideau Street
Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: June 5, 2016 | Last Updated: June 5, 2016 8:22 PM EDT
Fears of homeless people loitering or panhandling are among the reasons why the city isn’t installing benches or permanent seating in a new Rideau Street pedestrian plaza currently under construction.
Ogilvy Square will replace a short stretch of Nicholas Street between Rideau and Besserer streets that was closed to vehicle traffic permanently in April.
Cadillac Fairview, which owns the Rideau Centre, is building the square to the city’s specifications as part of a site plan agreement approved after the company announced the mall’s $360-million expansion in 2013.
Drawings of the new square show a line of trees on one side and a large restaurant patio on the other. There will also be bike racks and space that can be used for various special events or for the installation of public art.
But there’s no place to sit.
The city concluded that benches or permanent seating would be hard to work around or move every time it wants to use the space for a special event, even though it remains unclear who would ultimately be responsible for programming activities in the new square, which provides a key link between the ByWard Market, the future Rideau LRT station and the redeveloped Arts Court complex that’s set to open next year.
“It’s not that permanent seats couldn’t go in a couple of locations at some point, but we’ve chosen to take a more adaptable approach and be able to monitor the success and failures of the seats as opposed to putting something in permanent and then having nothing but complaints come in for people (who) are loitering or panhandling or causing other kinds of public nuisance that we’re always responding to,” said David Atkinson, a planner in the city’s urban design unit who has overseen the recent streetscaping work along Rideau.
“We’re creating a lot more opportunity that was never there,” he said.
The city has received “nothing but complaints from business owners and the police” after some granite blocks installed along Rideau became popular places for people to sit on or congregate, Atkinson added.
But the lack of seating — and the reasoning behind it — irritates some residents and community groups.
“Vague concerns about flexible use of space and fear of itinerant individuals should not be the basis for urban planning,” Liz Bernstein, president of the Lowertown Community Association, told city officials in a letter last month.
Temporary chairs and tables, similar to what New York City introduced in Times Square several years ago, are fine for special events, Bernstein says, but there should also be dedicated seating for people who just want a place to sit during their lunch break or between stops at the various attractions nearby.
If the only seating available is on a restaurant’s patio, then the city is privatizing public space, she said.
Plus, homeless people wouldn’t necessarily be the only ones who’d use the seats. Seniors, nursing mothers and tourists may also seek out a place to sit, said Corinne Sauvé, a researcher with A Way Home Ottawa, an initiative to develop a plan for preventing youth homelessness.
Homeless people already face various forms of discrimination, including being pushed out of public spaces, she says. “That being a reason for city hall to not put any furniture on Ogilvy Square is unacceptable.”
“Having no home means that you have to find home wherever it’s possible, and public spaces allow that comfort,” Sauvé said.
Fears of loiterers and panhandlers are something Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury says he’s pushed back against before.
“We design public spaces for people,” he said. “If there are housing, mental health and addiction issues, that’s one thing we need to work towards, but it shouldn’t impact the public realm because gutting the public realm won’t improve the look and feel, won’t improve the enjoyment of the community.”
The lack of benches is out-of-sync with the city’s recent efforts in Lansdowne Park and numerous road reconstruction projects, all of which have resulted in more places for people to sit.
The first goal of the city’s Older Adult Action Plan is to help people “navigate the natural and built environments safely and with ease,” which includes installing additional benches on existing sidewalks and pathways.
Similarly, the 2014 Rideau/Arts Precinct Public Realm Plan called for the city to create a pedestrian plaza on Nicholas Street that would become an amenity for the neighbourhood by using special paving, lighting and furnishings.
Atkinson says he agrees with the philosophy of providing seats wherever possible, but says the Rideau Street area has a “different context.”
Even though Ogilvy Square is closed to traffic, he says the city must maintain a six-metre right-of-way for emergency vehicles to use, which is another argument in favour of not installing anything permanent.
Fleury says he’s trying to convince staff to designate the square as a park, which would negate the requirement to retain road access. Such a change might ultimately require the approval of committee and council.
Seating will be a key consideration once it’s clear who will be responsible for overseeing programming and events in the square, Fleury said, adding workers are installing anchors in advance to tie down any furniture that might be brought in down the road.
The new square takes its name from Ogilvy’s, the former department store that stood on that corner for more than a century. The building’s façade has been incorporated into the massive Rideau Centre expansion.
The mall and the square are both scheduled to open in August. Work on the square, as well as the sidewalk on the Rideau Street side, is costing Cadillac Fairview about $1.6 million.
mpearson@postmedia.com
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http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...-rideau-street
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