Dynamic Ottawa. What would it take?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

What should we do to make it better?

The event program is a shadow of what it used to be, and it was very difficult for visitors to find stuff going on. As I said, there was very little to speak of. The desire to spread it over several sites in recent years (Market, Sparks, etc.) away from the immediate vicinity of the canal, coupled with what I assume are significant reductions to the programming budget, seriously impact things it seems.

In its heyday you had the canal skating rink bookended by a fantastic ice sculpture garden in Confederation Park and a maze of snow sculptures on Dows Lake.

Aside from some (rather brutal) bands playing sporadically on a stage at Fifth Avenue, it was really hard to distinguish the Winterlude weekends from just a regular weekend during the skating season.

They used to have the bed race, an opening night show (I saw Alanis there as a kid), fireworks, a bar with live music in a wooden shack operated by the NAC, etc.)

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Remember my suggestion to have a tramway to connection downtown and the new Wateridge development via Sussex and Rockcliffe. It would connect the attractions that are too far to walk to including the Aviation Museum and the new 'urban' community. We could leverage a tramway into improving that whole corridor to make it more attactive, more animated and less auto-centric.

After all the fuss years ago about the American embassy at 'Mile Circle', I am shocked how that piece of land has devolved into what is becoming an abandoned field and scrub land with absolutely no amenities for locals or the greater city. I suppose the locals like it that way.

They would fight to the death ...

It was a huge mistake not to put the U.S. embassy there.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

I agree in many ways. There is also the ice sculpture area across from City Hall.

I also find Canada Day downtown to be a letdown. Just a lot of people walking back and forth in the heat and everybody wondering 'is this it? surely there is more to it than this'.

Although Bluesfest has become huge and picked up some of the slack, there is clearly an overall decline in major events and their scale in Ottawa.

I hadn't thought about Canada Day but you're right about that as well. You used to have an all-day rock show at Lansdowne back in the day. This was a private thing, and not part of the government-sponsored stuff.

The Tulip Festival/Festival of Spring used to be a much bigger deal with large crowds for shows, etc. It's been downscaled as well.

The Festival Franco-Ontarien also used to be much bigger.

And of course there was SuperEx (Central Canadian Exhibition) at Lansdowne which may have been campy and grungy but it was a fun place to go as a teenager or young adult.

There also used to be an NCC-sponsored New Year's Eve bash on Parliament Hill.

I have no idea what is behind this downward evolution. In most places in the world established festivities have actually ramped up and gotten bigger.

(And I don't necessarily think these things are truly being replaced by other stuff like Riverside, Glowfest or Escapade...)

This had already started prior to COVID, BTW.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I agree. I actually like Niagara Falls for more than the beauty of the falls and I don't mind Clifton Hill because it ties in with the city's history. The parks along the Niagara River are beautiful, then their are the historical sites, Niagara-on-the-lake, all the wineries and for those who like it, the casinos. There are lots of attractions for all ages. Niagara Falls is a weekend getaway for the GTA and nearby USA residents given the much higher hotel rates on weekends.

In my younger days, we'd roadtrip from Toronto to Niagara Falls for a night out on a Friday night. When you get older there's dining, theatre, casino, etc. Niagara is Toronto's backyard. Tourists who spent from GTA don't get this. And these days with GO service to Niagara, the relationship with the GTA is even tighter.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Although Bluesfest has become huge and picked up some of the slack, there is clearly an overall decline in major events and their scale in Ottawa.

I hadn't thought about Canada Day but you're right about that as well. You used to have an all-day rock show at Lansdowne back in the day. This was a private thing, and not part of the government-sponsored stuff.

The Tulip Festival/Festival of Spring used to be a much bigger deal with large crowds for shows, etc. It's been downscaled as well.

The Festival Franco-Ontarien also used to be much bigger.

And of course there was SuperEx (Central Canadian Exhibition) at Lansdowne which may have been campy and grungy but it was a fun place to go as a teenager or young adult.

There also used to be an NCC-sponsored New Year's Eve bash on Parliament Hill.

I have no idea what is behind this downward evolution. In most places in the world established festivities have actually ramped up and gotten bigger.

(And I don't necessarily think these things are truly being replaced by other stuff like Riverside, Glowfest or Escapade...)

This had already started prior to COVID, BTW.

I think several of these were sponsored by the NCC, they were victims of cutbacks or the transfer of events to PCH.

I think political correctness also took over. You can’t just get a bunch of popular Canadian acts, all potential groups have to be represented. The Winterlude concert was apparently cancelled for climate reasons.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...certs-1.931839

[kevinbottawa]

As someone who is primarily in the arts and culture space, I think there's a lot of untapped potential, and to be honest the local media is doing a poor job of telling Ottawa's story when it comes to arts and entertainment.

Marial Shayok, the first Ottawa player to be drafted by an NBA team, was recently named the #1 player in the NBA G-League by Rookie Wire. No local coverage (except for us at SHIFTER magazine). And obviously Ely Ankou has been in the NFL for a few years adn Neville Gallimore just got drafted to the Cowboys.

A local artist named Malayka recently became the first Canadian to ever appear on the Middle Eastern version of The Voice. Had one of the biggest Middle Eastern pop stars turn her chair for her and made it to the knock out round. Again, aside from us at SHIFTER, no other local media coverage.

Helena-Alexis Seymour got cast as the lead in the Amazon show The Chronicles of Jessica Wu. No local coverage. Vanessa Morgan has been one of the stars of the CW/Netflix show Riverdale and recently married an MLB pitcher. No local coverage.

Charron, who has been competing in King of the Dot and Capital Rap Battles for years, is one of the stars of the MTV show Wild n Out with Nick Cannon. No local coverage or recognition.

One of the guys in the latest group Simon Cowell put together is from Ottawa. He's performed on James Corden and has worked with Ed Sheeran and French Montana, and still reps Ottawa. No local coverage.

Then there's Herieth Paul who was discovered in the Byward Market who is now an actual supermodel.

Tiagz, a local artist that just signed to Epic Records is getting Drake numbers on Tiktok and has been featured by Forbes, Genius and a bunch of major media outlets, has had no media coverage in the city. There are other local artists that are getting major media coverage in the U.S. from Noisey, Complex, XXL, No Jumper, Buzzfeed, and still live in the city, and they've yet to receive any coverage (aside from us at SHIFTER).

Thankfully, I'm coming out with an article for the Citizen soon with some of these success stories so more people will know, but the fact that the local media hadn't been reporting on these things more widely held Ottawa back. For a while the only talent we seemed to celebrate was Brooke Henderson and Sandra Oh.

Anyway, if you guys are interested, I'd love to share some Ottawa music. You'd be shocked with the music that's being made in Ottawa right now. It competes with any other city. If more people knew about all this culture and these success stories it would definitely make Ottawa a more dynamic city.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

The NCC has done some good work in recent years to liven green-space around town, starting with Tavern on the Hill/Tavern on the Falls and a few pop-up bistros. It brings people to spots that would otherwise be dead, especially Tavern on the Falls, but it's too bad for the gap of active street-front between the Market and Rideau Falls (I feel like a heritage streetcar from Bank and Sparks to Rideau Falls or the GG could help). Their plan for the linear park along the Sir John A. MacDonald Parkway will improve the space significantly.

Zibi will be a major addition to the centre of the city. The first true waterfront destination, with amazing views to boot. We'll soon need to market the heck our of Zibi and the newly introduced public access to the Chaudière Falls.

We also need to take inspiration from our success in 2017 and make some of those events permanent.

LeBreton is a huge wildcard in making Ottawa that much more dynamic and marketable. It will add some of that missing waterfront activity along the aquducts. I wish we could remove part of the SJAM between Preston and Lemieux Island to add more active waterfront, but that would be a tough sell.

The future plans are great and all. But how about fixing what is already there. Make the core of the market car free. Open up way more restaurants and patios on Sparks. Put up some stalls along the Canal in the Summer.

I'd actually suggest making a pedestrian friendly Woonerf and allowing stalls on there in the summer.

[acottawa]

I think in many cities the attractions (or at least the things of interest) sort of flow into each other. There is a bit of that in Ottawa with the Rideau Centre now having an entrance facing William and the LRT station, but examples are few and far between. Usually you come out of an attraction and you encounter a dead end, or not much and the next thing to do is a good hike.

[Catenary]

There have been a few posts so far about streetcars or trams, and while I think they're a great idea, I think we can all agree that they have a high upfront cost and are unlikely to come to fruition anytime soon.

What doesn't have a high upfront cost is a bus. I could foresee a system run by the NCC serving downtown Ottawa and Gatineau and popular attractions. Neither STO or OC has huge interest in serving the other side of the river apart from the bare necessities, and having two transit authorities also creates a challenge for tourists. OC does serve some local attractions, but I pity the tourist who tries to navigate OC Transpo to get to the Aviation museum. At the same time, when we do run tourist-friendly bus routes like the SNO Bus or the Tulip shuttle, the services are very popular with locals and tourists alike.

An NCC run bus network could be operated by a contractor with rides at a nominal cost, either $1 or $2 work well with loonies and toonies. Electric buses are hitting their stride and would be a good fit. The service would be fare-integrated with OC and STO, so would require both a PRESTO and Multi reader, but this is a challenge that could be overcome.

The benefit of a system like this is that the tourist season is the opposite of the season when transit ridership is highest. Buses could run frequent service between the downtowns in the winter, and less frequent service in the summer, when they would also run more tourist focused seasonal routes.

If this idea seems familiar, it's largely because I stole it from Washington DC's Circulator. There, the system operates separate from the larger regional transit system. It was great to use it to get around with a simple map, rather than having to figure out which bus went where.

[Mikeed]

As someone who moved to ottawa for college from small town ontario, I know lots of people who really love Ottawa and prefer it to Toronto.

That said, I think there should be deliberate public policy to relocate Federal employment to decentralized transit oriented employment nodes; while also phasing out much of the D/C-grade office buildings downtown, and then giving these buildings to private development in exchange for some public good/the cost of demolition. There's a way to do this that creates a public good without being a huge hand out to the upper class developers.

I would also like them to create a small central park in the core which is possible if they combine the World Exchange Plaza, the parking lot south of the plaza and eliminate some of the 50s era buildings.

I know multiple diplomats from Europe who has referred to Ottawa as feeling like a theme park city; it was both a pro and a con. Focusing on liveability and way from gimmicks is key.

Ottawa as an events based city is also important and does a good job already at this. They should keep this and liveability as key priorities.

[Mikeed]

I know the NCC wanted to do something like this all the way to the natural history museum; but the beauty of Ottawa is when things are done on a smaller scale.

This was a quick mark up done on my phone, but it works because the all glass building would be the foot of the park and may even reflect Parliament.

You could close Metcalfe at Queen and create a safer intersection at Parliament, while also protecting the PMO better and getting rid of the the awkwardness of trying to get the PMO motorcades around.

The only buildings of architectural significance are where the NCC visitor center was; however the facades could be used to fill in the gaps in the streetscape around the old U.S. Embassy.

[kwoldtimer]

Shades of Jean Chrétien ....

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Catenary

There have been a few posts so far about streetcars or trams, and while I think they're a great idea, I think we can all agree that they have a high upfront cost and are unlikely to come to fruition anytime soon.

What doesn't have a high upfront cost is a bus. I could foresee a system run by the NCC serving downtown Ottawa and Gatineau and popular attractions. Neither STO or OC has huge interest in serving the other side of the river apart from the bare necessities, and having two transit authorities also creates a challenge for tourists. OC does serve some local attractions, but I pity the tourist who tries to navigate OC Transpo to get to the Aviation museum. At the same time, when we do run tourist-friendly bus routes like the SNO Bus or the Tulip shuttle, the services are very popular with locals and tourists alike.

An NCC run bus network could be operated by a contractor with rides at a nominal cost, either $1 or $2 work well with loonies and toonies. Electric buses are hitting their stride and would be a good fit. The service would be fare-integrated with OC and STO, so would require both a PRESTO and Multi reader, but this is a challenge that could be overcome.

The benefit of a system like this is that the tourist season is the opposite of the season when transit ridership is highest. Buses could run frequent service between the downtowns in the winter, and less frequent service in the summer, when they would also run more tourist focused seasonal routes.

If this idea seems familiar, it's largely because I stole it from Washington DC's Circulator. There, the system operates separate from the larger regional transit system. It was great to use it to get around with a simple map, rather than having to figure out which bus went where.

They had a tourist bus loop between all the main tourist sites in 88 or 89 when they opened the three new museums (gallery, civilization, aviation).

I actually worked as a guide on those buses.

It was called Visitour or Visibus.

[Mikeed]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Shades of Jean Chrétien ....

I understand why people would think this. But, having spent many summer days walking around the city I noticed how it would be nice if World Exchange plaza bleed into an actual park with trees and shade. Plus the buildings are all 50s "sick building syndrome" style buildings no one would care to loose.

*And* this goes hand-in-hand with the policy of bringing residential into the actual central business district of the city. *This is the most important thing*. The disgusting Sir Wilfred Laurier building should be a prime example of gutting it to the framing and converting it to affordable rentals! https://photos.wikimapia.org/p/00/00/15/14/38_big.jpg


Plus the situation regarding the PMO access is untenable and will have to change some day.

Closing metcalfe at queen could also create tour bus loading zones and parking down near Queen/Metcalfe.

Think a slip at the top of the T of said T-intersection. This would be now as wide as both the street r.o.w and the demolished building; while being at essentially the 4 corners of North (parliament) south (the core) and the east:west walking axis that is sparks.

[kwoldtimer]

Situation re PMO access.

I thought Chretien’s idea would have been great, but obviously too grand a concept for Ottawa to digest.

[Mikeed]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Situation re PMO access.

I thought Chretien’s idea would have been great, but obviously too grand a concept for Ottawa to digest.

I think the Chretien plan was a little to grand.
https://youtu.be/he4C7gWEpEU

I always keep this line from the Shock of the New in mind when considering Ottawa:

"This is what happens when perfectly rational people start thinking in terms of space instead of place, and single rather then multiple meanings."

---

The situation regarding PMO access is the fact they employ RCMP officers to hold parking spaces and move a mass of plyons at the corner so the motorcade can park on the corner. Or enter through the gates. It's super junky.

And with increasing security concerns we have the opportunity if the road is closed at queen to just have the PM drive in and out with a dedicated lane along the side building with the sidewalks moved to where the road currently is. Add streetscaping.

Specifically this side entrance during the Harper era always had dozens of plyons closing the lane. I just don't like janky-junkiness.

https://youtu.be/lxnXfU6n5_Q

Enter from Wellington, small private lane with elgant fencing, enter into courtyard, turn around, exit through gate onto Wellington. Elegant and a good compromise between security, walkability and public access.

I think it's untenable and will change eventually; however I hope we don't end up like 10 Downing Street which is a little to far.
https://youtu.be/p3CMMKZCfXY

[kwoldtimer]

Why Brasilia rather than Paris, Barcelona, Washington, among others?

[acottawa]

The architects had two opportunities to create a terminating vista with Metcalfe and did not. Various schemes to demolish one into existence remind me of Mussolini more than anything, when he decided he didn’t Bernini’s baroque surprise.

[harls]

Originally Posted by grooveduster

I've had my European guests remark during a tour of the city. "Look..it's Big Ben...!"

I've had a Scottish friend remark, "Ah.. moderately-sized Ben."

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I think several of these were sponsored by the NCC, they were victims of cutbacks or the transfer of events to PCH.

I think political correctness also took over. You can’t just get a bunch of popular Canadian acts, all potential groups have to be represented. The Winterlude concert was apparently cancelled for climate reasons.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...certs-1.931839

That article is actually from 2010. I can't recall if they had similar stuff planned this year.