Last week 100-150 people attended a public consultation orchestrated by Canada Lands, a Crown corporation, to give their views of how the site should be redeveloped. The site is currently comprised of 7 buildings, 5 of which have heritage status. Requested to be included on the site: a grocery store, small businesses, affordable housing, art spaces, and green spaces. There is still a certain possibility that this could be the site of the future Civic Campus of the Ottawa Hospital. You can read more in this article from the CBC or in this article featured in Ottawa Community News.

Did you know that Captain John LeBreton threw a curve at Earl George Ramsay Dalhousie at a recent dinner party, well in 1820, that forced Colonel John By to hire so many more workers and reroute the canal. Ultimately this had the effect of allowing a rookie surveyor to cobble together a core in a more eastern direction in a swampy area rather then west on higher ground all to confound a speculative colleague.   Now you can go out and enjoy the fully opened skateway and impress skaters along the way with your knowledge.

Over half of the Rideau Canal skateway opened Saturday morning. Go out there and enjoy! Remember that you can check ice conditions on the NCC’s website before you go out.

Wider sidewalks, automobile and bicycle shared lanes, and reduced parking, that is what is being proposed for Elgin Street. When the changes started on Main Street some residents were concerned. The intent was to reduce the traffic and create more of a neighbourhood feel. Driving through Old Ottawa East does take a little bit longer but it feels nice. The Glebe is well loved and yet in the middle of it is Bank Street which gets very busy at times. It’s the one place I don’t mind being stuck in a traffic jam as there’s so much to see it gives you more time to take it in.

But as the population of Ottawa grows and intensification brings more people to the core is reducing access a good plan. Ultimately we should be walking more, cycling more. I live in the eastern end of Sandy Hill and can certainly bike to Elgin Street (and do occasionally) but with the chaos that are changes to the lanes on Laurier and the thought of 2 or 3 accidents on the new bike lanes on O’Connor I get a bit scared. I’m just not how the relationship between cars and cyclists is evolving.

What is the City doing right? What is it doing wrong?