May is involved with the SoPa – “south of Parliament”. He states that currently, the civil servant strike is bringing people downtown and to the restaurants but beyond that they have thoughts for how to revitalize the downtown core.

Of course Ottawa has the well known, large museums:

• Canadian War Museum
• The National Art Gallery
• Canadian Museum of Nature
• Canadian Museum of History
• The Canadian Aviation and Space Museum

But what about the smaller museums. The Ottawa Business Journal has put together a post on the Hidden gems: Discover Ottawa’s other museums

As reported by CityNews and CBC yesterday, the stretch of Wellington Street in front of Parliament that was closed subsequent to the Freedom Convoy of January 2022, will repopen today, Friday April 28. Such great news! It certainly took long enough! Must be 18 months ago or so I’d be driving back home from a friends uisng Sussex Drive then Wellington and thinking what a great drive it is. Next time I do that there’ll be a champagneless celebration in my car – and I’ll certainly not take that drive for granted ever again.

Bear in West End Ottawa


What started earlier this morning as a warning to residents ends sadly. I was going to say: “I’m reading conflicting information on this, but I’ll just keep writing.” Then I read that the bear was euthanized. The bear was first seen in Bells Corners then in the Bridlewood area. In an earlier post I read that he had returned to the woods. Subsequently, I read that residents were being asked to temporarily take down bird feeders as the bear was attracted to those. Alas it seems the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry refused to capture the bear and finaly the police shot him dead. The MNR and the City lacked coordination on how to deal with a bear who was not aggresive, just hungry. Sad! Very sad!

I’ll nevertheless retain the second part of my post which is: What to do when you encounter a bear. Good to know. In the past I’d read you are to react differently according to what type of bear you are faced with but for now lets stick to this:

Altera Active plans on opening a massive wellness and social club at the site of the former Canadian Tire store on Carling Avenue. I wonder if it will always be referred to as the former Canadian Tire store site, but I digress.

Ten days ago a 6-tower multi-purpose complex was proposed. And now a wellness and social club. It does say in the article that the multi-tower proposal was shelved. I don’t think the multi-tower plan received great feedback from the community. I fist became aware of this new plan in a CTV blog post.

Wanting to get another source I find a blog post on renx.ca Real Estate News Exchange that indeed Altea Active has entered into a lease with RioCan. The facility will open in 2024.

As I google the subject of potholes I read that this season is also referred to as pothole season. It’s very sad isn’t it! But did you know there is a form you can complete to report a pothole to the City of Ottawa. Well here it is.

As presented on the CTV News site the City of Ottawa Council has approved an initiative which will allow Ottawa children to partake in certain activities at no cost. Details on the City of Ottawa website.

Of course, if you lived through The Ice Storm of 1998 nothing compares. But when I finally made my way out yesterday, in the early evening, I was shocked to see many trees down.

CBC.ca reports on some of the details. The Ottawa Citizen provides a selection of photos of the ice storm.

Click here to see what the progress is for the 60,000 or so Ottawa Hydro without power.



At the moment it sounds like it’s raining but it’s the ice on the building that is melting.