Infill Housing #12

February on Kenora Street:

February 4th....Ongoing frustration continued, with long trucks like this one, blocking laneways, with nowhere to pass because of the snowbanks.

February 6th  Cause for celebration! This wonderful snowbank- destroying machine appeared. It was such a relief to drive on a street devoid of snowbanks.

Of course, that transformation was short-lived.  February 12th -  30 centimetres of snow fell. 

The following day was a treat - a real snow day!  Because schools and many offices were closed, some of the young families on the street took advantage of a perfect day to go sliding down the Kenora St. hill. For a short while, it felt like an old fashioned neighbourhood again...lots of people out shovelling, visiting, kids sliding and absolutely no one driving on the street.

Now however, it's back to business as usual. It was raining on February 15th, when I took this photo, but that does not affect construction in an Ottawa winter. The chipboard walls started going up on the double at # 79. 

And yes, the house beside that project? It's official. It has been sold and will be demolished to make way for another double. Ten years ago there were five original houses across from us - all unique and reasonably sized. As of this spring, only one will remain.  There will be seven properties instead of five. We thought our area was zoned for single family dwellings only, but we were sadly mistaken. That zone starts about six houses up the hill from us.

Over the past month we have had discussions with city officials, community activists and fellow neighbours.  Long time residents are pretty upset that our neighbourhood is changing so rapidly. We hate to see the original houses and mature trees disappear, in favour of overly large houses with little green space. In short, we feel that our neighbourhood is under siege. What can be done? The province and the city have a policy of intensification. As long as there is money to be made and builders adhere to the current restrictions, it's full steam ahead. We all live in fear that more of our neighbours' homes will go up for sale. 

Pot Shop !

With profound apologies to Humphrey Bogart,

Of all the streets, in all the neighbourhoods, in the entire National Capital area, The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario has picked ours!

Ottawa's first pot shop is set to open at 1306 Wellington St. West (not to be confused with the downtown Wellington St.)  Really? Why here? Is it the whole trendy Wellington Village/Westboro thing?

A bit of background: When we bought here, thirty years ago, it wasn't trendy - just a quiet residential area, with stores like BiWay.  There were a couple of schools and regular families could afford to buy here, unlike now.

However, with the city's current policy of intensification, they are stuffing as many doubles, triplexes,  apartment buildings and condos as they can, into every square inch of this area. You literally cannot go on any block of this neighbourhood, without seeing a construction vehicle or a hole in the ground where a house once stood.

As if all this house construction (and resulting truck traffic) was not enough, this summer Elmdale Public School will be undergoing major renovation. That is expected to go on for over a year, resulting in even more disruption and truck traffic.

A few years ago they re-worked Wellington St. itself. Yes, I know. It's called traffic calming. They widened the sidewalks to make them more pedestrian friendly. There were once places for a bus to tuck in, beside the sidewalk, while letting traffic continue, in the other lane. Those places disappeared, in favour of the widened sidewalks. So now, when a bus stops to let off or take on passengers, the entire lane of traffic stops. It is an extremely slow drive along Wellington, between three and seven pm. You can walk it faster.

So now, into this incredibly congested area, the AGCO, has decided that we should host Ottawa's first and only pot shop! What were they thinking? If people drive here, from all over the city, where are they going to park? It's just not going to work.

What can we do? The city has no say in this. It is up to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. Residents can make their views known until February 22nd - tomorrow! Their site is not easy to navigate. Go to agco.ca, then at the top of the page click on… iAGCO online services, then click …submit a complaint.

David Wise, of the City of Ottawa, provided me with an explanation of the process. Here are the only grounds on which to complain:

"The Provincial legislation provides that the AGCO may not issue a retail store authorization for applications deemed not to be in the “public interest”, which has been defined in s. 10 of Regulation 468/18 as meaning:

1. protecting public health and safety, 
2. protecting youth and restricting their access to cannabis, and 
3. preventing illicit activities in relation to cannabis. "

As far as # 1, public health and safety, I think this area will be more dangerous because of the influx of traffic. Buses will be even later than they are now. Emergency vehicles will not be able to attend to crisis situations in time, because our roads are going to be impassable. 

And # 2, our youth? How about the grade 7 and 8's who attend Fisher Park Public School? It's a five minute walk away. Those students have the right to leave school  at lunch time. They are always roaming along Wellington Street. It's going to be easy for them to ask others to go into the store and buy weed for them. How would you like to be teaching those kids in the afternoon?

Five minutes south of here is Westgate Shopping Centre, which has plenty of vacant stores right now. Why not go there? There's a large parking lot and no residential neighbourhood would have to bear the brunt of the influx of cars.

There is a limit to how many houses, people and cars this area can absorb. Sorry Ottawa, but we're full up already. Thanks for reading this and hopefully, taking the time to help us out, by contacting the AGCO.

Click here to read about how Warren Avenue residents feel about this.

Click here to read how area businesses feel about it.

Paul Dewar

It's a sad evening in Ottawa. Paul Dewar has died. He served here, in the riding of Ottawa Centre as our MP from 2006 until 2015. He was such a highly principled politician. We were shocked and disappointed when he lost that 2015 election, in the tide that swept the Liberals into power. This riding (and I)  go back and forth between the Liberals and New Democrats.

There were rumours that he was going to run for mayor in last year's election. Many of us hoped that was the case. The last time I saw him was at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in May of 2017. That community wide garage sale has grown over the years. There are not only households selling goods but countless charities that take advantage of the huge crowds to raise money for their causes. That's where Paul was, working at a charity booth. Of course. He urged me to buy a cupcake and I answered, "I'll buy one of your cupcakes if you'll run for mayor." He laughed and said there was a lot of money to be raised if that was to happen. I took it as a hopeful sign. He would have been a great mayor, just like his mother was.

However, it was not to be. Others, far more eloquent than me, have many pieces online, about his career, his illness, his remarkable attitude.  Like Jack Layton, Paul has left a thoughtful, inspiring goodbye message to us all.  In it,  he advised readers to, "concentrate on what you can contribute - to your country, your community and neighbours." He was a real gift.

Click here to read Paul's message.