Pot Shop Open!

In my February 21st post, about the pot shop in our neighbourhood, I encouraged readers to register their comments with The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. I feel slightly embarrassed to admit that my own attempt to contact that body was unsuccessful . Goodness knows I tried. I made at least three phone calls and did my best to navigate their site. I filled in their form and felt confident when I sent it in. However, I received an email back, that my comment, with an official number attached to it, would not be considered in their deliberations. I'm not sure why, but at that point I just gave up. Pretty sure that's what they were hoping I would do. It was an act of futility. Their minds were made up and the brief comment period was only for show.

So here's what the shop looked like on Friday afternoon, with last minute preparations underway.

Here's what it looked like this morning, about 11 am. It was a relatively small crowd, which was a pleasant surprise. The real test will be this weekend, especially if the weather is warmer than today.

Even with this small crowd, you can understand the concern among residents of Warren Avenue. That's the street that white truck is trying to exit. Having that other truck parked at that corner does not help matters. Warren is only one block long and a dead end. If this intersection is constantly blocked, the residents will literally have nowhere to go. Click here to read their views in today's Ottawa Citizen.

As Erma Bombeck famously said, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade." That's what the owners of the Won Ton House Restaurant must be thinking. The Won Ton has been around for years and we've enjoyed many fine meals there. It's on the other side of this corner, at Warren and Wellington. I enjoyed seeing their windows when I walked by yesterday. 

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

Comfort at the Curling Club

Over this past year I have been keeping a journal of sorts, about Dad's death and my grief journey. Some of those thoughts made their way into a piece I wrote, that appears in today's Ottawa Citizen.
Click here to read it. In the piece I wrote about a special day at Dad's curling club, the Navy.

Here are a few photos to accompany my story:

Dad, helping with the harvest at the family farm in Saskatchewan in 1949. This was after he moved to Ontario. For several years he took the train home at harvest time to help out. 

At Ottawa's Glebe Curling Club in the early 50's. Peter Darcovich, Dad, Merle Brown and Bob McKenzie. They all worked together at the federal government patent office.

At the Navy Curling Club, December 20, 2019.  We each wore one of Dad's curling sweaters.

My siblings and I with our mother, the new trophy and Dad's last curling broom.

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.

Infill Housing #11

Some day I will write something positive, something uplifting ....but not today.

It's official now. January 2019 is the snowiest on record for Ottawa, with 97 centimetres,  as of yesterday. It's impossible for city crews to keep up with the situation. Driving conditions are the worst I have ever seen. Many streets are simply impassible, with only one lane. Some are like cow paths with two wiggly ruts down the street. There's nowhere to park. Short drives have to be carefully planned out, to avoid getting stuck. It didn't snow today but it was cold and windy; about -24 with the windchill.

As I have mentioned before, Ottawa used to have a holiday from construction. Truck drivers would haul snow to the snow dump, not dirt. However, this is 2019, the era of extreme greed, so no time is wasted.
As the sun rose on Kenora Street this morning, this is what greeted us.

Today was the day they chose to backfill the construction site on our block.

So, in addition to the narrow street, lined with snowbanks, we had huge trucks blocking our way for most of the day.

The sidewalk plows are also missing in action.  

In the late afternoon I  set out for the nearby residential neighbourhood of Champlain Park. I had to alter my route because of a school bus, stuck in a snowbank. At one point I came to a corner and couldn't turn right or left because of a huge truck and trailer blocking both directions. My only option was to continue along the street, following this excavator as it rumbled along to its next conquest.

This city,  this area, is a madhouse today. As our neighbour said tonight, "With this cold, snow and extreme traffic challenges, you just want to stay inside. " 

Tomorrow is January 31st. Besides being our regular garbage day (Pity those poor drivers),   I suspect it is moving day for the new infill house across from us. That's what we need here - moving trucks!

Infill Housing #10

So, it's a truly wintry day here in Ottawa. This morning it was -38 with the windchill. Frostbite warnings were heard all morning on the radio. And yet, this morning there were guys working at the construction site on our street. Can you imagine having to work in these temperatures?

We were out of town last Friday so we missed the parade of cement trucks all day long, pouring the walls for the "linked" doubles.  In an effort to protect the cement from the approaching weekend snowstorm, the cement was covered in tarps.

On Sunday evening, while sitting in our living room, I kept hearing a strange sound. It was intermittent and resembled fireworks. I finally realized the sounds were coming from the construction site. Strong wind gusts were whipping the plastic tarps around. Here's what the site looks like today.

Yes, someone is going to pay well over a million dollars, for each of these places, built in these conditions!