By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, February 8, 2017
Ottawa’s suburbs are getting downtown density but without the mix of housing and shopping that usually makes for lively neighbourhoods, according to numbers in a new city report.
The suburbs are getting more duplexes and townhouses, smaller detached houses, and even apartments. But there are fewer places to buy milk or headache pills or a birthday card — and still hardly anywhere it’s easy to walk or bike to, which is worrying if we’re at all serious about building a city where you don’t have to drive to do everything. The city government is very conscious of preserving corner stores in downtown neighbourhoods, having realized a bit late that zoning rules aimed at wiping them out were bad, but it’s not getting them included in new neighbourhoods being built from scratch.
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/reevely-ottawas-suburbs-are-getting-a-lot-denser-but-a-lot-less-varied