By Jordan Tannahill, Ottawa Citizen, June 30, 2017
My wish is for Ottawa over the next 150 years to not grow another inch. I hope, of course, that many more babies are born and people from around the world choose to settle here. But the city already has all the room it needs. In fact, too much room.
Ottawa is 2,778 km² – which makes it larger than the country of Luxembourg. We are, in other words, a city of sprawl.Urban sprawl, and its attendant challenges — commuter culture, pollution, food deserts, infrastructure strain, lifeless communities, higher rates of obesity and mental illness — is one of our great burdens of inheritance from the last 150 years. But we do not have to carry it forward.
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/capital-wishlist-jordan-tannahill-wants-an-end-to-urban-sprawl