By Liz Bernstein and John Borsten, Ottawa Citizen, December 5, 2020
The ByWard Market is Canada’s oldest continuous outdoor market, a cultural and heritage space and a major tourist attraction. And as we have seen this past year, its streets, sidewalks, parks and plazas make the ByWard Market a people-gathering place, even during a pandemic.
Next week, on Dec. 9, the ByWard Market Public Realm Plan will be presented to city council for approval. The plan aims to revitalize outdoor spaces in the ByWard Market and has the support of business, health, community and environment leaders across Ottawa.
The ByWard Market Public Realm Plan reimagines the market to include wide pedestrian promenades, focal points for outdoor festival spaces and comprehensive tree-planting.
(...)The plan’s vision is a green one and aims to move the ByWard Market from a car-based space to one that is pedestrian-friendly, where active transportation – walking and cycling – is prioritized. The plan also calls for the planting of hundreds more trees with the goal of having 30-per-cent tree cover in the ByWard Market. Although a 40-per-cent tree cover goal is what is needed across the city, rethinking how we build neighbourhoods to make them greener and accessible to all is what this plan does. The ByWard Market Public Realm Plan moves the city in the right green direction.
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/bernstein-and-borsten-plan-for-the-byward-market-moves-us-in-the-right-green-direction