By Michelle Nash Baker, Ottawa Community News, July 18, 2017
Cummings Park is getting an update and before the plans are made, the councillor wants to hear from you.
Cummings Park was built in 1996 and is part of the city’s park life cycle renewal program in 2018.
Before the work starts, Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Tobi Nussbaum is inviting residents interested in helping shape the designs of the new park to submit their ideas.
By CBC News Ottawa, July 17, 2017
What started as a short walk along the creek near Harry Nowell's west Quebec home in 2001 has turned into a passion project with no end in sight.
Nowell says he's photographed about 20 kilometres of Chelsea Creek, and he's built a 23-kilogram camera out of plywood and fabric to do it with.
(...)Nowell said he's drawn to how the creek shapes the landscape as it runs from the Camp Fortune area to near the Alonzo Wright bridge over the Gatineau River.
He said the little waterway's power can be quietly deceptive.
By the Editor, Ottawa Citizen, July 17, 2017
It’s just a few seconds of YouTube footage, but it’s harrowing. The dashboard camera in Nick Fleury’s car captures the horrifying moment when a cyclist pedalling through a red light is smacked by a car at the intersection of Lyon Street and Laurier Avenue. The impact flings the bike clear across the intersection; its rider bounces off the car’s hood and, miraculously, rises to his feet.
The cyclist reportedly was not seriously injured, nor were the occupants of the car that accidentally whacked him. He was charged with a traffic violation. But this could have been much worse: for example, the video shows a transport truck parked in the same lane near the accident site. Does anyone doubt what the outcome would have been if that vehicle had accidentally struck the red-light-running cyclist?
By Nancy Biggs and others, Ottawa Citizen letters to the Editor, July 18, 2017
Let’s all be more considerate on the road
Re: A lesson to cyclists, July 18.
A lesson to all road users is drive, cycle and walk using common sense and common courtesy, and obey the rules of the road. The good news is no one was injured, which would have been unlikely if it had been the car running the red light, rather than the cyclist.
Current police reports on crashes between motorists and cyclists on Laurier Avenue show motorists were not following the rules of the road 89 per cent of the time while cyclists were driving properly 94 per cent of the time. This is consistent with data collected in other Canadian cities. It’s important to recognize this.
By the Citizen, July 18, 2017
TILLSONBURG — Siemens Canada is closing its wind-turbine plant here, slashing more than 340 jobs and shuttering one of the town’s largest employers.
The closing, announced by the company Tuesday, comes after weeks of nervous speculation and one day of public debate over the factory, which was locked to employees Sunday night.Its 340 employees were called to a meeting with the company Tuesday.
“This was a very difficult decision that was taken only after assessing all the options,” said David Hickey, head of Siemens Gamesa Business in Canada. “We have a great team of employees at the plant who have produced quality work for the last six years, and we sincerely appreciate their efforts.”
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, July 17, 2017
Uber drivers in Ottawa can now get tipped through the smartphone application.
The international ride-ordering company turned on the tipping option Monday for rides in the capital.
As Uber says, “Tipping is up to you; it’s completely optional, but always appreciated.”
By Alex Abdelwahab, Ottawa Metro News, July 16, 2017
The cities of Ottawa and Gatineau have released the membership of the new Joint Transportation Working Group originally announced back in May.
The working group was announced as part of a memorandum of understanding signed by the Gatineau Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, and the heads of Société de Transport de l’Outaouais (STO) and OC Transpo on May 26.Its mandate will be to study and make recommendations on questions related to interprovincial transportation projects on both sides of the Ottawa River, according to a release.
By CTV News Ottawa, July 15, 2017
Those in the ByWard Market will notice two new large murals have popped up – both visible from Dalhousie St.One of the murals sits between St. Patrick Street and Guigues Avenue, painted on the back of a funeral services building in a parking lot. The painting is being created by a group of local artists hired to beautify the Market.
“Mural work is a way to give life to a particular part of town. It’s a cheap, effective way to liven up an area,” said Juan Carlos Noria, an artist hired to paint the mural.
By CBC News Ottawa, July 15, 2017
As a parent, you're told a lot of things about car seats for kids. How to use the anchoring system, how to pinch the webbing of the harness to ensure it's tight enough, how to make sure the chest clip is exactly at the armpit level.
But one thing parents are unsure of is how to properly dispose of broken or expired car seats. Two Ontario organizations have banded together to find a home for those old seats.
By Trevor Pritchard, CBC News Ottawa, July 16, 2017
This year's heavier-than-normal rainfall has washed out plans for a new farmers market in Stittsville — but organizers say they hope to have it up and running next year.
Earlier this month, the Ottawa Farmers' Market Association decided to hold off on launching the market this summer, after they couldn't find enough fruit and vegetable farmers willing to rent stalls.
By Ryan Tumilty, Ottawa Metro News, July 12, 2017
The O-Train line of the future will be a more reliable one, city officials say,The train was taken out of service on both Tuesday and Wednesday this week for relatively brief periods of time, but it was also shut for nearly two weeks in June and taken offline three times in the month of May, according to the @OCTranspoLive Twitter account. Metro has set up a database to track that account.
Michael Morgan, director of the city’s rail construction program, said that when the city expands the line with the Phase 2 LRT expansion, many of those issues should be addressed.
By Alex Abdelwahab, Ottawa Metro News, July 13, 2017
A common joke in Ottawa has it that the city has only two seasons: winter and construction.
Data from the city’s records of monthly service requests sheds some light on why that may be: calls about “road travelled surface,” (potholes, essentially) add up to the city’s biggest complaint, by far, in almost every ward.
Ottawa residents made 24,658 road-surface-related calls between January and June of this year. That’s more than three times as many as the 7,908 requests for pickup of “organics,” the second most common call, city-wide.