By Haillie Cotnam, CBC News Ottawa, September 11, 2016
It's a twist on the tale of the Three Little Pigs: a house made of straw, wood and clay, and yes, it will stand up to strong winds.
Bobby Ilg, an Ottawa architect and part-time design instructor at Algonquin College, is working with a dozen students to build the unique, all-natural house where he plans to live with his family when it's complete.
By Mike Alain and others, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, September 9, 2016
Taxes or tolls, but not both, for the tunnel
Re: Skeptics Balk at Downtown Tunnel, Sept. 8.
So our mayor favours a toll when or if a tunnel is built through Lowertown. Balderdash! If the tunnel is funded by private interests, then by all means charge a toll so they can recoup their investment. It will probably be cheaper and more efficient anyway. If, on the other hand, various levels of government take this on, but cannot afford to operate and maintain it, don’t build it.
By Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen, September 10, 2016
Architect Mark Rosen is hoping that hundreds of strangers will tromp through his beautiful new “passive urban” house this weekend.
The “Wander House,” designed by Rosen for an infill lot on Bayswater Avenue, was completed only a few days ago. It’s one of the buildings open to the public this weekend in the Ottawa Green Energy Doors Open.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, September 9, 2016
A report by an environmental think-tank based at the University of Ottawa calls on cities to adopt separate fees so property owners know exactly how much they’re paying for stormwater infrastructure.
The report by Sustainable Prosperity, which will be released Monday to coincide with the Livable Cities Forum in Halifax, says basing a stormwater fee on property value or water consumption isn’t fair, since they have no relation to how much stormwater is caused by the property. The best method is to charge each property for the amount of stormwater services it uses, the report says.
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, September 9, 2016
There are blue-green algae in the Rideau Canal, sampling by Ontario’s Environment Ministry confirms, and this makes contact with its water potentially dangerous.
The Rideau River is not affected.
Ottawa Public Health has immediately put out guidelines:
By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, September 8, 2016
As Beechwood Avenue undergoes its complete street makeover, shop owners fear the new bike lanes will be bad for business.
The complete street project started this week, with city crews painting bike lanes in both directions from Putman Avenue to Springfield Road and Charlevoix Street and cutting vehicle lanes in half.
The changes will have an impact on Beechwood’s parking, which will drop from 56 spots currently in off-peak hours to only 29.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, September 8, 2016
The city wants to establish its first mountain bike park, even though people have opposed establishing the obstacle course in Carlington Park.
The proposed partnership with the Ottawa Mountain Bike Association has been floated in the community and, according to a vote organized by the community association, most people are fine with an off-road course on the hill. All the obstacles, like jumps, would be created from the natural environment in the park and added in phases.
By Haley Ritchie, Ottawa Metro News, September 8, 2016
A humble petition to keep the Prince of Wales bridge open has morphed into a fully-fledged campaign dedicated to raising its own improvement funds.
The Ottawa Rail Bridge Project, founded by resident Aileen Duncan, plans to crowd-fund $100,000 and lobby government officials of all levels for more money to make the bridge safe and accessible.
By Haley Ritchie, Ottawa Metro News, September 8, 2016
The City of Ottawa is ready to embark on a maple tree spending spree to celebrate Canada’s tree-mendous 150th anniversary.
The “Canada 150 Maple Grove” project will see 150 maple trees planted in each of the city’s 23 municipal wards at a cost of $345,000.
The trees will be planted together in formal groves on public lands which have been selected by councillors and staff, according to forest services manager David Barkley.
By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, September 8, 2016
Calls for mandatory side guards in the wake of last week’s cycling death may fall on deaf ears.
Mayor Jim Watson plans to send a letter to Transportation Minister Marc Garneau calling for more and better cycling safety measures at the national level, including mandating side guards on commercial trucks to prevent pedestrians and cyclists from getting crushed beneath their wheels in a collision.
That’s exactly what happened to 23-year-old Nusrat Jahan, who was killed on the Laurier bike lane last Thursday. She was crushed when a dump truck driver turned right onto Lyon Street in front of her.
By Joanne Chianello, CBC News Ottawa, September 8, 2016
During last fall's federal election campaign, the Liberals promised to boost public transit investment by $6 billion over the next four years.
In March of this year, the Liberals' inaugural budget announced $3.4 billion of that funding would be made available within months. And in April, the federal government told provinces exactly how much money they could expect. The eligibility criteria was released by May.
You'd think that with that kind of heads-up from the feds, the City of Ottawa would have had enough time to sort out its wish list in a sensible, transparent way.
By Giacomo Panico, CBC News Ottawa, September 8, 2016
Hastily installed bike lanes on the new Booth Street bridge in Ottawa are too narrow to meet provincial guidelines, but that's OK — they're not "legally" bike lanes anyway, according to a top city official.
Book 18 of the Ministry of Transportation's Ontario Traffic Manual suggests bike lanes should measure 1.8 metres wide, and no less than 1.5 metres.
But the marked bike lanes on the Booth Street bridge, which opened Sept. 4 after two years of construction, measure on average just one metre wide. At one spot on the west side of the bridge the lane was found to be just 90 centimetres wide, or half the the width recommended in the manual.