By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, November 20, 2015
The Société de transport de l’Outaouais is closing the Pont Noir across the Gatineau River this weekend for urgent repairs to cracked concrete.
The bridge is part of the Rapibus corridor. The work was scheduled to take from Friday evening until Monday morning and buses will be rerouted.
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, November 20, 2015
A row of trees near the Rockcliffe Yacht Club was close enough to the Ottawa River to attract beavers.
Reader André Audette took the picture, and noted that the beavers can take down trees faster than a National Capital Commission crew clearing dead ashes.
His photo clearly shows the bite marks left in the trunks by the beaver’s powerful jaws.
By Eric Jones, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, November 18, 2015
Re: Experimental Farm advocates hope Liberals reverse plan to give land to new Civic hospital, Nov. 14.
It might seem that the siting question is a choice between a hospital and a research farm — the Civic campus of The Ottawa Hospital and the Central Experimental Farm — but it is not.
Both can be located in this city if there is interest in a solution.
By Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen, November 19, 2015
Uber and the union local representing Ottawa taxi drivers have responded to a policy paper — produced as part of a review of the city’s struggling taxi industry — that lays out three possible strategies.
Commissioned by the city from KPMG, the policy paper sums up three options as heavily-regulated taxi drivers try to compete with new hailing technologies. The three strategies are “not mutually exclusive,” and the city could choose to adopt more than one, noted KPMG.
The Citizen asked Uber Canada spokesman Xavier Van Chau and Amrik Singh, president of Unifor 1688, which represents Ottawa cab drivers, for their comments on the options:
By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, November 19, 2015
As the National Capital Commission prepares to develop a new environmental strategy in 2016, it is falling short — critically so, in some cases — on four of the five priority objectives of its current strategy.
The strategy, called Building a Greener Capital, was approved in 2009. It lists five key action areas, each with one priority objective and several secondary targets.
According to the NCC’s annual environment report, released this week, only one of the priority objectives has been achieved, and the other four are either behind schedule or simply won’t be met. The NCC is faring better with its secondary targets, with only three of 18 not on track or already achieved.
By Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen, November 19, 2015
The plan to develop one of Ottawa’s largest remaining urban properties is on the cusp of final approval now that the city’s planning staff is arguing in favour of the zoning amendments for the former Oblate lands.
The 26-acre property at 175 Main St. – known as Greystone Village – was once owned by the Oblate religious order. It is the biggest piece of land available in the city after LeBreton Flats and the former CFB Rockcliffe. Eventually, 916 residential units will be built on the land, with some buildings as high as six storeys.
By Steph Willems, Ottawa Community News, November 17, 2015
Ottawa’s past met its future at Chaudiere Falls on the morning of Nov. 16, as officials from the city, province, and Hydro Ottawa celebrated the beginning of the city’s largest green energy project to date.
Earth movers busily scoured away bedrock at the site of the future 29-megawatt hydroelectric generation facility, located just a couple hundred metres from the country’s oldest hydro facility.Tapping into the energy of the falls – the geographic feature that first brought industry and eventually electricity to the fledgling settlement of Bytown two centuries ago – the generating facility will produce enough electricity to power 20,000 homes.
By Kristy Nease, CBC News Ottawa, November 18, 2015
A preliminary plan for a permanent national monument in Ottawa for downed cyclists, which would also serve to honour the joy and spirit of cycling, could be ready in about six months, according to the city councillor assisting with the privately funded initiative.
David Chernushenko city Ottawa Lakeside complaints shuttle buses Aug 5 2014Coun. David Chernushenko says he's been working on the idea of a national memorial to downed cyclists with the family of Danielle Naçu, who was killed while riding her bike in downtown Ottawa in 2011. (CBC)So far, the planned site is a patch of unused green space between Bronson Avenue and Bronson Place off Colonel By Drive, which Coun. David Chernushenko identified in his ward.
By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, November 18, 2015
Ottawa gets a B-minus in a rating by the C.D. Howe Institute that tries to assess how comprehensible the finances are in municipalities across Canada.
It’s not a fabulous score but it’s one of the better ones — only Niagara and Surrey got higher marks. And it’s artificially pushed down by the fact city council passed its 2015 budget in March, well into the fiscal year, because of the election in fall 2014. Had that not been the case, Ottawa would have had a solid B.
By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, November 18, 2015
The National Capital Commission will unveil four competing proposals for the redevelopment of part of LeBreton Flats at a public consultation in late January.
The Jan. 26 presentation will kick off two days of public consultations at the Canadian War Museum on the proposals to develop a 9.3-hectare site near the museum by Claridge Homes, Devcore Group, Focus Equities and the Rendez Vous LeBreton Group, whose plan includes a new downtown hockey arena.
By Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen, November 18, 2015
A policy paper produced as part of Ottawa’s taxi industry review has laid out three possible strategies to navigate a complicated and quickly-shifting taxi landscape.
Commissioned by the city from KPMG, the policy paper sums up three options as the industry struggles to cope with new hailing technologies such as Uber that are making getting a ride cheaper for customers but more difficult for taxi drivers to compete. The three strategies are “not mutually exclusive,” and the city could choose to adopt more than one., said KPMG.
By Jonathan McLeod, Ottawa Citizen, November 16, 2015
It’s a sad irony that while city council was contemplating the fate of ghost bikes, the son-in-law of a former councillor was in a collision while riding his bike. It’d be easy to try to use the collision in the fight for ghost bikes, but it’d be wrong. City council rubber-stamping roadside memorials would do nothing for safety. The two are not linked, but they are connected. Collisions and antipathy towards ghost bikes are both the products of a political machine that continuously values life less than traffic flow and bookkeeping.
It is time for this to end. It is time for Ottawa to adopt the philosophy of Vision Zero.
At its core, Vision Zero is about two things: valuing life and bringing responsibility back to our streets. We should accept no more than zero deaths and zero serious injuries on our streets. This will require a shift in infrastructure, enforcement and education, and it will require empathy and humility.