By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, February 24, 2014
OTTAWA — Tunnelling operations at the eastern end of the light-rail transit tunnel near the University of Ottawa are still on hold, days after a large sinkhole opened up on Waller Street.
A section of road about three metres by three metres collapsed at about 1 a.m. Friday just south of Laurier.
By Neco Cockburn, Ottawa Citizen, February 24, 2014
OTTAWA — Upgrades and weather sealing at one of Carleton University’s buildings are expected to result in annual savings of $120,000 as the university rolls out a larger strategy aimed at reducing energy and water use as well as waste.
The university cut 242 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from its Robertson Hall administrative building last year through weather sealing and by upgrading water fixtures, heating, lighting, ventilation and air conditioning, it announced Monday.
By François Bregha, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, February 22, 2014
Yes, in many cases, the conversion of large houses into smaller apartments can benefit a community by preserving the built heritage and providing affordable housing to individuals.
But this is no longer what is happening in neighbourhoods such as Sandy Hill. In too many cases, the houses being converted are not big century-old houses but ordinary houses with two or three bedrooms. Developers may keep the building and add bedrooms by walling off a dining room or a living room or, until council imposed a temporary freeze, may gut the house, build an addition at the back, add a storey on top and transform what had previously been a two-or three-storey, single-family home into a building of four apartments with five or six bedrooms each. Several such "bunkhouses" have already been built. It is difficult to argue how squeezing 20 short-term residents into a building that looms over neighbouring back yards, with the attendant parking, noise, garbage and privacy issues, benefits anyone except the developer.
By Patrick Langston, Ottawa Citizen, February 20, 2014
OTTAWA — Canadians’ soaring interest in eating organically combined with our plummeting amount of free time is giving a boost to an Ottawa-area start-up.
Doorstep Organics (doorsteporganics.ca), an online business opened in early 2013 by the husband-and-wife team of Kate and Mike McGlade, delivers organic food and other products to your door. Other companies, including Eat Well Ottawa, gdfd2u.ca (good food to you) and Ottawa Organics and Natural Foods, do the same, but offer only pre-set baskets of goods.
By Ottawa Citizen, The Week Ahead, February 22, 2014
Thursday, Feb. 27
It’s Let’s Talk Energy week at the Canada Science and Technology Museum, with events planned all week, including safely observing the sun using solar telescopes and learning about how much energy we use, and produce. sciencetech.technomuses.ca
By Jinna Kim, Ottawa Citizen, February 21, 2014
Working in a dark, dingy and crammed basement of a community building doesn’t exactly radiate
inspiration. But for EcoEquitable, a clothing repair co-operative, those days are over.
The non-profit organization, which teaches immigrant and marginalized women how to sew and to use those skills to help them gain entry into the workforce, has relocated from its Sandy Hill home to a sunny new space in Vanier. On Thursday night, Heartwood House, a charitable organization that provides support to 18 non-profit organizations, including EcoEquitable, held a festive launch party at 404 McArthur Ave., with speeches, tours of the boutique and a mini fashion show.
By Sheila Brady, Ottawa Citizen, February 20, 2014
OTTAWA — Joe Tratch is a scrappy leader in the surging campaign to reface Ottawa’s older neighbourhoods.
Politicians and planners call it urban intensification, but this Brazilian-born single dad, who grew up on Loretta Street near Little Italy, calls it a long-brewing passion.
By Alison Sandor, CFRA News, February 21, 2014
The pooling rain is proving to be too much for city crews.
They haven't been able to clear all of the city's catch basins to prevent flooding on the streets.
"There are just too many catch basins," said Kevin Wylie, the city's manager of roads and traffic operations. "We've got over 80,000 catch basins in the city, so we know all the hot spots. We know where we usually get problems and we deal with with all our main streets, our arterial streets, our bus runs first, but there's just too much to take care of all at once."
By David Reevely and Meaghan Hurley, Ottawa Citizen, February 21, 2014
OTTAWA — Tunnelling under Waller Street for the city’s light-rail project is the only explanation anyone has yet for why a sinkhole opened up near the intersection of Waller and Laurier Avenue, deputy city manager Nancy Schepers said Friday afternoon.
A section of road about three metres by three metres collapsed around 1 a.m. just south of Laurier. Waller is closed there for the rail project and isn’t travelled, though the city closed the nearby intersection while the cause of the collapse is investigated.
By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, February 21, 2014
OTTAWA — The city’s planners short-circuited public consultations and supported a developer’s plans to build two highrise towers in northwestern Westboro for no obvious reason, a devastating new Ontario Municipal Board ruling says.
In at least this specific case, according to the board, the city’s urban planning department did exactly what its critics accuse it of doing all the time: ignoring residents’ concerns and changing the rules to suit whatever builders want, pretending a major new project in a delicate neighbourhood could happen with just a technical tweak.