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Posted: Monday, April 12, 2010
By: Clive Doucet, a writer and an Ottawa City Councillor. His last book was Urban Meltdown: Cities, Climate Change and Politics as Usual. |
This spring a Community Design Plan (CDP) for Old Ottawa East, the neighbourhood surrounding Main Street just east of the Canal, will make its way to City Council for incorporation into Ottawa’s Official Plan. This will mark the latest chapter in a positive transformation which began a few years ago and which will continue in the next few years.
It might be tempting to regard the CDP as just a paper exercise by city planners but it is part of a series of tangible changes re-enforcing each other which the community initiated and continues to champion. This is a story of inspiration and of persistence which I’ve had the honour to part of.
A bit of history is needed to set the context. If you traveled back in time to the 1950s, Main Street and the surrounding neighbourhood of Old Ottawa East had a village air about it. Before the Queensway was built, a narrow railway line crossed community and Main Street was a dead end at the Rideau River because there was no bridge to Smyth yet. It was a neighbourhood where people lived and worked. Residents found most of the things they needed on Main Street and in the neighbourhood. There were bakeries, dairies, a hardware store, a sports store, drugstores, banking, barber shops, gas stations, a small grocery store, a butcher and a variety of other small businesses. There were also industrial employers in the neighbourhood including things like the railroad maintenance yards and gas works. You can further see why the community maintained a village feel when you add to mix three elementary school, one collegiate high school and six churches.
The 1960s were not so kind to Old Ottawa East. The building of the Queensway and widening of Main once the bridge to Smyth was in place provided a near fatal one-two punch to the businesses along Main. The neighbourhood began a slide towards being a bedroom community that people drive through rather than a place that was desirable to remain in.
The slow decline persisted well into the 1990s in spite of the fact that the neighbourhood’s proximity to much of downtown made it a desirable place to live. For what seemed a long while, the only businesses that thrived was a small hub of alternative storefronts like the Green Door restaurant, Singing Pebble Books and the Wheatberry health food store. Meanwhile a number of old storefronts near the corner Main and Hawthorne were mostly vacant.
The fight against the Alta Vista expressway really got people’s attention about how close Old Ottawa East was to becoming a drive-through neighbourhood. Small steps began to be taken.. I was able to get parking back on Main Street with pavement markings and new set back sidewalk in front of Saint Paul University. “A History of Ottawa East” was published.
People began to regard Main Street as having some but success wasn’t guaranteed. It could continue to slide towards a drive-through neighbourhood with fewer local services or it could be a renewal towards a people-friendly, walkable, more complete community.
The movement towards renewal has been multi-pronged in its approach. Some traffic calming measures, some mixed use redevelopments and quite a few creative sustainability initiatives. When was the last time you saw a community association before the City’s Planning Committee advocating for more height and mixed use in their neighbourhood? Old Ottawa East now boasts one of the city’s local farmers markets in the summer. It is a roaring success. Other signs of positive change include all those shopfronts at the corner of Main and Hawthorne being fully occupied now for a couple years and a new nature trail along the Rideau River.
The old fortunes are being reversed and the CDP will help cement the new trend by officially encouraging “traditional main street” development and intensification where the community wants it. More changes are coming to make the community’s aspirations a reality. Main Street is coming due for sewer and water main replacement. This means the streetscape will be rebuilt with wider sidewalks and further traffic calming amenities. Also an Environmental Assessment is beginning this year for a pedestrian and cycling footbridge across the Canal near Clegg and Fifth which will provide better people links to the Glebe.
The changes made and changes coming are fostering community pride and involvement. In these ways a long decline into a drive-by neighbourhood has been arrested and turned into a full-service community which is becoming stronger and more pleasant with each passing year. |
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http://www.clivedoucet.com/
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