Ottawa: vibrant, exciting and alive?

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by bikegypsy

Vancouver pales in comparison with others on this list.. it is so different than the others. It's much much smaller, quieter and is an outdoors city while the other are true bustling megapolises which function 24hours a day.



Most events are over at 3am. Some stores in some areas are open. The metro runs but not on its full schedule.

Having said that, Nuits Blanches -- a copy of the event in Paris -- is a lot of fun and i believe is the city's best festival, despite not being original to the city.


Depends what you want. Everyone is different and want different things. I chose Montreal only to realise it was too small for what I wanted to do. I loved it at first but eventually got bored of the attitude "we're the best and the rest is shit". Montreal can't walk the talk. Period. It doens't mean it's dull, it means it talks too much.

I actually spent a few years going back and forth and enjoyed both for various reasons. I love the Market in Ottawa and love Outremont and le Plateau in Montreal. I love that aspect of Ott where everything is yet to be done and always appreciated the vibrant cultural scene in Mtl.

I work in the creative field (was employed in downtown Montreal as a creative director for an ad agency). Had to act and dress a certain way and had to listen to bullshit (rara) talk of epic proportions. Montrealers secretelly want to be Parisians or New Yorkers.

Meanwhile, my colleagues in NY acted normally, dressed as they wished and just got down to business. They would praise Manhattan for its sense of freedom, that it accepted all and cherished all.

True world class cities don't need to try so hard. They don;t need a ton of pre-packaged/sponsored to death events and certainly don't need to continuously justify themselves. New Yorkers don't try to make Bostonians or Washingtonians feel like crap.

Generally speaking Ottawans are just tired of being bashed on. Yes, Montreal is fun. But it is small and quiet compared to NY and Tokyo.

Ottawa is good and getting better and most of all, it doesn't pretend to be anything else but Ottawa. It doesn't yearn to be a copy of Paris, New York, Houston or Hong Kong.

For sure, Toronto also started the festival. But like someone mentioned, there is nothing wrong about doing some other city is doing, if it works here and is sucessful.

But I agree with the Paris comment, every city likes to emulate another. Toronto wants to be New York. I would definitely move to Paris given the opportunity, though the extreme socialism there could bother me.

I didn't like London much, and loathed Brussels.


Ottawa gets bashed because of people that don't want the city to come a big city. A big city has infrastructures, activities, mindset of what it makes it a big city.


Small city mindset:
I will never get over the fact that there was no transit service for nearly two months.

[reidjr]

Ottawa is a good city and is fun some times i think people are just expecting way to much.There is alot of events in ottawa and at times i think some even in ottawa don't know how much there really is to do in the city.I am not sure if i would go as far sas saying toronto is cultural capital you look at the events and shows in ottawa and toronto and its very close.

[bikegypsy]

[QUOTE=d_jeffrey;4702116]
Ottawa gets bashed because of people that don't want the city to come a big city. A big city has infrastructures, activities, mindset of what it makes it a big city.


Small city mindset:
QUOTE]

So true. It will happen whether they like it or not. It's a slow grueling process for this city, like a series of trips to the dentist. Nothing is ever easy in Ott, but it will get there.

[cityguy]

That's the problem,Ottawa needs a city hall with a vision,helping to make our city more dynamic.

[reidjr]

Again where does this idea of the nac only having a few shows come from.Lets take the nac just to start there are shows on almost every night some of the biggest names on broadway come to the nac.Then look around the city at all the other thearters each year there is a ton of shows in ottawa.Then look at all the festivals and some very good ones.Then look at the museums/concerts etc i can go on the fact is ottawa is anything but lacking in this area.Then out side of the arts and culture scene there is aslo tons to do from walking along the cabnal to shopping and again the list goes on.Is ottawa perfect no but it is not a bad city and is not nearly as boring as some make it out to be.Ottawa is not trying to cope any other city the same can not be said about citys like toronto.Who yes some would say are trying to copy ny in return making things worse.

[lrt's friend]

I will say that Ottawa has come a long, long way in my lifetime. We shouldn't be comparing ourselves with cities 3 or 10 times our size. We shouldn't be comparing ourselves with cities from a completely different culture. We need Ottawa to become more vibrant in its own way. We need to encourage creative people to bring us new exciting things to do. We need to keep the NIMBYs under reasonable control so that they don't kill every new idea. We need a City Council with a little vision and willingness to get things done. We have to make sure that our politicians don't make terrible decisions such as the Rideau Street bus mall that we are still recovering from after 25 years. We need a rapid transit system that actually reaches the people instead of a bunch of highway interchanges. This is absolutely necessary in order to draw people downtown and make it the lively place that everybody wants.

[lrt's friend]

I remember my trip to Amsterdam. A great city with its history and canals. Its tramways and bicycle lanes made access to downtown easy and the streets were buzzing. Part of this was because of the density. It was the place to be, for shopping and whatever else. What Amsterdam did not have was the variety of immigration, which has enormously enriched Ottawa in the last generation. This greatly affects the dining choices.

I think inner city density affects how vibrant it is. Ottawa was only a small city when the automobile came on the scene. This is especially the case when comparing us with Toronto and the even older Montreal. People in dense neighbourhoods tend to spill out onto the streets and enjoy the culture of the city. The suburban lifestyle is entrenched on a more widespread basis in Ottawa, so instead of hitting the streets, we hop in the car and head for the nearest shopping centre and then retreat back to our suburban bunkers. This widespread suburban culture also affects the friendliness of the citizens.

This suburban culture can only be slowly changed with increasing density in the inner neighbourhoods and by providing broader access to high quality transit.

[Mille Sabords]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I remember my trip to Amsterdam. A great city with its history and canals. Its tramways and bicycle lanes made access to downtown easy and the streets were buzzing. Part of this was because of the density. It was the place to be, for shopping and whatever else. What Amsterdam did not have was the variety of immigration, which has enormously enriched Ottawa in the last generation. This greatly affects the dining choices.

I think inner city density affects how vibrant it is. Ottawa was only a small city when the automobile came on the scene. This is especially the case when comparing us with Toronto and the even older Montreal. People in dense neighbourhoods tend to spill out onto the streets and enjoy the culture of the city. The suburban lifestyle is entrenched on a more widespread basis in Ottawa, so instead of hitting the streets, we hop in the car and head for the nearest shopping centre and then retreat back to our suburban bunkers. This widespread suburban culture also affects the friendliness of the citizens.

This suburban culture can only be slowly changed with increasing density in the inner neighbourhoods and by providing broader access to high quality transit.

Very true. The more a city densifies, the more it will have that natural instinct to grow a street life.

I know Amsterdam well. The streets aren't the only thing buzzing, by the way, which is another factor (like it or no) that makes Amsterdam such a unique place. Its name is equated with freedom and easy-going hedonism.

[RTWAP]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I remember my trip to Amsterdam. A great city with its history and canals. Its tramways and bicycle lanes made access to downtown easy and the streets were buzzing. Part of this was because of the density. It was the place to be, for shopping and whatever else. What Amsterdam did not have was the variety of immigration, which has enormously enriched Ottawa in the last generation. This greatly affects the dining choices.

I think inner city density affects how vibrant it is. Ottawa was only a small city when the automobile came on the scene. This is especially the case when comparing us with Toronto and the even older Montreal. People in dense neighbourhoods tend to spill out onto the streets and enjoy the culture of the city. The suburban lifestyle is entrenched on a more widespread basis in Ottawa, so instead of hitting the streets, we hop in the car and head for the nearest shopping centre and then retreat back to our suburban bunkers. This widespread suburban culture also affects the friendliness of the citizens.

This suburban culture can only be slowly changed with increasing density in the inner neighbourhoods and by providing broader access to high quality transit.

Excellent points.

[SHiRO]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I remember my trip to Amsterdam. A great city with its history and canals. Its tramways and bicycle lanes made access to downtown easy and the streets were buzzing. Part of this was because of the density. It was the place to be, for shopping and whatever else. What Amsterdam did not have was the variety of immigration, which has enormously enriched Ottawa in the last generation. This greatly affects the dining choices.

Sorry what?!

Amsterdam is FAR more diverse than Ottawa! It has 30% foreign born, which is comparable to cities like Sydney and New York. Ottawa is at something like 22%.
Over half (that's 50%) of people are of an ethnic minority and in a recent study Amsterdam was said to have the highest number of different nationalities by passport (177, New York was at 150).
Frankly, your claim is ludicrous, as Amsterdam is also a heavy tourism city with over 8 million visitors a year, so walking the streets of central Amsterdam you probably see that 70% of people are of non ethnic Dutch origen.

Lastly, you as a tourist not being able to find good restaurants is hardly surprising. In reality Amsterdam probably comes only after London, Paris and perhaps Brussels in variety of choices in Europe. It is bound to have more variety and on average higher quality than Ottawa (how many Michellin stars?), which I'm sure is a nice enough town...

[waterloowarrior]

Originally Posted by SHiRO

Lastly, you as a tourist not being able to find good restaurants is hardly surprising. In reality Amsterdam probably comes only after London, Paris and perhaps Brussels in variety of choices in Europe. It is bound to have more variety and on average higher quality than Ottawa (how many Michellin stars?), which I'm sure is a nice enough town...

Michelin hasn't published any of their restaurant guides for cities in Canada, they don't really have much coverage in North America yet.

Maybe lrt's friend was looking in the wrong place... Amsterdam has plenty of dining choices available


wikitravel (we need some of these machines in Ottawa!)

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by SHiRO

Sorry what?!

Amsterdam is FAR more diverse than Ottawa! It has 30% foreign born, which is comparable to cities like Sydney and New York. Ottawa is at something like 22%.
Over half (that's 50%) of people are of an ethnic minority and in a recent study Amsterdam was said to have the highest number of different nationalities by passport (177, New York was at 150).
Frankly, your claim is ludicrous, as Amsterdam is also a heavy tourism city with over 8 million visitors a year, so walking the streets of central Amsterdam you probably see that 70% of people are of non ethnic Dutch origen.

Lastly, you as a tourist not being able to find good restaurants is hardly surprising. In reality Amsterdam probably comes only after London, Paris and perhaps Brussels in variety of choices in Europe. It is bound to have more variety and on average higher quality than Ottawa (how many Michellin stars?), which I'm sure is a nice enough town...

My comment had nothing to do with the quality of restaurants. Obviously, great European cities offer a greater choice of excellent restaurants. My comment ties the diversity of immigration with the diversity of ethnic dining choices and this has exploded in Ottawa in the last generation. No doubt, Amsterdam has diversified since I was there with increasing EU open border policies but Indonesian was the dominant ethnic cuisine when I was there as I recall.

[BlueJay]

An excellent article comparing Ottawa to Vancouver by Ken Grey, Ottawa Citizen.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/...422/story.html

[Mille Sabords]

Originally Posted by BlueJay

An excellent article comparing Ottawa to Vancouver by Ken Grey, Ottawa Citizen.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/...422/story.html

I thought it was a terrible article. A half-hearted, trying-to-be-funny piece of grumpiana that the Citizen produces as part of its duty to some of its readers. I thought the piece lacked imagination, laced focus other than to rightly point out a certain ambition deficit, the comparisons are bizarre and irrelevant... a very junior piece from one of the Citizen's senior guys. Big let down. He could've done so much more with the theme.

[SHiRO]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

My comment had nothing to do with the quality of restaurants. Obviously, great European cities offer a greater choice of excellent restaurants. My comment ties the diversity of immigration with the diversity of ethnic dining choices and this has exploded in Ottawa in the last generation. No doubt, Amsterdam has diversified since I was there with increasing EU open border policies but Indonesian was the dominant ethnic cuisine when I was there as I recall.

There's no doubt in my mind that Amsterdam has 1. more immigrants (relative and absolute) 2. more diverse groups of immigrants 3. more restaurants 4. greater variety of restaurants.

There is no dominant ethnic cuisine in Amsterdam, sure you'll find many Asian restaurants (Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, Japanese, Indian, etc), but the variety is enormous. Like I said, second only (in Europe) to London, Paris and perhaps Brussels. If you think Ottawa can compete with this I'd like to see your arguments...

[reidjr]

Originally Posted by SHiRO

There's no doubt in my mind that Amsterdam has 1. more immigrants (relative and absolute) 2. more diverse groups of immigrants 3. more restaurants 4. greater variety of restaurants.

There is no dominant ethnic cuisine in Amsterdam, sure you'll find many Asian restaurants (Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, Japanese, Indian, etc), but the variety is enormous. Like I said, second only (in Europe) to London, Paris and perhaps Brussels. If you think Ottawa can compete with this I'd like to see your arguments...

I don't think anyone is saying that at all.What some are saying si ottawa resturant selection is very good and can challenge places like toronto etc.

[lrt's friend]

The bigger disappointment is the mayor who claimed that Ottawa would have a swagger under his leadership. We ended up with no leadership at all.

To be honest, although the article could have been better written, it reflects my sentiments that Vancouver is doing exciting things and Ottawa is not.

[reidjr]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

The bigger disappointment is the mayor who claimed that Ottawa would have a swagger under his leadership. We ended up with no leadership at all.

To be honest, although the article could have been better written, it reflects my sentiments that Vancouver is doing exciting things and Ottawa is not.

How is vancouver doing exciting things and ottawa is not.

[flar]

Right now, Vancouver is hosting the Olympics.

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by flar

Right now, Vancouver is hosting the Olympics.

I actually spilled my juice on my keyboard.