Roads/Bridges projects/issues

[Richard Eade]

In other words; Ask the Province to help pay for a worthwhile project – then arbitrarily defer that project, and switch the money to a bunch of cosmetic and subjective ideas to fritter away the funds – never to have money again for that initial worthwhile project.

Of course, this all stems from the City dithering about actually doing something meaningful about the By-Ward Market. The current ‘plan’ to tear down a parking structure and replace it with an arts & craft building needs work. The removal of parking spaces is crazy, if The Market is supposed to attract customers from the entire region. Creating a Food Hall/Court may be helpful, in some respects, but is it enough of a draw to pull people from Orleans and Kanata downtown? I think that the City needs to think BIGGER.

A holistic plan needs to be created, with a vision of what The Market area will be like in 25 years. Seriously, adding more lighting to The Underpass is not likely to make it feel any safer for most people trying to get across the ramp and Colonel By. Then when they get into The Market area, they need to contend with all the traffic. And for what? A few stalls that they could probably find more local to their home on any Saturday?

I remember a time that the complaint about The Market area was that it was TOO CROWDED with revelers in the evenings/nights – so the City fixed that problem. It’s much less ‘lively’ at night now. But, hey, rebranding and way-finding signs will fix it again.