Is Ottawa the City that Fun Forgot?

[phil235]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Urbanism lends itself to better public spaces. And in turn better use of public spaces.

Suburbanites don't insist on town squares being built. Because they won't use them outside some official event where they drive to them.

Consider old towns in Europe or new cities in Asia? What do they all have in common? An appreciation of the public realm and most of all decent public spaces where the city actually lives. Pedestrian streets for shopping. Squares with restaurants on the edges that have patio tables out front. Night markets full of goodies.

Lively cities don't need a special annual event to close roads. They have areas where they never built allowed cars to begin with. And they have areas where they go out of their way to enable public life.

What I would do:

1) Murray-Dalhousie-Sussex-Rideau. I would pedestrianize the entire area inside that box. Not even parking. Traffic only those streets. Nothing inside the box.

2) Tax breaks for anybody that wants to open a restaurant on Sparks.

3) Car free weekends on Bank and Elgin in the core, on weekends.

4) Free transit on weekends or some kind of really reduced fare.

5) Mandate the development of town squares in malls that get redeveloped so that they have a space to have Farmers markets, neighbourhood concerts, etc

6) Develop more public amenities on the canal. Why isn't there something like Tavern on the Hill along the canal? I get the desire to be green and all. But no reason the whole canal has to be that way.

7) Heck, start something under the bridges downtown. Restaurants, bars, music stands. Something. So they aren't filled with homeless taking shelter.

Ottawa can't be Toronto or Montreal. But it can be better than it is now. And I'm a firm believer that when you give the public decent public spaces, they use them.

I don’t think I disagree with a single one of these suggestions. And several of them would be very easy to do. It would be nice if the City had a group dedicated to trying these sorts of ideas on a pilot basis.