Preston Street

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by phil235

Special street signs are an excellent idea for unique and well-defined neighbourhoods like Little Italy. We just need to be careful that they are not overdone as in Toronto, where every street now seems to have some sort of designation. I'll buy "the Annex" or "Chinatown", but "the Garden District" at Queen and Church? Really?

I personally don't mind the overdone special signs in Toronto, it shows each community as being distinct.

I think it should also be done in the rural villages (but not the suburban areas except for their town centres and BIAs as it would be too many for a non-distinct area), organized urban and suburban BIAs and specially distinct areas. The colours of the sign and the language of the distinct part would be based on the local community (unilingual English and unilingual French, as well as other languages such as Chinese for Chinatown, should be acceptable), but the font, language and numbering of the main part of the sign would always be unchanged.

Not acceptable would be reflecting the pre-2001 municipalities, except perhaps for Vanier and Rockcliffe Park due to their small size. However, reflecting pre-RMOC historic communities might be acceptable.

[Dado]

Does anyone else find the "Little Italy" sign on the Queensway overpass a bit, I don't know, on the tacky side? It's difficult to read in daylight owing to the lack of consistent background and at night it's illuminated. The font doesn't even seem right to me (compare to the 'Corso Italia' font).






http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/ph...008/story.html

I agree something needs to be done about those overpass faces, but not this.

[Deez]

Originally Posted by Dado

The font doesn't even seem right to me

I have a theory:

[Norman Bates]

Originally Posted by Dado

OMG it looks like Laverne De Fazio designed that sign.

How do you say barf in French?

[Jamaican-Phoenix]

Come on, guys. There's a lot of aspects about Little Italy that are tacky that help make it charming.

[eternallyme]

When that overpass is up for rapid replacement (probably in the next 5 years), they should completely paint the new one green and red.

[RTWAP]

Originally Posted by rodionx

If parking were of critical importance in choosing a place to go at night, then there would be no Market, no Elgin street, no Chinatown.... Everyone from outside the core would just go to a bar in a mall somewhere.

Bottom line is that if a place is cool and appealing, people will find their way to it. And there is always parking, after all - it's just a question of how far you to walk. You'll never get the strip mall, park-at-the-front-door experience downtown. Make a place attractive and people will walk very far indeed. Ask anyone who took their car to Bluesfest.

I really like Preston street, but I've been burned for parking there, and I've never ever had a problem parking within a couple blocks of my destination in either the Market or on Elgin street. There are plenty of on-street options in both those areas, whereas Preston has no parking zones. And (perversely) it also has zones where people are free to park during the day but prohibited from doing so in the evening.

If the O-Train trench wasn't there and street parking was available on west and east of Preston then it wouldn't be a problem.

[RTWAP]

I like it. It looks nice at night.

http://westsideaction.blogspot.com/2...hristmasy.html

[Kitchissippi]

Looks tacky. I doubt it will last long with all the salt spray, vibration and debris from the Queensway. I'm really surprised they went away from the classier sounding "Corso Italia". Little Italy sounds so American.

[harls]

Hmm.. not a fan.

Looks like something you would letter on a baseball jersey.

[rakerman]

Kinda weird. What about that font and style are supposed to read as Italian? Corso Italia would have been better. Although nothing could be as bad as those "we're-a kind-a busy renovatin', have-a nice time" signs with Guido the fat cheerful pizza-making stereotype they had up during the construction.

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by rakerman

Although nothing could be as bad as those "we're-a kind-a busy renovatin', have-a nice time" signs with Guido the fat cheerful pizza-making stereotype they had up during the construction.

Maybe when they rip up the sidewalks in Chinatown, they could one-up those and put up these signs:

[harls]

Anyone else notice they now have signs on the Queensway outside of town for Little Italy and Chinatown, telling you what exit to take and how far, etc..?

The eastern one is near Anderson Rd and there's another right at the Bronson exit. not sure about the west end..

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by harls

Anyone else notice they now have signs on the Queensway outside of town for Little Italy and Chinatown, telling you what exit to take and how far, etc..?

The eastern one is near Anderson Rd and there's another right at the Bronson exit. not sure about the west end..

I don't have anything at all against these two communities and I understand that they want to get the word out and attract visitors.

However, from a highway signage perspective (and also sign clutter prevention), are Ottawa's Chinatown and Little Italy big enough attractions to warrant mentions on the 416 and 417?

I believe there are (or at least were) signs for Parliament Hill that said something like ''Parliament/Parlement via Parkway/Promenade'' on the major highways, but are there signs pointing the way to the museums, most of which would be much bigger draws than Chinatown or Little Italy?

Anyway, good on the neighbourhoods. They did what they had to do - looking out for number one.

[harls]

The signs are pretty small and are red lettering on white, if I remember correctly... you have to be really alert to see them.

They don't look like your standard MTO signage, that's for sure. It's almost as if someone from the Chinatown and Preston Street merchants went out there and pounded the signs in themselves.

I've never seen any signs for the museums on the 417.. off the freeway, sure.. but not on it. The big maple leaf on blue denoting the Scenic route to Parliament is at the Holly Acres exit and at Aviation Parkway, I think.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by harls

I've never seen any signs for the museums on the 417.. off the freeway, sure.. but not on it. The big maple leaf on blue denoting the Scenic route to Parliament is at the Holly Acres exit and at Aviation Parkway, I think.

That's what I seem to recall as well - no signs for the museums on the 417.

As you said, once off the 417 there are signs within the city itself pointing the way to various tourist attractions.

I've always found it funny that since the museum signs only show the type of museum and don't include the words "Museum" or "Musée", there are actually signs all over downtown Ottawa with arrows pointing towards Quebec that apparently lead the way to "Civilization"!

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by Acajack

there are actually signs all over downtown Ottawa with arrows pointing towards Quebec that apparently lead the way to "Civilization"!

and then there are ones that say this way to "War"

[Zach6668]

Originally Posted by harls

Hmm.. not a fan.

Looks like something you would letter on a baseball jersey.

My thoughts exactly.

[J.OT13]

Second archway coming to Preston@Primrose.

ArielTroster (she/her)
@ArielTroster
So great to meet Leo Bortolotti, the engineer who designed the original Little Italy arch 20+ years ago. The @Preston_BIA is working on installing another one on Preston between Albert and Primrose.



11:57 AM · Oct 12, 2023
·
683
Views

https://twitter.com/ArielTroster/sta...154652/photo/1