Ken Gray takes Algonquin students to task today because so many of them choose to drive to that somewhat dreary suburban campus at Baseline and Woodruffe, rather than take a bus: One of the biggest complaints at the college is not the lack of student common space, to be remedied by a new $52-million building, but the fact there isn't enough parking. So the students stuff the side streets with their cars, fill the Park-and-Ride lot cutting down the number of people who can jump from car to bus, and take ...

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="New "more urban" Ottawa marathon course"][/caption] In a news release today, the people behind Ottawa's race weekend are talking up their new "more urban" routings, rightly sensing that a course through Ottawa's visually appealing main street districts is a lot more interesting for contestants and supporters alike than the usual windswept southbound routing through the Experimental Farm. The real innovation is the main marathon's sweep west, though Chinatown -- and underneath its magnificent Royal Arch -- through West Wellington and ultimately through Westboro before returning east via the Ottawa River Parkway. The three ...

[flickrslideshow acct_name="spacing" id="72157625981981811"] __________________ The above images were posted recently by Kathryn Hunt on her Incidental Cyclist blog. Kathryn is an all-season cyclist and in the winter months she often documents the challenges and hazards of staying on two wheels in the slush and the ice. As thaws come and go, by February a new cycling hazard appears -- the kind of tire-flattening, rim-bending potholes seen in the pictures above. Looking at them something becomes clear - a hell of a lot of potholes appear in the curb side lane, close in to the sidewalk, near the gutter drains. That's where you would expect the freeze-and-thaw cause of potholes to be at the worst, of course. The cracks nearest the drains fill with water which turns to ice and pries them further apart, the next thaw attracts more meltwater, and the next freeze opens the cracks even wider. So why do we engineer our streets to drain to the curb, where the potholes are most likely to create serious hazards for cyclists and the puddles they contain are most likely to splash all over pedestrians? Basically, that's what West Side Action's Eric Darwin was asking last fall, with this post:

What amazes me about this vintage video, shot in Dundonald Park, is just how little the buildings in the background have changed in the ensuing 23 years. I walk past this corner several times a week, and other than the boxy tuna-boat Fords and Chevies cruising along Somerset -- and the old-style "Brewer's Retail" beer-store signage -- this really looks as if it could have been filmed last summer, from one end of the camera's pan to the other. I'd almost swear the plastic playground furniture is still the same, though ...

[caption id="attachment_4855" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Was it really worth all the work?"][/caption] Recently the builders of the Central -- a block of condos going in at the corner of Bank and Gladstone --re-installed the preserved facade of the the old Metropolitan Bible Church that they had torn down to make room for their development. Passers-by gave some feedback to the Citizen reporter covering the re-installation, and reading what they had to say got me thinking about what I'd have told the journalist if asked. I've been going by the site at lunch hour for months ...

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="598" caption="Ottawa the lush and tropical getaway: we just have to wait for it "][/caption] Following up on the previous post, below are my original notes for "best public space in Ottawa" the multi-part piece Maria Cook put together for an end-of-year  feature in the Citizen. I say "original notes" because Maria had to remind me that the idea was to be "built in 2010", so in the end I had to submit notes for a different space altogether. (The "Wellington Marbles" sculpture walk, as it happens.) Of course, I realize the obvious knock for picking the usually-deserted Garden of the Provinces is "well, where's the public then?' The photo above doesn't show too many people lounging by the fountain; neither do these daytime shots of roughly the same part of the park. Still, it is a wonderful little spot, and the deserted feel can even work to its benefit. If you've had a long hard day with too many meetings, the quiet Garden can feel like a meditative space.

[flickrslideshow acct_name="ekthornton" id="72157625584286577" width="600"] A few weeks ago the Ottawa Citizen journalist Maria Cook asked me to submit a few lines for a best-of/worst-of public spaces and buildings end-of-year feature she was putting together. I was pleased to be asked but I misread the email and thought Maria was asking for best and worst, period -- not limited to this past year. She soon put me right, and I submitted something a little more "2010", but meanwhile I still had my notes from the original reply to her. I wanted to give her some "quotables" so I had I given them some colour; rereading them the other day I see they may well have come across like an intemperate rant:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Social Housing in Centretown; photo by Ottawa Community Housing"][/caption] I was lucky enough to be the audience for last week's edition of the excellent Urban Forum series at City Hall . Those in attendance heard Marni Capp, President of the Canadian Institute of Planners, present the latest resource produced by Affordability and Choice Today (ACT), a program delivered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. ACT campaigns to create public and affordable shelter  in communities across Canada, and to that end they've produced a handbook to help planners and advocates make the case for new social housing developments. Listing to Capp give an overview to the resource I was struck by how much the arguments against not only social housing, but any kind of residential intensification, end up sounding so familiar, in community after community.