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Dear Capital Ward residents,

The city ship is slow moving, but it does move.

Since the last printing of Connecting Communities in July 2003, we’ve seen the successful completion of two key projects - the reconstruction of Bank Street in Old Ottawa South with a wonderful, community streetscaping design, and the long-awaited restoration of the Glebe Community Centre.

These two projects alone represent almost $15 million of re-investment in the older neighbourhoods of the city.

At the policy level, we’ve pushed for and received a more pedestrian-friendly zoning of Bank Street in Old Ottawa South that embodies the ‘Main Street’ design guidelines of the Official Plan. This will allow the stretch of roadway to develop in a ‘smart city’ way, balancing residential, commercial, and traffic needs.

We’ve also been successful in achieving a series of smaller, but very well-received community quality of life infrastructure investments in the ward - the installation of small boat docks along the Rideau River at Brewer and Windsor Parks which has opened up the river to recreational, non-motorized boat use; the installation of windows in the Heron Park fieldhouse which has made the community use of that facility much more feasible; and a new pedestrian activated signal in Heron Park at Bank and Randall which allows school children to cross much more conveniently. Also in Heron Park, coming out of the Sawmill Creek Constructed Wetlands initiative, we are closer to having pedestrian linkages across Sawmill Creek. To assist on community development initiatives, I will be placing one of my staff members one day a week in the Heron Park Fieldhouse and the Old Town Hall in Ottawa East.

We continue to push forward with two key traffic and streetscaping studies - the implementation of the Main Street Transportation and Streetscaping Plan and the Glebe Traffic Plan. These two plans represent years of work by residents to protect neighborhood quality of life from increased traffic volumes flowing through the ward since the opening of the Hunt Club ramps on the Airport Parkway fed by the rapid growth of Ottawa’s south urban community.

In front of Saint Paul University on Main we now have boulevard, setback sidewalks that make walking beside that busy road much more pleasant. On Greenfield, we now have a much more pedestrian-friendly environment with new, wide sidewalks and a reconfigured roadway that reduces the raceway effect. And we are hopefully just steps away from the final planning and construction stage of a much-anticipated pedestrian activated light at Bower and Beckwith on Main Street. It should be in place before the winter.

The Glebe Traffic Plan Implementation Report is set to rise to Transportation Committee on October 20, 2004 with the bulk of the community’s volume and speed reduction measures approved. And we’ve already received 40 km/h speed limits throughout the Glebe, which was a big step towards safer streets.

In the big picture, the verdict is still out on whether the green growth vision is taking root at City Hall. The need to grow the city in a way that is most cost-effective and that retains the highest community quality of life remains the goal of the Official Plan, but making it happen is the greater challenge. I wish expanding light rail was as easy as expanding roads, but I remain optimistic it will happen. The recent decision to bring in a longer, more participative budget process for Ottawa is an essential first step towards creating a greener, more sustainable city. With more public participation in the development of the city’s budget, perhaps we will finally be able to stop the subsidization of suburban development by the older parts of the city. And once growth starts to pay for itself, it will be possible to begin to grow the city with less sprawl and more financial and environmental sustainability.