Ward Report

Cobwebs of mist
Float along the waterway,
Cloaking the morning,
The trees spectral humans
In the waning of the night.
There is no other place.
There is no other life
The grey lace whispers.
God’s breath
Turning the earth.

Cyril Chapman and Mrs. Grace Davies beside the Wood Panel created by their late father.

Bob Hillary, former Councillor for the City of Kanata, attended a ceremony at City Hall with Mrs. Grace Davies and Mr. Cyril Chapman where the four foot by eight foot inlaid wood wall hanging was unveiled.

This work was completed in 1947 by George Chapman, Grace and Cyril’s father. George was an Ottawa builder responsible for many homes in Rideau Gardens in Old Ottawa East as well as in Alta Vista. The work is constructed entirely of wood. The definition and details are the result of carefully selected and crafted woods whose natural colours contribute to the rendering of Ottawa’s past.

“Everyone who has seen the many hued images of the thirty-two beautifully rendered images of Ottawa’s historic sites cannot fail to be impressed,” said Councillor Doucet, who is accepting this impressive addition to Ottawa’s art and heritage collection from the Chapman family. “Each of these inlaid wood images is a unique reflection of Ottawa’s past and assembled together they form a beautiful accomplishment.”

Whitton Awards
I would like to congratulate the Whitton Award recipients who we honoured at the Glebe Community Centre on May 20^th. The awards are given for contributions throughout Capital Ward based on nominations received from the community. Allison Woyiwada led the Hopewell Stage Band which opened the evening with éclat and the band WAG closed it in rockin’ style. Taj Mahal provided a wonderful buffet and the celebratory cake came from the magic of Tatiana’s kitchen. It was a great pleasure to have the chance to celebrate some of the people who have made such a difference to our communities. Slide Show. Photo

The Hot Seat: Upcoming meetings on Bank, Queensway and Bronson.
The next important meeting on the Bank Street Reconstruction is the Community Consultation on June 28th at Lansdowne. We’re headed for two very serious confrontations. The most difficult to resolve will be road width. It is, as I feared, the Technical Advisory Committee is recommending virtually no change. We will get 1 to 2 feet more on the sidewalks and no change to the through traffic. This will mean no trees, no bulbouts and no real change to the walking and shopping environment. The first choice of the community consultations was two through lanes, two parking lanes and sidewalks wide enough for trees. The other problem, which I believe will be easier to resolve, is burying the hydro wires. This is simply a money issue and with community support we will attain it.

The Ontario Ministry of Transport will be back for public meetings on Queensway plans. Unfortunately they are still recommending additional lanes west and east of downtown, which will create more traffic pressure in our neighbourhoods. The meetings will also be an opportunity to push for implementation of the sound barriers I mentioned above. Evening meetings will be on June 20^th at the Nepean Sportplex, on June 21^st at City Hall and on June 22^nd at Capones on Industrial.

The public consultation on the proposed morning right hand turn restrictions off Bronson, which is part of the Glebe Traffic Plan, will be at the RA Centre on June 21^st in the evening. I was very happy the Glebe Community Association and Old Ottawa South Community Association reached a common point of view and I support their preference to include right hand turn restrictions on Sunnyside as well. They need your support now because there will be pressure from the south not to have these traffic control measures.

Good News from the "Planning Desk".
As we head into summer and in the spirit of remembering some recent successes here are few good news items.

We were successful in getting the section of Bronson from Carling to the Queensway designated as a Traditional Main Street. This will help keep the small business and pedestrian focus on that part of Bronson as opposed to having it treated as a traffic arterial.
The Palisades planned expansion will incorporate a boulevard for trees along the curb edge of Isabella and a widened sidewalk.
The community design plan for Fifth Avenue will see the beginning of improvements in the reconstruction this summer including wider sidewalks and a parkette at Lyon and Fifth.

Public feedback at the Alta Vista Corridor meeting on May 30^th supported the view that we can do better than propose a four-lane arterial. This public support will help bolster the position I have taken along with Mayor Chiarelli and councillors Bedard, Holmes and Legendre. Thank you to those of you who came out and expressed yourselves at Lansdowne Park. The next big event in this project will be the presentation to Transportation Committee in September.

The Provincial Ministry of Transport just completed the Queensway noise study for the downtown area including the Glebe and the recommendation is for additional sound barriers where they are currently absent.

Traffic Calming
When it comes to traffic calming most people favour it when it is on their street but are less positive when it is on somebody else’s street. There is always the understandable concern that traffic calming measures will simply divert a traffic problem from one street to another. And drivers wanting to travel as conveniently as possible between two points don’t like it when turn restrictions and traffic humps force them to slow down or take a little longer to get where they want to go.

Ideally all residential streets should have appropriate traffic measures to protect them from aggressive or dangerous cut-through traffic. Unfortunately many older neighbourhoods are vulnerable. In Old Ottawa South, Riverdale and Sunnyside are the streets of most concern. With city plans calling for very significant growth in the south, we can expect more pressure on arterial roads such as Bronson and Bank. That pressure means increased risk of cut-through. The challenge we face is how do we move our streets to a more ideal configuration when the City only introduces traffic calming measures, a few streets or one street or even part of street, at a time. So the immediate solutions are never ideal, although as traffic calming grows from street to street, large scale improvements can be made. Check out Centretown and how all its streets have gradually been protected – even Lyon.

This issue came up most recently with the right hand turn restrictions off Bronson, which are part of the package of proposals in the Glebe Traffic Plan. In response both the Glebe Community Association and Ottawa South Community Association got together to find a common ground and a mutually acceptable solution. I am happy to support their shared view that right hand turn restrictions from Bronson be applied to Sunnyside along with those within the Glebe. It will be significant progress if we can get these measures in place.

City staff are in the process of planning public consultation on these proposals. I encourage you all to come and support the community associations’ joint position when that public consultation takes place because these measures are by no means a done deal. If these measures are defeated, it may set a precedent that will undermine traffic calming in general in older neighbourhoods by making it much harder to get traffic calming in the future. We don’t want that to happen because too many of our streets will be left vulnerable as the city grows and the traffic on Bronson continues to increase.

Sewers and Flooding
On April 27^th City Council approved increasing the amount of money the city will contribute to homeowners to share the cost of backflow valves in the Residential Protective Plumbing Program. The new contribution from the city will be 80% of the cost (up to a maximum of $4,000) for those who have had flooding in the past and 50% of the cost (up to a maximum of $2,500) for those who haven’t had a basement flooded. The program applies to homes on combined or partially separated sewers and the new contribution will be available retroactively to people who have had the work done since September 2004. This change is in addition to the $50 million already approved in the 2005 budget fro sewer improvements.

Cycling and the Pretoria Street Bridge
There is a plan to improve the signage to discourage people from riding bicycles on the sidewalk in order to reduce the risk of pedestrian and cyclist injuries. If you support the idea of making the Pretoria Bridge and the adjoining intersections safer please e-mail me at Clive.Doucet@ottawa.ca as we will be using input from residents to influence the implementation.