Blog Archives

Fund ByWard Market: Call our Mayor!

6/19/2015

Photo credit: www.byward-market.com

Let's get city council to approve funding for our ByWard Market in the 2016 budget! Below is a short press release on how you can make a difference by calling our Mayor to let him know how important this issue is for all Lowertown residents. Here is a brief article on what's at stake including comments from LCA president Liz Bernstein in the Ottawa Community News

City looks for funding to revitalize ByWard Market

La version française suit

Ottawa – Mayor Jim Watson invites residents to call into a pre-budget Tele-Town Hall on Thursday, June 25. Residents will be able to ask questions and share their views before City staff begins developing the draft Budget 2016, which will tabled later this fall. The Tele-Town Hall is part of a new approach to the City of Ottawa’s budget process. In previous years, residents were consulted on the draft budget after it was tabled at Council. The public consultation provided input into the final budget. Now, residents can get involved and provide their views and input before the draft budget is developed.
Event: Budget 2016 Tele-Town Hall
Date: Thursday, June 25
Time: 7 p.m., Telephone lines open at 6:45 p.m.
Toll-free telephone: 1-866-696-5910, use code 6653792. Social media will offer another opportunity for residents to participate by allowing them to tweet their questions ahead of time using #ottbudget. An audio recording of the Mayor’s Tele-Town Hall will be posted on ottawa.ca as soon as it is available.

For more information:
Media contact
613-580-2450
Public inquiries: ottawa.ca
3-1-1

Ottawa – Le maire Jim Watson invite les résidents à téléphoner lors du Téléforum pré-budgétaire le jeudi 25 juin prochain. Les résidents auront ainsi l’occasion de poser des questions et de partager leur opinion avant que le personnel de la Ville n’entame l’élaboration du budget préliminaire de 2016, dont le dépôt est prévu à l’automne. Le Téléforum fait partie d’une nouvelle étape du processus budgétaire de la Ville d’Ottawa. Les années passées, les résidents étaient consultés sur le budget préliminaire après son dépôt au Conseil municipal de sorte que les consultations publiques et les commentaires reçus étayaient la version définitive du budget. Dorénavant, les résidents peuvent participer au processus et fournir leur point de vue et leurs commentaires avant l’élaboration du budget préliminaire.
Activité : Téléforum sur le Budget 2016
Date : le jeudi 25 juin
Heure : 19 h, les lignes téléphoniques ouvrent à 18 h 45
Numéro sans frais : 1-866-696-5910, puis composer le code 6653792. Les réseaux sociaux seront un autre moyen pour les résidents de participer au processus en leur permettant d’envoyer leurs questions à l’avance sur Twitter à l’aide du mot-clic #ottbudget. Un enregistrement audio du Téléforum du maire sera placé sur ottawa.ca dès qu’il sera prêt.

Renseignements
Médias
613-580-2450
Grand public ottawa.ca
3-1-1

Lowertown East Heritage Walk June 18th, 4-5 p.m.

6/16/2015

Join us for a free guided tour of Lowertown East, this Thursday June 18th, from 4-5 p.m.
Learn and share stories about the history of social housing in Lowertown with CEO of Ottawa Community Housing Stephane Giguére.

All welcome, bring your kids!
No registration , no cost.

ByWard Market refresh needs city investment

6/11/2015

On Monday, June 8, more than 50 residents turned out for a standing-room-only presentation by Jake Rupert from the City of Ottawa on the ByWard Market Revitalization Plan. After years of consulting with the Lowertown Community Association, Market BIA and other stakeholders, it is exciting to finally have a solid plan to revitalize the gem in the middle of our community, and city.

The revitalization of ByWard Market has been put forward in the draft Term of Council Priorities report, and it must be approved as a priority in order to access funding. Let the Councillor, Mayor and others know you want it to be one of Ottawa's priorities for the 2017 anniversary celebrations of Canada's 150th birthday!

Read the article in the latest version of the Echo by Liz Bernstein and Sylvie Grenier :

ByWard Market revitalization plan to be tabled

View City staff presentation from the June 8th meeting :

Public Markets update - May 2015

Community Associations publish letter in Ottawa Citizen opposing developer ambassador in planning department

6/8/2015

Presidents from three Ottawa community associations recently published a letter opposing a proposed city initiative that will get private developers an ambassador within the city Planning department. For more on this story read the Ottawa Citizen articles on it here, and again here.

Below is the original letter posted in the Ottawa Citizen dated June 4, 2015:

We were outraged to read about the City's new initiative to give developers their own ambassadors. This speaks to the current attitude in the planning department – that they work for developers. Already developers are on a first name basis with City planners; they meet regularly and chat informally about how best to craft their proposals. Meanwhile, residents are left in the dark, our voices largely ignored, as the City repeatedly shows its preference for development, whether good or bad, at the expense of the community. This culture needs to change.

While Councillors may be ambassadors for their communities they are the only ones acting on our behalf. Meanwhile, developers, who have vested and limited interests in our communities, already have the attention of the planning department and they engage lawyers, planners, architects, engineers and others to promote and justify their applications. These justifications then become the salient planning documents used by the planning department, planning committee and Council. Even the procedure at planning committee meetings is structured in their favour. The proposal is presented with all the bells and whistles, the community representatives have five minutes to speak, and finally the developer has the last word – generally refuting what the community has said and justifying the application.

In other words, the balance is already heavily weighted in favour of development when there is conflict with community. To pay, at taxpayer’s expense, city employees for even more assistance with developers' applications only adds insult to injury.

Community organizations and residents are not opposed to all development, but surely it is reasonable to expect opposition when development is significantly different than the zoning by-laws and official plans so laboriously worked out by city planners with input from countless hours of volunteer community effort.

The planning department should be working for the residents of this City, not for the developers. We should be seen as their clients, not the developers. Community concerns and considerations should be given more weight than the financial interests of the few.

Is municipal planning in Ottawa now so short sighted and self-interested that community values are so easily dismissed?

Indeed, it is the beleaguered volunteer communities across this city who are in need of ambassadors.

Chad Rollins, President, Action Sandy Hill

Liz Bernstein, President Lowertown Community Association

John Dance, President, Old Ottawa East Community Association

Help us improve Cathcart Park! Take our Survey!

6/3/2015

Help us improve Cathcart Park! Take our survey!

Ottawa is due to lose 40% of our tree cover due to the emerald ash borer, and Lowertown is not immune. As you may have seen, 5 large ash trees were removed from Cathcart Park. The city will be replanting in the fall, and we have an opportunity to improve our park. How would you like to see our park improved? Please take 5 minutes to tell us! Go to:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/lowertown

The draft plan from the City's landscape architect is here - have your say by July 15:

New Lowertown Echo online and at your door

6/1/2015

A new issue of The Lowertown Echo is now online and will be soon delivered to your door. Go to our news section to read about the plan to revitalize our Market, development news and construction in the neighbourhood, the history of our people and places, and the incredibly talented local artists:

http://www.lowertown-basseville.ca/uploads/4/2/5/9/42591915/echo_june-august_2015.pdf

Our paper is produced by volunteers, with printing and delivery costs supported by advertisers. We always welcome contributors: do you want to write about your community and the people who inspire you? Are you a good photographer? Do you know someone who wants to advertise in The Echo? Don’t hesitate to write at [email protected] or come to the June 8 LCA meeting at the Routhier Centre on Guigues, we want to meet you.

Dalhousie Street circa 1938, do you remember?