Where did our common sense go?
How can we affirm that a subsidy to a luxury car dealership will improve the community of Vanier in any way, shape or form? Dealerships are not an appropriate use of land on an artery in Ottawa’s urban core, let alone subsidizing this type of business.
Montréal Road was designated as a “traditional main street” and any city investments should be targeted towards achieving that goal, not taking us further us from it (the Salvation Army project comes to mind). A Porsche dealership will bring nothing to the community of Vanier and certainly doesn’t bring us any closer to an attractive, active and vibrant main street that all Ottawans would be proud of.
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When I lived in Toronto, around Dufferin Street and St. Clair Avenue, every other night an unhoused man would trudge barefoot down my street. He’d scream in broken Italian and rifle through my recycling.
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Except that’s not the whole story. Through an unspoken agreement, this man would also roll my garbage bins to the curb every Wednesday. He’d search for bottles that I had cast aside so he could exchange them for coins. When not screaming, he’d be singing and talking and keeping himself company. He’d wander into the backyard of my elderly Portuguese neighbour and they’d garden together. I eventually learned that he had always lived on this street. I was renting; he was home.
Manners: It isn't the unhoused who are sullying Ottawa's ByWard Market msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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I am a walker, not a driver. I like to patronize small local businesses rather than big-box stores. I live in a central neighbourhood of Ottawa. You might say that I am the city of Ottawa’s ideal citizen, its stated ambition being to see more intensification of the downtown core, increased use of public transit, and an overall reduction in the city’s climate footprint.
I have long cast a shadow on the ByWard Market. The district has some great anchors La Bottega, Lapointe Fish, Saslove’s Meat Market, ByWard Fruit Market, Zak’s Diner, Le Moulin de Provence, as well as, further over on Clarence Street, the elegant Paper Papier just to name a few of my personal favourites. In this year of COVID-19, I wish them all well. New apartment towers are springing up all around. I feel optimistic that they will bring new clientele to area businesses. And the market is, after all, a prime tourist destination.