By Sylvie Bigras, President, Lowertown Community Association
As we say goodbye to a stunning summer, it is time for the Lowertown Community Association to resume its meetings after our summer break. Community meetings are held every second Monday of the month at 7:00 pm on Zoom.
The following issues remain on top of our agenda:
Social services – a new vision of delivery with long-term impact
The LCA has been proposing (based on expert advice and consultations) a realistic, long-term solution to truly help our homeless community. Numbers are continuing to increase, and the large shelters in our community are overflowing, with both the clients and service providers suffering as a result. The concentration of a vulnerable population attracts crime and our community is less safe with children afraid to walk to school or play outside, parks more dangerous because of needles, pets not walked in certain areas because of dangerous substances on the ground, etc.
We MUST change the current outdated delivery model to one that is: small scale (townhouses, old seniors’ residences, convents), with appropriate services, in EACH of Ottawa’s 24 wards. Ottawa has a huge geographical footprint and to concentrate all the services in one small area (basically Lowertown and the ByWard Market) harms vulnerable populations, residents and families living here, tourists visiting, and the business community. It is long past time to change how we do things: some in the service provider community have told us that the system is irrevocably broken.
Call to action: The LCA proposes a round table bringing together social service experts, business reps, service providers, and others to map out a plan of de-centralizing the current services. With the budget issues experienced by the City of Ottawa, we will have to plan to deliver the services using the current resources allotted for social support. We will also continue our work with the Catholic diocese in identifying potential transitional homes – starting by housing those with less need for support (new Canadians, those living in poverty, those who have lost their jobs and cannot afford rent, etc.). Our work was instrumental in the large convent on St. Joseph Boulevard in Orleans being bought by the city for use as transitional housing – such a great start! Some service providers are delivering supports outside our community as well, but there is no strategic approach to bring together all of the key players.
Beautification and animation
Many ideas have been floating around with regards to beautifying our community, and we will continue to work on these with various stakeholders:
- Lighting (using small white lights everywhere such as in the Distillery District in Toronto), providing lighting in parks and in darker spaces.
- Greenery – more trees, flowers in summer, winter greens in the colder season, etc. Collecting Christmas trees after the season and placing them (with small twinkle lights) throughout the community at various locations.
- Benches – people need a place to sit and there is a dearth of benches and other places to pause, rest, and take in the surrounding views.
- Pedestrianization – York Street between Sussex Drive and ByWard should be fully pedestrianized and become a grand square in front of the Ottawa sign. We continue to support the city’s excellent efforts in opening some streets to people and activities during the warmer season.
- Events – we are impressed with the number of events that have been taking place in the ByWard Market – having regular recurring music/dance/arts events keeps a place lively, animated, and draws visitors.
King Edward truck route
While conversations and studies about this issue have been taking place for several decades, there has been relative apathy to actually doing something about it, which is completely unacceptable. This truck route is very dangerous, pollutes, and has taken what was once a lovely, treed boulevard and turned it into a highway. We continue to be aghast that various leaders have permitted our nation’s capital to run massive trucks through its downtown. Having said this, we are encouraged by the fact that this issue is back on the front burner and that conversations are currently taking place about solutions.
In addition to these three priorities, your LCA continues to work on a variety of other projects and issues through our working committees: Heritage, Parks, Safety and security, Housing and homelessness, Transport, Arts and culture, and Planning.