News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
 11K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
 43K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
 6.5K     0 

And if higher level of government gave a shit about giving more money to Ottawa and if Canadian cities could issue debt more freely maybe jimbo would have changed his tune and we'd have a system that made the REM look like garbage. Policy decisions happen within a political, economic and administrative context, Canada doesn't have a world city for an administrative capital because at the end of the day Canada doesn't want that.

The centre of gravity of the world is changing from the west and Canada, including Ottawa, has to look forward and not backward to reach new heights.
People love to say Ottawa has no vision but can you look at Toronto and say thats a city with vision no .
 
And if higher level of government gave a shit about giving more money to Ottawa and if Canadian cities could issue debt more freely maybe jimbo would have changed his tune and we'd have a system that made the REM look like garbage. Policy decisions happen within a political, economic and administrative context, Canada doesn't have a world city for an administrative capital because at the end of the day Canada doesn't want that.

The centre of gravity of the world is changing from the west and Canada, including Ottawa, has to look forward and not backward to reach new heights.
I swear to god it’s like Ottawa doesn’t even exist to Doug Ford. He’s too focused on meddling with Toronto to even care. Thank god for the NCC who have been really killing it lately IMO.
 
Oh definitely, in a way it’s probably beneficial that he doesn’t meddle like he does with Toronto. But overall Ottawa seems to be forgotten by higher levels of government regardless.
Its better to be forgotten them to be used as revenge.
 
Ottawa is still dealing with the consequences of active hostility during the Harris and then the Harper years. The LRT despite presumably sharing most of it's current deficits would have gone over a lot smoother if hurdman was able to realign using ncc land and phase 1 ended at lincoln fields.

On the other hand the modern standard of 'vision' is not all negative even if ambition has gotten less impressive and more practical. The CSST, the Expansion of the Capital Pathway/River Park Plans, or certainly the District energy system all pieces of infrastructure which similar sized metros in north america are getting nowhere near. The parlimenatry precint renewal is one of the most ambitious heritage resoration projects in the world and by the time it's finished will span four decades of activity.

After many years of talking about how to make things better in this city my honest feeling is that it is difficult for people who live and are of the 'urbanist' persuation to step away from an inferiority complex developed to a significant extent out of Montreal being so close and such a jewel. As a consquence there is this tendency to try to nail down a political pathology which can be solved via deliberative democracy for Ottawa to reverse the wrong course taken in the past. That isn't to say that things shouldn't be better or even that better leadership couldn't quite easily set a better course simply by being more ambitious in spirirt, however it probably means trying to minimize using the opportunities we have now to litigate the questions of the past. In IR discourse a cliche is quoting Clauswitz saying war is politics by other means but i feel it is really the inverse that is more true in domestic politics, i.e. that politics is war by other means. Wars are lost when people go into them trying to fight the last one.
 
Ottawa is still dealing with the consequences of active hostility during the Harris and then the Harper years. The LRT despite presumably sharing most of it's current deficits would have gone over a lot smoother if hurdman was able to realign using ncc land and phase 1 ended at lincoln fields.

On the other hand the modern standard of 'vision' is not all negative even if ambition has gotten less impressive and more practical. The CSST, the Expansion of the Capital Pathway/River Park Plans, or certainly the District energy system all pieces of infrastructure which similar sized metros in north america are getting nowhere near. The parlimenatry precint renewal is one of the most ambitious heritage resoration projects in the world and by the time it's finished will span four decades of activity.

After many years of talking about how to make things better in this city my honest feeling is that it is difficult for people who live and are of the 'urbanist' persuation to step away from an inferiority complex developed to a significant extent out of Montreal being so close and such a jewel. As a consquence there is this tendency to try to nail down a political pathology which can be solved via deliberative democracy for Ottawa to reverse the wrong course taken in the past. That isn't to say that things shouldn't be better or even that better leadership couldn't quite easily set a better course simply by being more ambitious in spirirt, however it probably means trying to minimize using the opportunities we have now to litigate the questions of the past. In IR discourse a cliche is quoting Clauswitz saying war is politics by other means but i feel it is really the inverse that is more true in domestic politics, i.e. that politics is war by other means. Wars are lost when people go into them trying to fight the last one.
Don't know if i would say Montreal is a crown jewel.
 
Ottawa is still dealing with the consequences of active hostility during the Harris and then the Harper years. The LRT despite presumably sharing most of it's current deficits would have gone over a lot smoother if hurdman was able to realign using ncc land and phase 1 ended at lincoln fields.

On the other hand the modern standard of 'vision' is not all negative even if ambition has gotten less impressive and more practical. The CSST, the Expansion of the Capital Pathway/River Park Plans, or certainly the District energy system all pieces of infrastructure which similar sized metros in north america are getting nowhere near. The parlimenatry precint renewal is one of the most ambitious heritage resoration projects in the world and by the time it's finished will span four decades of activity.

After many years of talking about how to make things better in this city my honest feeling is that it is difficult for people who live and are of the 'urbanist' persuation to step away from an inferiority complex developed to a significant extent out of Montreal being so close and such a jewel. As a consquence there is this tendency to try to nail down a political pathology which can be solved via deliberative democracy for Ottawa to reverse the wrong course taken in the past. That isn't to say that things shouldn't be better or even that better leadership couldn't quite easily set a better course simply by being more ambitious in spirirt, however it probably means trying to minimize using the opportunities we have now to litigate the questions of the past. In IR discourse a cliche is quoting Clauswitz saying war is politics by other means but i feel it is really the inverse that is more true in domestic politics, i.e. that politics is war by other means. Wars are lost when people go into them trying to fight the last one.
Oh I don't disagree that we are doing fine for ourselves in comparison to other cities, in fact I am actually quite positive for what the future has in store for Ottawa. The western LRT expansion (for all the faults with the system) should be pretty big in terms of connectivity, and LeBreton seems like it's shaping out to be a really special place. I just personally believe that this would be a good opportunity to do something special in the city while the political will exists for it, but that is not to say I would be disapointed if they went with Tremblay (even if I despise the trainyards and basically that whole area around the station). It has good connectivity already with the LRT system and other forms of transit, its just the land usage around it which is kinda terrible.
 
Don't know if i would say Montreal is a crown jewel.
Montreal is definitely a crown jewel of urbanism in North America. Good transit, plenty of bike lanes, plenty of dense, mixed use neighbourhoods and overall quite charming in general.
 
Montreal is definetly a crown jewel of urbanism in North America. Good transit, plenty of bike lanes, plenty of dense, mixed use neighbourhoods and overall quite charming in general.
Royalmount

Was proposed to be a massive mixed use which ended up getting rejected and now its just shopping center

Bell Centre
There were grand plans to build around the arena it got scaled down yes it still nice but nothing like was proposed

Big O
Renovating the stadium at a cost of a billion has not sit well with many

Soccer and football stadiums
For years there has been calls to build a new stadium for the soccer and football team.

R,E,M
Has had many issues and is not perfect its far from it

Mixed use
Many of there recent mixed use have been scaled down big time.

Bikes lanes and parks are what they do very well.
 

Back
Top