One thing I feel ought to be discussed more is the fact that basically all rural and suburban places in the US are subsidized by cities. They resent cities. They insult cities. They elect politicians who abuse cities. But none of them could survive without cities.
Ariel with Mary Huang and Marty Carr in Council chambers
Thanks to Mary Huang from the Centretown Community Association for coming to Finance Committee today, to voice support for the city’s acquisition of the hotel at O’Connor and Gladstone for family transitional housing.
This is amazing news.
As someone who lives in Centretown, I’m happy to say “yes in my backyard!”
This is a very clever bit of writing from @robattrell.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy on the evolution of suburbs really in North America through the post-war period, and how they can be made better.
The agenda for February's Public Works and Infrastructure Committee is up and still no Bank Street bus lanes. It was supposed to be on the agenda for this meeting, but has been delayed yet again.
This "pilot project" has been in the works for over 4 years, and is now over a year behind schedule.
Well said and thank you!
This is bad, but then you realize that most cancellations likely happened at peak times and it starts to look really really bad.
Peak time cancellations on the busiest routes means more unhappy riders, more traffic, and less fare revenue for an already broke system.
www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...
Two Ottawa. Citizen headlines. 1. 'No question' return-to-office will be good for downtown, board of trade says 2. Still no timeline for resumption of normal Ottawa public transit service, GM says
Has “Board of Trade” met “Ottawa public transit”?
At Planning Committee yesterday, we voted unanimously to replace a road that was originally going to connect Preston to Lebreton Flats with a pedestrian and cycling bridge. This is a win for active transportation and for traffic management in Little Italy. www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...
Agreed.
Speaking of left turns, have you seen the new advance left turn signal for drivers on Elgin onto Somerset? It’s terrible!
Troy Charter Interim General Manager of OC Transpo Friday, January 30, 2026 Bus cancellations unfairly impacting downtown core and equity-seeking residents Mr. Charter, I don't need to explain to you the issues facing OC Transpo at the moment, and the impacts that these issues are having on the whole city. I know that you are well aware of these problems, and I have appreciated your transparency and knowledge when talking to the media. I am writing to state more specifically that the cancellations and lack of reliable service has been impacting residents of Ward 12 more than others. During the first few weeks of January, residents have suffered through some of the worst transit service in recent months. While heavy snowfall has been a complicating factor, it is also more reason that we need reliable transit service, so that residents are not left waiting outside in the cold. As you noted in your statement to CBC, cancellations and delays impact downtown urban routes disproportionately. Among the most impacted routes, the 6, 7, and 12 all go through Ward 12. I have been advocating for more bus-only lanes and transit priority signals across the city. Allowing buses to move first through traffic and intersections will address the domino effect that happens when, for example, traffic on Bank Street causes the route 6 or 7 to be late arriving in Ward 12. I introduced a motion to this effect at the budget meeting of City Council. I look forward to working with you on this. People who live in Ward 12 are overwhelmingly renters, low-income, students and shift workers. Most do not own a car. These are equity-seeking groups that do not have another option for getting around the city, especially in winter. Unreliable service makes life much harder for these people who already get by with very little. I will be submitting an inquiry at the next Transit Commission on February 12 asking staff to look into how these cancellations and delays affect equity-seeking groups, though I a…
Shoutout to @stephanieplante.bsky.social for speaking out on unfair transit reliability issues downtown.
Thank you for stating your commitment to bus-only lanes and transit priority signals. Let’s speed up the 6, 7 and more urban routes!
cc: @arieltroster.com @shawnmenard.bsky.social
People at Braumeister Bierhalle for Strong Towns Ottawa's January 2026 social
People at Braumeister Bierhalle for Strong Towns Ottawa's January 2026 social
People at Braumeister Bierhalle for Strong Towns Ottawa's January 2026 social
People at Braumeister Bierhalle for Strong Towns Ottawa's January 2026 social
It was wonderful seeing everyone who came out to the social last night!
Look out for our next monthly meeting on the 12th which will focus on the zoning bylaw and infill!
Info available on our website events section! strongtownsottawa.ca#Events
Problems with the LRT mean we need to expand and speed up our implementation of bus lanes and BRTs.
Bank, Baseline, and Carling need them ASAP.
But in this case it’s confusing because bus lanes would bring more people to Lansdowne events.
The current definition of major event at Lansdowne for bus lanes is so narrow that it’ll mostly just be for football games.
It makes no sense to me. Bus lanes would help Lansdowne!
It makes no sense to me. Bus lanes would help Lansdowne!
Document 1 - Bank Street (Rideau Canal to Highway 417) Active Transportation and Transit Operations Feasibility Study - Scoping Document 1.0 Introduction This scoping document is in response the following motion approved by Transportation Committee on December 1, 2021, and Council on December 8, 2021: *THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that staff be directed to scope a study to improve active transportation facilities and enhance transit operations, including considerations for a potential pilot project on Bank Street (from the Canal to the Queensway), and as part of that scoping, identify a consultation program, a study cost estimate and options for funding source to undertake the study, and report back to Transportation Committee on this scoping effort by mid 2022. The Bank Street Corridor (Figure 1) is approximately 1.5 kilometres in length between the Rideau Canal and Highway 417. Bank Street is used by OC Transpo bus routes (6 and 7), and currently operates in mixed traffic. In addition, special service routes (450, 451, 452, 454, 455, 456) as well as STO use this section of Bank Street for Lansdowne/TD Place events.
We don’t talk enough about how slowly the City of Ottawa moves to help residents.
The Bank Street Transit Study was first proposed in 2021, and its implementation has been delayed again.
The worst part? The study’s proposal includes just 2 hours of combined bus lanes a day!
Love to see it!
We are building the first-ever standalone public bathroom facility in downtown Ottawa. It’s about damn time. Public toilets are a basic human need. Because when you gotta go, you gotta go … www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...
(The highest priority was keeping taxes low before the election…)
The 7 is a top 3 ridership route. When I walked by Bank and Laurier on Tuesday around 4:30 there were over 20 people waiting at the stop.
This is how the transit death spiral gets worse.
Part of the issue is the cancellations are generally at peak times, and generally comes from high freq routes, so it's very noticeable people and severely hurts ridership (and fare revenue).
These screenshots are from Monday and Wednesday this week.
@arieltroster.com @shawnmenard.bsky.social
Did the city meet its provincial requirement to have an approved asset management and funding plan by July 1, 2025?
If not, did it face any consequences from the province? and why did it not meet these requirements despite ample time to plan?
Thank you, Ottawa Citizen, for publishing my op-ed today on the financial crisis that municipalities across the country are facing due to aging infrastructure.
To read the story, please visit the Ottawa Citizen web site and look for the Opinion section.
@OttawaCitizen.com
Next Ottawa Urbanism Book Club on January 26 will discuss Ottawology by @tonyadavidson.bsky.social
We meet at 6:15pm at Sunnyside Public Library. All are welcome and reading is optional!
@giopetti.bsky.social knocks it out of the park with his second documentary “The Train to Nowhere”.
Was proud to talk to him and play a small part in the making of this great video.
youtu.be/wLD0L63QgxU?...
![For a time, when I was much more active on Twitter than I am now, I'd find myself, e.g., washing dishes and, without wanting to, thinking about various mundane things in the form of tweets.
Some nascent half-kernel of an idea would come to me and, like a hack comedian for whom every banal thing is material, I would immediately start working it over for any and all tweet-like potential.
Maybe there was a tiny bit of dish soap left at the bottom of the bottle, and I considered diluting it with water to get it out more easily and make the bottle last longer. I wouldn't simply think that.
Thanks to Twitter, I'd think something exponentially more inane and annoying, such as, "The masculine urge to water down the dish soap..." or "The two genders picture of brand-new dish soap vs. picture of old diluted dish soap]..." or
"Choose your fighter [same two pictures again]..." or "Wake up, babe, new diluted dish soap just dropped" or "Men will dilute the last millimeter of dish soap rather than go to therapy..." or "No but the way I just diluted the dish soap..."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:w3ff3s73pcc4dwi7qzx4smiv/bafkreihwyozn6dnffx5pkwzardg4ufvmtmhibvgi5ycbnp5uossjf7atvm)
For a time, when I was much more active on Twitter than I am now, I'd find myself, e.g., washing dishes and, without wanting to, thinking about various mundane things in the form of tweets. Some nascent half-kernel of an idea would come to me and, like a hack comedian for whom every banal thing is material, I would immediately start working it over for any and all tweet-like potential. Maybe there was a tiny bit of dish soap left at the bottom of the bottle, and I considered diluting it with water to get it out more easily and make the bottle last longer. I wouldn't simply think that. Thanks to Twitter, I'd think something exponentially more inane and annoying, such as, "The masculine urge to water down the dish soap..." or "The two genders picture of brand-new dish soap vs. picture of old diluted dish soap]..." or "Choose your fighter [same two pictures again]..." or "Wake up, babe, new diluted dish soap just dropped" or "Men will dilute the last millimeter of dish soap rather than go to therapy..." or "No but the way I just diluted the dish soap..."
I didn’t write this and only came across it recently, but it sums up well why I stopped posting on social media so much.
It’s nice being able to walk around Ottawa and other cities and just enjoy them for what they are.
Former Nepean Mayor D. Aubrey Moodie claims to be the first in Ontario to levy development charges
They were also just new enough that none of their major maintenance expenses had piled up yet.
They certainly didn't have enough density to adequately maintain their services long term.
Shoutout to @derricksimpson.bsky.social for hosting the monthly Ottawa Urbanism Bookclub! I definitely think that attending the book club inspired me to take my reading ambitions to the next level this year 😎
