Thanks, I hate it

More than 70 delegates are signed up to speak at Public Works and Infrastructure Committee today. Major items: Manor Park sidewalks and Bank Street bus lanes. This is democracy in action. (Send snacks.)

If you live in Somerset Ward, a reminder that our new garbage day is Monday (starting tomorrow!)

What a fun morning at the Sisters Fitness Club at the St. Anthony Soccer Club in Little Italy! Our #SweatLocal team was put through our paces by Coach Haneen. The classes are women-only and designed to accommodate hijabi women. Check them out and book a free trial at: www.sistersfitnessclub.com

I had a wonderful time seeing so many neighbours at the fundraising banquet for the Vietnamese Boat People Museum. Ever since Marion Dewar launched Project 4000 in 1979, Ottawa has been a leader in welcoming refugees and asylum seekers to our city.

I highly recommend the Vietnamese iced coffee from Ugly Monday at 255 Albert Street, but I must warn you that it is basically delicious rocket fuel.

It was wonderful to visit Ottawa Community Housing’s Gladstone Village development today. This building will provide 336 beautiful new affordable homes and is part of a larger project in Little Italy that will include 1,000 apartments.

Co-signed.

Speak up. Our trans loved ones need all of us right now.

As a result of a change in the collection contract, new garbage, recycling, and green bin collection days will take effect on March 30, 2026. Moving forward, all residents in Somerset Ward will have their garbage, green bin, and recycling collected on Mondays. www.arieltroster.com/new_garbage_...

Thrilled to be a judge for the third time — Showtune Showdown is always a blast, and now it will raise money for Orpheus Musical Theatre! Saturday, April 4th at 7:30pm Buy tickets here: www.orpheusmusicaltheatre.ca/showtuneshow...

This was entirely predictable. And now we are mourning the loss of an Ottawa crossing guard who was just trying to keep kids safe. Shame on the Ford government for putting populist politics over people’s lives. ottawacitizen.com/news/ottawa-...

Enfin ! Une journée mémorable pour l'enseignement public français dans le quartier de Somerset.

We believe that walking, rolling and cycling are the best ways to get around - they bring joy, physical and mental health, connection - and our kids especially deserve to be able to get around these ways and be safe doing so. Safer streets now. This must be a turning point not just a tragedy.

Council in the previous term de-politicized safe pedestrian infrastructure when streets are re-built. The Manor Park issue, though, has ignited significant pushback to multiple similar projects around the city. I hope that next week we can re-commit to following our own policies.

This is beyond awful. My heart goes out to this man’s family. Crossing guards keep us all safe and deserve to be safe from road violence when they do their essential jobs. The irony of this having occurred on School Crossing Guard Day is not lost on me. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Never underestimate the power of a sunny day, an iced coffee and a little afternoon treat.

Reminder, #OttCity! Check to see if your curbside waste collection day is changing starting Monday, March 30 at https://bit.ly/49W9TpK. The frequency of garbage, green bin, leaf and yard waste, and recycling collection is not changing. Learn more: https://bit.ly/4btxRwp

Really not looking forward to a very long meeting next week, where we will have to listen to people argue against … sidewalks. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

The latest message that councillors received from the city’s winter operations team expresses how we all feel about the weather and endless winter …

I haven’t read Lindy West’s memoir yet but I am diving into The Discourse. How can I resist @scaachi.bsky.social’s hot take?!? I have such a soft spot for mid-aughts style confessional writing and the dissection thereof.

Binge reading is my favorite holiday pastime. Here are the faves from March Break. I especially recommend Emily Austin’s Is This a Cry for Help? She’s a local Ottawa author and the book is a quirky ode to libraries as third spaces.

6. Councillor @arieltroster.com reflects on delegates’ harrowing stories and problems in staff’s report; “this issue is not over.”

#OttCity Council’s Public Works and Infrastructure Committee recently discussed right turns on red (RTOR). 8 delegates spoke compellingly about the dangers that RTOR poses everyone outside of cars, and the serious problems in City staff’s report. Councillors echoed and augmented these concerns.

We got a DM the other day with a fun request from a local family: Could we find this nice BART train operator who always waved and beeped at this special little rider? And if we found him, could we deliver him a thank you card!?  So we got to work …

ANCHOR is expanding! I am so proud of this amazing program that started in Centretown. In June, residents in the Byward Market, Sandy Hill, Lowertown, Vanier, Overbrook and Lees will have access this incredible 24/7 service that responds to mental health and substance use crises.

The closure of the supervised consumption site at the Somerset West CHC has created an absolute crisis in Ottawa’s Chinatown — @catmckenney.bsky.social and I wrote about it last summer. Expect to see more public drug use, everywhere. Shame on the Ford govt. ottawacitizen.com/opinion/mcke...

Tragic news, sending love to the families of these two people who died in this fire. Thank you to the Ottawa Fire Service for your heroic efforts. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Close your local consumption site and your whole city becomes a consumption site.

For the Ford government, the cruelty is the point. (Closing the supervised consumption site in my community has made things so much worse.)

With news of ANCHOR expanding into the east end of downtown Ottawa, here is a video I made in the summer about this amazing 24/7 crisis response service.

Herding dogs are known to perform a “hard stare” when they want you to do something. Or when you are eating cheese toast for breakfast.

Update on Line 1 repairs & service. Wire repair is complete; RTM currently removing ice build-up from the rest of the line. This afternoon: - Line 1 service will continue to operate in the west between Tunney’s Pasture and uOttawa stations. - R1 bus service between Blair and Lyon stations.

ANCHOR is expanding! I am so proud of this amazing program that started in Centretown. In June, residents in the Byward Market, Sandy Hill, Lowertown, Vanier, Overbrook and Lees will have access this incredible 24/7 service that responds to mental health and substance use crises.

Today, the caseworkers from my office and from @catmckenney.bsky.social’s team are at Centre 507. Ann and Ty are helping people access the housing registry, free income tax clinics, mental health supports and other resources. Grateful to these two for their incredible community care.

More than three years as a city councillor and it still amazes me that every meeting on every topic turns into an argument about parking. It’s exhausting.

Did you know that the city doesn’t maintain the flowers in any of these traffic-calming planters and instead relies on volunteers? And if the people who initially agreed to take care of them give up, then the city just lets the plants go to seed or removes them? Austerity in action.

For updates and impacts to #OttCity's services due to the Significant Weather Event, visit: https://bit.ly/4b3L1Qy Check back often for updates that will be published as they become available and follow us on our social media channels.

Something I hear about all the time is how much of a hassle it can be to get through to the OPS non-emergency line to report incidents. Really pleased to see that you can now do this online. Please help spread the word! www.ottawapolice.ca/en/news/onli...

This video now has more than 300,000 views on Instagram. Heartening that so many people find clearing a storm sewer to be so exciting.

The latest issue of the Somerset Ward newsletter is out, with updates on community security, a hotel acquisition for family housing, the public consultation for Laurier/Bronson, and more! Read and sign up here: www.arieltroster.com/swm_67

My feminist fitness instructor had bread and roses for everyone after class today. “Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes; Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.” Happy International Women’s Day ❤️

This is so devastating. Suicide has impacted my own family several times, and it’s a really hard thing to try and understand. My sympathies to Bobby Cleroux’s family. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

I keep thinking about Justice Rosie Abella’s purse and what it says about being a woman leader. I love that she brought this quirky accessory to the IWD event at City Hall yesterday that she joked was, “in bad taste.”

Some of us tried to warn them 🤷‍♀️

I got to meet one of my idols this morning, at City Hall’s International Women’s Day breakfast, which I co-hosted with @mayormarksutcliffe.bsky.social.

What an inspiring morning Councillor Jessica Bradley’s International Women’s Day breakfast, a tradition started by the late, great Diane Deans.

Fun fact: Isabel Teramura is the Ward 14 Planning and Housing assistant and also the granddaughter of John Leaning, who wrote the Centretown Plan in 1975. Very cool to get to flip through one of the only remaining printed copies! A fascinating piece of Centretown history!

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.

Almost like shutting down safe consumption sites and funneling money away from harm reduction and into abstinence grifting makes things less safe and increases harms. This is consistent with decades of data and was completely predictable.