I missed this one @theneworleans.bsky.social. It is the former Madonna Nursing Home.

It costs the City of Ottawa $465/person each year to serve new low-density homes, over & above what it receives from property taxes/fees. On the other hand, high-density infill such as apartment buildings pays for itself plus an extra $606/person each year. Sprawl costs, infill saves. #UrbanTruth

We're not shrugging, we're begging for action. Hundreds of families in this city say no more - we won't accept road violence. And we demand better of the city and the province. @bikeottawa.bsky.social @visionzeroottawa.bsky.social @forourkidsog.bsky.social

On Monday, April 28, the Eastern Ottawa Urbanism Club will be having our first in-person meetup at the Bad Alibi (near Youville and Jeanne d'Arc). I hope to see you there.

I've got a challenge for you. It will be incredibly difficult, but it will save you a little money today, and a TON in the longer term. Let's talk about it.

Thanks to sound city-wide policies, planning rationale, and support by diverse community members deferring these sidewalks has failed, blocking them completely has failed, and now a last-minute attempt to water-down the plan a little bit??? Time for city council to put an end to this non-sense!

Sigh… this makes zero-sense!!! Last-minute motion to reduce scope of sidewalks in Manor Park during integrated renewal - so baking in less pedestrian connectivity? In what world does this make any sense. @strongtownsottawa.ca @toondreessen.bsky.social @otttransitriders.bsky.social 1/

Thank you @robattrell.bsky.social !! This has become a city-wide issue. “If Manor Park residents are allowed to block residentials sidewalks on the very shaky case they have made so far, every single community will be lining up to get the same exceptional treatment.” Email your councillor today!

Several months ago, I agreed to wade into the morass that this integrated renewal of residential streets in Manor Park has become. Let your city councillor know today that you support residential sidewalks, especially on school streets.

We're back at it again today, see you at 12:15!

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-...

Here ya go! books.apple.com/us/book/life...

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.

If our elected officials cared about the safety of people outside of cars, starting with kids, we wouldn’t need crossing guards. Our streets would be safe regardless of human error. But here we are. A crossing guard lost their life on duty. We should all be outraged.1/3 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Reminder that the Eastern Ottawa Urbanism Club will be meeting today at lunch (12:15 - 12:45). Get your invite at theneworleans.ca/urbanism-club/

Today, the 'theme' of the categories we'll be looking at is 'public amenities', and as you'll see, the availability of these types of places vary widely here.

In a lot of ways, schools feel fundamentally underused, and disconnected from the communities that surround them outside of school hours.

In a lot of ways, schools feel fundamentally underused, and disconnected from the communities that surround them outside of school hours.

Today, the 'theme' of the categories we'll be looking at is 'public amenities', and as you'll see, the availability of these types of places vary widely here.

It's possible to see what a walkable neighbourhood that maintains the existing 'character' really looks like. When it comes to making our imagination real, we've gotten some help from AI. ✨ theneworleans.ca/seethevillage #Orleans #UrbanPlanning #SuburbanVillage #SmallBusiness

We celebrate clever people creating clever graphics to make clever points to help cities make more clever city-building decisions.

This is awful. I hope they’re okay. Seasonal traffic calming measures aren’t sufficient. We need the city to invest in @schoolstreetsyow.bsky.social

I'd like a 100 mile food store. I'm very basic for food ingrediants. I'd like an alternative to major food chains. I'd like to be able to drop in for fresh meat and veg every 3-5 days. Or call for kid on bike delivery within a few hours.

We need a “15 Minute City Community Land Trust that builds affordable+ walkable corner lot units.

“Needs more neighbours”

The easiest way to visualize this mixed-use infill concept—integrating apartments with a local market and yoga studio right in a suburban Ottawa neighborhood—was to get help from AI. #UrbanPlanning #InfillDevelopment #MixedUse #WalkableCities #SmallBusiness #LocalJobs

✨New Post✨ Choosing a path for Orléans. 🏘️ Freeze housing and local shops, and we watch taxes climb while services vanish. Or, allow more homes + mixed-use spaces to stabilize our bills and fund the neighborhood we want. It’s decline vs. a village that pays for itself. 📉📈 #SuburbanVillage #Orleans

✨Introducing✨ the Eastern Ottawa Urbanism Club, a weekly (virtual) social gathering for fans of good city-making practices in the east end of Ottawa. Follow the link to get your invite, first meeting is March 3rd. theneworleans.ca/urbanism-club/

Probably worth updating the story (any journalists interested?) but here's my writeup on how Northdale got on this trajectory from almost a decade back

✨New Post✨ Choosing a path for Orléans. 🏘️ Freeze housing and local shops, and we watch taxes climb while services vanish. Or, allow more homes + mixed-use spaces to stabilize our bills and fund the neighborhood we want. It’s decline vs. a village that pays for itself. 📉📈 #SuburbanVillage #Orleans

Suburban Villages!! Any luck with mixed-use?

I'm a broken record about how remarkable the transformation in Waterloo's Northdale neighbourhood is. If we could figure out a repeatable formula for mid-rise upzoning for low-car streets, we could achieve amazing things

3. Re-establishing the commuter express routes, at least until the LRT east and west extensions are both fully operational and until we can safely run a full complement of trains and cars again; 4. Rejecting development sprawl that forces the City to provide bus services beyond the urban area.

Truth be told: follow this account to get to the heart of the matter: the real truths behind urban design, dispelling the myths and misinformation that affects how we think about our places. Give @urbantruth.bsky.social a follow and join the movement to make #PlacesForPeople

Like I've been saying!! Suburban Villages!

This is good advice every day, assuming of course that your local city or suburb hasn’t been specifically and deliberately designed to make you essentially car dependent… #UrbanTruth

Local shops like this are an easy way to start making our suburbs feel more like a real village where you can actually get things done on foot. We could really use more of them around here. #ottawa #urbanism #SuburbanVillage

As if another reason to support Ottawa finally getting a bike share program was needed, but there you have it. Right @shawnmenard.bsky.social and @glengower.ca?

Congratulations @OCtranspo and current city council. You've made commuting so bad, we've decided to sell in Orléans and buy walking distance to work, even if that means my kids wear potato sacks from now on.

Ottawa could be in this list, but we can’t get out of our own way to actually implement the cycling infrastructure we have on the books. A plan for cycling infrastructure isn’t cycling infrastructure. We actually have to budget for it and build it.

“…persons living in walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods have higher levels of social capital compared with those living in car-oriented suburbs. Respondents living in walkable neighborhoods were more likely to know their neighbors, participate politically, trust others, and be socially engaged.”

✨ The future of our neighborhoods is mixed. Take a look at this detailed conceptual visualization of a new 'urban infill concept' on a suburban lot. #UrbanInfill #MissingMiddleHousing #SuburbanDensity #FutureOfHousing #UrbanPlanning #MixedUse #SmallBusiness

Is this the future of your block? We're visualizing a new kind of "local." What’s the one local business you wish was within walking distance of your house? 🚶‍♂️🍕🍦 #Ottawa #WalkToWork #LocalBusinesses #SuburbanVillage

Evolving our suburbs requires more than just adding housing; it requires integrating the amenities that people need in their daily lives. #MissingMiddleHousing #UrbanDesign #MixedUseSuburbs #CompleteStreets

Orléans has at least two private indoor pools so that kids can get basic swimming lessons. It is not cricket vs pools. It is extremely low taxes vs expanding / maintaining city facilities. #OttPoli

And council just keeps making the same bad decisions year over year because no one wants to be the one to tell their constituents that they need to start paying their fair share. They've been subsidized for so long the fair share is now fucking huge. Which of course it is, that's what scams are. /6

Hello Ottawa suburbs. 👋

✨Tomorrow at lunch✨ For those of you who are interested in attending the kickoff meeting of the Eastern Ottawa Urbanism Club, let me know and I will make sure you have the meeting link in your mailbox. theneworleans.ca/urbanism-club

This type of place can be known by all kinds of names: café, coffee house, espresso bar, teahouse. Cafes are a great local amenity that can easily fit right into the fabric of a residential street.

Kidical Mass Ottawa is getting ready for another season of joy, connection, and being the future we want to see. Learn more about the movement and how you can get involved. Volunteers of every kind make this joyful event happen - we want to hear from you. visionzeroottawa.ca/newsletter/