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Page 4 The OSCAR - OUR 37 th YEAR July 2010 June/July At The ‘Firehall’ Yes Really At The New Firehall By the time you read this we will be BACK IN THE FIREHALL – June 21 is moving day – we will be moving out of Southminster United Church that day and moving back into the Firehall……….and are we excited!! The only program we will be running that week is After Four and the kids will just come to the Firehall on June 21 – we will pick kids up from Hopewell, buses etc. So ALL our Summer Camps will take place at the Firehall. Bet you can’t wait to see it – neither can we! Kudos to the construction team for finishing on time. The Official Opening and Ribbon Cutting organized by Councillor Clive Doucet is on Tuesday, June 29 – 10:30 am – all welcome. I would like to thank everyone at Southminster United Church for being so accommodating to us – it was a wonderful temporary home for OSCA. AFTER FOUR 2010/11 – is FULL with a number of people on the waitlist SUMMER CAMP Registration is ongoing – check out our many exciting camps for preschoolers, children and youth – register early as a couple of camps are already sold out. Don’t forget – we will be our new beautiful space at the Firehall. INFORMATION and REGISTRATION for all OSCA programs at: www.oldottawasouth.ca - just follow the RED registration signs or call us at 613-247-4946 or drop by the Firehall at 260 Sunnyside Avenue. Let’s Get This Party Started! By Brenda Lee When I first joined the OSCA board, I can remember our councilor, Clive Doucet, telling us all that it would take 10 years to raise the money to renovate our Firehall…turns out that Clive was right. (I may have been a bit of a Doubting Thomas…..sorry Clive) Here we are 10 years later and our beloved Firehall has undergone a complete overhaul. I can’t wait to see it and I am sure I am not alone. The move in date has been set as June 21 and a small opening ceremony with official ribbon cutting will occur on June 29 at 10:30 a.m. Then in the fall a larger celebration will occur. As anyone who has moved knows, preparing for a housewarming takes a bit of time. Once the boxes have been unpacked, the kinks worked out, the furniture and art put in place, you look around and think…LET’S PARTY!! The OSCA Special Events Committee has planned not one, but TWO celebrations of this very special happening in our community. Details are still in the works, but for now a few can be shared. We are planning a Community Open House for Sunday, Sept. 26 from 2-5. There will be games, food etc for the whole family and some special performances as well. It will be a great chance to see the building in its prime and to connect with the neighbourhood while we celebrate this great accomplishment. A more adult themed night is also being planned for Nov. 6. This will feature a night time viewing of the Firehall, with a dinner and a dance to follow. The building really is amazing and a night to kick back with friends, have a great meal and dance the night away will be a wonderful experience. Look for more details in the next Oscar….and mark those dates down now…you don’t want to miss it!!! June 29 Official opening at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 26 Community Open House 2p.m.-5 p.m. Nov. 6 Dinner and Dance. To volunteer please contact Deirdre McQuillan at osca@magma.ca or at 613 247 4872. OSCA Soccer- Fun Filled Frantic Footy Fanatics Fill Fields This year’s OSCA Spring Soccer Program continued it’s tradition of providing fun and some basic soccer skill development to more than 160 local kids. 6 weeks of skills, drills, spills, and Dilly Bars ended on June 19th. Thanks to all the players, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, friends, mosquitoes, dogs (even though they aren’t allowed near the main field..ahem!) and anyone else who came out to watch the fun. Special kudos to Chelsea “the shack lady”, Adrian “skills coach”, and all of the volunteer parent/ coaches. We all work together to make this program successful. Hey! Spread the word- let everyone know that this is an awesome program. Parents- SIGN UP YOUR KIDS ASAP NEXT YEAR. We had to turn some kids away-as the teams were already full. More kids= more teams= more fun. Deirdre- thanks for all your support and ball-buying. Thanks again to Everyone! See you next Spring*! Kevin Colwell Jennifer Small *Kevin is moving out of OOS, and there is a rumour that Darren Richeson is the front runner to take over the Tykes/Atoms Cordinator job next year. Darren? So Long.. And Thanks For All The Taxes By Kevin Colwell Former OOS Resident and occasional OSCA Soccer Co-Coordinator Fida’s is gone, buildings are being torn down, ugly infills and the never-ending Landsdowne redevelopment debate are causing kerfuffles, Shopper’s left us with a lovely garbage-filled vacant lot, the chip wagon has lost some of it’s magic, there are teen cyclers vs. New Zealander incidents on the Bank St. bridge, and the Quickie has run out of “Go-Go’s”. If all that wasn’t enough- I just received my 2010 property tax bill. Geez Louise. I think it’s just wonderful that the City continues to dig deeper and deeper into my wallet (and my wife’s handbag/purse/whatever that thing is) in order to provide us with another year of ever-diminishing city services. If you own a home assessed at actual market value (as I do), then congratulations, because you are also a member of the “we pay WAY too much property tax” club. A $600k home (and this ‘hood is filled with them) will generate $7000+ in property tax in 2010. $600/month to live in OOS? Wow. You must REALLY like this area to fork out that much dough. The sad reality is that high property taxes, along with the impending rise in interest rates , will make the cost of living in OOS too high of a price to pay for some families. Including mine. After 4 years of our “let’s live in the city” pilot project, we are packing up our scratched IKEA furniture and moving to the country. We started our family way back in 1998 in a rural setting, so I guess it’s sort of a homecoming. I guess it takes a certain mind set to enjoy the urban experience. Besides the $$$ to live in the ‘hood, you have to accept the fact that you are sharing your space with a lot of neighbours- and their radios, cats, dogs, kids, etc. Although I had my run-ins with some idiotic neighbours- oh, my favourite was the student renter “Snoop-Dog” and his 3 a.m. rapping posse (my favourite rap started with the shout-out “Snoopy and Woodstock, they were gangsta muther-%^&*&$”),- there are some definite bonuses to living so close to downtown. Walking to work, walking to the store, etc. Everything is so close. I know that there are people who LOVE being right in the middle of things. Hooray for you. I understand it. I just don’t want it anymore. Actually, I just don’t want to pay for it anymore. So....good bye OOS. Good luck with the new Firehall (which was partially funded by my silent auction bids at the Taste of Spain event). I hope that the new grocery store opens soon, that the burned out building gets demolished, that Shopper’s fills the vacant lot, that the Wine Bar is successful, etc.
July 2010 OSCA PRESIDENT’S REPORT The OSCAR - OUR 37 th YEAR Lansdowne, Firehall Open, Partnership Agreement with the City, and Rob Burr By Michael Jenkin Lansdowne Decision As I write this, we are gearing up to make presentations to Council on the Lansdowne Park issue as Council votes on the project on June 28. Little that we have seen from the flurry of reports issued in the second week in June on traffic, financing or retail impacts reduces our concerns about the negative consequences of this development for us as a community and for all the City’s residents as taxpayers. We were disappointed that Carleton University, despite our appeals, has decided to allow the City to use its lots outside of University teaching hours to provide additional overflow parking at the campus for events at the site. For larger events this will imply shuttle busses running along Sunnyside to Bank to access the site – assuming they can move in the traffic jams on Sunnyside and Bank generated by the mall and major sporting events at Lansdowne. Further, the City is determined that residential streets in both the Glebe and Old Ottawa South will be used for parking given the limited number of spaces on the site. This is being proposed despite the fact that the streets are already heavily used for residential and retail parking. The result will be additional congestion as cars mill around residential streets looking for nonexistent parking spaces. This is a sad and sorry state of affairs and an example once again of how poorly the City understands the proper management of major developments in dense urban areas such as ours. Firehall Open At Last! By the time you read this, the Firehall will be in the process of re-opening and the Official Opening ceremony will be held on June 29. We are moving in after June 21 and plan to run the last week of After Four programming in the new facility; our summer camps will start at the Firehall on June 28. I have had a sneak peak at the new facilities and I think you will be impressed and pleased with the new centre. It is truly unrecognizable from the old Firehall and in the best of all possible ways. There is a spacious new reception area at the front of the building (no more going up the side steps to get in) with plenty of room to move around. There is lots of light and the new programming rooms are a delight. The look is clean, modern and inviting with the use of a lot of light coloured wood and warm colours. What you don’t see, but which will make the centre a better place to be, is all the new energy efficient infrastructure and control equipment which brings By Leo B. Doyle As the June 28 City Council vote on the Lansdowne Live project approaches, it is disturbing to observe the lack of rigor and intellectual honesty contained in the many reports and briefing material being produced by City staff and their army of paid consultants. While we expect to get a “sell job” from private land developers and their enablers in the various consultancies, we need and deserve better from the technical reports produced under the direction of municipal civil servants whose job it is to protect the public interest. None of the technical reports written by “hired guns” provides a thor- the centre up to the latest environmental, safety and accessibility standards, including a small elevator! There will be the inevitable teething problems with the new building with workers coming in the first few weeks to make adjustments, corrections and completing finishing touches and we have a huge job to do to fully move in all our equipment, sort out what new items we require and generally get organized. Also, it will take us a few months to get the measure of the building and get a good sense of what works best in terms of programming activity and in what locations. By the start of the fall programming session we should have the place well “shaken down and shipshape” for you all. Then will come the exciting part of experiencing programs in a new and purpose built facility and figuring out what new and different things we can do there. A big vote of thanks is due to the City staff (particularly Cathie and Dinos) and our OSCA staff and volunteers (especially Deirdre) for all the hard work and extra time they put in to move us from our temporary home at Southminister Church back to our brand spanking new Firehall. We have a bright future ahead of us! New Partnership Agreement with the City While a whole lot less exciting than moving into a new community centre, getting our working relationships with the City well defined is an important job. At the prodding of the City’s Auditor General, the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department of the City is in the process of formalizing its relationships with community associations across the city. As there is a great variety in the working relationships the City has with community associations, ranging from situations where the community group essentially runs both the community facilities and all the programming to situations where the association is essentially an advisory group to a City run facility. We are somewhere in the middle where we have what could be described as a pretty equal partnership where the City looks after the building and shares in the running of our programmes and we handle the planning , financing and administration and share programme implementation. At its last meeting the Board approved a draft agreement for discussion with the City that in essence defines our understanding of the current arrangement we have with the City. While it does not propose any fundamental changes in our partnership, it does attempt to clarify our respective responsibilities and define our roles. We will be sending a draft of this agreement to the City shortly and will likely enter into discussions with them in the autumn. ough or believable explanation of how the stadium and park failed in the first place. To take an informed decision on the future of Lansdowne, we need to understand what planning mistakes were made in the past and how they contributed to turning the Park and neighbourhood scaled stadium into a dysfunctional facility and lamentable “sea of asphalt”. Unfortunately, we are getting no answers or thoughtful analysis from Ottawa’s private media outlets, which have been cheerily singing the praises of this ill-conceived, un-tendered business deal. With no requirement to pay rent, the proposal gives a hand picked group of developers control of cityowned land to run and exploit as they please, almost as long as they please. Fortunately, to understand why it’s a very bad idea to re-develop Landsdowne as a large stadium, park and entertainment complex you need only visit the public library, talk to some long-time area residents, and do some digging in the Google-indexed daily newspapers of old. Unlike the present incarnation of the Ottawa Citizen, the archived versions are stronger on factual reporting than the paper we’re now forced to endure. Doing a bit of research on Lansdowne’s history and evolution will give even the most ardent Lansdowne Live supporter cause to rethink this project’s merits. Is this really good public policy, urban planning or a sustainable strategy to give the park and professional football and soccer a long- Page 5 Lifetime Volunteer Award – Rob Burr It was my pleasure at the June Board meeting to present an OSCA Lifetime Volunteer Award to Rob Burr. Rob served for many years as our volunteer webmaster and shepherded OSCA’s transition to the on-line world. Rob represents what is best in our community, a dedicated volunteer who quietly served his Association with distinction. Rob was a thoughtful manager of our on-line presence, always alert to new possibilities, patiently managing the inevitable problems, complexities and challenges that being on-line poses, especially for a voluntary community organization such as OSCA. I often sought Rob’s advice on issues associated with our website which involved not only the technical and financial challenges of running the site, but the more difficult issues of meeting community expectations and diffusing differences of view. Rob’s advice was OSCA President Michael Jenkin giving Rob Burr Lifetime Volunteer Award Photo by M. A. Thompson always wise and perceptive and was always given with the long term best interests of the community at heart. Thank you Rob for a wonderful job well done! Summer Holidays As is traditional, the Board does not meet during July and August, although the Executive Committee is available to make decisions if required. We will hold our next meeting on Tuesday, September 21 at the Firehall. Our next big community event will be the Annual OSCA Porch Sale on Saturday, September 11, rain or shine. More details on the Porch Sale will be published in the September OSCAR. Have a happy and safe summer everyone! Getting it Wrong: Lessons from Lansdowne’s Past term lease on life? Looking back at the considerations that shaped the Lansdowne we know today, and the promises that were made each time the stadium was expanded, we’re in a much better position to understand what did and did not work, despite the best of intentions. Before we go any further and repeat the Lansdowne mistakes of the past, perhaps, once again, it’s time for Ottawa City Council to hit the “re-set” button. These are but the opening paragraphs. To read the rest of this well-researched and important article, please go to www.oldottawasouth.ca and follow the links.
Page 1 and 2: The O•S•C•A•R© The Communi
Page 3: July 2010 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Sen
Page 7 and 8: July 2010 CITY COUNCILLOR’S REPOR
Page 9 and 10: July 2010 By Carol Loop Under the l
Page 11 and 12: July 2010 The OSCAR - OUR 37 th YEA
Page 13 and 14: July 2010 According to Wikipedia, t
Page 15 and 16: July 2010 converted into a “work
Page 17 and 18: July 2010 Squirrel Talk By Michaël
Page 19 and 20: July 2010 By Robert Taylor A sell-o
Page 21 and 22: July 2010 Books on Friederike’s b
Page 23 and 24: The th July 2010 OSCAR - OUR 37 YEA
Page 29 and 30: July 2010 By Rob Campbell There are
Page 31 and 32: July 2010 OCDSB TRUSTEE REPORT By R
Page 33 and 34: July 2010 By Anna Sundin The OSCAR
Page 35 and 36: July 2010 M.P.P. OTTAWA CENTRE By Y
Page 37 and 38: July 2010 117ABBOTSFORD HOUSE By: J
Page 39 and 40: July 2010 MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT OTTA
Page 41 and 42: July 2010 Big “0” Cake 0 fat. 0
Page 43 and 44: July 2010 By Anant Nagpur I just re

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