O•S•C•A•R© - Old Ottawa South

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Page 6 The OSCAR - OUR 37 th YEAR July 2010 Which Would You Rather Have at Lansdowne? http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/public_consult/lansdowne_partnership/reports_en.html - OSEG stadium and urban mixed-use plan Submitted By John Ernest Martin, Conservancy Coordinator So what is a Conservancy? A Conservancy is a nonprofit charitable organization that will manage Lansdowne Park. Do you have a mission statement? Yes, the Conservancy mission is to protect, preserve, manage and promote every aspect of the Park in partnership with the public, and to or Lansdowne Park Conservancy Lansdowne Park Conservancy - Keeping Lansdowne 100% public, Without a Stadium ensure that 100% of the Park remains public. All of the Park? Yes, the City needs a partner. The current proposal says cut the park in two with private development tied to another attempt at a stadium. The Conservancy says no to that, keep the whole park and keep it all public! In fact the Conservancy has submitted a counter proposal based on not rebuilding the stadium, but rather taking down the south stands, and replacing that space with an additional playing field. The north stands and arena would receive necessary repairs until a more permanent answer can be found. What about the parking? Parking will be limited to around 1,250 spots, and this is done affordably with surface parking around the current park boundary. This means the freeing up of about half of the park for landscaping, including an extra field, a natural grass music bowl, the Farmer’s market in trees and shade, and plans for an outdoor pool. Essentially a big canvas of green space and to let the peoples imagination take advantage of the opportunities that provides. What about the buildings? Well first off there is no private development and all the heritage buildings stay put! In addition to maintaining 100% of the Park as Public, we will be guided by historical intent as follows: 1. Agricultural and Horticultural, will include a full time home for the Farmer’s Market, an invigorated Central Canada Cont’d on next page
July 2010 CITY COUNCILLOR’S REPORT Dear Oscar Readers: Soul Stones The soft earth beneath our feet rests on stone and will become stone. Our bones are mostly air and learn to talk for a while before returning to the mute universe which waits for eternity before scratching a small message in the carapace of the cosmos. The Old Firehall Ribbon Cutting I am very happy to announce a ribbon cutting on Tuesday July 29 for the Old Firefall. People are invited to the front grounds of the Old Firehall on Sunnyside for the ribbon cutting at 10:30 a.m. which will be followed immediately by an opening reception and short tours of the newly expanded and renovated Firehall Community Centre. This Firehall project in many ways represents the culmination rebuilding the neighbourhood. Bank Street was redone a few years ago, we saved the Mayfair theatre, the Sunnyside Li- The OSCAR - OUR 37 th YEAR The Old Firehall Ribbon Cutting brary is being redone and with the help of Rotary Club play structures at Brewer Park are amongst the best in the city. Over these last few years the community’s needed infrastructure has been renovated and improved at much less cost than building it from scratch. This renewal is a real tribute to the hard work of residents in the community. W hile it’s always dangerous to mention any names, I think it’s important to recognize the hard work of OSCA Board who have with three fine presidents, Doug Stickley, Johns Graham and Mike Jenkin, made these accomplishments possible. Old Ottawa South shows the way to the whole city renewing, recycling and improving. This is the model we need to reduce our taxes and create a more sustainable future. Chicago’s Millennium Park I spent a weekend in Chicago, in part to see their famous Millennium Park. This is the site of the old rail yards. It is a park site similar to Lansdowne Park, about the same size, the same distance from city hall and it’s adjacent to Lake Michigan. The renovation of these old rail yards into a park is truly extraordinary. There are Lansdowne Park Conservancy... Cont’d from previous page Exhibition and continued rural presence with trade space and grow areas. 2. Amateur Sports, will include extra playing fields, preservation of Frank Clair field, and improvements to the arena. 3. The Arts, will include festivals and an outdoor music amphitheatre and a home for the performing and traditional Arts including a space for an Art Gallery. 4. Trade Shows and Public Events, will include maintaining sufficient capacity for shows and events and eventually adding a level to the Civic Centre. 5. Preservation and Enhancement of the grounds by adding more grass, trees and water while protecting all heritage buildings (including the arena and Frank Clair Field, but not the stadium)*: a. The Aberdeen Pavilion b. The Coliseum Building c. The Horticulture Building d. The Civic Centre. How do you pay for this? The Lansdowne Park Conservancy will use the substantial site revenues of just under $5M and projects a minimum annual surplus of $800,000.00 per year under new management. The Conservancy seeks no money from the City of Ottawa, will present a detailed list of annual improvement projects, particularly for green space, using existing site revenue surplus and patron support. The Conservancy model is a proven successful model across North America, with the Central Park Conservancy as the most famous example. How will the park be managed? The Conservancy will manage the Park under a Non-Profit Organization and will have a Board of Advisers made up of the major public partners, gardens with local plantings which mimic the prairie as it was when the Europeans first arrived. A state of the art concert stage permanently set up with lighting and sound so that it’s outdoors but with all of the production values and conveniences of an indoor concert hall. So people can play on the green field when concerts aren’t on. There are over 500 free events there every year. It accounts for 50 per cent of Chicago’s tourism and I can believe it because there seemed to be more people from Toronto than there was from Chicago. Hotels have popped up around it. We stayed in the Fairmont, Millennium Park, but the thing that surprised me most of all was I expected Millennium Park to be more like Lansdowne, an old puddle of crumbling asphalt surrounded by urban development, but in fact the old train yards is abut 28 miles of waterfront park. The people of Chicago are already endowed with so much city centre parkland, yet they chose to expanded it with Millennium Park, not contract it. Here in Ottawa, Lansdowne Park is virtually alone. We have already alienated almost all the land along the banks of the Rideau and Ottawa riv- including but not limited to the City of Ottawa, community leaders and representatives from the arts, sports, trade shows, the Central Canada Exhibition, agricultural, rural areas, heritage and architecture. So how do we help see this happen? Write all the councillors, Send your support to info@lpc-cpl.ca and Check the petition found at www.lpc-cpl.ca Let’s do something amazing for our City, present, and future! Supporting this initiative: The Hon. Flora MacDonald, Companion of the Order of Canada; The Hon. Ed Broadbent, Companion of the Order of Canada; M. Paul Lapointe (Ambassador retd) and Mme Iris Lapointe; Dr. Alvin Cameron, (grandson of Moses Edey, architect of the Aberdeen Pavilion); Rosaleen Dickson, Journalist, Editor and Author; Jean-Claude Dubé, Prof. of History, Ottawa U.; Robert Nigel Hilton, Adjunct Research Prof. Carleton; Mary Gick, Author; David Horton, Manotick; Andrew Dickson, MBA, Printer, Publisher and Owner of MYFM Radio Stations; Hilda van Walraven, Business Systems Analyst, local resident; Pietro Camino, Owner Francesco’s Coffee Company; Mr. and Mrs. Allen, Chemist, Teacher; Dr. Elizabeth Dickson, ret. molecular geneticist; Michael Gazier, Senior Director a Fortune 500 company & ethics advocate; Doug Ward, Vice-President (retired) CBC; John Ernest Martin, Conservancy Coordinator. A Senior Representative from the Central Park Conservancy in New York is available to make a short presentation to Council. The purpose of the presentation will be to discuss the financial and social benefits to cities from nonprofit and charitable Conservancy models. By John Dance Page 7 ers as well as the Rideau canal. You would have thought that Ottawans would be much more protective of what little public land they have left especially a site with such a tremendous history as Lansdowne, but no, we’re willing to give most of the park away to developers for a mall. Yet in Chicago where they have so much already, they are not prepared to cede any public land for private use, not even old rail yards. I found this to be inspiring as I did their public rail system. They have had rail to the city airport since 1984! I took it into the city along with hundreds of others and found it to be quick, convenient and comfortably virtuous. All the best for a happy and relaxing summer, Clive Clive Doucet City of Ottawa 110 Laurier Avenue West, Ottawa, ON, K1P 1J1 Tel: (613) 580-2487 Fax: (613) 580-2527 Clive.Doucet@ottawa.ca www.clivedoucet.com Park Designs Have Wrong Footbridge Location It’s great that the proposed designs for the Lansdowne urban park are proposing a new canal footbridge but there is no sound justification for four of the five teams suggesting that a footbridge be at Pig Island near Bank Street. This location is redundant, excessively wide (thus incurring unwarranted expense) and fails to provide a missing east-west link between communities and for a cross-city cycling and pedestrian route. The logical and economical location for a new footbridge should be near the midpoint in the two kilometer stretch of the canal between the Pretoria and Bank Street bridges, i.e., near Fifth Avenue on the Glebe side and Clegg Street on the Ottawa East / Ottawa South side. Urban park proposal “A” suggests this location and proposal “C” suggests a footbridge at both Fifth/Clegg and Pig Island. One other critical issue for the City, the NCC and Parks Canada to consider is how the proposed footbridges tie into the very important canal pathways. A few of the proposals have their footbridges soaring above the pathways. This just won’t work – cyclists and pedestrians need to be able to readily access the new footbridge. In fairness to the City, its environmental assessment of a second canal footbridge will be examining these issues. In the meantime, people should not be supporting Pig Island footbridge proposals that yield few benefits and cost more than is justified.
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Page 35 and 36: July 2010 M.P.P. OTTAWA CENTRE By Y
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