O•S•C•A•R© Fida's Pizza Changes Hands - Old Ottawa South
O•S•C•A•R© Fida's Pizza Changes Hands - Old Ottawa South
O•S•C•A•R© Fida's Pizza Changes Hands - Old Ottawa South
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MAY 2010<br />
CITY COUNCILLOR’S REPORT<br />
Dear Oscar Readers:<br />
We are born old and young<br />
at the same time.<br />
We are born with great loves<br />
and great pains<br />
that we grow into like an acorn<br />
grows into an oak tree;<br />
like God grows into the universe.<br />
On April 14 th I advanced three<br />
motions at <strong>Ottawa</strong> City<br />
Council. The response speaks<br />
volumes about the challenges we face<br />
in the political arena in trying to make<br />
<strong>Ottawa</strong> a better, more sustainable<br />
place.<br />
The objective of the first motion<br />
was to reduce municipal tax increases.<br />
The motion stated that the Long<br />
Range Financial Plan Working Group<br />
“ review ways that the 2011 budget<br />
development process be adjusted to<br />
give priority to all Transportation<br />
and Transit projects and services that<br />
will in the short, medium, and long<br />
term reduce the overall operating<br />
costs required by the City of <strong>Ottawa</strong><br />
to deliver these services”. In other<br />
words, give priority to Transit and<br />
Transportation projects that reduce<br />
By Brendan McCoy,<br />
OSWATCH Co-Chair<br />
The OSCAR - OUR 37 th YEAR<br />
A Tale Of Three Motions<br />
costs to the city as it grows.<br />
In the discussion leading up to the<br />
vote on this motion, a few councillors<br />
spoke in support of the idea but most<br />
of my colleagues decided this was too<br />
dangerous to the status quo to actually<br />
vote for it. The status quo for <strong>Ottawa</strong><br />
in transportation has been to add 150<br />
to 200 kilometres of new roads each<br />
year and more express buses to name<br />
some projects and services where<br />
costs are rising much faster than<br />
revenues.<br />
The second motion was that the<br />
following question be placed on the<br />
Municipal Ballot during the 2010<br />
election: “Should the City of <strong>Ottawa</strong><br />
have a competitive process for the<br />
disposition of Lansdowne Park? ”<br />
Both sides on the Lansdowne debate<br />
have claimed a silent majority on<br />
their side. Why not give everybody a<br />
chance to state how they want business<br />
conducted with their tax dollars? This<br />
motion was not carried forward as a<br />
majority of my colleagues felt that<br />
only they should decide whether<br />
a competitive process was used at<br />
Lansdowne, not the public.<br />
The third motion asked for<br />
another question to be put on the ballot<br />
College of Physicians and Surgeons<br />
Considers <strong>Changes</strong><br />
The College of Physician<br />
and Surgeons is the owner<br />
and resident of the former<br />
Precious Blood Convent on Echo<br />
Drive off Bank Street. The beautiful,<br />
former Convent, along with its front<br />
and back lawns, is a designated<br />
heritage property, and has been<br />
carefully renovated into an office<br />
building and headquarters by the<br />
College. The College has wanted<br />
more space for some time but has<br />
not succeeded in securing any Bank<br />
Street properties for its expansion.<br />
The College had approached several<br />
private land owners, and also tried to<br />
make a deal with the Library; these<br />
approaches all failed.<br />
Now, with the Medical Council<br />
of Canada as partners, they are<br />
instead exploring the idea of<br />
building on their existing site, on<br />
one or both sides of the current<br />
College of Physicians and Surgeons former Precious Blood Convent<br />
on Echo Drive off Bank Street Photo by Brendan McCoy<br />
box in the 2010 election: “Should<br />
the City of <strong>Ottawa</strong> commission a<br />
study including details as to how deamalgamation<br />
could be effected, to be<br />
reviewed by City Council by January<br />
25, 2011? ” This question could have<br />
been used as a means of starting a<br />
discussion on how the shortcomings<br />
of amalgamation could be addressed.<br />
For instance, many local areas in<br />
the city feel decisions are forced on<br />
them by other parts of the city. This<br />
is a common complaint in urban, in<br />
rural, and in suburban areas, which<br />
were all more autonomous before<br />
amalgamation. Giving people more<br />
local control should be an appealing<br />
thing for many people and if it isn’t<br />
at least we would have a definitive<br />
answer to those who complain about<br />
the new larger city.<br />
I was surprised that many of my<br />
colleagues failed to see the wisdom<br />
of supporting these motions, because<br />
if we are ever to control our taxes,<br />
we have to reduce our per capita<br />
costs as the city grows – not increase<br />
them. If <strong>Ottawa</strong> city services have<br />
diseconomies of scale - you’ve got<br />
to ask why we amalgamated in the<br />
first place? Figuring out what those<br />
main building. The front and rear<br />
views of their building have heritage<br />
protection and are not to be changed.<br />
To develop ideas, they have engaged<br />
Barry Padolsky, an architect with<br />
strong heritage credentials, whose<br />
firm has worked on the Bank St.<br />
Bridge rebuild and the ongoing<br />
renovation of the Museum of Naturethe<br />
Victoria Memorial Building.<br />
At a recent meeting with myself<br />
and another OSCA Board member,<br />
issues of heritage, zoning, building<br />
size (75,000 sq ft +), parking and<br />
traffic were discussed. The College<br />
mentioned the possibility of<br />
changing the entrance and exit for the<br />
site by moving the existing bollards<br />
on Echo Drive slightly further east,<br />
thereby allowing College employees<br />
access to their site from Bank Street.<br />
The College is aware of the need to<br />
engage with the local community<br />
on all issues. OSCA was promised<br />
further information and OSWATCH<br />
and OSCA will continue to follow<br />
developments closely.<br />
On a side-note, the College<br />
informed us that it will be<br />
participating in Doors Open <strong>Ottawa</strong><br />
this year; if you would like a peek<br />
inside this beautiful heritage<br />
building, I recommend trying to visit<br />
during Doors Open <strong>Ottawa</strong> on June<br />
5 and 6, 2010.<br />
Page 7<br />
low cost services are, is the first step<br />
to having a cost effective budget, just<br />
as the first step to changing our city’s<br />
governance is commissioning a study<br />
to figure out how some form of decentralization<br />
could be affected.<br />
These motions weren’t that<br />
radical: let’s weigh things that reduce<br />
long term expenses ahead of those<br />
that don’t, let’s confirm whether a<br />
majority are comfortable with noncompetitive<br />
big projects, and lastly<br />
lets just study what’s working or not<br />
with amalgamation.<br />
Coffee with Clive<br />
Please note that May will be the<br />
last month for Coffee with Clive and<br />
so Thursday May 13 th will be the last<br />
Coffee with Clive in <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Ottawa</strong> <strong>South</strong><br />
at Bridgehead, 1176 Bank Street from<br />
9:00 to 10:00 a.m..<br />
All the best,<br />
Clive Doucet<br />
City of <strong>Ottawa</strong><br />
110 Laurier Avenue West,<br />
<strong>Ottawa</strong>, ON, K1P 1J1<br />
Tel: (613) 580-2487<br />
Fax: (613) 580-2527<br />
Clive.Doucet@ottawa.ca<br />
www.clivedoucet.com<br />
Fida’s <strong>Pizza</strong>...<br />
Cont’d from page 1<br />
his family over to Canada.<br />
Tony is tall and thin, and he looks<br />
you directly in the eye when he speaks to<br />
you. While we speak, he rushes around<br />
the kitchen, spreading dough into pans,<br />
assembling toppings, and putting pizzas<br />
into and taking them out of the oven.<br />
Growing up, I always loved the<br />
nights when my parents ordered Fida’s<br />
pizza instead of cooking. One of my<br />
favorite parts of the doughy, rich-tasting<br />
pizza we enjoyed was the lump of dough<br />
in the middle of the pizza. We called<br />
that the bun. I asked Tony why put<br />
a bun in the middle of his pizzas. He<br />
answered that he noticed that other pizza<br />
places put a removable piece of plastic<br />
in the middle of the pizza to prevent the<br />
box from caving in and sticking to the<br />
toppings. He thought he’d simply try<br />
something different and use a lump of<br />
dough to hold up the box. He’s stopped<br />
doing that today because the price of<br />
flour has gone up, making such liberal<br />
use of dough no longer economical.<br />
To his customers, Tony says, “I’m<br />
going to miss you all. I hope we meet<br />
again.” For their continuous support, he<br />
thanks his wife of 33 years, Pauline, and<br />
his son Christopher.<br />
After his trip to Lebanon, Tony isn’t<br />
sure what he’ll do next. He’ll take things<br />
as they come as he adopts to the fact that<br />
for the first time in 34 years, he will no<br />
longer be making pizza.