Search string: "genies"
Matches found: 2Friday, December 4, 2009
Use the Rail Bridge for Rail
Over on his blog, the Citizen's Ken Gray has a post about a proposal for the unused Prince of Wales rail bridge that is circulating:
[The National Capital Commission, STO, the City of Gatineau, and the City of Ottawa] are actively considering turning the rail bridge into a road bridge, at least according to Christine Leadman, the Kitchissippi councillor for the area.
That's likely to cost tens of millions of dollars to achieve what? Create a staging area for STO buses at Bayview? That's prime downtown land, suitable for intensification. Why you put a library, some housing ... heck, even a trailer park, bowling alley or roller-derby oval would be better than a bus-staging area. How long do we want to treat the LeBreton, Bayview, Hintonburg, Mechanicsville area like a dump?
We would simply note that the NCC never saw a railway right of way it didn't want to convert into a road, or a road proposal, no matter how crazy, it didn't want to build.
Citizen: Use the Rail Bridge for Rail [4 Dec 2009]
Citizen: A fine bridge [1 Dec 2009]
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Genies and truck routes
One of the ways the NCC likes to promote itself is by bringing award shows to town. This year it's the Genies, and the NCC just can't get over themselves:
The NCC has worked since 1899 to make the Capital an expression of the Canadian identity. Thanks to the steady, persistent and focused efforts of generation after generation of planners and landscape architects, Canada's Capital is today a model of unspoiled shorelines, scenic parkways and boulevards, preserved heritage, monuments and expansive parks. Just as importantly, the Capital has become a place for national encounters, commemorations, learning and celebrations such as the Genie Awards.
Where will the national encounter/commemoration/celebration take place? Why, the Aviation Museum, where guests can take a last, long look at the Aviation Parkway, which, thanks to the steady, persistent and focused efforts of generation after generation of planners and landscape architects, is about to be turned into a truck route. This is being done to alleviate truck traffic downtown, where one of the previous generations of planners and landscape architects turned King Edward Boulevard into a smoking ruin.
So don't worry folks, it's all part of a plan bigger than any one single generation of planners and landscape architects. Hari Seldon, eat your heart out.
NCC: The nation's capital to host the 2009 Genie awards [14 Jan 2009]
NCC Watch: NCC Wastelands - will your neighbourhood be next?
StopTheBridge.org
Citizen: A city that has given up [9 May 2007]