The city of Ottawa is proceeding with Lansdowne 2.0, the $419 million second phase of the partnership with Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group.

After four days of delegations and debate, Council voted 16 to 9 in favour of the Lansdowne 2.0 plan, which includes a new 5,500-seat event centre, a new north-side stands at TD Place Stadium and two residential towers.

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and councillors Catherine Kitts, Matthew Luloff, Allan Hubley, Wilson Lo, David Brown, Steve Desroches, Marty Carr, George Darouze, Clarke Kelly, Cathy Curry, Stephanie Plante, Laura Dudas and Tim Tierney voted to support of the plan.

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Menard and councillors Ariel Troster, Theresa Kavanagh, Sean Devine, Jeff Leiper, Rawlson King, Riley Brockington, Laine Johnson and Jessica Bradley voted against the proposal.

New RSS recreation complex tucked into the budget!

That LRT, whenever it opens, is really going to drive development down here.

Hey everyone,

Kind of quiet here, so I thought I'd ask a question that's been on my mind for a while:

What would make Ottawa better, in your view? Big or small.

For me, it would be to improve the walkability. I walk, jog, cycle, motorbike, and drive, all fairly frequently. It drives me wild how long it takes (mid winter or bad weather) from the time I press a crosswalk button, to the time the lights change. I'd love to see that improved.

OC Transpo officials still won't provide a firm launch date next spring for the new north-south light-rail transit line, as construction continues on the line between Bayview Station and Riverside South.

"Spring 2024, but I won't give any month," Renee Amilcar, OC Transpo general manager, told the light-rail transit subcommittee on Friday.

Councillors were told that final construction, testing and commissioning of the system is underway, with work on the stations almost complete. As of this week, eight of nine trains are participating in testing on the transit system.

A presentation for the committee showed a possible launch of the Trillium Line between March and June.

...

This is just stupid.

I'm an atheist. A devout atheist.

This is not "secularism", it's stupidity.

As atheists, my family celebrates the traditional secular commercial Christmas. We will also happily attend Chanukah celebrations, Kwanzaa celebrations, winter solstice celebrations, Nicholas Day celebrations, Yule celebrations, Festivus celebrations, or whatever else we are invited to attend. Our beliefs are not so delicate that they could collapse just from being exposed to others joyous celebrations. We love participating in other people's joy.

This sort if fanatical secularism sucks all of the joy out of the season.

Glad to see the Ottawa changes were on the list.

Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSTgr4kqoPA

Xpost from [email protected]

It's taken three years of work and 17,000 cubic metres of concrete, but Frank Santostefano is seeing an idea become reality on LeBreton Flats.

"I've been here since day one, when it was just a parking lot, so it's fun to see all the hard work and the planning, the design, coming to fruition," he said.

"You can really start to appreciate the unique shape of the building."

...

The timeline for Ādisōke has been pushed back once before, but Sutcliffe said the project is still set to finish in 2026.

In 2021, the budget almost doubled from $175 million to $334 million. Sutcliffe said he's heard nothing to indicate it will grow further.

They just allowed triplexes last weds as the the provincial bill - apparently fourplexes are too far?

It's a housing crisis guys...

Fucken great!

An incoming program in Ottawa that would serve as an alternate to 911 for calls about mental health issues will first be rolled out in the neighbourhood of Centretown, following the recommendation of a panel of mental health experts.

The program, which will create a new phone number for people in crisis and include a triaging and dispatch system, was approved in late June by city councillors.

However the decision of where to first roll out the program was left to a committee of local mental health experts.

That committee's decision to launch the program in the area bound by Bronson Avenue, Elgin Street, Parliament Hill and Highway 417, is being applauded by front-line health workers in the neighbourhood.

"We've been asking for it for a long time and we are thrilled with it," said Michelle Hurtubise, executive director of the Centretown Community Health Centre (CCHC) on Cooper Street.

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According to data from Brown's department, city staff have responded to 375 encampments so far this year. That's way up from 343 during all of last year and 248 in 2021. In 2020, the first year with comparable data, there were just 65.

Brown said no one has to sleep outside because there's always space at one of the city's emergency shelters, on an overflow mat or in an arena used as a physical distancing centre.

But there are all sorts of reasons that might push someone to prefer a tent in a forest clearing or near an old train track, Brown said, such as addiction, mental health issues, trauma or just the search for tranquillity and a bit of space to breathe.

"Really it comes down to their personal preference of where they feel safe, what their kind of prior experience is," he said. "A lot of them have past trauma."

Previous title: Boy critically injured after falling from apartment window

There will be a transit rally at City Hall this coming Tuesday starting at 11:30am.

OC Transpo is stuck in a transit death spiral. Poor service leads has lead to poor ridership which leads to lower income which leads to poor service and this will continue.

The only way out is investment in the system, more busses, more drivers, more bus lanes, more bus priority signals.

Bit annoying that it's during work hours, but that's when city employees will be there. Hopefully there will be more rallys and protests. Come by if you can.

Don't expect change over night, the fight for a better city happens every day!

It’s the dawn of a new era for the Ottawa Senators.

Ten months after the Senators were officially put up for sale by the estate of late Eugene Melnyk, Toronto healthcare billionaire Michael Andlauer and his group were expected to sign on the dotted line Thursday to purchase the club for $950 million (all figures U.S.).

That’s the highest price ever paid for a National Hockey League team.

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The National Capital Commission (NCC) is formally interested in establishing a national urban park in Ottawa, CBC News has learned.

Exactly where is not yet clear. In documents obtained by CBC this week under access to information legislation, all references to a specific possible location have been redacted.

In a statement Thursday, the NCC would say only that it's in Ottawa.

Land currently owned or controlled and managed by the NCC in Ottawa includes the Greenbelt encircling the inner urban area, much of the Ottawa River shoreline from Britannia to Orléans, lands along the Rideau Canal, and smaller green spaces like McCarthy Woods, Hampton Woods, Vincent Massey Park and Confederation Park downtown.

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In its own statement issued Friday, Parks Canada wrote it has "engaged in preliminary, exploratory conversations regarding the possibility of a national urban park in Ottawa."

"This has been an initial exploration and not a formal discussion. No other organizations, including the City of Ottawa and Indigenous partners, have been formally approached about this potential idea. No decisions have been made at this time," the statement continues.

If a park on NCC land goes ahead, it would be the first federal property to become a national urban park, the released documents show.