Winston Square Public Art Finalists Showing – May 7

From our city councillor Katherine Hobbs’s mailing list http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=e716e95bbc50cda804f90c666&id=066b5c0ab5 It’s in Westboro within walking distance (near the Legion, Dairy Queen and Piggy Market) so it’s worth mentioning here.

Public art to be chosen for the Winston Place Plaza Development

The City of Ottawa invites residents to have their say about the public art to be commissioned for the new Winston Place Plaza Development project.

The public can meet the four shortlisted artists and view their proposals for a new light sculpture for the plaza on:

Date: Wednesday, May 7
Time: 6 to 8 p.m.
Location: Churchill Seniors Centre, 345 Richmond Road, Ottawa

Comments from the public will help the Art Selection Committee choose the winning proposal.

The four shortlisted artists are:
· Adrian Gollner & Joanna Swim
· Andrew O’Malley
· Karen Phillips Curran & David Ivens
· Caleb Rampel & Cara Tierney

The City of Ottawa commissions professional artists’ works for display in public spaces from a percentage of funds set aside for municipal development projects. For more information, please call 3-1-1 (TTY: 613-580-2401), email publicartprogram@ottawa.ca or visit ottawa.ca

Winston Place Plaza Development

The City of Ottawa is developing Winston Place, a pedestrian space at the southern end of Winston Avenue in Westboro. The new plaza will see the inside turned outside with three zones along the space representing different rooms in a house. New ‘green walls’ will be installed for ivy to grow up over time adding colour and vibrancy to the space along with new seating areas and a specially commissioned light sculpture. Construction is scheduled to begin in early summer 2014 and be complete by the end of October 2014.

For more background on this, search the Ottawa City web site for Winston. The search results include this informative plan for the site:

Click to access winston_place_en.pdf

Indy 500 at night on the Parkway and Island Park Drive

Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 15:52:53 -0400
From: Debra Huron <dhuron@sympatico.ca>

I used to think that Champlain Park was a quiet neighbourhood. Now, I think otherwise because I regularly hear the thunderous sounds of cars racing on the Parkway near our house (and possibly along Island Park Drive) throughout the darkest hours of the night.

Is this something that others in our neighbourhood are bothered by?

Today, I saw a report on CBC about a man in a town just west of Sudbury who was concerned about loud car noises at night. Here’s a link to the report, which features someone who had the courage to confront the people responsible for using vehicles as a weapon of audio warfare. Not many of us would be willing to do this. As an aside, I can’t say it makes me happy to know that the noise makers are exactly the sort of people I imagined they might be. The video has gone viral: http://bit.ly/1mSb6Sp

In the northern Ontario video, it seems the car had a defective muffler. Here in Ottawa, people are deliberately outfitting their cars to make noise.

Less than a week ago, I wrote a letter to Yasir Naqvi, our provincial representative at Queen’s Park, to ask what the Highway Safety Act is doing to prevent people from retrofitting their exhaust systems so they will create tremendous noise. I did this because one day last week, as I was walking to work at 8:30 a.m., a car driving up to a red light at Carleton Ave. and Scott St., fitted with double exhaust, was so loud that it could probably be heard three blocks away. As the car turned the corner onto Scott, the noise made me hang back. Unfortunately, there is no escaping noise unless we wear earplugs to walk the streets. We all become victims of the onslaught.

I know that he City of Ottawa has a noise by-law that applies after 11 p.m., but I do not think it will help me because I can’t chase down moving perpetrators at 3 a.m. What I might be able to do, in broad daylight, is take down the licence plate number of a car that I see–and hear–while on foot. Mr. Naqvi’s office has referred my letter to the Ministry of Transportation. I’ll let you know what the response is.

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Debra Isabel Huron
Writing, editing, and training
to help you communicate more clearly

http://www.debrahuron.com
Follow me on Twitter @debraisabel
Telephone: 613-859-8049
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

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Neighbourhood Watch Bulletin for 2014-04-28

This week’s topics:

Toronto Police looking for two people – Kidnappers now in town.
Canadian Police Canine Association Spring Seminar – hosted by Ottawa Police this year.
John Davies’ body recovered – At Hogs Back.
Charges laid in relation to retail robberies – 3 of 4 caught, several store robberies in last couple of weeks.

– Alex

—– Forwarded Message —–
Subject: Neighbourhood Watch Bulletin for April 28
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 13:29:48 -0400
From: Andrew Milton <wellingtoncpc@gmail.com>

Attached is the Neighbourhood Watch Bulletin for April 28, 2014. Please feel free to pass it along to anyone who might be interested in reading it. Any comments, information or requests to be added to or deleted from the list may be sent to wellingtoncpc@gmail.com.

Eileen Reardon
Volunteer, Wellington Community Police Centre
(613) 236-1222 x5870

NeighbourhoodWatch-2014-04-28.pdf

A Key Time for our Climate Change Campaign

What to watch for!

The month between the end of April and the end of May is expected to be momentous in terms of our city’s plans on climate change.

Date	Event – Activity
29-April-2014	Ecology Ottawa hosts a climate change panel discussion. You’re welcome to attend, see details below
13-May-2014	The city is expected to make public its new climate change management plan
28-May-2014	The city’s Environment Committee meets, hopefully to approve the new plan
20-May-2014	Full City Council meet, again hopefully to approve the new plan

Your efforts continue to make a difference.

GHG is shorthand for “greenhouse gas” – those emissions such as carbon dioxide (also known as CO2) and methane which, as their concentrations increase, are responsible for trapping more heat in earth’s atmosphere.

A year ago Mayor Jim Watson addressed the GHG Roundtable at City Hall saying “the City of Ottawa is committed to renewing the Air Quality and Climate Change Management Plan to include renewed GHG reduction targets for both community and corporate emissions.”

He made that promise because hundreds of people had told city hall this issue is important to them.

Despite a lack of news coming out from the city after the Roundtable we’re now on the cusp of progress.

In the fall of last year Ecology Ottawa became aware that city staff were indeed preparing a revised climate change management plan. We know that the city has consulted with subject-area experts about best practices. We believe the revised plan will encompass both climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation; which means they’ll be trying to both reduce emissions and trying to plan for what climate change will inevitably bring to our city.

The new document is expected to come before council in May. The schedules of city council meetings etc. mean that the revised climate change management plan should appear on the City of Ottawa website on May 13. Ecology Ottawa will be watching for it; we will let you know what we think of it; and we’ll ask you for your input.

The reason we’re at this point is because Ecology Ottawa supporters just like you told the mayor or their Councillor that climate change should be something our city takes action on. The messages of their voters created the political will. We are optimistic about the coming plan although we haven’t seen it.

But there’s more to do. Releasing a plan doesn’t bring down emissions or limit damage from extreme climatic events. With your help Ecology Ottawa will be working to ensure that the plan is a good one and that it actually gets funded and implemented.

We’d love your help. If you want to get more actively involved please email me and we can talk about what you can do.

For a full description of the background and current status on this issue, plus a list of what you can do to help, please visit Ecology Ottawa’s website.

Panel Discussion

While we’re waiting for that City of Ottawa plan you’ll be interested in the second of Ecology Ottawa’s discussion panels on local impacts of climate change: Sick of Climate Change? Local Health Impacts in a Warming World

Is free and takes place Tuesday April 29 at the University of Ottawa. The event features local and international experts on how human health is already being affected by climate change. See full details here.

Please register to attend.

Thanks for all you do

Cheers
Charles Hodgson
Volunteer Climate Change Campaign Lead
————————————————————————
Our mailing address is:
Ecology Ottawa
430-1 Nicholas St.
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 7B7
Canada
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Applauding the work of our co-chairs

Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 10:45:46 -0400
From: Debra Huron <dhuron@sympatico.ca>

I was reading the latest editon of Ottawa West News, when on page 37, I noticed the City of Ottawa ad that announces proposed zoning by-law amendments.

The one that caught my eye is this: “Amendments to the front and corner side yard setback requirements in Champlain Park to better reflect the existing setbacks…” The remainder of the notice specifies the streets to be affected by this zoning amendment.

A sincere thank you is in order, at least from this one resident of Champlain Park. I believe that the co-chairs of our community association have succeeded in doing something important in the fight against the onslaught of looming large buildings.

Debra Huron
Ottawa, Ontario
613 859-8049
http://www.debrahuron.com

Jane’s Walk in the hood

Who doesn’t like a good story!

A Story Walk: Captain Cowley and the Mighty Oaks of Champlain

Daniel Avenue resident Dennis Van Staalduinen will lead a Jane’s Walk on Saturday, May 3, starting at the Champlain Park fieldhouse at noon.

The topic is the Champlain Oaks project and the story of Capt. Cowley.

It will run about two hours.

Please check www.janeswalkottawa.ca/walks/119 for more details about the walk and for background on the Jane’s Walk concept.

Future Bayview Innovation Centre Tour – April 26

From our city councillor’s mailing list: http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=e716e95bbc50cda804f90c666&id=6dbcfbe231

You’re Invited

Come and see the future Innovation Centre at Bayview Yards
Community Open House and Tours
7 Bayview Road
Saturday, April 26, 2014
2:00 – 4:00 PM

Did you know that there’s a $30 M plan to develop an Innovation Centre at Bayview Yards? In partnership with the Province of Ontario, we’re building a 45,000 square foot facility that will provide space to incubate and grow new businesses from the ground up in Ottawa, creating jobs and diversifying our economy.

This facility will welcome the greater community of Mechanicsville, Hintonburg and the whole City, with new facilities and community spaces, and provide amenities such as a new cafe.

The greater Bayview Yards area is set to become Ottawa’s next great urban neighbourhood, bringing homes and jobs to the junction of the Confederation Line LRT and the O-Train at Bayview Station. The Innovation Centre is just the first public facility which will anchor this exciting new area. This is all part of a community vision articulated in the Bayview Community Design Plan.

The details of this exciting plan will soon be presented, but you are invited for a sneak peak.

I hope to see you at Bayview Yards this Saturday.

Thanks,
Katherine Hobbs

Scott / O-Train / Albert Pathway Safety Audit Update – April 24

This is an update to the previous post.

From: Cheryl Parrott <cheryl.vance@sympatico.ca>
Date: 22 April 2014 15:27
Subject: Pathway Safety Audit Apr 22 7:15pm meet at 170 Booth

We still need a few more volunteers to help with a Safety Audit of the Multi-Use Pathways on the north side of Scott and Albert streets and the proposed new multi-use pathway on the north side of Bayview Transitway Station – that will go through the Bayview Yards.

This audit is being done with the Women’s Initiatives for Safer Environments. (see attached).

The Pedestrian & Cycling Safety Audit done by RTG last year has still not been released despite repeated request. We do not know who did it, when or what criteria were used.

So we will do our own audits. The first is this safety audit.

Date: Thur Apr 24 – rain or shine
Time: 7:15pm to get instructions and audit forms
Audit start: about 8pm– when it is dark
7:15pm Meeting at 170 Booth ( at Albert) basement meeting room CCOC building.

This audit needs to be done in the dark. So it will start about 8pm. We will split into groups – 1 person will be the recorder. Please bring flashlights so the recorder can see what they are writing.

Group 1 – will look at the area for the proposed path from Bayview ( north of Scott)
Group 2 – will look at the area for the proposed path from the O-Train
Group 3 – will look at the multi-use path on the north side of Scott from Bayview to Holland
Group 4 – will look at the multi-use path on the north side of Albert from Bayview to Empress

If we have enough people we can split the area for group 3 & 4 into an A & B – so the walk is not so long.

Attached is information from WISE on criteria and the checklist.

Please let me know if you are coming if you have not already let me know.

Cheryl
cell 613-620-9453

Sorry if you get this more than once.

WISE Safety Audit Evaluation Criteria.pdf
WISE Community Safety Checklist 2011.pdf
WISEIFSE2014 Community Safety Audits Info Sheet.pdf

Call for Canvassers – 2014 Membership Drive

Champlain Park Membership Drive

It’s that time again! We need your help!

If you have a few free hours to spare and would like take-part in helping us to sustain our beautiful community and at the same time meet your fellow neighbours? Please read further for volunteering details.

Your time and efforts will be greatly appreciated, many thanks in advance!

Duties: Canvass approx. 20 homes on your street
Required: 1-2 hours of your time
For High school students: Sign up to earn your volunteering credits

The 2014 Champlain Park Community Association Membership Drive begins May 26.

To volunteer as a canvasser please contact:
Barbara Borylo-Gourdie
phone: 613-722-6829;
email: bmbg@sympatico.ca

CANVASSERS are the core of our Community Association’s fundraising effort. Revenues collected from our annual membership drive enable a variety of activities in our community, including:

Contributing directly to your community’s well-being; and
Providing financial resources to the Development Fund

Neighbourhood social events: (for families and children of all ages)

Halloween party
Winter Carnival
Christmas sleigh ride

This year, our Community Association needs 20 volunteers to help out with the membership drive. Our goal this year is to increase our Community Association memberships to 75 percent of all households.

Community Garage Sale

Yes, it’s that time of year again!

Time to buy back all that stuff you sold to your neighbour last year, but at twice the price.

We are planning to hold the community-wide garage sale again this year.
As usual, it will be held on the first Saturday in June.

Event date: Saturday June 7, 2014.
Rain date: Should it be pouring rain, the sale is moved to Sunday, June 8.

Residents on Island Park will also be holding their garage sale as part of this community-wide bargain hunters dream!

Think about donating a portion of your proceeds to the charity of your choice, or to help support Champlain Park Community Association.

Leftover treasures
If you have leftover treasures when the garage sale ends keep in mind that the Ottawa’s Spring Give Away Weekend will take place the same weekend as the garage sale (both days).
See Rules for setting out at your Leftover Treasures at the “Ottawa’s Spring Give Away Weekend” link provided above.

Month: April 2014

Winston Square Public Art Finalists Showing – May 7