Category: Letters to the Editor

Online discussions conducted in the comments section of posts. Usually topics that don’t fit into tweets, typically started by someone e-mailing the webmaster with something too long for a Tweet.

To contribute to the discussion, either sign up for a WordPress account to post your own comments or e-mail the webmaster with your replies.

Discussions should be civil – rude messages will be rejected with a request for rewording.

Bus Route Changes Survey

This is a slightly political message, but it’s worth posting since the recent bus route changes are of local concern. Problems with the new routes (such as not fully connecting across downtown Ottawa) have lead to this survey to get feedback to present to municipal candidates, and to the formation of the Ottawa Transit Riders’ Group. Continue reading “Bus Route Changes Survey” →

Dog Walking in the Woods

Subject: Dog walking in the woods
Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2017 12:18:14 -0500
From: Nhung Hoang

I have lived in Champlain Park for 24 years and love this neighbourhood. The proximity to nature is one thing that is especially precious to me. I have a small dog (a bichon frisé who is getting somewhat elderly) who I take for walks daily. One of the places we like to walk is the path through the woods. Near the entry to the path, it is clearly marked that dogs must be leashed. Unfortunately, not everyone follows this bylaw.

Twice in the last few months my dog has been attacked by larger dogs that have been off leash. Fortunately, he has not yet been injured but I feel that it is just a matter of time. I understand that dogs like to run off leash. Farms, cottages and off-leash dog parks are all places where you can let your canine friends have some more freedom. Please do not do so in places where the law doesn’t allow and where your dogs (as friendly as you believe they are) may be a menace to other dogs (not to mention, skiers, snowshoers and other walkers). Thank you for your consideration.

Nhung Hoang, Cowley Avenue

Missing Cats Warning

Subject: missing cats – a warning
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2017 18:54:18 +0000
From: Eloise Holland

Missing Cats:

In the last month five “missing cat” posters have been put up in and around Champlain Park. It is possible they may have been taken by predators. There have been foxes and coyotes spotted in the neighbourhood since the beginning of the summer. Please consider keeping your cats indoors for their protection.

Eloise Holland

New Facebook Group for Neighbours

If you want to chat with your neighbours online, and Tweets are too short or too public, there’s now an unofficial Facebook group you can join, just for people who have lived in the neighbourhood. You do need a Facebook account to be able to apply to join the group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChamplainPark/

Their description is:

A fun, informal Facebook group for people who live in the Champlain Park neighbourhood in Ottawa Ontario. Feel free to post community events, photos, volunteer requests, items needed or for sale, or discuss community issues! No commercial advertising or partisan political links please.
NOT FORMALLY AFFILIATED WITH CHAMPLAIN PARK COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION!

ChamplainParkFacebookHeader20170116.jpeg

Monthly Poll Inaugurated

We’re trying out the WordPress/Polldaddy poll facility to see if it would be useful. The plan is to put out a monthly question of relevance to the neighbourhood. Maybe we should have a poll to pick questions for the next poll 🙂

Of course, we don’t know who is answering it since it is open to the public, so the results may be meaningless. However, I expect this blog and web site are of interest only to residents of Champlain Park, so it’s most likely that answers will be from neighbours.

The current monthly poll is on the home page, and this month’s is also included in this post (which is a way of bookmarking it so you can go back to it when a different question is used for the monthly poll).

– Alex

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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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