dewline | Entries tagged with centretown

Well, that's what I'm calling it, since that art supply shop called it home since before my family moved here to Ottawa in 1985.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/plan-to-revamp-downtown-ottawa-block-sparks-debate-over-intensification-1.7172642

Not saying that the new housing shouldn't be built. I do think the current tenants deserve better-arranged supports, for starters, though...

Current Mood: confused

I'm watching the Built Heritage Committee meeting about this (and other proposals) at the moment.

I didn't know that the old Legion House had already had three extra stories tacked on three years after it was originally opened up. That precedent being established, I'm only mildly surprised by this proposal to raise it to 30 stories. Details here:

https://devapps.ottawa.ca/en/applications/D01-01-21-0015/details

Current Mood: curious

And we've lost another one: Comerford's Cigar Store.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/deachman-a-victim-of-covid-and-changing-times-comerfords-closes-after-75-years

I used to visit for the newspapers, the magazines and the snacks.

Public health matters on public transit and this is another part of why.

Current Mood: gloomy
Current Music: Ottawa Morning on CBC Radio

I did a potentially foolish thing this afternoon.

I went to Perfect Books to pick up my copy of Rob Sawyer's Oppenheimer Alternative. Rob had a lot of fun and some eye-opening research moments in putting that book together, and I know he was looking forward to the promotional trail to support it once it hit the bookstores. Alas, Pandemic didn't and still doesn't give a damn about any of our plans. Including Rob's.

So, it's been months since the release, and I finally found financial room for this book a couple of weeks ago. But I put off picking it up until today. The delay was due mainly to the lockdowns' influence. Perfect Books is in the middle of Centretown, and I live out in Orléans. Which meant an Expedition. Bus and O-Train ride, both ways. In "normal" times, I wouldn't give this a second thought.

Anyway, I took that risk today. Perfect Books, then checking in on Randy Pippus and his games shop, Fandom II on Laurier West near the OPL Main Branch. Stop at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to unburden my sense of guilt, as I sometimes do during the winter months when there's no honor guard on duty to overhear me. Then walking up to Chapters Rideau to window-shop, and over to Globe Mags and Cigars for today's newspapers, and dropping in on some friends running another shop in the Market before catching the O-Train and bus back home.

I got some decent walking exercise today. I probably risked more than ten lives of people whose names are definitely known to me in the process. A lot more whose names I don't know, surely.

These trips haven't backfired yet that I know of...and I'm paranoically certain that one of them will.

Current Mood: guilty
Current Location: Home-for-now

Used to be that the St. John the Evangelist Church on Elgin Street had these two signs out front. They'd regularly change up those signs, often lettered in a matter very familiar to customers of the now-lost Honest Ed's store in Mirvish Village in Toronto.

A couple of people recently faved this one, originally taken and uploaded back in February 2011. I still don't know what the French one said, but the English one seems pretty blessedly clear. More so nowadays, nine years later.

Current Mood: busy

Because of the security considerations - ever-escalating over the decades - we don't often get to see views like this of Centretown in Ottawa. But the Time of Pandemic perversely offered an opportunity to do this without worrying law enforcement and security agencies by way of videographer Peter Warren:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-drone-video-covid-1.5535799

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: The House on CBC Radio

Some Elgin Street retailers are reselling the construction signage that was up during last year's renovation work carried out on Elgin. This was on offer at the Gifted Type, a hybrid newsstand/bookstore/art supply/souvenir shop.

Seen at the Gifted Type on Elgin Street - 1 February 2020

Current Mood: busy

It's an Anglican Church on Elgin Street in Centretown Ottawa. They've since removed this signage in favour of a more fixed and unchanging design.

From this morning's hardcopy edition of the Ottawa Citizen, by David Reevely:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Uncertainty+over+Lansdowne+cinema+engulfs+World+Exchange/8864752/story.html

A couple of reactions...

1. As I told Reevely on Facebook, having read the article, I'm surprised that the movie-screening rooms at Place de Ville are still intact after two decades, given that so much else of the underground mall there as originally built is now given over to governmental offices and meeting spaces.

2. I see that Diane Deans has reached a similar opinion to mine re: the downtown core and the expected influx of new residents adding to the need for cinema screening rooms. Could there be an impetus sufficient to rescue World Exchange, revive Rideau Centre *and* Place de Ville, and preserve Lansdowne, Mayfair and Bytowne?

Current Mood: curious

Here we go...one more time!

I'll be back at Rob McLennan's latest instalment of the Ottawa Small Press Book Fair this Saturday.

I've got a list of what I'll be selling here, if you're interested. Hoping to see lots of friendly faces on Saturday!

Current Mood: hopeful

Seems that Export Development Canada moved out of their long-time "signature" building into larger quarters elsewhere in Centretown, and now the older building stands mostly empty but for the ground floor tenants.

If you're running a smaller business and want better digs, you might be interested in at least a chunk of one floor. Possibly more than one floor?

http://ottawa.openfile.ca/ottawa/text/plaza-234-sits-empty-after-edc-exodus

Current Mood: Interested to see the results

Okay, one more time.

I'm running a table at the Ottawa Small Press Book Fair this afternoon. Noon to 5 PM. Jack Purcell Centre, just off of Elgin Street in Centretown, on a side street sandwiched between Starbucks Coffee and the Elgin Street Public School.

The Ashcan Samplers are going on sale again, and I'll do sketches on commission for whoever puts up $10 per. Live portraits or your favourite fictional character(s). Bring reference if you're asking for the latter, please?

Hope to see you there if you're in Ottawa today!