I received some interesting information from Tim Lash today. Tim recently responded to the City’s on-line survey on the Lansdowne Park design. His constructive and enlightening notes are included below. Also, here is some commentary from Tim on recent articles. He provides links to recent blog posts on the project:
“The strain of the process shows in recent articles in Ottawa’s main newspaper, The Citizen:
“http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/names+Lansdowne+panel/2443671/story.html
“http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Design+teams+already+lining/2529547/story.html
“http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Ottawa+firms+give+Lansdowne+miss/2552667/story.html
“It seems the closer people are to the process, the less comfortable they are with it. Not one of the 21 design firms expressing interest in bidding is from the Ottawa region. Architecture firms here may be refraining out of professional integrity. The Regional Society’s October 2009 position paper on Lansdowne is available at http://www.orsa.ca/ The seven architects of the City's urban design review panel resigned together in December 2009.
“A community leader close to it recounts the step by step story up to November 2009 in two blog entries:
“http://lookintolansdowne.blogspot.com/2009/11/catching-up.html
“http://lookintolansdowne.blogspot.com/2009/11/catching-uppart-2.html”
Here is Tim’s input to the on-line survey:
Subject: Input to City's online survey on design for Lansdowne Park
1. What would you, your family and friends like to do in a new urban park at Lansdowne?
a. Do and watch amateur and semi-organized sports and activities (predominantly city-wide community and civic).
b. Green space - real natural surfaces, open and vegetated.
c. Farmer's market
d. Enjoy the canal and related activities or extensions
e. Enjoy and learn about heritage of Lansdowne architecture and community activities.
f. Large special civic events and ceremonies.
g. Trade shows, if the site is viable for them.
h. Enjoy Lansdowne as an inviting feature of Bank Street - as Central Park is a loved amenity in New York for those along its bordering avenues.
i. Experience the whole and its components as carriers of the best in new environmental and activity design.
j. No new residential in the bounds of the whole park, unless it is for public purposes, e.g. some forms of public residential. No new independent retail or commercial hotel.
2. What elements or features do you think the new park should include?
Special natural pavilion along Bank Street. Large mature trees (e.g. maple spp., oak, pine), two rows deep, along the Bank street side of the park - making a leafy pavilion of green for all to enjoy, whether moving along Bank, or using this street-front apron of Lansdowne Park as an approach to the larger public space of the park - whether or not a plan for retail goes ahead (In preference, it should not become retail; good-sized public space in the heart of the city is too valuable as such. The whole site should remain public, for publicly-determined public use.). This leafy wall will provide a welcome block-long contrast to the steady line of "main-street" fronts north and south of it. It will valorize and enhance the beautiful bridge over the canal and the walkways to and from it. It will give growing space for stately trees taller than the City can allow in most streets that conflict with overhead lines, providing welcome arboreal biodiversity.
Good lighting. Emphasize environmental and social sustainability in design. This includes well-targeted activity lighting, without light pollution within or beyond the park boundaries, or further loss of night sky due to spilled light or illuminated high-intensity signage and advertising.
Good sunlight. Don't lose afternoon sunshine to blockage and artificial shadow from looming structures. This is a likely downside to the retail, residential and hotel as drawn by project proponents. (Note how the US embassy cut off afternoon from the west of Byward Market.)
3. Do you have other comments that could help the designers come up with a plan that would make this urban park a unique and special place within the City?
a. Value the urban interface. Bank St side of the Park as above, from Holmwood to the canal.
b. Integrated whole design. A key principle for making any large public facility a success and a design to celebrate is BOTH that its parts be fully integrated within its bounds, AND that it be integrated with its surroundings, fitting into overall plans so it supports (A) local neighborhood and borough aspirations, as well as (B) city-wide functions and enabling facilities such as transportation systems.
c. Private is subsidiary to public. Start with a clear unified public purpose or set of purposes for the Park as a whole; the design must be for the whole at once, based on a coherent and publicly accepted purpose, to avoid piecemeal fragmentation, and to achieve harmony of elements that nestle together or complement each other at different scales and with functions that flow together well. Simply having consistent visual motifs or signage on separately designed components, for example, will not provide a worthy unique and special place within Canada's capital. The current broken-up process, unclear purposes and phasing is unlikely to encourage a coherent whole for this public space. It may not even allow it, if the Lansdowne Live developers are already starting on architectural design for the commercial parts first. The design of any private components must be secondary and complementary to the overall public design.
d. Manage risk of bad design sequence. Do not privilege any private design that jumps the gun. Tell the developers to wait until the purpose and master plan are set, and ensure they know that any advance expenses at this time are at their own risk, not at the risk of Ottawa citizens, and will not prejudice open public decision on the whole.
e. This advice is wholly offered with good will and is sincerely intended for the betterment of Lansdowne Park for the whole city. However, with regret, I offer it under protest. The yanking of the original international design competition, and the imposition of a single-source privatization bid to which all due considerations became secondary, was a bad thing.
The best step now would be to set that Lansdowne Live initiative aside for the moment, and restore an uncompromised design competition. The "urgent" deadlines for decision are illusory and artificial, and mean little compared to the length and significance of what will now be done to make Lansdowne Park a wonderful part of Ottawa or a miserable one. What is built at Lansdowne will become a monument to the city's decision processes - for good with principled fair and community-building processes, or for ill with city-dividing politics and influence.
I applaud Delcan's voluntary withdrawal from the city-led transportation study, which was intended to provide an independent assessment of the study Delcan itself did for the developers. What were city staff thinking, in this deservedly controversial issue, by asking the same people to vet the study they themselves did for the developers? The processes of decision, contract awarding and consultation were already tainted. This lack of judgment by city staff about how to arrive at responsibly independent information and advice is remarkable. I mean bad.
While I appreciate Councillor Hume's effort to find a way through a bad situation by designing for just part of the site, it doesn't answer the fundamental issue of the pre-emptive sole sourcing of a public space for private benefit, to Ottawa citizens' loss of control and Ottawa taxpayers taking on costs and risk. Further, from a professional urban design standpoint, the terms of reference for this design exercise are still not clear about the relation of the part of Lansdowne Park to the whole, nor about the relation of Lansdowne Park as a whole to its surrounding urban living spaces.
It has been encouraging to see people with the professional qualifications of George Dark and Barry Hobin turning their attention to this situation. However, like Delcan, they are also probably in a position where their ability to exercise their full professional design skills and advise on a major iconic public urban site are compromised - by the city's limited terms of reference for the design study, and possibly by the developer pushing ahead out of turn with designing the most controversial and determining parts of the site.
Tim Lash
Ottawa
Showing posts with label Farmers Markets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farmers Markets. Show all posts
Monday, February 15, 2010
Friday, November 6, 2009
Mayor’s comments suggest that council intends to proceed with Lansdowne Live whatever the public has to say
Listening to Mayor Larry O’Brien speak on CBC Radio this morning suggested to me what many have believed all along; that the city intends to proceed with the OSEG proposed plan in some form whatever the public have to say about it. Mayor O'Brien was commenting on the results of the Nanos Research survey on the Lansdowne Live proposal - see this morning’s article in the Ottawa Citizen (Stadium survey results tell council to “just do it").
This conclusion is reached by 23% of respondents in a poll of 1,000 residents conducted by Nanos Research on October 17 though 19, 2009. This means that 73% of respondents believe that the city should be doing something else, though exactly what is unclear.
This doesn’t sound like a strong mandate to proceed to me!
The article also summarizes a report by Nanos Research on a survey of 3,000 residents gathered from survey forms filled out at public meetings and on-line. Interestingly respondents were least favorably disposed to inclusion of the only elements of the plan that will likely make the project profitable to OSEG members (retail space, residential development, office space, movie theatres and a hotel).
Again, this doesn’t sound like a favorable public response to me!
This conclusion is reached by 23% of respondents in a poll of 1,000 residents conducted by Nanos Research on October 17 though 19, 2009. This means that 73% of respondents believe that the city should be doing something else, though exactly what is unclear.
This doesn’t sound like a strong mandate to proceed to me!
The article also summarizes a report by Nanos Research on a survey of 3,000 residents gathered from survey forms filled out at public meetings and on-line. Interestingly respondents were least favorably disposed to inclusion of the only elements of the plan that will likely make the project profitable to OSEG members (retail space, residential development, office space, movie theatres and a hotel).
Again, this doesn’t sound like a favorable public response to me!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
A big week for local issues
A number of local issues in the news this past week alerted my bullshit detection antenna.
Local produce quality and pricing
There were two stories this week in the Ottawa Citizen about local food. The first story in yesterday’s paper (Local produce sold here via Ajax, Joanne Chianello, Ottawa Citizen, September 26, 2009) concerns locally grown tomatoes (SunTech Greenhouse, Manotick) that are supplied to Loblaws and other supermarket chains. SunTech sells produce to Loblaws, first shipping it to Ajax, Ontario for distribution to individual stores (a round trip from Ottawa of 700 Km.). Then Loblaws has the gall to advertise itself as a source for local produce. Really!
The second local produce story concerns price setting in local farmers markets (Paying the market price, Ron Eade, Ottawa Citizen, September 27, 2009). The writer reviews pricing at various farmers markets in Ottawa including Lansdowne, the Byward Market, Parkdale Market and Carp. Produce prices at Byward and Lansdowne are particularly high and the writer discovered that there is an informal price setting arrangement in place at these locations. Farmers claim that this is not price fixing, just an informal agreement in their mutual interests. Also prices are not discounted at the end of the day. This discourages bargain seekers arriving at the end of the day to buy their produce.
Pricing of local produce at farmers markets is beyond the reach of many people, especially as one can buy produce in most supermarkets for about one third of the price in farmers markets. Market prices that cover costs and make a profit are fair and reasonable. But there’s got to be a middle ground, especially when one considers the transportation and distribution costs that supermarket chains have to cover.
Glen Cairn’s flooding problems
An interesting news item reported in a community news paper this week (Flooding fracas, Blair Edwards, Barrhaven this Week, September 22, 2009) concerns a letter that Ted Cooper, a City of Ottawa water resources engineer, sent to the premier of Ontario. Cooper believes that the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA) is responsible for Glen Cairn’s flooding problem and that they signed off on development in an area with an inadequate storm management system. He is asking the Province to investigate MCVA’s stewardship of the Carp River flood plain. Remember that Ted Cooper blew the whistle over the city’s computer modeling error in the Kanata west development.
In light of Mr. Cooper’s concerns it is very disturbing that Ottawa City Council this week voted down a motion to put a temporary hold on development in the area (Development moratorium nixed, Patrick Dare, Ottawa Citizen, September 24, 2009). The motion rejected at Council is a much diluted version of a motion debated by the Planning and Environment Committee. The original motion called for a development moratorium until corrections to the Glen Cairn flooding problem are resolved. The motion put before council called for only a few weeks of delay. I’d really like to know who is paying the piper here!
Light rail in Ottawa - dumping the tunnel
I really appreciated Ken Gray’s column this week (Dump the expensive rail tunnel, Ken Gray, Ottawa citizen, September 24, 2009). In the article Grey suggests that the city should have another look at the original North South line plan including its above ground link to the University of Ottawa. This is a transportation link that the city can undertake and likely afford within the foreseeable future.
Then of course there’s the ongoing issue of Lansdowne Live
As Councillor Clive Doucet says in his letter to the Citizen (Lansdowne Live is an unsolicited, exclusive proposal, Clive Doucet, Letters to the Editor, Ottawa Citizen, September 25, 2009), the proposal is “…set up to ensure that only one proponent has the opportunity to pitch their proposal to the city. Why?…” When will people come to their senses about this outrage?
As well as dumping the light rail transit tunnel and Lansdowne Live we need to go further and dump a majority of existing council. Let’s make sure there is a good slate of refreshing new candidates running for office in 2010.
Local produce quality and pricing
There were two stories this week in the Ottawa Citizen about local food. The first story in yesterday’s paper (Local produce sold here via Ajax, Joanne Chianello, Ottawa Citizen, September 26, 2009) concerns locally grown tomatoes (SunTech Greenhouse, Manotick) that are supplied to Loblaws and other supermarket chains. SunTech sells produce to Loblaws, first shipping it to Ajax, Ontario for distribution to individual stores (a round trip from Ottawa of 700 Km.). Then Loblaws has the gall to advertise itself as a source for local produce. Really!
The second local produce story concerns price setting in local farmers markets (Paying the market price, Ron Eade, Ottawa Citizen, September 27, 2009). The writer reviews pricing at various farmers markets in Ottawa including Lansdowne, the Byward Market, Parkdale Market and Carp. Produce prices at Byward and Lansdowne are particularly high and the writer discovered that there is an informal price setting arrangement in place at these locations. Farmers claim that this is not price fixing, just an informal agreement in their mutual interests. Also prices are not discounted at the end of the day. This discourages bargain seekers arriving at the end of the day to buy their produce.
Pricing of local produce at farmers markets is beyond the reach of many people, especially as one can buy produce in most supermarkets for about one third of the price in farmers markets. Market prices that cover costs and make a profit are fair and reasonable. But there’s got to be a middle ground, especially when one considers the transportation and distribution costs that supermarket chains have to cover.
Glen Cairn’s flooding problems
An interesting news item reported in a community news paper this week (Flooding fracas, Blair Edwards, Barrhaven this Week, September 22, 2009) concerns a letter that Ted Cooper, a City of Ottawa water resources engineer, sent to the premier of Ontario. Cooper believes that the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA) is responsible for Glen Cairn’s flooding problem and that they signed off on development in an area with an inadequate storm management system. He is asking the Province to investigate MCVA’s stewardship of the Carp River flood plain. Remember that Ted Cooper blew the whistle over the city’s computer modeling error in the Kanata west development.
In light of Mr. Cooper’s concerns it is very disturbing that Ottawa City Council this week voted down a motion to put a temporary hold on development in the area (Development moratorium nixed, Patrick Dare, Ottawa Citizen, September 24, 2009). The motion rejected at Council is a much diluted version of a motion debated by the Planning and Environment Committee. The original motion called for a development moratorium until corrections to the Glen Cairn flooding problem are resolved. The motion put before council called for only a few weeks of delay. I’d really like to know who is paying the piper here!
Light rail in Ottawa - dumping the tunnel
I really appreciated Ken Gray’s column this week (Dump the expensive rail tunnel, Ken Gray, Ottawa citizen, September 24, 2009). In the article Grey suggests that the city should have another look at the original North South line plan including its above ground link to the University of Ottawa. This is a transportation link that the city can undertake and likely afford within the foreseeable future.
Then of course there’s the ongoing issue of Lansdowne Live
As Councillor Clive Doucet says in his letter to the Citizen (Lansdowne Live is an unsolicited, exclusive proposal, Clive Doucet, Letters to the Editor, Ottawa Citizen, September 25, 2009), the proposal is “…set up to ensure that only one proponent has the opportunity to pitch their proposal to the city. Why?…” When will people come to their senses about this outrage?
As well as dumping the light rail transit tunnel and Lansdowne Live we need to go further and dump a majority of existing council. Let’s make sure there is a good slate of refreshing new candidates running for office in 2010.
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