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Bringing them in to Pasture
Aug. 24th, 2012 11:35 amWhen I heard earlier in the week that a major announcement was about to be made regarding the future of Tunneys Pasture, I thought to myself: oh-oh. They're going to kick out all the public servants and sell the increasingly-valuable land to private developers for condos, Walmarts and worse. Fortunately, that didn't happen. In fact, they plan to DOUBLE the number of public servants accommodated there - great news, particularly these days, when it seems they're always announcing ever-more draconian cuts and getting rid of essential services.
Furthermore, they have plans to convert Tunneys Pasture to a kind of mixed-use mini-village, with upscale retail outlets, cafés and even residential buildings in addition to all the offices. If I thought for one moment that it would work, I'd be all for it. Unfortunately, I'm convinced the project is doomed to failure.
The main problem is that the federal public service is so secretive and paranoid about security these days. As a result, they don't take kindly to the mixed-use idea. Can you imagine having to haul around sheafs of identification and memorize endless lists of passwords (which you much change once a month, of course, so that you can never remember what they are), not to mention passing through metal detectors and being subject to pat-downs just to get home to your lovely million-dollar condo in Tunneys Village? The whole concept smells a bit fishy if you ask me!
It might be instructive to look at what happened with Place du Portage in Hull. When I started working there in 1986, there was a Steinbergs grocery store, a W.H. Smith bookstore, a Birks, a Radio Shack, a drugstore and numerous clothing and accessories boutiques in addition to the usual food court and offices. By the time I moved to a building on the Ottawa side in 1998, they were all gone. And that was BEFORE the events of 9/11 when security and paranoia were cranked up several more notches. The same thing happened, though on a smaller scale, with Place de Ville in downtown Ottawa.
So by all means, let's make better use of Tunneys Pasture, particularly now that we're going to have light rail going through it. But as far as the plans they're floating at the moment are concerned, I think the Village people need to go back to the drawing board or this will become just the latest entry in a long list of failed social experiments.
Furthermore, they have plans to convert Tunneys Pasture to a kind of mixed-use mini-village, with upscale retail outlets, cafés and even residential buildings in addition to all the offices. If I thought for one moment that it would work, I'd be all for it. Unfortunately, I'm convinced the project is doomed to failure.
The main problem is that the federal public service is so secretive and paranoid about security these days. As a result, they don't take kindly to the mixed-use idea. Can you imagine having to haul around sheafs of identification and memorize endless lists of passwords (which you much change once a month, of course, so that you can never remember what they are), not to mention passing through metal detectors and being subject to pat-downs just to get home to your lovely million-dollar condo in Tunneys Village? The whole concept smells a bit fishy if you ask me!
It might be instructive to look at what happened with Place du Portage in Hull. When I started working there in 1986, there was a Steinbergs grocery store, a W.H. Smith bookstore, a Birks, a Radio Shack, a drugstore and numerous clothing and accessories boutiques in addition to the usual food court and offices. By the time I moved to a building on the Ottawa side in 1998, they were all gone. And that was BEFORE the events of 9/11 when security and paranoia were cranked up several more notches. The same thing happened, though on a smaller scale, with Place de Ville in downtown Ottawa.
So by all means, let's make better use of Tunneys Pasture, particularly now that we're going to have light rail going through it. But as far as the plans they're floating at the moment are concerned, I think the Village people need to go back to the drawing board or this will become just the latest entry in a long list of failed social experiments.
