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On a good day, Ottawa-Gatineau functions like a single cohesive city and we residents can move around freely as we go about our day-to-day life. But. A river runs through it, serving as a division that is at once topographical, political, linguistic and socio-cultural.

You don't argue with a river at the best of times, let alone when all of the above-mentioned factors are also in play. And when a major international event comes to our National Capital Region, that spreads a whole new layer of navigational complexity over top of the mix. So it was this weekend with the Ironman Triathlon.

We live on the Ottawa side, in the province of Ontario. Our daughter's family lives on the Gatineau side, au Québec. We were asked to cat-sit and chicken-sit while they were out of town. Nearly all of the bridges between Ottawa and Gatineau were closed to vehicle traffic at least on the Sunday. And there wasn't even public transit in the downtown core for much of the day.

So we planned ahead, made the best of the inevitable glitches and lived to tell the tale.

Saturday was the easier day. We were able to take the car, picking up 2 days' worth of lunch supplies en route. After hanging out with the cat and the chickens for most of the morning, we ate our lunch and headed over to the Museum of History to look at the Retro exhibition on popular music of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. pent a couple of hours there, still didn't watch all the videos or listen to all the songs or do everything we could have done just with that one exhibition. It was fascinating and exhausting and nostalgia-inducing.

Then we went back to the house to do the suppertime routines with the animals and pack up some of our things to go home.

We knew that on Sunday, only one of the bridges - the Macdonald-Cartier - was going to be open. But I learned from Gatineau's transit site (STO) that they would be running a shuttle from Ottawa's Pimisi LRT station across the Chaudiere Bridge which was to end at Station Montcalm in Gatineau, a short walk from where we needed to go. OC Transpo, by the way, was singularly uninformative about all of that. Nowhere did I see that shuttle mentioned on their pages, where they just urged people to keep checking their Alerts Page, which of course wouldn't load despite repeated attempts, presumably because there was too much e-traffic on it! Still, age has its privileges and seniors ride for free all day Wednesdays and Sundays.

So Sunday morning we took our regular bus/LRT ride as far as Pimisi Station, where lo and behold there was a free shuttle ready to take a group of us across the bridge. At a couple of points we had to stop where police were directing traffic and it was actually kind of cool seeing some of the Ironman cyclists doing their thing.

Unfortunately the STO Navette did not go as far as Montcalm station, however, despite what was advertised on their site. But the drivers were all pretty friendly and helpful, making sure we got on the right connecting bus to get us the short distance to our destination. We faced something similar later in the day on our way back, walking to Montcalm Station and getting on a regular STO bus which took us to Place du Centre where shuttles were departing for Pimisi Station.

So on Sunday we mostly hung out at our daughter's place. I sat sometimes outside watching the chickens, sometimes inside playing with the cat, reading my book or the Saturday newspaper, doing puzzles, this and that.

Today is a holiday Monday in Ontario but not in Quebec. I've been at home pretending it's a Sunday, doing all the things I'd normally do on a Sunday. Really feeling I need my day of rest!

I wonder if they'll ever change the Ironman name? I mean, there were plenty of women (Iron Maidens?) competing too; also plenty of male cheerleaders on the sidelines!

One of the grandchildren recently observed that very few flags use the colour pink. What immediately sprang to my mind was the trans flag, with its stripes of pink and blue. By the way, I think we Ottawans should all be raising that flag to the rafters, as Ms. Smith is apparently gracing us with her presence today.

What about flags for a specific country? Apparently there are a few that have pink in them:

https://www.colorwithleo.com/do-any-country-flags-have-pink/

Pink may enjoy a bit of a revival with the popularity of the Barbie movie. And of course it's already associated with breast cancer charities, anti-bullying and the pink-collar ghetto that many folks working in predominantly female professions will be familiar with.

In other news, I recently finished reading the novel Waiting for Gertrude, set in Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, where the dead residents are all being reincarnated (or "translated") as cats. The Gertrude in the title refers to Gertrude Stein, she of "A rose is a rose is a rose". Though as it refers to Ms. Smith, I'd be more inclined to paraphrase Juliet by saying that a rose by any other name would be just as stinky and thorny.

The world's coldest (or possibly second-coldest) national capital is not nearly as cold as it used to be, but some of us are feeling a decided chill in the air today!

Well, they did it. In Ottawa at least, it is now mandatory to wear a mask in public indoor spaces. There are a few exceptions - kids under two, people with respiratory or other health issues that preclude mask-wearing, people who cannot remove them without assistance. As long as it's monitored in a reasonable and flexible way, and as long as everyone can get masks who needs them, I don't have too much of a problem with it. Lots of people seem to approve of the new measure, especially if it means things can re-open sooner. And in practical terms, I'm ready for it.

We have a selection of masks on hand now, in various colours, patterns and styles. Some have the built-in wire nose-piece; most have adjustable ear loops, usually elastic although one of the home-made ones has ribbon ties instead of loops. We also have a package of disposable filters and I've ordered some permanent ones too that you can wash and re-use almost indefinitely. I usually wash our masks in a zippered pillowcase; they do usually require hanging up at least overnight to dry. And I ordered a couple of face shields as well, although apparently they won't be legal substitutes for masks. Speaking of which, I was rather taken with this photo of face-shielded kids in a library somewhere in Japan:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/briefing/how-badly-is-america-doing.html

I hope they'll adjust the rules over time - for example, using a mask in a restaurant would NOT be my idea of fun!

On Thursday, the new design for the new Library and Archives Canada plus Ottawa Public Library Main Branch was unveiled. It looks and sounds very promising! Unlike another building a few blocks east of it, the Chateau Laurier.

There are of course some valid reasons for this. The Chateau, although widely regarded as a historic and iconic building on the national capital landscape, has been privately owned for several decades, whereas the site at 555 Albert Street (formerly 555 Wellington) was already government-owned. Moreover, it's an extension to an existing building that is the subject of such ongoing distaste and controversy, whereas the new central library will be a whole new custom-built structure.
Still, the process whereby the final design, in each case, was arrived at is instructive.

In the case of the Chateau, the owners got to pick their own architects to come up with a design that fit the image they wanted to project to the well-heeled tourists they hoped to attract, only later dealing with pesky details like getting all the necessary zoning and heritage approvals from the powers that be. Ordinary folk like us may claim you can't fight City Hall but if you happen to be a big-name developer with a lot of money and other incentives to toss out, the rules somehow tend to be a bit different. Certainly they had to go through a few iterations before it all got approved and possibly they had to make a few token compromises, all no doubt well mapped-out in advance as part of their "negotiating" strategy of getting to yes.

But the central library, right from its inception, was meant to be designed by the people for the people. Of course it benefited from having more than one level of government on board, as well as some well-respected champions. But more importantly, it sought public input from all stakeholders on almost every imaginable aspect of its design, through its Inspire555 process, right from day one. It held in-person focus groups and online consultations and kept people informed through their preferred channel(s) of communication. To use a much-overused adjective, though I find it perfectly apt in this case, the process was very TRANSPARENT. What a contrast with, say, the LRT. Or the rest of Lebreton Flats.

The building respects the unique topography and location of the site, too. It's designed to be "green" and energy-efficient and to have the necessary spaces to appeal to different demographic and cultural communities. Perhaps the worst public controversy it generated was over how "central" it was, given that it will lie somewhere west of what is widely considered to be Ottawa's downtown "core". But in a metropolitan area of our size (in terms of population, geography and politics), the core is ever-expanding. Geographically, I understand the mid-point of the city would actually be somewhere around Carleton University, certainly farther west than Lebreton Flats. We're very spread out. While the city has technically only recently surpassed the million mark in terms of population, if you include the Quebec municipalities - Gatineau (including Hull and Aylmer), Chelsea, Buckingham and so on - we've had over a million people for quite some time.

So personally I'm very much looking forward to the new building. If I were to cite one concern, which I hope can be overcome, it would be that in spite of all the wonderful research resources, cultural and entertainment and cosy and luxurious indoor and outdoor spaces it is to include, we may become so preoccupied with security checks and street violence and terrorism and other big-city problems that people will all be required to enter and exit through the same door and submit to so many rules and regulations that it will no longer be a pleasant place for any of us!

I credit our recently-retired Librarian and Archivist of Canada, Guy Berthiaume, with bringing this project to fruition (or at least the planning phase to fruition). Along with Marianne Scott, who is still very active in the Friends of LAC activities, I think he ranks as one of the best heads of the organization that it's had. During his tenure, he had all kinds of day-time activities open to the Friends - panels of international guests from other national libraries and cultural organizations, for example; lunchtime speakers and interviews; book launches; all of which I really appreciated as a retired person. I'm hoping that Leslie Weir will get more into these kinds of things as well. She's certainly well qualified for the role, having worked both at the LAC and as uOttawa's university librarian, as well as in the School of Information Studies there. In fact, she was one of the people I suggested in this blog as a worthy successor to Berthiaume's rather disastrous predecessor. She's only been in the position for a few months - since September 2019 - so it's early days yet.

Anyway, back to the new building, slated to open in 2024. I have high hopes that if anything can finally spark a vibrant new people-place-style redevelopment of Lebreton Flats, this may be it.

Then maybe we'll see a new downtown Via Rail station again? A new thirst for an underground city in Ottawa, along the lines of those in Montreal and Toronto, for example? Will we finally come of age as an interesting metropolis, instead of the town that fun forgot?

We can always hope.

On Monday, city elections will be held throughout Ontario. You'd never know from the extent of the media coverage around Ottawa that it was so imminent. There doesn't seem to be a Big Issue this time, like Lansdowne Park was last time around. LRT? Well, it's still an issue but most people seem to feel that at least now the shovels are in the ground, we'll eventually get SOMETHING and it would be folly at this stage to try to turn back the clock. The surprise issue, for me anyway, has been garbage - not the obscene amount of money wasted on the Orgaworld contract but rather, the impetus towards reinstating weekly garbage pickup. As for the top job, there are plenty of contenders on the ballot but even the closest runner-up is unlikely to supplant the incumbent.

As far as garbage and recycling service is concerned, I'd be happy to see the trucks come around only every two weeks, but pick up everything at once. That way, you wouldn't have to keep looking at the calendar to figure out what colour of receptacle should go out to the curb this week. Yes, it would mean a longer stop at each house, but surely it would save something on fuel and labour costs. I'd also like to have the option of putting ALL recyclables in a single container with the sorting being done at the other end - I think that would certainly bring more people onside with the green initiatives - but I recognize that that would involve a lot of renegotiating of contracts with third parties and could not be achieved overnight.

Another perennial issue is library service. Generally, I'm pleased with it. I think it's one of the greatest bargains we get from our tax dollars. With respect to bricks and mortar libraries, I think there have been some excellent expansions and renovations to branch libraries in the 'burbs. But I firmly believe we need a new central library downtown. In our ward, we only have two candidates for councillor that I know of. One of them, the incumbent, is in favour of a new central library while the other is opposed. Guess which one I plan to vote for?

It's always a challenge to figure out who is running for school trustee. Part of the problem is that while councillors have "wards", trustees have "zones". There are more zones than wards and your zone number may be nothing like your ward number. In our zone, we again only seem to have two candidates, and on their websites they mostly seemed to have motherhood (teacherhood?) type statements about helping every child reach his or her or their potential. We don't have any children in the school system so it's a bit hard to make an informed choice, but I think once again I'd lean towards voting for the incumbent.

I will say here that there are a couple of issues which DON'T seem to be on the candidates' radars that really OUGHT to be.

First off, community mailboxes. The municipal government didn't have any say over the phasing out of home delivery but inevitably, most of these boxes are going to end up on city property and the city is going to bear some of the brunt of maintaining the conditions around them. Shouldn't candidates at least be consulting with their actual or prospective constituencies to see WHERE people think they ought to be located for maximum convenience and accessibility?

Secondly, let's see if we can get rid of some of our nuisance bylaws. The latest is that posts for driveway-clearing services must not be put up before November 1. But it's certainly not unheard of for us to get snow in October. Ironically, I think that's probably precisely the reason that city elections were moved up to October from November! There are going to be a lot of unhappy snowbound customers around if we get a major blizzard and their plough doesn't show up because they can't be readily identified!

In general, I guess I'm a bit of a libertarian when it comes to city bylaws. I think within reason, you should be able to do what you want on your own property. If you think that "monster home" across the street is an eyesore, then get over it already and draw your curtains. The owners probably pay a lot more in taxes than you do! Then there's the business of making it illegal to chop down your own large tree on your own property. Yes, "mature trees" do add a certain pleasant ambience to the neighbourhood. But if their roots are drinking the soil dry and destroying the foundation of your house - and if the city then declares a watering ban because it needs to repair the sewers it hasn't properly maintained... well, the problem is only compounded. And you can bet the city isn't about to reimburse you the thousands of dollars it takes to repair your foundation!

Thirdly, I definitely think we need some sort of naming policy for city streets, buildings, parks and whatever else may need a name. I was annoyed when Jim Watson caved to public pressure and backtracked on naming the new city archives after Charlotte Whitton. Not that I don't have the greatest of respect for James Bartleman - I just think Whitton was a much better choice for a city building. She was such a trailblazer and so involved in civic affairs that surely she deserves at least one building named after her.

Then there's the matter of suddenly changing the name of something that already has a perfectly good name that everyone recognizes. The Ottawa River Parkway becomes the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway. The Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge becomes the Vimy Bridge. Even though we already have things named after Sir John A, and Vimy (Vimy Place, where the war museum is located, is surely a more appropriate forum for honouring those who lost their lives in the Battle of Vimy Ridge). If we want to make the nation's capital tourist-friendly, surely it's better to use names that describe where they are located rather than honouring folks who, while no doubt honourable, have no real connection with their namesake places.

Of course, naming rights is a whole other can of worms. The Palladium becomes the Corel Centre becomes Scotiabank Place becomes the Canadian Tire Centre... and even Google Maps can't keep up. It's confusing enough for those who live here, let alone visitors! I guess maybe public-private partnerships are here to stay but personally, I'd be more inclined to boycott a business that splashed its name all over some highlight of the city that more properly should be either named after someone worthy of the honour or else after the area in which it's located (which, of course, might itself be named after someone).

Anyway, it will still be interesting to see what happens on Monday... in other people's back yards. In some wards, longstanding councillors are not running for re-election so there will be at least some new blood on the new city council.

According to an article in today's Citizen, the City of Ottawa is only managing to collect about 2/3 as much green-bin recyclables as it is paying for. The author seemed to think that that means a lot of green bins lying fallow because the households they belong to are not separating their waste properly. I'm not so sure that's the case.

For one thing, many households undoubtedly do their own composting. We do, although we still put out a few things that would take longer to decompose in a small household unit - like pizza boxes and paper towels - or which we worry might pose a health hazard - used tissues, kitty litter, etc.

Beginning in November, the City of Ottawa will only collect garbage every other week, while the green bin collection will remain weekly (instead of reverting to biweekly as it used to do for the winter months). Okay, so we've had the stick. Now how about the carrot? Maybe they could catch fewer flies with honey than with vinegar, to use a dreadful mixed metaphor. Here are a few ideas they might consider.

1. EXPAND THE LIST OF ITEMS WE CAN RECYCLE - Before Ottawa became one big supercity, they used to let you put out used clothing in an ordinary garbage back tied with a scrap of cloth so its contents were apparent. The city would sort through these bags, donating the better items and recycling the rest for rags. Yes, there are charities which will pick up these items, but my experience with them has been less than positive. For example, one day when the charity was supposedly going to be in our area, I put out a bag in the manner prescribed, only to find out at the end of the day that it had not been collected. When I phoned the next day to inform the charity of the situation, I asked that they just let me know when they would next be in the area - at which point they got quite belligerent and said they wanted to pick it up THAT VERY DAY! Why were they in such a rush all of a sudden? Needless to say, if we had not been there to take back the uncollected bag, there would have been a security concern as well: potentially advertising to prospective break-in artists that no one was home!
Clothing is just one example. They also used to pick up used plastic bags, for example. I see no reason why they can't pick up diapers and feminine hygiene products, especially as kitty litter is accepted. And just how do they distinguish between cat waste (accepted) and dog waste (not accepted)? The mind boggles!

2. INSTEAD OF ONE-DAY HAZARDOUS WASTE DEPOTS, HAVE DOOR-TO-DOOR SERVICE
That way, if you're an environmentally responsible person who doesn't operate a car, you could also dispose of hazardous waste in an environmentally responsible manner on a regular basis instead of having to rely on someone with a vehicle. There would also be fewer vehicles on the road doing the transporting to often far-flung waste depots and that in itself means less gasoline used, fewer emissions, less time wasted, less private expense of the vehicle owner, greater compliance and less illegal dumping... and so on. Surely a win-win-win... situation!

3. HAVE JUST ONE BIN FOR MIXED RECYCLABLES; LET THE CONTRACTOR DO THE SORTING
They do that already in Gatineau. The recyclers can then take whatever they can use and the City doesn't have to put together a ridiculously convoluted calendar of different collection weeks for differently-coloured boxes. Plus, the simpler it is, the better residents will understand it and the higher the level of compliance.

4. EASE UP ON POINTLESS BUREAUCRATIC RULES
You mustn't set out your garbage before 6 PM the evening before collection. Nor must it be after 7 AM (even, presumably, if it never gets collected before 4 PM). Containers must be removed from the curbside by 10 PM on collection day. Then we have all the restrictions on the containers themselves. For instance, it's technically against the law to have the lid attached to the container by a cord. Whoever put that clause into the Bylaw has obviously never had to stop the car to move lids that blow all over the road on a windy day!

I may have left school long ago but I still struggle with the 3 R's!!