Ralph Street renewal unnecessary, wasteful ‘calming’ of non-existent traffic
This June, residents of Ella and Ralph Streets were given an opportunity to discuss a city plan to “renew” their streets by reconstructing sewer and water mains and making several other “improvements.” While infrastructure renewal is always a good idea, what is neither necessary nor cost-effective, let alone worth doing, is the proposed reconstruction of the sidewalks, curbs and street width on Ralph.
Having been born in the Glebe, grown up on Fourth Avenue, attended Corpus Christi and owned a house on the corner of Fifth and Ralph for the last 41 years, I can assure you that last thing the traffic on Ralph Street needs is calming. There is no traffic. Ralph is a quiet side street off Fifth Avenue that curves gently from Mutchmor School to Brown’s Inlet and the Canal. Its chief use is parking for occasional events at Lansdowne Park or for local shoppers – none of those people drive beyond a crawl since they are desperately looking for somewhere to park. The odd frog or turtle crossing at Brown’s Inlet in the spring offers a natural, no-cost, albeit seasonal, traffic-calming influence.
In what parallel universe has anyone ever asked that their street be narrowed and their sidewalk enlarged? For 41 years, I have seen very few people walk along Ralph Street and never heard anyone wish for wider sidewalks. Amazingly, entire neighbourhoods, such as Westboro and Rockcliffe Village, have survived for years without sidewalks on many of their streets.
While drivers often fail to obey the stop signs at Fifth Avenue in front of the school, I have rarely seen anyone fail to stop before turning left or right at the Ralph Street sign. During the school season, a crossing guard has outperformed any speed bump in protecting children and their families crossing the road. Not only are live people far more effective than a bump-out, they also do not interfere with the intermittent ploughing of Ralph Street during winter.
While Ralph Street is effectively safe from road maintenance summer or winter, in the four decades I have used my laneway, I have observed that neither road nor sidewalk snow ploughs pay much attention to the street from November to March either. Narrowing the street would simply make driving and walking more hazardous as the snow piled up on both sides of the street and bump-outs and wider sidewalks would create an icy tunnel for elderly, handicapped or pram-pushing sidewalk users to negotiate. Snowbanks piled up at every extension would render it more difficult to see small children trying to get to school, thereby creating an even more dangerous situation than whatever traffic reduction they are supposed to achieve.
By all means, fix the sewers and repave Ralph Street, but stop wasting taxpayer dollars on an unwanted, ill-advised plan for widening/narrowing/slowing non-existent traffic.
Faye M. Kert, Ph.D.
Just another erosion of our quality of life
Re: “Tulip Festival a circus of commerce and junk food,” Letter to the Editor, Glebe Report, June 2024
This letter by Dorothy Speak in the June Glebe Report really touched me because I share her feeling. The attraction of the Tulip Festival has always been the experience of strolling quietly amongst the flower beds, taking pictures, admiring the large green lawns and, for some of us, reflecting on nature’s beauty in a relatively silent environment.
Traditionally, Commissioner’s Park has been an oasis of peace for people who wanted to escape the noise, traffic and ugliness of commercial advertisements typical of bustling cities. I do not know who grants licenses to businesses allowing them to set up their activities in the park. I assume it is the city and that the selling of these licenses is one of its sources of revenue. After the commercialization of Lansdowne (publicly owned land ceded to the private sector) and the approval to build the hospital next to Dow’s Lake (which will undoubtedly increase noisy traffic on Queen Elizabeth Driveway), the desecration of the Tulip Festival is just another erosion of our quality of life in this city for the sake of money. What can we do about it? Who should we talk to?
Claire Trépanier
The Papery responds
Re: ‘Hollowing out Glebe?’ Editorial, Glebe Report, June 2024
The Papery would like to clarify that we are still planning to reoccupy our old space at the corner of Bank and Fifth, which was closed due to a fire in December 2022.
There has been considerable work done on the property. Repairs to the two floors of apartments were prioritized, and tenants have returned to their homes there. The landlord’s work in our space is nearly complete, and we have begun construction of our new fixtures. The editor’s comments cast doubt on our return, and that is completely contrary to our aspirations!
Katherine Slack
Owner, The Papery
What are parking penalties for?
Re: “The Folly of parking fines geared to income,” Letter to the Editor, Glebe Report, June 2024
Just read the letter in the Glebe Report on this. Obviously, there are some really deep philosophical differences on the role of socioeconomic policies.
The question here is whether to treat people the same or treat them equally. Treating everyone the same is a difference of fact; treating them equally creates a different impact.
The parking fine is not an attempt at income redistribution. The parking fine is intended to be a deterrent. The same fine has a different deterrent impact if it is identical for everybody. Richer people may not care, eliminating the deterrent effect. So scaled fees are actually fair fees. (The same applies to speeding fines.)
Terry Cheney
Be grateful for our remaining local merchants
Re: “Glebe Apothecary has closed permanently,” Glebe Report, June 2024.
Your coverage of the Glebe Apothecary’s permanent closing following the fire in March in the June Glebe Report and the continued plight of The Papery after more than two years are a sad reminder of our loss and the potentially long-term change of our “main street.” Yes, it is good to know that Shoppers at 702 Bank has absorbed all the staff from Apothecary, and that it is still within the neighbourhood (sort of). But it has a completely different look and atmosphere, and a line of health supplements that I have been faithful to for many years is absent from their shelves.
What will become of the unique street front at the old place? I am hoping that the owners will have intelligent or even delightful plans for its future.
In the meantime, we must remember to be grateful for the remaining merchants in this corner of the Glebe, such as Glebetrotters, Whole Health Pharmacy, Glebe Meat Market, the Wild Oat, Von’s, Glebe Tailor, Capital Home Hardware, J.D. Adam, Il Negozio Nicastro, to name a few, and of course not forgetting our dear local supermarket, Glebe Metro! Let us continue to support them, lest they too succumb to the stress of changing markets and real estate values, not to mention other disasters!
Maria Calderisi
Dam the river of tourists?
The more I read about the tourism crisis in Venice, Barcelona and other cities, the more I am convinced that the Glebe too is suffering from over-tourism. Historically, the Glebe has been caught in the middle of long-standing events such as the Tulip Festival, Winterlude, the National Capital Marathon. Now, added to this, are endless attractions at Lansdowne: myriad festivals, the Christmas Market, 67s and RedBlacks games, concerts, the volume of which leave houses two kilometres away shaking, as well as a large number of big-box drinking establishments.
The Glebe has become the parking lot for all these events. We have bumper-to-bumper parking on our streets, high fuel emissions, cars blocking our driveways, people urinating in our driveways and throwing empty beer cans on our properties, attendees returning to their cars after dark, rowdy and often inebriated and driving home in this condition, while police turn a blind eye. The claim that ticket holders would leave their cars at Brewer Park or Carleton and shuttle to Lansdowne was always a fiction. The City and OSEG knew this. They even put up signs telling people how far to Lansdowne if they park on our streets.
Now, we have StrongTownsOttawa advocating for the elimination of parking on Bank Street, which would drive yet more people to park on residential streets. Who are these people? We don’t in fact know. It seems that if you give yourself a name, slap a few clichés on your website and hold a demonstration, you must be accommodated.
This group claims that the sidewalks on Bank Street are too narrow, causing people to bump into each other. Nonsense. I’ve lived in the Glebe for 40 years, and I’ve never bumped into another pedestrian.
Another of their suggestions is permanent bike lanes. Did we not just spend millions creating bike lanes on O’Connor, only a block east of Bank, running from Parliament Hill to Lansdowne? What’s wrong with using that? And what about the multi-use pathway beside the Canal, which also accesses Lansdowne?
I don’t see Venice and Barcelona altering their cities to accommodate the ever-swelling river of tourists. No. They are instead taking measures to curb tourism, to preserve their quality of life and their rights as citizens. We in the Glebe are paying high property taxes for a disappearing way of life. The Glebe is a residential area, a community, not a tourist facility. We live here. This is our home. Tourists are just passing through. When are Glebites going to stand up and reclaim their neighbourhood?
Dorothy Speak
