City core dead without revitalization, local politcians say
By Lisa Miguez
Take a walk down Sparks Street on a Sunday. During the summer tourist season, the sounds of people and music vibrate from the open-air cafes.
But once the tourists leave, Sparks Street becomes a ghost town.
Sparks Street is not the only major urban Ottawa area to suffer from a dual personality. Business improvement groups around the downtown core say areas including upper Bank and Rideau Streets all need one thing: more people.
And the region’s political hopefuls are promising to “revive the core” if elected on Nov. 10.
Gerry Lepage, executive director of the Bank Street Promenade Business Improvement Area, says converting empty office space into luxury residential units will increase the number of people living in the core and contribute to commercial businesses and safer streets.
Many municipal electoral candidates and business people point to an abundance of empty office space — which they blame on federal government downsizing — as a problem which needs to be resolved.
Bob Chiarelli, a candidate for regional chair, says this loss has contributed to a decrease of people in the downtown area. “It sends a very bad message to potential investors and the rest of the country that the nation’s capital has a deteriorating core,” says Chiarelli.
Like Lepage, Chiarelli believes converting existing buildings into residential and premium office space will contribute to a more vibrant core area.
Peter Clark, who is seeking re-election as regional chair, says conversion projects are great, but the economics have to make sense before people are willing to pay.
He says sometimes it’s more practical to bulldoze an older building or work to enhance it rather than try to convert it into office or housing space.
One thing which may deter conversion projects, is the region’s reinstatement of residential development charges in Centretown and the downtown area last year.
The fees, used to pay for services like sewers, were waived by council in 1995, in an effort to encourage the private sector to undertake conversion projects.
But Clark has other ideas on how to bring people into the core. He supports what is known as the linkages project, where buildings in the downtown area would be linked through raised walkways, like the existing ones which link the Rideau Centre to The Bay, or an underground tunnel system.
He says this would encourage people to visit Ottawa during the winter months, which are considered the off-season in Ottawa’s tourism industry.
As well, Clark says the city needs a larger convention centre. He says companies such as Nortel complain that they can’t hold management meetings in the region because of a lack of convention space.
No one is willing to put a dollar figure on revitalization. Chiarelli says, in his plan to revive the core, the changes will come about through a partnership between the region, the city, the federal government and other stakeholders.
For the merchants and residents of Rideau Street, this means looking to places like the Glebe for inspiration on how to redesign their area.
Wit Lewandowski, owner of Rideau Pharmacy, says the area needs more buildings which are closer to the street, with residential or office spaces above.
Lewandowski says there is also a need to renovate existing apartment buildings he believes have given Rideau Street a bad name because of transient tenants.
Lepage voices similar concerns in his efforts to transform Bank Street north of the Queensway.
He says the Glebe used to be nothing but transients and students 25 to 30 years ago. As different people moved in, the commercial base adapted.
“But,” he says, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”