By Michael Gams
Renovations on Sparks Street to tear down the six green pavilions will take place by the end of April and debate about turning the pedestrian street into a regular street with traffic is ongoing. Additionally, signs will go up in the middle of all intersections to guide visitors to specific businesses in the area.
Sparks Street Mall manager Sharon McKenna explained why the mall authority decided to knock down the pavilions.
“They used to be cooking areas for the restaurants that had patios. It is now more convenient to serve from the restaurant than from the little houses,” says McKenna. “They are not utilized any more., Visually it looks cleaner without them, you can see farther down the street. It takes away from the heritage buildings, so you will be able to see that much better once [the pavilions] are gone.”
Many business owners also hope that removing the green structures will be the first step to a regular street with parking lots and traffic. John W. Coles, manager of The Astrolabe Gallery on 71 Sparks St., says, “A pedestrian mall in this place is ridiculous, because in winter nobody comes here.”
Hollander Layte, owner of a café and a shop on Sparks Street and mall management board member, says, “Parking lots are still a huge issue.A minority of the committee does not want parking on the street, but the majority wants it.”
She says winter causes loss of retail and tourists and that the pedestrian mall has not worked for twenty-five years. A regular street and more residents could mean more revenue for businesses there.
“We want more people to live downtown, it is the same problem in any major city. NCC should preserve more, should do more for Sparks Street,” says Layte.
A National Capital Commission (NCC) project on Queen Street aims to build 100 new apartments, but the NCC is still looking for a developer. The first building to offer apartments and office space was the recently renovated Hardy Arcade on 130 Sparks St. These plans sound promising, but people like Coles want action.
“The problem is that there are at least three organizations which have their fingers in what is going on here at the mall,” he says, referring to the federal government represented by the NCC, the city of Ottawa, and the Sparks Street Mall authority.
“I was in the mall authority board for a while but I didn’t get anywhere,” says Coles. “Ten years ago I was talking about getting this directional signage, now they are talking about it again.”
The signs will be introduced this spring, says Sam Elsaadi, vice chairman of the mall authority board.
At the end of January, the Sparks Street Mall held re-elections of its authority board members, but new developments take their time, says Elsaadi.
“The problem is we have our own budget, we don’t get any money from the city or the government.”
To him, Sparks Street is more than just a mall.
“Sparks Street is the face of the country. So we want to work with the government to make it look the face of the country.”