Archive 1997-2016
The commercial properties key to Preston Street’s lively character are spilling over into residential surroundings, says a leading community advocate who points to the recent rezoning of a home at 73 Aberdeen St. to accommodate a new art gallery in the neighbourhood.
“If Ottawa were a house, then Raw Sugar would be the living room,” says Lydia Gabelmann, one of the baristas at the Somerset Street coffee shop that’s been emerging as an informal Centretown community centre. 
Sarah Everest, Centretown NewsNadia Kharyati, owner of the Raw Sugar Café, hosts performers and community groups.
Last weekend, the Kapital Kink sex show offered Ottawans kinky workshops, a fashion sexpo, a fetish ball and an “Exploratorium,” all within the cozy walls of St. Brigid’s church in the Byward Market. And the four-day show came and went with zero controversy – exactly the way it should be.
A horse had electric red blood spurting from a neck artery. Zombies stalked between Parliament Hill and the U.S. Embassy. And the bright autumn leaves that had fallen around the trees in the lakeside landscape couldn’t hide the piles of trash. 
Evgeniya Kulgina Centretown NewsPatrick Mills, artist and creator of the "I Killed the Group of Seven" exhibit, at his studio in Hintonburg.