4 Nov
In September, the National Capital Commission designated an area of Hampton Park to be an off-leash zone for dogs to run around and exercise. However, as this audio slideshow reveals, they could not have chosen a worse section of the park:
http://ashermerlin86.webng.com/Hamptonpark/
Special thanks goes out to Kevin MacLeod, who wrote the song that was used in the slideshow, as well as the Hello Westboro Blog, whose post about the off-leash zone gave me the inspiration to check it out.
21 Oct
But City is Working Towards Solutions, says Leadman
The Village of Westboro has become a destination shopping spot in the city of Ottawa. On a typical visit, one can grab a coffee, buy athletic equipment, take a yoga class, and even find themselves a box of Belgian chocolates.
However, if you intend to do all of these things in one visit, it is probably best to take the bus.
Because Richmond Road is narrow, and the surrounding side streets are quiet and don’t encourage traffic, finding parking in the area can be tougher than finding a needle in a haystack. And the on-street parking that is available has a one-hour limit.
According to Louise McManus, owner of Louise’s Belgian Chocolates on Richmond, this makes it very difficult for visitors to fully take in what the neighbourhood has to offer.
“They want to go in and get something, and maybe, ‘Oh, I want to go into that shop too, but I don’t have time because I’ve got to get to my car,’” she says. “If there was a place where they could park as long as they needed to, that would help a lot.”
McManus also explains that businesses on the Richmond corridor struggle particularly during meal times, when the majority of parking spaces are occupied by restaurant-goers.
Although Westboro has particularly grown in the past decade, these parking issues are nothing new, says Kitchissippi Councillor Christine Leadman, who represents Westboro.
Formerly the head of the neighbourhood’s BIA office, she says that Westboro has tried a variety of parking arrangements.
Leadman explains that the area used to have even more parking limits, which banned parking on the more congested side of the street during rush hours. While this made traffic flow far more effectively, she says that lifting these restrictions helped to add more parking to the area.
While Leadman says lifting the one-hour ban is possible, it would not necessarily help businesses out.
“On-street parking is not long-term parking. It’s there to provide a service to the businesses,” she says. “Turnover is important. If you have two-hour parking, there could be other people who want to come into the area to shop, but won’t be able to find parking.
“So it’s kind of a double-edged sword.”
According to Leadman, the business-owners along the street could help their own cause as well.
“The real element in the areas like Wellington and Westboro is the businesspeople themselves who park on the street, and take away the spots,” she says. “You can’t have your staff and your employees and business owners taking up customer parking on the street.”
Despite the bleak outlook of the situation, Leadman says that the city is taking steps in the right direction.
“The new parking management strategy was developed and we have some new people in there,” she says. “So we now have a policy that speaks to that. It’s not just relevant to Westboro, it’s relevant to the city as a whole, and particularly those areas in the urban core that have these high parking demands.”
One solution would be for the city to buy a plot of land and build a public lot, but land in the Westboro Village is expensive, says Leadman. In addition, to build a public lot, meters would have to be put up on Richmond Street to gauge peoples’ willingness to pay for parking, which would go well with neither area residents, nor shoppers.
“I think the neighbourhood should have free parking for the people who want to shop here, just like the malls do for their customers,” says McManus.
Leadman says the most likely solution in the near future would be for the city to work with potential developers in the area and negotiate for a portion of the property’s parking to be used for public purposes.
In the mean time, OC Transpo’s “Route 2” provides frequent service to the area, and Westboro Station on the Transitway is only a five minute walk from the Richmond corridor, for those who intend to spend more than an hour in the neighbourhood.
7 Oct
This Saturday, the Village of Westboro celebrates the Thanksgiving long weekend in style, with its second annual Cornucopia Festival. The free event, described as “A Giant Animated Sidewalk Sale”, features street performers and encourages shop owners to set up tables outside their establishments and offer deals, to give shoppers a more market-like shopping experience.
“It draws a lot of attention to Westboro during what’s usually a really popular shopping weekend anyway,” says Katie Bonnar, who works at The Candy Store on Richmond. “It makes it a lot more fun, especially for the kids who have to get dragged around by their parents running errands on Thanksgiving.”
Westboro’s centre for the common sweet-tooth plays a large part in the festival. Bonnar says they will have a table out front, selling cupcakes and cotton candy. It will also have a balloon clown, and may possibly have a face painter for the kids.
However, she says that adding that personal touch is nothing new for this delicious establishment.
“We give stuff away on a daily basis, so we’re always feeding people that come into the store. Cornucopia is no different,” she says. “We’re constantly offering samples to people, making sure that people have a little snack.”
Cornucopia runs from ten until five, on Richmond Road between Island Park Drive and Golden Avenue.
6 Oct
On Friday, I decided this would not be a true neighbourhood study if I didn’t take the opportunity to actually dine in the neighbourhood. Having already taken a picture of the life-like Elvis painting on the side of the building, it was hard to resist The Newport’s charm. After all, if people didn’t like theme-based eateries, then why would the Hard Rock Cafe be so universally successful?
The restaurant possesses its own unique identity for sure. Reflective of the Middle Eastern origins of owner and founder, Moe Atallah, the menu features Lebanese cuisine, with a twist. You can eat virtually anything you want, including shawarma, souvlaki, pizza, burgers, and deli-style sandwiches.
And to top it off, of course, there’s the Elvis theme. Starting with the large painting that features Elvis with his arm around Atallah, the restaurant is filled with all kinds of Elvis memorabilia, including clocks, street signs, posters, paintings, and framed newspaper clippings.
Being uncreative, and in a slight hurry, I chose the burger. While the quality certainly didn’t match that of its competitor, The Works, right down the street, the price was far more reasonable.
Overall, it seemed as though the restaurant could have taken the Elvis theme a step further. One would generally expect an Elvis-themed restaurant to play Elvis videos on its multiple large flat screen TVs, instead of hockey. And though I’m not an Elvis fan myself, I would have taken his tunes any day over the local soft-rock station playing on the radio.
To be fair, though, many restaurants aren’t even open at three in the afternoon, when I showed up, and the hockey was the Blues/Red Wings game playing live from Sweden. And the overall cheerful, friendly nature of the staff makes the experience one worth taking in.
4 Oct
Walking down Richmond Road, it’s truly remarkable how drastically the area surrounding the street changes. If you start from Island Park Drive, where Wellington becomes Richmond, the area is small, and residential. Once you pass the Loblaws, you enter the business centre, where the street is narrow, and packed with shops, restaurants, and java spots. Walk another few blocks, and the shops give way to the Rogers TV studio, which takes up a large portion of the block. Past the studio, the road essentially becomes a parkway, as all that surrounds the expanded street is houses and empty park space, for the most part.
However, on the less-flashy side of the TV studio, there lies a hidden treasure: The Maplelawn Public Garden. Picture the perfect place to take your date for that first walk together. As you walk in, there are numerous little dreamlike paths, surrounded an array of colourful flowers and plants. Even on a cold, grey day, this place provides a breath of fresh air.
And to top it off, if merely fresh air doesn’t fit your fancy, how about some gourmet food? I discovered that when you enter Maplelawn from the street, to your right is the garden, and to the left is The Keg Manor. Suddenly, that innocent first walk turns into a luscious steak dinner.
Stay tuned to Merlin’s Magiblog for my review, of sorts, of the Newport Restaurant…
30 Sep
Hey Everyone!
So I took a stroll down Richmond Road last Saturday, snapping shots as I went, in an attempt to get a feel for the area. I discovered that the businesses along the street have a habit of going out of their way to attract their customers. For example, more than half of the storefronts I passed by had extensive Thanksgiving decorations, and had essentially painted the street orange for the upcoming harvest.
I also noticed that Westboro has a great number of painted murals on the sides of its shops. I’ve posted a slide show of these paintings on the Flickr website, and have provided a link for it here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/icemo86/sets/72157622484562412/
These murals really give the area an artistic, and old-fashioned identity, that I have attempted to capture with these shots.
Hope you all enjoy them!
Merlin
