Hometown Bias (Ottawa)
Cultural production has been driven back inside the mind, within the monadic subject: it can lo longer look directly out of its eyes at the real world for the referent but must, as in Plato’s cave, trace its mental images to the world on its confining walls.
-Fredrick Jameson, “Postmodernism and Consumer Society”
I think we think of and treat hometowns very differently than places we visit. Like our own homes (houses, flats, etc…), we both defend with passionate patriotism, and disparage equally our cities. Our personal knowledge is so vastly greater with our local surroundings that it connects throughout our understandings, memories, and our senses of ourselves. A discussion of wandering through the small city (or large town) of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, is therefore likely to be a bit scattered to the reader. This is not an apology or disclaimer, just an introduction to a discussion of wandering through my own mind, as much as a city.
Years ago, while still studying architecture at university, I came upon the results of a study which looked at Ottawa as a “walkable city.” The fundamental question involved why there are fewer pedestrians on the streets here than what one might think should be normal. I recall the conclusion being to build nicer sidewalks. To this day I disagree wholeheartedly with that assessment. Central Ottawa, even before this study, has always had some beautiful sidewalks. Wide, inset with beautiful motifs, sometimes lined with granite and trees, Ottawa’s sidewalks are in sharp contrast to the tight, uneven, messy dark sidewalks of cities like Paris. But everyone walks in Paris.
I don’t think it’s all to do with distance. The idea that Paris is denser than Ottawa can’t be the totality. When I was younger, I would go on Friday evenings to the Byward Market; the fun part of town. All the parking spots were taken, all of the bars and pubs full, and almost no one outside. And this is in the summer, so no weather excuse. There should be people out, walking around. In high school, I walked home, a distance of about 5 miles, every day. This includes those days where the temperature was -40 degrees (Celsius or Farenheit, they’re the same at that temperature), with snow up to my knees. This is where I first developed my love of walking, but also began my understanding of the city, and where I began to think about why there were so few pedestrians.
In my estimation, to make people want to walk in your city, you need 2 things: somewhere to go and something to see along the way. Cities like Vienna are endlessly beautiful, and your journey is almost invariably as intriguing as your destination, so “getting there” weighs less heavy. In my years living in Toronto, I saw that there were spectacular places to be, but often the spaces between those were somewhat lacking in interest. Ottawa, however, is a highly conservative city. While I support this mentality, my concern has always been when things like quality are “conserved.” Ottawa should be a city that is clean, easy to move around. But in my life here, I have seen it as a city of compromise, lacking devotion to creating or maintaining a strong character. Ottawa has always been afraid to make a big change; a big move. On a beautiful piece of land at the convergence of three rivers and one man-made canal, Ottawa has a huge amount of water, but until now (with a development that will happen over the next few years), has never had a waterfront. Ottawa’s river shores are devoted to roads called “parkways” and to fantastic walking/bicycle paths. However, those paths are separated from the city. At that point, you’re not walking (or cycling) in the city, you’re interacting with the water. While this in itself is a fantastic element of Ottawa, the city itself could benefit more from that connection.
Ottawa isn’t really a walking city. The downtown core is equally dark as so many other cities, but being neither low enough to connect us with buildings, like in European cities, nor high enough to have the drama of Toronto, New York, Chicago or Hong Kong, it’s a compromise of height. Even Sparks Street, a pedestrian-only street has been seen as a failure due in part to its east-west direction (blocking so much sunlight with buildings along the south edge), as well as the inconvenience of arriving there, especially by car (unless you work in the financial district, but then those people are usually limited to their lunch hours). The rest of Ottawa is very much a neighbourhood city. Ottawa still has its great places to walk: Bank street in the Glebe, Westboro, but these are still limited. The social areas of the city can end abruptly, and often work linearly, as in turning any corner exits that mixed-use planning and you’re back into single-family housing and away from other pedestrians. I think I mentioned this in my posts on Paris. Ottawa is not an integrated city. It works in pockets. Sometimes, however, the connections between these pockets of interest lack either the convenience or the desirability that usually communicates with the wanderer. Ottawa is a lovely place, sure. A great piece of land, beaming with natural and historical beauty. There are great new things happening all the time, but I think this city lacks some devotion to what it wants to be. There are places in Ottawa where wandering is a rewarding experience, but on the whole, the compromises have often overpowered the potential.
