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I've always been puzzled by the problems with Rideau Street. It even seems resistent to spreading success from the market. It isn't for lack of pedestrians since the bus shelter area is packed at all hours. I wonder if growth will finally happen over the next few years as the market expands.
 
I think Rideau Street, especially between the Canal and King Edward, simply suffered bad luck over the past decades. The truck traffic that heads to King Edward and the unfriendliness of that intersection make it really difficult to find much appeal in that little area. Then you have the Rideau Center whose streetwall does nothing to help the area. The parking lots south of Rideau have created a barron, asphalt buffer that keeps the vibrancy of Sandy Hill from having possible positive effects. The street really seems to have suffered from some of the worst mistakes that arrose out of 60's and 70's urban planning and has just never been able to bounce back. It seems to be getting a little bit better but a few nice condos (such as East Market Lofts) and improving the streetwall in some areas (such as the Rideau Center and especially getting rid of the parking lot next door that once housed the Royal Bank ATMs) would be just enough to give the street a boost and be able to capitalize on the growing strength of the market.
 
The Rideau St. suffers from too many homeless shelters and other social services in such a small area. Also good transportation doesn't help either.
 
^The Sheppard's of Good Hope shelters and the area immediately around it is always a little wild. So that area of the market (east) has yet to see any major improvement.

Interestingly, the Mission in Sandy Hill is one shelter that has gone a long way to integrate well into the neighbourhood. The place looks good, and they have set up facilities for people who use the services to hang out in. There is development all around it, including the two big towers going up on Rideau.

Rideau between King Edward and Sussex is busy. I think the worries about panhandlers and drug sales are oversold. It reminds me of the moral panic concerning prostitutes on Cumberland in Lowertown. I used to walk around there regularly, and only on the weekends to did you see the ladies out for business. The Citizen made it into some kind of hooker invasion.

Hopefully, with the expansion of the Rideau Centre will come more storefronts, and more regular pedestrian traffic. That will keep the street in motion. The weird thing is the stalled condo/hotel project, which remains as a big hole in the ground. What's up with that?
 
Biz,

I agree, but women often are uncomfortable with the character of Redeau St. They are often the decision makers with regards to homes. They also do most of the shopping. So, if they are not comfortable, not development.
 
I'm perplexed by the resilience of the Rideau Centre--anywhere else, this kind of 70s/80s bright-idea-at-the-time urban-bunker-mall would probably be well on the path to being nuked. Not just "modified" a la the Eaton Centre--nuked. Like, *totally* razed and rebuilt, as UTers want to happen to Scarborough Town Centre etc.

Instead, it's weirdly "successful". It just keeps holding on, the urban retail equivalent to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"...
 
I'm perplexed by the resilience of the Rideau Centre--anywhere else, this kind of 70s/80s bright-idea-at-the-time urban-bunker-mall would probably be well on the path to being nuked.
Click to expand...

I don't find it perplexing, most large Canadian cities have successful downtown malls. It's nice that the Rideau Centre and the adjacent Byward Market seem to be able to happily coexist.
 
The fact that the south side of the mall has a transitway stop probably has a lot to do with it. When you get off the bus and want to make your way to Rideau Street or the market, through the mall is the quickest, easiest, and in winter, warmest way. It keeps the mall full of people even if it just commuters walking through. I have passed through there hundreds of times and after a while the Rideau Center feels less like a mall and more like a covered pedestrian street.
 
The Ottawa Business Journal reported this week that they City wants to extend the O-Train to Hurdman station. It would pick up westward buses from the transitway (coming from Orleans) and ferry them to downtown. It won't take much to extend it along the transitway to Orleans.

As a Kanata (West) resident I support South and Eastern regions getting O-train services before us. They need it badly. I would like it to extend out the our area by the time my kids are going to U. But then again, maybe they will go to Queens, St. Andrews or U-Edinburgh.
 
I think Hurdman makes sense for the O-Train. It's a regional bus terminal, in the same way that Lincoln Fields is in the west. Plus, it's only a bit eastward.
 
Too bad Hurdman is in the middle of nowhere. It's an interesting and unique place to change buses; with nothing to look at but the greenspace that surrounds 90% of the station while dozens of buses zoom around the place. I wonder if there's anything else like it in the world.

But it's great to see the light rail plan growing. With this extension, the line now has a real ability to serve trips within the downtown area which should really help ridership.
 
The old East Algonquin College campus has not sold in 4 years due to the liabilities associated with the contaminated soil beneath it.

With a conserted effort by the city to plan and rezone, allowing developers to take the risk of buying-cleaning-developing, it could turn into a dense apartment oriented area. Lots of parks and services just up on Elgin St.
 
I'm in Ottawa right now. I remember yet again why I hate the Transitway. Only the second time I take the Transitway from the VIA station towards downtown. At 17:00 today, I watched 16 buses blow by without stopping, not counting the ParaTranspo, Voyageur buses and the OC cops and supervisors cars. A 95X went by, so full it looked unsafe. Finally a 128 pulls up, but it only goes to Hurdman, of course. Finally got on a bus to Albert St, and it sits for almost 10 minutes by U of Ottawa because of a backlog of buses waiting at the stoplight to get on the Mackenzie King Bridge. So much for "Bus Rapid Transit"! Bring on LRT and a feeder bus system, instead of the bloated limos known as "green express" buses and the overpacked 95/6/7 local buses.
 
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