Ottawa Marathon

Posts to this blog will be down while I train for the Ottawa Marathon. Read about my progress at www.ottawamarathon.blogspot.com.

Protection likely for Bethany Hope Centre #OTTpoli #hintonburg

It looks as though city staff will recommend heritage designation for parts of the Bethany Hope Centre and the report could make its way to city council faster than previously thought.

The centre is located at 1140 Wellington Street West and has received some attention over the past year as a potential site for the Hintonburg Hub.

Kitchissippi councillor Katherine Hobbs provided a heads up to community members of the designation recommendation. She said the intention is to include the 1924 portions of the building and front lawn under the designation. A later addition at the back of the building and the rear yard would not be included in the designation.

The councillor's media coordinator said the report is not yet finalized.

The report will be made public January 26, 2012 and will likely go through the advisory committee, planning committee and to council in February.

Just a little UPDATE. For more, see the previous post.

What happens to the Bethany Hope Centre now?

The Salvation Army property on Wellington West is so closely associated with the Hintonburg Hub plan that for at least 12 hours after I broke news of a new potential location for the Hub, on OpenFile Ottawa, a picture of the Bethany Hope Centre accompanied the story. Funny.

Condos seem obvious. It's a huge property, on a trendy main street with a recently renovated streetscape, but several factors could make the property less attractive to developers.

HERITAGE DESIGNATION

The Bethany Hope Centre building may be eligible for heritage designation. A report on the potential heritage status of the centre will likely go before the Ottawa Built Heritage Advisory Committee as early as February and could move on to Planning Committee and City Council by March or April. A heritage designation, if it comes, could limit the kinds of changes a potential developer could make to the building and/or the property. Good news if you like heritage. Bummer if you want to develop.

HEIGHT LIMIT

There is also a limit on the height of any potential building on the site to a maximum of 6 storeys or 20 meters. The Salvation Army has filed an appeal with the Ontario Municipal Board with a prehearing currently scheduled for late January. Prior to the adoption of Wellington West Community Design Plan there had been no height restriction on the property. The Salvation Army wants that height limit overturned.

SOIL CONTAMINATION AND EASEMENT

Soil contamination is also a potential issue. Hintonburg historian Linda Hoad has, apparently, found that an adjoining property at the corner of Rosemont and Welington Ave West had been a gas station beginning in the 1930s. Hoad had also discovered a storm sewer easement at the rear of the property. Although it's not clear whether that sewer, which dates back to 1910, is still used by the city.

Taken together, it makes you wonder if the price ($3-million to $4-million) that the hub partners were being asked to pay wasn’t a little high.

Jay Baltz has wrote about the importance of the building and surrounds (as well as some of these issues) for Spacing Ottawa in the spring. It still makes interesting reading.

Unfortunately, the next step for Bethany Hope probably won’t get the same kind of attention if the Hub really has moved on.

Mapping Food Availability

The plan was to map food availability, specifically how far folks must travel to get the everyday essentials like milk, eggs and bread.

We all know smaller supermarkets and corner grocery stores are closing to be replace by much larger and centralized superstores, which leaves many of us traveling (usually by car) to keep ourselves supplied, but it's really hard to capture that trend which really plays out at the neighbourhood level. That was the idea: Big map + local detail = big picture. Or something like that. This map has some problems, but I'm tossing it out there as an experiment of interest.



The map is based on 2006 business information from Statistics Canada which makes use of the North American Industry Classification System. Most of the markers indicate businesses with the NAICS classification number 445110. It's supposed to be supermarkets and other grocery stores, but NOT convenience stores. Here's the NAICS description:

This industry comprises establishments generally known as supermarkets and grocery stores primarily engaged in retailing a general line of food, such as canned and frozen foods; fresh fruits and vegetables; and fresh and prepared meats, fish, and poultry. Included in this industry are delicatessen-type establishments primarily engaged in retailing a general line of food.

If you click on the map you'll notice many corner grocery stores that I think are much closer to convenience stores fall under this classification. Some of the information is also badly out of date. In the Hintonburg neighbourhood, for example, I can see four small grocery and delis that no longer exist (Market 168, Kardish, Nesrallah's M&M Supermarket, Royal Food Market). On the other hand, it does (somewhat) illustrate the decline in corner grocery stores and the consolidation of larger supermarkets, which is why I was interested in mapping the data in the first place.

If I have time, I may go through the 300 or so entries and classify them as supermarkets, grocery stores or delis.

Meanwhile, please let me know if anything jumps out at you from the map. I'm still not sure exactly what (if anything) I will do with this one.

Mapping Defibrillators

Further to the previous post, here is a much simpler map, which shows public access defibrillators broken down by City Ward.



Yup, them lovely hues each correspond with the total AEDs (automated external defibrillator) per ward:

7 to 12 RED
12 to 17 ORANGE
17 to 22 GREEN
22 to 28 LIGHT BLUE
28 to 33 BLUE
33 to 38 YELLOW (none in this range)
38 to 43 PURPLE
43 to 48 VIOLET

I've also included an estimate per capita (just to keep things in perspective). Defibrillators in police cruisers, fire vehicles and ambulances mean the levels in any one ward can change minute to minute. See the previous post for deets on those totals.

Does Ottawa have enough public access defibrillators?

PHOTO: debaird via flickr

Public defibrillators have been getting some good press lately. That’s because three people were revived from cardiac arrest within a week in November thanks to the heart shocking devices—and the bystanders or professionals able to use them.

But as recently as April 2011, CTV reported that Ottawa paramedics wanted to see more of them around the city.
That followed the death of a 38-year-old man who had been playing ball hockey in a community gymnasium on Maitland Avenue that does not have a defibrillator.
That prompted OpenFile to ask what other parts of the Ottawa might not have the potentially life-saving paddles.

This map was made with data provided by the City of Ottawa. The location of each AED—automated external defibrillator—is marked with a red dot.



Generally, the map shows a lower density of AEDs in the rural parts of the city and a higher density in the suburban and urban parts. Some neighbourhoods, such as Bel Air Heights, Champlain Park and Riverside South, are notable exceptions.

This chart shows the number of AEDs per 1000 people in each ward (based on the city's population estimates):

This chart shows the number of AEDs per square kilometre:

Bay, Somerset and Alta Vista wards have the highest density of AEDs per person with 1.05 per 1000 people each. In Somerset, however, there are six AEDs per square kilometer. Alta Vista has only two, by comparison.

Gloucester-South Nepean has the lowest number of AEDs per person at 0.18 per 1000.
West-Carleton (0.01 per sq km), Osgoode (0.02 per sq km), Rideau-Goulbourn (0.02 per sq km) and Cumberland (0.03 per sq km) have the lowest number by area, but come in much higher when the number is calculated per person. West-Carleton, for example, has a surprising 0.44 AEDs per person.

CITY OF OTTAWA FIGURES

Number of defibrillators: 572

Number in marked police cars: 138

Number in fire service pumper trucks: 77

Number in schools: 53

Number in libraries: 26

MUCH OF THIS POST WAS FIRST PUBLISHED BY OPENFILE OTTAWA

Mapping murder

I put together this map in light of the recent warning by Ottawa Police of "a pattern" in the homicides of city prostitutes.

It marks locations associated with unsolved homicides involving known or suspected sex workers. I've also includes basic details gleaned from newspaper reports at the time.



CBC has reported that Ottawa Police are also looking at the 2008 murder of Pamela Kosmack. I've included the her murder for that reason. Kosmack was not believed to be a sex worker.

I've also included the 2006 murder of Kelly Morrisseau and the 1984 murder of Jane Louise Sutherland. Both women were aboriginal. Both cases remain unsolved. Neither has been included in the most recent media coverage. In those cases the homicides were discovered in Gatineau and were investigated by Gatineau Police.