Am I missing something? It seems to me like the city doing a horrible job with Sparks Street? I'll spare you the details for another post (or maybe several other posts) but for now just look at that street. What's up with these patches? I though Sparks Street is one of Ottawa's most significant heritage street. If that's the case, why isn't there more care put into the maintenance of the pavement? Specially with such a simple pattern. Seriously! People get paid to do such a bad job? Might as well leave it unrepaired, at least we'd save money that way. 
To me, Sparks Street mall has so much potential to be so much more than a neglected shadow of its former self. It's time for a change. I was walking down the street not too long ago and there was a young violinist playing a very slow and sad song "how fitting" I thought. The street is depressing. It need some life and youth injected back into it.Anyway, I added this to FixMySteet. We'll see how that goes.
ahaha omg so funny, i was walking there this morning and nearly broke my heel because of the poor state of the pavement, it's horrid. Sparks street could be such and amazing place, it has so much potential!
ReplyDeleteWe've walked up Sparks Street a couple of times in the last month or so (break time from our bike ride!!). To be honest, there were so many people on Sparks that I didn't really notice the sidewalk -- I was too busy trying to avoid bumping into people!! But I did notice that the buildings are kind of blah and not very inspiring. All of Sparks could use an overhaul to give it more charm and appeal. Both visitors to Ottawa and the people who live here would appreciate and enjoy the improvements.
ReplyDeleteKelly
Sparks Street...was born here in '75 and whoa, they have done little to nothing with it. It could so be something nice but ah wakeup Ottawa & NCC overlords. Great place for crowdless xmas shopping however, like a ghost town.
ReplyDeleteI sure would appreciate improvements down there.
The poor repair job really does represent the "half-done is good enough" approach that is so prevalent in our city. I'm sure somewhere there is a work order marked completed, yet imagine as this is done year after year, becoming some sort of twisted checkerboard of red stones and black asphalt patches. Apparently there was a big study done in 2004 on improving sparks street, you can even find it on the NCC website, but sadly nothing has been done since then.
ReplyDelete2010 Busker's Festival in Ottawa this weekend on Sparks. Lots of people, yet when we got there Friday at 8pm, pretty much everything along Sparks was closed. Chapters was closing as we got there. The finale of the Buskers was right outside The Bridgehead coffee shop. I went in at 9 to get 4 coffees. They told me they were closing. Why they would be turning people away is beyond me. They had probably 500 people outside their store waiting for the show, and they close?
ReplyDeleteWent back downtown this morning, Sunday, beautiful day in Ottawa. Parliament hill packed for changing of the guard....Parliament Pub, across from the hill, with a great outdoor terrace - closed. Why not offer coffee and baked goods? Cost you a waitress. We ended up at the Starbucks on Elgin. Nice terrace (if a little noisy from traffic). They were open and got our business.
There are two sides to the woes of Sparks Street. Seems to me the landlord did his job by bringing in the crowd. The vendors have to take some responsibility too.