Old Ottawa South

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

The last year has been anything but uneventful. The biggest issue to engage the community was unquestionably the City budget with its proposed drastic cuts to just about all the services delivered by the City. The proposed cuts hit this community hard with planned closures to Brewer Pool, the Sunnyside Branch of the library, outdoor ice rinks, and to staff budgets at community centres, transit services and even small items like painting crosswalk and stop sign markings on residential streets and cut backs on parks maintenance and street cleaning.

The community fought hard to stop the cuts, especially with respect to the Sunnyside Library closure that saw a demonstration outside the branch involving over 1200 people. OSCA made numerous presentations in front of City committees, and key members of the Board also helped construct an alternative Budget with the Councillor to demonstrate that there was an alternative way of controlling spending without resorting to the draconian cuts that were first proposed.

In the end none of the serious cuts were implemented: Brewer Pool remains open as does the Sunnyside Branch and the open air rinks will be around this coming winter. Just as importantly, long-term changes in how the City develops its budgets were put in place after the budget chaos to ensure in-depth consultations with communities on budget priorities and proposals for reductions. While it is early days to judge the reforms, and they will critically depend on our engagement and commitment, they are steps in the right direction. Similarly, the Ottawa Public Library Board also seems to have changed its view about closures of City centre libraries. The latest service delivery strategy being put out by the OPL for public consultation envisages no branch closures and an expansion in the size of branches to accommodate more programming - precisely the kind of approach the community had been advocating. Indeed, Sunnyside will likely soon see some of these changes. With the transfer of programs such as the bookmobile to the new South District Library there will be an opportunity to develop some useful programming space at Sunnyside Branch, space which will benefit from the over $9,000 that was just raised at a book sale organized by the Friends of Sunnyside Library.

The experience of the 2004 budget process though does raise some fundamental questions about the commitment of the City and other public institutions, to its older neighbourhoods. Part of the problem is historical and results from a consistent failure to invest in and maintain existing facilities. Brewer Pool, and of course the Firehall, are classic examples of this problem where buildings slowly start to fail when they don’t get the kind of lifecycle investment necessary to keep them serviceable. Then at some point when the needed repairs reach a critical mass and require urgent attention there are no funds for the huge backlog of work required and officials then start talking about phasing out facilities. We saw this happening with St. Margaret Mary School and Brewer Pool and will, if we are not careful, have to face the same issue with the Firehall. This is one of the reasons why the Board has been constantly lobbying the City for improvements and repairs to the building and this year we had some success in that the City did replace all the main windows in the building and installed new flooring in a number of the rooms.

The other part of the problem is the ingrained thinking at the City which believes that bigger is better when it comes to social and community infrastructure. Their view of community centres is that they should ideally service catchment areas of 25,000 to 50,000 people, where it is expected that people will drive for up to a half an hour to get to their nearest facility. Such large recreational facilities would have a community centre and perhaps a library integrated in them. While this kind of vision is understandable when considering service provision in suburban areas that are in the process of being developed, it does not work well in densely developed older areas where the land for this kind of development is not available and investment in facilities, admittedly spread out over a number of locations, already exists. It also means that service delivery is designed not for smaller neighbourhoods and communities, but for large artificial boundaries where the needs and interests of residents may be very different and where developing targeted and responsive programming is much more difficult.

Which brings us to the renovation of the Firehall. I believe that it is time that we make a concerted effort over the next year to seek a City commitment to its renovation and expansion. The timing is good. There are no comparable projects in the city core right now and we have a councillor who is committed to seeing it renovated. Certainly the experience of the Glebe Centre renovation also shows that with some creative design flair older facilities can be very effectively readapted to new community needs and can provide an efficient platform for program delivery. This spring we will likely pass the $100,000 mark in our fund raising. This is a symbolically important benchmark and demonstrates very clearly the community’s commitment to the project. Finally, I believe we have a basically very sound and financially responsible proposal, that will result in a 50% increase in usable program space, up from about 5,000 sq. ft. to 8,000 sq.ft. Just as importantly, the expansion will allow us to reconfigure the existing space in the Firehall in such a way that will allow us to make better use of it. For example, by building an addition to the side of the building we will be able to expand the main hall with potentially a sprung floor, enlarge the kitchen so it could be used for catering and cooking classes, add showers and changing rooms and create a court yard play area. The cost for the renovation and addition 5 five years ago was estimated at about $850,000. Even allowing for inflation and cost overruns that are inevitable in projects such at this, this is an excellent value for money proposition which I think, with some dedicated lobbying and a good business case, can be sold to the City. We certainly have the programming demand, and quite frankly our growing community deserves a better equipped facility.

But community infrastructure is not the only challenge we face. The two other perennial issues Old Ottawa South must deal with - traffic and development - occupied a lot of OSCA’s time and attention this year. With development continuing to expand in the south end of the City and the fact that three of the major north-south thoroughfares, Bronson, Bank and Main either border on, or go through, our community means that we will be facing all sorts of problems with growing volumes and cut through traffic. Bronson is already a disaster; when it is not chocked with traffic, it is a mini version of the Queensway with drivers routinely driving at close to expressway speeds. Pedestrian crossings at both Brewer Park and Sunnyside are now a truly frightening experience and Bronson has effectively become a wall at our western edge. While the redesign of Bank Street seems to be working and has made the intersections safer, the volume of cut through traffic especially along Riverdale and Sunnyside is a growing issue. While the City has finally indicated it is going to start setting priorities for traffic calming studies, and while we have proposals in the hopper, we will have to remain vigilant on this score and keep up our lobbying efforts to get these studies done. We may also want to give some consideration next year to creating a separate traffic committee to deal with what is becoming a more complex problem facing all residents, but especially those on or near Riverdale and Sunnyside.

Development issues have also loomed large this year. The controversy over the continuing intensification of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons site, especially its proposal for more parking is an example of the challenges we will face as development intensifies throughout the neighbourhood. The re-zoning of Bank Street has only just been implemented, but with the redevelopment of the street, making it a more attractive place to locate a business, there seems to be an increased interest in infill development which could increase both the number of people living on the street and the variety of businesses who might locate there. We will have to be on our toes to make sure that whatever developments occur comply with the new zoning and bring the development benefits we are looking for as a community.

Perhaps no other issue better symbolizes the challenges of getting community benefits from intensification and smart growth than the continuing question of the future of the 88 Bellwood site. We are faced with a difficult issue as a community with the potential loss of the last significant parcel of institutionally zoned land in Old Ottawa South. If the rezoning goes through and the residential development planned for the property takes place, we will have lost a very valuable piece of public space that could be used as a school or other key piece of social infrastructure. Quite how this issue will play out is uncertain at present, but it is certainly clear that there is a large constituency in the community who wishes to keep the property in public hands. As you may know, OSWWATCH is holding a public meeting on the issue on November 10 and the new OSCA Board will take a public stand on the issue at its first meeting on November 16. Board members, both new and old will have to make their minds up on the issue.

Finally, I did want to focus on the important work that the Program Committee has been doing this year. As you know, OSCA runs a sizable program effort with over 3,000 registrants a year. We have managed to deliver our programs at low cost and on a break even basis. Given the large sums of money involved, achieving this balance is no mean feat and the members of the committee are to be congratulated on their work. Nevertheless, we are facing a number of challenges on community programming: one of the most difficult is keeping our programs responsive to community needs when facilities, such as the Firehall, are in need of renovation and lack the needed space. A particular challenge for us this year will be the outcome of the City’s deliberations on whether to continue financially assisting us in obtaining gym space at Hopewell Public School. Without this help, we are faced with the unpleasant prospect of either increasing the cost of programs involving the gym, or cancelling them.

In closing this annual report, I also wanted to take the opportunity to thank all the Board members for their hard work over the year. Being a Board member involves not just attending monthly meeting, but often many other duties such as working on committees, helping out at community events, assisting with program registration, fund raising and dealing with city officials on issues of importance to the community. In particular I would like to thank the Board members who are retiring thing year, John Hobbs, Hans Ruprecht, Marcia McAlpin, Jennifer McKnight, Don Cummer, Catherine Thurm, John Graham, and Glenn Drover. I would like to especially thank John Graham who has served for a number of years on the Board, and for two years served as our President. John has chaired the Firehall Redevelopment Committee during a period of very successful fundraising and thankfully will continue in that role for the coming year. Last, but not least, I would like to thank our Executive Director, Deirdre McQuillan for her dedication and hard work all year, and for helping to make sure that we had a smooth running organization.

It has been an honour to serve as your President this year.

Respectfully submitted,

Michael Jenkin