by Jack Hanna
Volunteers flood in
When the Centretown Community Association sent out a call for volunteers to help during the COVID-19 crisis, people responded. There were more than 200 names on the CCA’s volunteers list by early April.
“The response is heartening,” said Shawn Barber, CCA president. “People in Centretown and across the city are rising to the challenge of COVID-19.”
The Centretown Community Association has started a service to match a person needing assistance during the COVID-19 crisis—for instance, to pick up groceries—with a volunteer.
The CCA started the Centretown Support Network (CSN), after hearing from seniors, shut-ins, and single parents who could use help with deliveries and other challenges.
The service covers all of Centretown—from the Canal to Bronson and from the river as far south as the Queensway.
The CSN can make deliveries of groceries and pharmaceuticals, walk a dog, or provide other assistance.
Some problems the volunteers cannot themselves address—for instance, a landlord increasing the rent—but the CSN has a list of community resources and may be able to direct the individual to the right organization or individual to take action.
If you would like to be put in touch with a CSN volunteer, you have two options, phone 613-518-3908 or email support@centretowncitizens.ca. (If you phone, you will hear a recorded greeting. Leave your name, number and a brief message. A CSN person will call you within 24 hours.)
The support network makes use of a big list of Centretown volunteers wanting to help out during the crisis.
The community association has been directing volunteers to various organizations providing assistance during the crisis. Centretown people are helping to pack and deliver dinners and grocery boxes for food programs, and to sew protective gowns to be worn by frontline workers.
The support network is another way for Centretowners to be neighbourly as we all face the global challenge of COVID-19.
Knox: Free hot dinners
During the COVID-19 crisis, the folks at Knox realize the need is greater still, and increased the frequency of their hot take-out meals. In early April, Knox was providing meals twice a week to about 150 people and aiming to go to three times a week. Volunteers from the CCA’s list help administer the expanded program, and pack meals, greet guests, and hand out dinners.
Operation Ramzieh: Groceries for the vulnerable
When The Waverley on Elgin had to close, the owner and staff decided to help out by providing groceries to the elderly and other vulnerable folks.
Waverley owner Abbis Mahmoud made the first big donation—and named the operation after his mother.
The operation has already distributed more than 14,600 boxes and expanded to Toronto, operating out of a restaurant there. CCA volunteers pack and distribute grocery boxes.
We all need a toilet
The CCA recently wrote to the mayor and to Councillor Catherine McKenney outlining one problem COVID-19 is causing for people living on the streets: lost access to washrooms. City Hall, community centres, the public library, and coffee shops—all are closed, and there are no washrooms in the core available to those living on the street.
The CCA proposed that the city open a section of the ground floor of City Hall, so people can get to the washrooms, and that the city locate porta-potties around the city’s core, and maintain and disinfect them frequently. McKenney responded that they are trying to get the city to open community-centre washrooms and deploy porta-potties.
To sprawl or not to sprawl
City Council is wrestling with whether Ottawa’s boundary for housing subdivisions should expand—to permit greater urban sprawl.
The impending decision on sprawl versus intensification will underpin Ottawa’s new Official Plan governing the city’s future to 2046.
Allowing the city to sprawl exacerbates climate change. It works against affordable housing and a walkable city. And it is costly; taxes go up to pay for more roads, water and sewer systems, community centres and other city infrastructure, and longer and less efficient transit routes.
A key vote is scheduled for May 11, at a special meeting of the city’s Planning Committee and Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee. If you want to tell Mayor Jim Watson or Councillor McKenney your concerns about this issue, now’s a good time.