The May 2021 issue of The Centretown BUZZ, Centretown’s community newspaper, is out.
You can read it online here!
Read the May 2021 Centretown BUZZ
Category: May 2021
Illegal truck traffic shakes Booth Street homes
Residents of Booth Street near Primrose Avenue are frustrated by the frequent banging and shaking of their homes, caused by trucks – some travelling there illegally – hitting a nearby speed hump on Booth.
“He genuinely liked people”: co-workers remember Carl Reinboth
Alayne McGregor This is a slightly expanded version of the story that appeared in the printed version of the May BUZZ. Carl Reinboth was a harm reduction worker at the Somerset West Community Health Centre (SWCHC), working with addicts and…
1000-person meeting asks: when will elder care become human?
Patricia Marsden-Dole Councillor Catherine McKenney hosted 1000 guests on May 6 for a virtual meeting on long-term care (LTC). Only the week before, Ontario’s Long-Term Care Commission released a scathing report on the current state of LTC facilities in the…
Two wins for the arts in Centretown
Victoria Welland Two Centretown residents, Amanda Lowe Warnakulasuriya and Joyce Crago, received major awards from the Ottawa Arts Council (OAC) on April 22 at a virtual ceremony. Warnakulasuriya, a folk musician and community organizer, received the Emerging Artist Award, which…
Priced out of downtown?
Jack Hanna The housing crisis in Centretown is only getting worse. “I am shocked at the degree to which people are being priced out of living downtown,’’ MPP Joel Harden said at a workshop presented by the Centretown Community Association…
Heritage Skyline: Good manners – when infill doesn’t call attention to itself
Robert Smythe Will a third time be the charm for the empty lot at the corner of Bank and Florence Street? This tiny property has stood vacant for nearly 20 years. Successive proposals for mixed-use retail/residential developments have come and…
Cornerstone’s pandemic expansion houses 125 women, and counting
Mariam El-Behiry In the last three months, Cornerstone Housing for Women has moved to a temporary location on Booth Street. This will better serve the 125 women who have been affected by the pandemic and the colder weather. During the…
Somerset Ward: Now is not the time to cut transit
Catherine McKenney On April 21, the city’s Transit Commission considered an innocuous-sounding report titled, “Transit Service Evaluation Criteria.” I believe that the report creates a roadmap for slashing public transit in Ottawa by establishing a series of benchmarks which will…
Celebrating and managing the environment
Stephen Thirlwall There were no formal Earth Day celebrations in Dundonald Park in April for the second year in a row. Perhaps, before we hold any further festivities, we should ensure that we have undertaken meaningful steps toward cleaning up,…
A garden grows off Bronson
Pat Kelly Last year, one of the Bronson Centre’s courtyards was transformed into a flourishing raised bed vegetable garden. The garden was created by members of the centre’s Real Inclusion by Seniors Everywhere (RISE) program, a seniors-led initiative which addresses…
More trees = cleaner air, cooler summers
Darlene Pearson Ottawa’s urban forest is shrinking. It is natural to lose trees to age and disease, but new development projects inflict additional pressures and threaten the very existence of urban trees. To address this problem, the Centretown Community Association…
Catherine Boucher steps up as new Dalhousie Community Association president
Archie Campbell Catherine Boucher was elected president of the Dalhousie Community Association (DCA) on May 4 at the first board meeting following the recent DCA AGM (see last month’s BUZZ). She is a longstanding DCA executive member. Boucher is a…
Centretown Community Association report
Jack Hanna Woods in the hoods The CCA is launching a Neighbourwoods initiative. Volunteers will survey trees near where they live, creating a baseline description of the tree canopy in Centretown. They’ll also identify gaps where new trees might be…
The Good, the Bad, and the Bumpy: my experience getting the vaccine
Ryan Lythall On April 27, I received my first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. For the most part, everything went smoothly. However, there were a few hiccups, particularly affecting those with disabilities who are planning to get vaccinated at…
Planet of the Scapes: Seeking solace in pasta and bread
Ellen Chang-Richardson By now, you’d think the whole “work-from-home” thing would be easy routine. But what about for us A-type personalities, who find the slower pace of “work-from-home” a bit boring? Bake some bread, I say. And maybe make a…
MPP report: The opioid crisis is a public health, not a criminal justice, issue
Joel Harden On April 23rd, Carl Reinboth, a harm reduction worker at the Somerset West Community Health Centre, was tragically killed while walking to a local business. His death appears to be random. Before his death, Carl did not know or interact with…