By Liz Bernstein
The urban revolution came to Ottawa in April, as over 1300 people packed the Aberdeen Pavilion at Lansdowne Park to hear former New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan talk about how to make cities safer and more livable.
Sadik-Khan was in Ottawa as part of her “Streetfight: A Handbook for an Urban Revolution” book launch tour. According to Sadik-Khan, the New York experience shows that new complete street plans can be implemented quickly and inexpensively. “All it takes is some paint to transform a street.” Because the measures are easy to implement, she encouraged the City of Ottawa to experiment.
The round of applause and the cheers that erupted when Sadik-Khan ended her talk with an image of York Street in the ByWard Market reimagined as a car-free plaza gives a clear sign that it’s time to build the city that Ottawa residents want.
During her tenure as Transportation Commissioner, Sadik-Khan didn’t just re-image New York City – she implemented a plan that saw people-focused streets with the building of nearly 400 miles of bike lanes and creating more than 60 plazas citywide, including the transformation of Times Square.
Credit: Photo by Roger Lalonde, City of Ottawa
“The massive turnout for the Streetfight event clearly shows that there is an appetite for this kind of urban revolution here in Ottawa,” said Graham Saul, Executive Director of Ecology Ottawa. “Ottawa has the plan to re-image and re-design its streets, what is needed now is funding from all levels of government to implement it.”
The timing of the Sadik-Khan visit coincided with the City of Ottawa’s tabling of the ByWard Market Restoration Plan. The plan, which was unanimously approved by City Council just weeks after the visit, envisions a more pedestrian and bike-friendly ByWard market, where plazas replace parking lots and streetscapes invite people to stay and enjoy the local, fresh produce stands, have a meal on a patio, or just people-watch on a bench.
At a press conference in the ByWard Market, Sadik-Khan called on Ottawa to do for the ByWard Market what New York did for Time Square. She also said that redesigning the Market with all users in mind – not just cars – is good for business because “cars don’t shop, people do”.
Joining Sadik-Khan at the press conference were Ecology Ottawa’s Executive Director Graham Saul, Ottawa’s Mayor Jim Watson, Attorney General of Ontario and MPP for Ottawa-Vanier Madeleine Meilleur and Minister of Environment and MP for Ottawa Centre Catherine McKenna.
All three levels of government (city, provincial and federal) heard the call to accelerate the implementation of Ottawa’s complete streets and ByWard Market restoration plan, and for the City to ask for increased funding from both federal and provincial governments to build pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.
Sadik-Khan’s day in Ottawa also included a meeting with City staff, before heading out on a bike tour of Ottawa co-ordinated by Citizens for Safe Cycling: Bike Ottawa and Sandy Hill Community Health Centre.
Before leaving Ottawa, Sadik-Khan reminded us that “the public domain is the public’s domain” and that we must move from imagining the city we want to actually building it – we can transform our city and it can happen now.