By Jeff Darwin
Thank you very much for your continued support of Marchés d’Ottawa Markets’ “public goals for public spaces”. I am privileged to be tasked with leading the revitalization of Ottawa’s “oldest and only” public markets (ByWard was established in 1826 and Parkdale was established in 1924). You may not be aware that the other eighteen seasonal, weekly markets in Ottawa are privately owned. Many of these do a pretty good job, and we will continue to borrow their best “placemaking” ideas to use in your two public markets.
Opening the dialogue on possible public realm improvements in Lowertown, and disrupting the status quo thinking of the (occasionally) self-serving commercial establishment has been challenging, but entirely worth it for Lowertown in my view. One necessary change that has proven popular is Marchés d’Ottawa Markets new daytime activations that have brought families back to the ByWard Market Precinct.
Inviting local daycare and primary school children to ring the market bell, welcoming local families onto ByWard Market Square to build with LEGO or to watch a kid’s movie, and recently helping the children decorate free Jack O’Lanterns for Halloween on the George Street Plaza have been true “free family fun” highlights for us this year. We can’t wait to unwrap some new daytime activities and attractions for the holiday season and for Winterlude.
In keeping things family friendly, you should know that Marchés d’Ottawa Markets was approached by a local greenhouse operator for a 2019 vending permit to sell five-inch cannabis seedlings in “four-packs” for home cultivation. We have declined, and we are currently developing policies and procedures that will ensure that your public markets do not become drawn into something our community may not fully support at this time. Similarly, we have proactively banned all smoking on the George Street Plaza.
To help show our children where their food comes from, we have recently contracted with an “urban beekeeper” to show us how we can bring back honey bees to the ByWard Market and produce our own local, raw, unpasteurized honey for demonstration and education purposes in 2019. How local you say? Well, we’re hoping to foster our first bee hives right here on the roof of 55 ByWard Market Square.
With the 2018 election now behind us, I think it is incumbent on all of us to hold our elected municipal officials – from across the City of Ottawa – to account for Lowertown’s current reputation. In my opinion the status quo simply isn’t good enough for the residents of Lowertown. The reason we now require city-wide support, is because I feel that the most appropriate response is for Council to openly declare Lowertown a “term of council priority” for the next four years.
You have already invested your tax dollars in Little Italy, Westboro and the Glebe (over $400 million of taxpayer’s money went into Landsdowne), and we’re investing now on Elgin and Sparks streets, Lebreton Flats and of course billions for LRT, so I think its high time that we address the very neighbourhood where Ottawa began – and the world still comes to visit. It’s Lowertown’s turn.