Joshua Bertram

So many pedestrian and cyclist deaths this year in Ottawa. A CHILD was just killed in Overbrook by a dump truck driver. We need a more urgent and proactive cycling plan in Ottawa to prevent more tragedies. How much blood has to be spilt this year before we get a sense of urgency to be proactive.

We heard from many groups today about the Tewin development. This is unfortunately going to be a development that further entrenches us into unsustainable sprawl.

Property taxes have not and will not be able to provide long-term support for these types of developments. We have decades of evidence.

Urban highways are a sign of bad transportation design and a lack of imagination as to what that land can be used for instead.

Gentrification is a problem mainly because we upzone communities piecemeal instead of general upzoning/abolishing most zoning. No communities can be exempt from change.

Intensification and transit-oriented development are an existential imperative for North American cites, but who's thinking about the strip malls?! As it turns out, Toronto city planners are. Read my latest post here: kitchissippiward.ca/2025/07/18/t...

I’m reminded of how the city miss-used speed camera revenue on general expenses and police instead of spending it on road safety measures as they were supposed to. It is shameful for the city to claim it is too expensive to implement safer streets when they misuse funds allocated for it. Shameful.

Ottawa residents gather to honour pedestrian killed at Elgin and Laurier Ottawa residents are paying tribute to a 27-year-old woman who died Monday after being hit by a pickup truck at the intersection of Elgin Street and Laurier Avenue West.

Ottawa residents gather to honour pedestrian killed at Elgin and Laurier

It is ironic that we looking back to ammonia haha. A district cooling system could be tricky, since water probably could’t get cold enough to be effective, and it would require retrofitting many buildings but could be worth looking into!

Air conditioning is not as bad nowadays but the refrigerants you need to do the heat exchanging are greenhouse gasses and ozone depleters. It being electric is also only good if the grid is majority clean energy. It’s necessary in many places but no AC is definitely better for the environment.

It’s especially frustrating because the needs of those who live by and near the Market do not align with the wants of suburban residents. I doubt there will be much support for less cars in the market at those suburban consultations.

Ahh I see thats actually big brain

GTA traffic tends to add an 30-60min onto your trip.

It showed up on time for me but if you are headed to Toronto good luck 🫡

A map of Ottawa showing the small amount of 75 to 150 year old water and sewer pipe remaining in the old part of the city (180km), next to a map showing the 1800km of pipe laid down over the 1950s and 60s.

Today Ottawa City Council is set to pass $4 billion in spending on our water and sewer infrastructure. This is just 2/3 of the $6 billion identified as needed over the next decade, and a drop in the bucket compared to what's to come once we get to renewing suburban sprawl. 🧵

I am getting O-train flashbacks reading this jeez. Makes you wonder how on earth we ever plan to make rail good in Canada.

4 48 Busses all within spitting distance

Today there was crazy bunching.

In Ottawa its even more problematic. DC revenue goes to a general fund for a variety of city wide uses. A majority of it is used for road “improvements” and widenings in the suburbs. Not only do infill apartments pay more, but they forced to subsidize car infrastructure for suburbanites.

Hence why I dont support scrapping development charges completely. Any land use that will lose the city money over its lifespan should have to pay the difference in DCs. It would help encourage more infill development while discouraging unsustainable sprawl.

Let's Make a Better Bank Street - Strong Towns Ottawa The city is currently studying options for how to make Bank Street better, but none of their options seek to push the status quo that got us into the mess we're in.

This photo goes so damn hard it's not even funny.

The community support has been amazing, even among businesses.

If you live in Ottawa and ride the 6 or 7, please visit strongtownsottawa.ca/bank for more info on how to support. But the big two are emailing the PM, and counselor Menard.

Movie sign out front of the Mayfair that reads: support bus lanes on bank street Strongtownsottawa.ca

We’ve officially taken over the marquee at the Mayfair to promote bus Lanes on Bank Street!

Amazing how much community support we’ve had for better transit @strongtownsottawa.bsky.social

This letter expertly outlines a lot of the dissatisfaction and frustration with the new TMP. Centretown Community Association doing great work as usual!

Visiting Montreal for a conference and ended up walking around Griffintown to check it out. The scale of the urban redevelopment there is honestly astonishing! The amount of new apartments, street redesigns, and greenspace is shocking. It is giving gentrified but I am not sure how populated it was.

It is so limiting too. Are we surprised we created an exclusionary family unit, shipped all the wealthy/white people to the suburbs with white picket fences, and there is a loneliness epidemic (among so much else). Even putting all the countless equity issues aside, nuclear families limit happiness.

The notion that all housing units need to be built around a nuclear family is one of the most infuriating talking points regarding housing. The nuclear family isn’t even a traditionally mainstream family unit for most of history.

Totally agree the transit situation needs to be addressed to get the market to its full potential, but continuing to shape the Market around cars won’t fix that.

Great comments! It does boggle my mind how much of an emphasis we place on cars in one of the densest, tourist centred, and best transit served areas in the city. If anywhere would thrive with less cars, its the Market.

It's frustrating that many councilors work harder to mandate a place to house your car than to mandate a place to house our bodies. Scrapping parking minimums is the minimum when seriously addressing the housing crisis.

YouTube video by Ariel Troster Abolishing parking minimums is good policy

Parking minimums drive up the cost of housing and incentivize car ownership.

Abolishing parking minimums is good planning policy, and I am seriously concerned about attempts to dilute or eliminate this proposed policy in our new zoning bylaw.

youtu.be/3cw7mldYS4A?...

European Spa Company Therme Misrepresented Itself in an Effort to Expand Into Canada A Times investigation shows Therme, a European firm, exaggerated its track record in securing a deal with Ontario, and government auditors found that the process had been unfair and opaque.

The NYT just dropped a bombshell: a foreign spa company with one location and no cash landed a 95-year sweetheart deal—based on misleading claims and a secretive, preferential process.

This gov't was elected to protect Ontario. Do the right thing. Cancel the deal.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/w...

Too bad Elgin is more-so the exception rather than the norm in Ottawa.

Bonkers that the height limits are shorter inside the greenbelt, where ya know, density can be served better by transit…

Parking is one of the main barriers to increasing density, we need to densify areas where transit can be served successfully.