More on the Proshine carwash development

We now have the official invitation that was delivered only to people who live in direct proximity to the development.

Meeting – Dec 15, 2009

I disagree with this because the traffic issues will not be addressed. In the past three years we’ve seen a lot of development in this area, including the Piccadilly, St. Georges Yard, now the Wellington at Island Park is for sale, and 101 Richmond has started construction. The addition of another condo that will funnel traffic to the Piccadilly/Carleton/Wellington intersection is going to cause havoc.

The Metro parking lot has two entrances onto Carleton, and the Wellington at Island Park will also have its main parking entrance in the same corridor. At to that another condo with a rear entrance putting people on to Carleton, and I hate to think how difficult it will be for all the cyclists who use Piccadilly, then Carleton to get to the River bike path.

So I’ll be attending if only to raise traffic / cycling safety issues.

Snoopin around the hood

So it looks like the Wellington at Island Park is nearly ready to open. We noticed some lights on a few nights ago and stared while workers seemed to put the finishing touches on the showroom. They’ve also improved the signage on the building and on the parking lot sign.

What NosyNeighbour saw when he looked in

New signage in the parking lot

Three options to choose from

Possibilities for your floor plan include the Warren, the Caroline and the Julian, with the largest being the Julian at about 2300 sq. ft., if I remember correctly. I only had the blackberry for taking photos, so the quality isn’t great, but it is better than the cell phone.

Hope the Istanbouli is around for a while. I know there’s another location, but it’s just sooooo convenient at that location.

Timbit was invited to the preview for invited guests.

Neighbourhood this and that

After two fires, GT Boutique will be re-opening this Saturday November 28.   This from the Wellington West Business Improvement Area:

Giant Tiger Open for Business This Saturday!
Event Date: November 28, 2009
Event Time: 9:00 am to 6:00 pm
Location: 1085 Wellington St W

Like a Phoenix raising a second time from the ashes, you cannot keep GT Xpress down! Despite recent difficulties, they’re back, better than ever, ready to reopen thei r doors and begin serving the community again. Open daily as always, Giant Tiger will be back to regular hours this coming Saturday:

Monday to Friday — 9:00am – 9:00pm
Saturday to Sunday — 9:00am – 6:00pm

Please stop by to welcome back John and his staff. They’ve had to deal with a lot, including this summer’s road reconstruction! Congratulations on the reopening!

Will have to check it out and see if the tiger shows up like last time.

 

 

Ottawa Mission – 199 Holland building

This from the Wellington West Business Improvement Area:

Community Meeting
Event Date: November 17, 2009
Event Time: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Location: Fisher Park School Cafeteria
Re: 199 Holland Avenue/Ottawa Mission community meeting

A community meeting has been requested by the Ottawa Mission to discuss its new housing initiative at 199 Holland Ave (at Byron).
The meeting will take place on Tuesday November 17, 2009 from 7:00-8:30 PM at Fisher Park School in the cafeteria (Holland at the Queensway).
The Ottawa Mission has purchased the building at 199 Holland Avenue. The property will be managed by District Realty and operated by a separate Board of Directors under the name “Holland Properties Association.

The Association will move people into the building who have come through programs at the Mission and are working or job ready.  Residents will be moved in as existing tenants leave.  The building is expected to house a mix of tenants some of whom will pay market rent while others will require a rent subsidy.  The objective is to bring this mix to a 50/50 split.

The meeting will be chaired by Councillor Christine Leadman.

And another blogger’s perspective on the proposed housing arrangement. It’s not statistical, but nobody cares about statistics when you personally live through a bad experience.

Ridge Road hike in the snow

It’s our standard “quick, we need to hike” kind of hike because it’s close to the city and well maintained. There can be mud, but it’s the pitch that keeps us going back.

When our hiking season first starts, this hike is filled with “water breaks” after each steep climb. Given the lower temperature and what we hoped were hiking legs we figured we could do it quickly today without water.

Thankfully we did think to bring our poles. These were essential when we realized that yesterday’s city snow had actually accumulated in the Park.

We’d only brought the cell phone, so the pics aren’t the greatest, but they do prove that we did see snow today!

Gozzygirl posing (aka resting) for a pic after a steep climb

Wow, can’t believe there’s snow!

Gozzygirl at the top of a climb

Gozzygirl under a snowy tree

Gozzygirl tries to make it snow on herself

Nosyneighbour starts another ascent.

Nosyneighbour being goofy.

The view from the bench at the turnaround point. Snow here … no snow down there.

Another condo in the hood

Well the sales office must be opening soon because the India Food Centre sign is gone from the building and the road sign now has been replaced by a large picture of what the condo tower will look like and a web site that doesn’t seem to be working yet: www.thewellingtonatislandpark.com.

Will try to grab the camera tomorrow for a few pics and retry the site.  Theberge Homes is the developer. More to come …

Neighbourhood gossip – October 2009

Started this morning without coffee because we’d run out and forgotten to drop by Bridgehead to pick up more. As a result, we stopped by on our cycle ride home from work.  I stayed out by the bikes while Nosyneighbour went it to buy coffee.

Standing there I noticed that the Linden Tree across the street has a large sub-lease sign in its window and the Cambridge gallery beside it has a new sign on its store front. Riding slowly down Wellington, I also noticed Petit Bill’s patio has been dismantled for the winter — yes the “w” word — and that Irpinia kitchens has its sign up with a note in the window … opening soon.

I also forgot to mention that the DQ/Orange Julius has opened in Westboro, where the Westboro Market existed for a short period of time. I’m sure the DQ won’t have a hard time surviving. Who doesn’t like icecream?

So … no coffee in the morning leads to neighbourhood gossip by the afternoon.

Ridge Road Hike

Because we’re both still recuperating from colds, today’s hike was a short one. We’d also walked back from Landsdowne Park last night so didn’t feel the need to go too far.

We started off by Old Chelsea at the bottom of Ridge Road and hiked up to the lookout where the trail turns a sharp right and links up with the Skyline Trail. There and back in and an hour and 10 minutes.

On the way back down we saw lots of leafers. One of them, clearly having started at Penguin and just beginning his first climb, even asked if there was a Tim’s nearby. Buddy, have another donut! But I suppose at least he was making an effort.

So, it was a quick up and down, with not many leaves left on the trees. Fall is definitely upon us.

Neighbourhood Developments – Fall 2009

I’ve been meaning to post about the sales office opening up on Wellington at Carleton, beside the Istanbouli. Rumour has it that CVL bought the property from Tamarack, but is having Theberge Homes build and sell the condo. All the zoning and plans were approved but have since been taken down from the city’s site. Must remember to save the files next time.  The sales office is going in where the Indian Food Centre used to be. It looks like they may be including a model floor plan. The sales office should be open in mid-November. It will be sad to see the Istanbouli go.

Uniform Developments St. George’s Yard continues to progress every day. The model home opens tomorrow (so check back for some pics in the near future).  I wonder if our new neighbours will be as friendly as the existing ones. Or will they see our houses as the “welfare” side of the road, just like the houses on the other side of Byron look down their noses at us.

Update following the open house: Have to say I’m disappointed in the quality of workmanship. If you go to the model home, try to open the corner base cabinet in the kitchen. It’s the one beside the stove. I was curious to see if there was a lazy susan. Guess what? It doesn’t open at all because the stove sticks out too much. There were already scratches on the cabinetry too. The rooms are small, and the dining room is in an odd spot.  And there is no powder room in the basement either.

Glad I’m not the one paying $650K.

Wolf Trail … finally

It had been closed for “rehabilitation” according to the NCC, so we’d been putting off a hike around one of the best trails to see the fall colours. Given that it was Thanksgiving weekend, an early start was a must, so we set off at 8:30, and were at the start by 9:05.

Three cars had beaten us to the parking lot, so we guessed either the trail still hadn’t reopened or that most people were still lying in bed. The air was really crisp this morning. The frost warning chime came on in the Mini as we approached Meech Lake. Glad we had thought to bring gloves at the last minute.