It's Cool to be a Public Square

Rollers have room in Rome

Though Ottawa is fortunate to have the public parks and pathways it does, open spaces in our city are otherwise few and far between. Blank spaces downtown are often parking lots before a big condo or office building goes in, occupying the entire lot. In this way, we give our cities a more closed-off feeling as the pedestrian loses light and sky.

There may be a temptation to see empty space as wasted space or “undeveloped” land, but this depends on the nature of the emptiness. It is a waste if you have a plot of fenced off garbage, no contest. But I think we would see a good return in Ottawa if some empty space could remain for events and performances, and general use by our citizens.

My suspicion is emptiness in an urban setting fails to receive the credit it deserves because we haven’t had much experience with it. Aside from the Buskerfest and Canada Day performances, there are few occasions for the pedestrian to stumble upon any amusement on the streets of Ottawa aside from the weekend bar crowd at schwarma time.

That is some fresh meat. Too fresh for our modern sensibilities?The old cities we find so quaint in other parts of the world usually have these empty spaces built in as leftovers from the traditional open-air markets. Ottawa retains a shadow of its former marketplace as much of it has been ceded sadly to for-pay parking. Situations like this pose a challenge to building space back into the modern city, but in theory at least, it is possible.

Grote Markt, Leuven, Belgium. Photo credit: PitsLamp photography

When traveling in Europe, I enjoyed walking around a corner to discover a public square with something happening in it. Sometimes it was an exhibition, sometimes there were musicians, one time there was a giant birdcage built for an acrobatic performance. Interesting events that citizens can serendipitously walk into contribute to a feeling of fun in a city—a feeling that things “actually happen” there.  

In this light, I’ve been thinking about how we can create this public square within our existing infrastructure; we could make good use of parking lots off peak hours and have some trial-run “market days” around the city, combining local produce vending with community events and perhaps performances or exhibitions.

It doesn’t have to be complicated and it doesn’t have to be expensive, it just has to be something different that people can get excited about.

Paris, by the Pompidou

I've never been there, but check it out. It is a huge market near Odessa, Ukraine constructed mostly of shipping containers.

Comments

[Ryan Moore]

Nice post. Keeping our empty space is definitely a great idea. Ottawa has lost much of its greenspace over the last 20 years and land developers continue to push for more construction. Last week city council met with developers before the Ontario Municipal Board to discuss appeals made for an expansion of the urban boundary (the vicinity where residential and commercial development can take place). During this past election, Mayor Jim Watson campaigned to respect the urban boundary plan, and defended city council’s decision to uphold the agreement. The decision to uphold the city’s urban boundary plan was passed with 22 votes.