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HELLO OTTAWA

• It was OttawaRoadTrips.com. Laura Byrne Paquet sent out her newsletter yesterday morning and it had a kind mention of your ob't newsletter proprietors.
• Thank you Laura.
• Excluding the hundreds of new readers of the ottawan who already know about Ottawa Road Trips, may we suggest that you visit it and be inspired.
• Because new readers are still coming, we’ve asked Martha’s mom to put her choosin’ hat on hold for one more day. 
• Tell us how you heard about the ottawan and Martha’s mom will draw a name out of hat for the Ottawa Historic Logo T-Shirt of your choice. Or you can select an ottawan shirt. It doesn’t matter when you joined us, we’d like to hear why you did.
• And it is not an essay question – but many people wrote us long emails about what the ottawan means to them. To say we’re touched is too inadequate. Flabbergasted, maybe.
• Enter the draw at hello@theottawan.com
• 
  On the boards
• Here’s something about Darren: the man loves musicals. He can’t get enough of the jazz hands, the exaggerated dance moves, and the often over-the-top story lines.
• Hadestown, while technically a musical, has none of those things. That’s thanks to its contemporary retelling of several Greek myths, specifically those of Hermes, Persephone, Hades, Eurydice, and Orpheus, and the melodic and memorable tunes that the New Yorker called ‘soulful’. 
• Darren and Martha were invited to the show last night and enjoyed it immensely, even if the actors’ mics were turned up so loud that many of the lyrics were indecipherable.
• The set was one of those mostly static touring show scenes that doesn’t change much beyond the lighting, which is something that usually makes Martha’s heart sink (she likes to be wowed by scene changes). However, the tight and inventive choreography, a floor outfitted with a turnable, and a graceful staircase that led to a small balcony for upper level action, kept our attention from wandering at all.
• The cast and musicians (who are situated on stage and very much a part of the action) were all excellent, but J. Antonio Rodriguez, who plays Orpheus, needs special mention. The man has serious pipes, hitting all the sweet high notes and breaking hearts all over the theatre.
• Hadestown is playing until Sunday at the National Arts Centre.

– Martha & Darren

•  Vittoria Trattoria wants to return to ByWard Market but is having a hard time with permits. The restaurant closed four years ago after a fire. The business's Rivergate Way location remains open.
•  Peter Hum at the Ottawa Citizen says the two-month old Alora Restaurant and Bar’s hospitality ‘could perhaps be described as the classiest on Clarence Street’. He liked the food, too.
•  Indian cuisines, Kenyan food, perogies, vegan sweets, doughnuts, cotton candy and popcorns, and more are promised at Arnprior’s second annual Cultural Night Market this Saturday, 3:00 pm to 10:00 pm.
•  The Masters Indigenous Games’s Cultural Festival takes over the Lansdown Great Lawn from Friday August 25 through Sunday August 27. Watch traditional games and performances and enjoy food from a variety of vendors.

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HISTORIC LOGO SHIRTS

🚗 Queen Elizabeth Driveway

The tempest in a teapot over using the Queen Elizabeth Driveway for recreational uses during the summer continues.

•  The Ottawa Gatineau Hotel Association has issued a survey to ask residents – not tourists – about the use of the Driveway.  It asks about the impact on ‘Access to events at Lansdowne Park’ without mentioning that the Driveway is reopened during major Landsdowne events.  (Take the survey yourself)
•  Centretown Community Association guy Derek Simpson points out that only five months ago, the City published 16 policies in the Transportation Master Plan ‘that shows they support active use on the parkway’.
•  Luke LeBrun in Press Progress has found a war of emails between Kitchissippi resident Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and the National Capital Commission over the Driveway, with the Commission accusing the City of ‘methodological errors’.
  
  The same story shows that someone has placed traffic cameras on posts – with both the City and the Commission denying ownership. 
•  Monday’s editorial in the Globe & Mail says the Mayor is ‘too typical of past political leadership’ and asks him to support ‘vibrant pedestrian spaces, particularly waterfronts’.

🏗️ Experimental Farm

•  The tall development that was threatening to throw shade on the Experimental Farm has been pushed back – because no-one asked the Federal Government. The City’s Planning and Housing Committee rubber stamped the plan to build two towers of 16 and 27 storeys next to the Farm, despite complaints by scientists that it would block the sun on their agricultural experiments. However, City Council today discovered that neither Agriculture and Agrifood Canada nor the National Capital Commission had been given notice. The City’s Planning and Housing Committee will need to decide what to do. (Ottawa Citizen)

🏆 Ottawa Urban Design Awards

•  Nominations will be closing soon (September 1) for the 2023 Ottawa Urban Design Awards. Anyone who has contributed to Ottawa’s urban design landscape is eligible for nomination. This year’s categories are:
  
  ▪️ Urban Infill. Both categories, Low-rise (1-4 storey) and Mid-rise (5+ storey), are for buildings that introduce quality-built spaces into established neighbourhoods in ways that respect the community
  
  ▪️ Public Places and Civic Spaces: for spaces that enhance, extend and embellish the public realm
  
  ▪️ Urban Elements: for design elements that contribute to the unique character of the neighbourhood at a human scale
  
  ▪️  Student Projects: for theoretical or studio projects submitted by students
   
•  Vision and Master Plans: for an unbuilt vision of the city
  
  We love that last category. the ottawan plans to submit our vision of Ottawa complete with a monorail replacing the Queensway, streetcar tracks put back from where they were pulled up (Martha's mom likes that one, having utilized the city's streetcars frequently in her youth), the VIArail station moved back downtown, and the new Civic Hospital built on Tunney’s Pasture like Mother Nature intended. We assume that a submission built in Minecraft will be acceptable. (City of Ottawa)

🚧 Albert Street

•  Sewer work will close Albert Street, between Bay Street and Bronson Avenue this weekend. That stretch will be closed 6:00 am Friday until 2:30 pm Monday. (City of Ottawa) (Albert/Queen/Slater/Bronson reconstruction project)

🏙️ City Manager

•  Wendy Stephanson is the new City Manager for Ottawa. Stephanson had been doing the job on an interim basis since Steve Kanellakos resigned from the job last year, two days before the release of the Provincial report on the O Train. Kanellakos must have congratulated himself on his lucky timing as he was excoriated in the report. Ten candidates were interviewed before City council decided to stay in house. (CBC)

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THE OTTAWAN SHIRTS

If you ever wanted to know what a Clevelander thinks of Ottawa on her first visit, Laura Johnston of the Cleveland Plain Dealer dropped by recently. She loves the new National Capital Commission River House. She also learned how Parliamentary democracy works, which is nice.

We will see you tomorrow  – Martha and Darren
 

🗣️ Is there something that Ottawa should know about? Email to us at hello@theottawan.com. We read every single comment.

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