Ottawa has been steadily losing green space for more than 25 years. Development decisions have steadily downgraded green space in favour of everything else.
This website is predicated on the belief that green space is necessary infrastructure for a city and that it must be prioritized in the same way that transportation or waterworks are.
- People need to see trees wherever they go in a city
- The ground needs to be soft in more area and able to absorb excess water and cushion our bodies
- Some natural processes must be visible to engage our interest
- We need cool shade on a hot day
The projects described on this website came about when I confronted the reality that our politicians had given a central part of Ottawa’s green heart to The Ottawa Hospital for the New Civic Development.
The section west of Prince of Wales between Dow’s Lake/Commissioner’s Park and The Ornamental Gardens of The Farm, a heavily treed (more later) park area of 53 acres, would become a health industrial campus with twelve story and higher buildings and large parking lots.
Having been aware of other green infrastructure loses I saw this as the ultimate loss and hoped that it could be made a rallying cry that could reverse this process.
