Wellington Oracle

“You’ve got to get out and walk” was the famous advice of the greatest writer on urban space of the 20th century. The late Jane Jacobs issued that reproof to the car-besotted planners of garden suburbs and “urban renewalists” of the the 1950s, and nowhere has her advice proved more sound than in Ottawa’s greatest bastion against ill-conceived urban clearances — historic Hintonburg.

Residents know the rewards our wonderfully diverse neighbourhood holds for pedestrians around each and every corner. To share the experience with walkers from across Ottawa and beyond, Linda Hoad and Paulette Dozois will lead an interpretive  “Jane’s Walk” through the heart of the district this upcoming weekend. Linda and Paulette are-long time Hintonburg enthusiasts with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the area’s history.

The walk will take place on Sunday, May 3, 2009  beginning at 2 PM. It musters at St. François d’Assise Church 1064 Wellington St. at Fairmont, and will last about 90 minutes.

The biggest facelift Hintonburg has seen in decades began today with the narrowing of Wellington Street to a one-way eastbound lane of traffic, from Parkdale to Garland.

Despite the inconvenience local residents and merchants are looking forward to the improvements the road reconstruction will bring, especially given the new appearance of the stretch from Parkdale to Western completed last summer.

Should any reader not remember the activity on the street last summer, a glance at the photostream from local photograher J.M Greizis will be a great reminder of what is to come along the eastern stretch in this upcoming constuction season.

The Wellington West Business Improvement Area is naturally eager to reassure residents that it remains “business as usual” along the street, and has the following  details to share about what the work will mean for traffic and access during the construction: (more…)

By Debra Huron

With two-thirds of the planet covered in water, CUBE gallery owner Don Monet figured that a celebration of H20 was a good way to mark Earth Day 2009.

About 90 people ventured into the gallery on April 22 to view CUBE’s current water-themed exhibition, taste some wine supplied by Hemispheres Wine Guild, and learn about the work of Ottawa’s Riverkeeper.

The Ottawa Riverkeeper is both a citizen-Meredith Brown-and a citizen-based group with three staff and offices on Danforth Ave. just south of Richmond Road in Westboro. As Executive Director and Riverkeeper since 2004, Meredith explained that her group is part of a global alliance of 185 waterkeepers. Check the video link above for a short interview with Meredith.

More than 200 municipalities line the 1,200 kilometers of the Ottawa River. Community groups in Ottawa are set to clean up sections of the river in the Champlain Park neighbourhood and near Westboro Beach the weekend of April 25-26.

Fresh from cleaning up at the Rideau Awards, Third Wall Theatre’s  co-Artistic Associates James Richardson and Charles McFarland were at the Irving Greenberg this past week to launch their mainstage production of Shakespeare’s Henry V.

In the audio below, we join Oracle theatre correspondent Lesley Buxton as she gets the dramatists to talk about the challenge of producing a play about war in a time of war. In a short but wide-ranging interview they also discuss their mandate to mentor young casts, talk about what it takes for a play to be called a masterpiece, and reveal their favourite plays of all time. As well, listen for Charles’ (the one, as he says “with the English accent”) preview of their ambitious 2009-2010 season.

Check here for more about the Irving Greenberg’s  innovative “associate company”.

 

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Review by Michelle Desbarats

“The Net” is the sixth and final play of the GCTC “Stages” season at the Irving Greenberg. Written in French by Marcel-Romain Thériault and translated by Maureen Labonté and Don Hannah, this production is the world premiere of the English translation.

The setting is the interior of a home in New Brunswick. The characters are three generations of an Acadian family. Anthime is the aging grandfather. Leo is his second born son. Etienne is the son of Anthime’s firstborn deceased son.

Before the characters arrive, the set waits, almost like an unknown character itself. Unformed as yet by any story, the living room, dining room and small kitchen are quiet. One can imagine meals being cooked and eaten. A framed photograph of a woman rests on the kitchen counter. A sofa offers a place to sit. There is a maritime feeling of a family that, for generations, has earned a living from the sea. There is an aura of tradition, of expected continuance. (more…)

Longtime west-end resident Howard Deisenberger had a sixty-year old memory jogged when he came across our story about the Uth Ink installation at the corner of Wellington and Rosemount.

Harold remembered an old photo, seen here, of a tailor shop his father had in the Iona Mansions around the year 1950. As well as the frontage pictured here Mr. Deisenberger has also provided scans of the interior and another of two smartly dressed men  – the one on the right is Howard’s late grandfather –in their 1950’s garb enjoying the sun in front of the shop.

The young Howard was a Sims Street resident until 1953 when his family moved to Picadilly off of Richmond Road.

The Oracle was invited to view a new business  last week. It’s a virtual chocolate shop based from the KMP condos on Spencer and it is the brainchild of John and Lori Sword who supply businesses and a private clientele with hand-crafted chocolates using fresh ingredients sourced in the neighbourhood.

Any notion that chocolate making is a messy business, as it is whenever we try to do so much as ice a birthday cake, was quickly dispelled with a tour through the spotless koko kitchen. Click on the image to see more photos of the inner workings of a modern chocolate operation.

Check the audio link below to hear John take us through the koko business ethos.

 

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If you are a Hintonburg resident that enjoys posting to Flickr you are in good company; checking the Hintonburg tag on Flickr today we found 948 images; enough for 20 pages or more of thumbnail viewing.

Some themes emerge; the road reconstruction last summer was a major source of inspiration, as is the Parkdale Market, especially in flower season. It’s no surprise that many are focused on the fascinating old stretch of Wellington between Parkdale and the O-Train (of course, from beyond our borders a few snide uploaders like to dwell on hurtful stereotypes about our diverse district, but we are used to ignoring the ill-informed). (more…)

That’s the claim made about our neighbourhood by GCTC artistic director Lise Ann Johnson as she speaks to Oracle theatre reviewer Lesley Buxton who was in the house for GCTC’s 2009-2010 launch on Monday.

She gives an insider’s view to the working relationships that have been forged between the 35-year old company and the other smaller companies that have begun to perform in the west end since GCTC moved to its new home at Wellington and Holland.

Johnson is a local resident, and  living and working in the same small patch of Ottawa makes for some up-close and personal interaction; listen as fellow Hintonburger Buxton probes on what it is like to be the topic of your neighbour’s conversation!

 

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Two causes in fact, because this year’s scrabble tournament  at St. Matthias church on Parkdale was a combined fundraising event for multiple sclerosis and diabetes. Organizer Pamela Hunter is a veteran fundraiser for good causes and she gives us the background to this unique event in the accompanying audio.

Click on the image to see a slideshow of the afternoon’s proceedings including the door prize draw, as it happened.

 

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