Random Acts of Urbanism

The campaign officially began on May 1. Evan writes the popular City of Ottawa Politics Substack and whenever we meet we seem to have a lot of things to talk about so I asked him to join me on a semi-regular video series dissecting the Ottawa municipal race.

In this first episode we discuss the big themes of the campaign so far. By which we mean mobility and artificially low taxes — we’ll certainly talk a lot more about the infrastructure deficit, fear not. Starting with my column in the Ottawa Citizen today.

We also touch on mayoral candidate Alex Lawson’s sweeping allegations of mild (my word) lobbying irregularities against Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, which he details on his website. It led to this comprehensive news story by the always excellent Arthur White-Crummey. I should point out that Sutcliffe is denying everything, as you expected he would.

I’m not a lobbying expert and I will leave it to others to parse the fine print. These allegations will not likely change anybody’s mind, but they are good to raise Lawson’s profile. And maybe it’s also good to shine a spotlight on current practices and ask ourselves whether we’re OK with them or whether we might want different rules for who gets to have the mayor show up at their event or who has lunch with his chief of staff.

As Evan puts it, Lawson is doing the kind of campaigning Jeff Leiper is studiously avoiding. It’s negative but not nasty; Leiper pledged to be positive. I’m not convinced positive campaigning works. Matter of fact, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t. Nasty doesn’t either — just look at Pierre Poilievre. But positive can easily be mistaken for meek, and nobody votes for that.

Anyhow, hope you enjoy this chat. Feedback welcome. Anything in particular you’d like us to discuss? Shoot me a line.

Get full access to Random Acts of Urbanism by Brigitte Pellerin at randomactsofurbanism.substack.com/subscribe

Big props to the always awesome CBC reporter Arthur White-Crummey for breaking this doozy of a story on Ādisōke being even more delayed and always more expensive. According to a report presented to the Finance and Corporate Services Committee (on the agenda for the June 2 meeting), the new library will require another $18.5 million in order to open at a date we can’t determine.

This was supposed to cost $175 million, to be split with the feds. Not an even split, as the new building is mostly Ottawa Public Library and only a little bit Library and Archives Canada. The feds were supposed to pay about $71 million and the city would pick up the rest.

By the time this is over, we’ll likely be popping $400 million.

A few months ago I said I wanted to get to the bottom of this story. I haven’t — yet. But I’ve been reading a s**t ton (that’s a technical measurement) of background material. I’ve now reached the end of 2015. A lot happened that year. I have a timeline of relevant milestones and documents that’s available online for anyone to play along. There’s a whole bunch of information in the post-2015 story I need to fill in. You’re welcome to send me tips and sources if you like. I’ll take all the help I can get.

But mostly, I want to force leaders to come out of hiding and talk to us about what the hell is going on. I’ve asked the mayor, some councillors and all declared candidates for mayor for their comments. I will share what I get.

I am beyond furious that even after the LRT debacle and the public inquiry that followed, here we are in the exact same kind of mess that will also require an inquiry after which we’ll say “never again” and not mean it.

I want to stop that.

Get full access to Random Acts of Urbanism by Brigitte Pellerin at randomactsofurbanism.substack.com/subscribe

This substack is devoted to urbanism and I am going to stretch this concept far enough to include in the definition what humans do with their natural habitat. It’s my substack, I make the rules. And in the video above we do talk about how humans have historically treated this natural beauty with the respect it deserves even as they built a playground for rich people in parts of it.

Also? We really need a break from [gestures widely] all of the things, and what better way to do that than to enjoy a lovely boat ride on fantastically beautiful lakes?

At 9 pm on April 20 on TVO you’ll be able to watch TRIPPING the Muskokas, an incredibly restful and gorgeous documentary about — you guessed it! — tripping three of the numerous Muskoka Lakes.

I got early access to the film and I can guarantee you it’s therapeutic. The way it’s filmed, with minimal dialogue and no narration, allows you to hear all the sounds you’d hear if you were right there in the boat. It is purposefully slow, with very few cutaways. It is meant to be immersive and relaxing. The exact opposite of TikTok.

I’ll let you find out more about the film from the interview I did with Mitch Azaria, the series’ executive producer. I asked him where he’d gotten the idea of making such slow and soothing films and you’ll find more information here about the Norwegian “slow TV” trend he mentions.

I did not know the first in the Tripping series was about the Rideau Canal. I shall have a word with my research department. I guess I’ll just have to make up for lost time by watching this one twice.

La série TRIPPING est en anglais, pour une chaîne de télévision anglophone, et pourtant on peut savourer ces documentaires hors du commun justement parce qu’il n’y a aucune narration et des dialogues ma foi très minimes.

Le clou du spectacle, c’est la nature. Dans le cas du prochain épisode de la série, qui sera diffusé à 21h le 20 avril sur TVO, trois lacs de la région Muskoka, au nord de Toronto.

C’est d’une beauté et d’une tranquillité incomparables. Quelque chose à laisser jouer en sourdine, histoire de se récurer l’âme après des semaines de politiques et toute la marde reliée à la menace orange que l’on sait. Je vous le recommande fortement.

Get full access to Random Acts of Urbanism by Brigitte Pellerin at randomactsofurbanism.substack.com/subscribe