Today’s letters: Violence in Lowertown is everybody’s issue

Lowertown is everybody’s problem

Re: Lowertown’s crisis of violence is the whole city’s issue, June 4.

Thank you for the post by Bruce Deachman about the issues of Lowertown. The violence and decay there is an issue for all of Ottawa.

Lowertown/Byward has the possible to be a social and financial engine for Ottawa. Rather, 20 years of disregard have actually turned it into a costly eyesore that is dragging down the entire city. Criminal offense has actually ended up being the trademark track record of Lowertown and the kneejerk response of increasing the authorities existence will not resolve the issue. As Deachman explains, we require a citywide dedication to alter which modification needs to handle the hidden elements that produce the criminal offense.

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I have actually lived the majority of my life in Ottawa, the last 17 in Lowertown. When I transferred to Lowertown, the vision of the city for this area was to support a lively property and industrial neighborhood. The ByWard Market was the centre of this vision: a flourishing farmers’ market throughout the day, a dynamic bar and dining establishment scene and a substantial population of long-term citizens. The architectural heritage would be appreciated while motivating small brand-new advancement. The truck path through the centre of the neighborhood would be handled by dispersing the traffic on existing and brand-new connections in between Ontario and Quebec. The issues of homelessness, drug abuse and criminal activity would be handled through brand-new real estate programs, neighborhood policing and a relocation away from big homeless shelters.

Rather, none of the aspects of this vision have actually been executed. More services for the homeless have actually been included, increasing the concentration of individuals in problem. The variety of bars swelled, drawing individuals from the residential areas to locations where drugs were quickly readily available. The farmers’ market was enabled to pass away. A half-baked concept of an “home entertainment district” was tacitly accepted by the city.

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Trucks continue to roll through the neighborhood. Residential advancement in high-rise apartments, primarily for trainees or short-term citizens, has actually scarred the streetscapes and done little to produce a strong neighborhood.

Today, the city needs to devote to an official visioning and preparation procedure for the revitalization of Lowertown based upon the idea of the 15-minute area that it as soon as was. The lead stakeholders in this procedure ought to be the homeowners, landowners, magnate and organizations that have a direct stake in ByWard/Lowertown.

Norman Moyer, past-president of the Lowertown Citizens Association

Poisoning rats will not eliminate them

Re: City of Ottawa reveals brand-new method in war on rats, June 7.

Using dangerous rodenticides does not resolve the reasons for rodent problems however leads to the inhumane deaths of a wide variety of wildlife types in addition to buddy animals.

Human behaviour impacts rodent behaviour. We’ve been poisoning rodents for years and it certainly isn’t working. Research studies concerning the repercussions of sewer-baiting plainly show that extremely harmful rodenticides wind up in wastewater, rivers and are discovered in freshwater fish livers. Because rodenticides have a long half-life, secondary poisoning of predators is a continuous danger with any usage of these items. There are lots of, lots of economical and long-lasting options to the careless usage of toxin. Even New York political leaders state “we can’t toxin our escape of this.”

Janice Freund, Pickering

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