The front porch takes on the garage door

 

Even if you are not looking for consistency in the streetscapes of Old Ottawa South, it is hard to miss this one. For residents of the area, front porches are not simply a decorative design feature, they are a culture. A defining element of the homes here since the neighbourhood was built, the front porch acts like a huge welcome sign in front of each house.

So when infill developers completed several projects in the last year, it became increasingly obvious to neighbours the newly built houses were not meshing with the front porch culture.

For Candice Bernes the matter became personal when a developer bought the property beside her home of 13 years. Bernes said the house plans are for a front facing garage sticking out eight feet beyond her own porch and casting a looming shadow on her front yard. But Bernes said it’s not just the lack of sunlight that is an issue.

Candice Bernes sits with her young daughter in their century old home

“When we step out onto the porch, we look down the street, wave to the neighbour,” said Bernes about the culture of porches. With the new development her view down the street will be blocked to one side.

Bernes said the sense of community is important to her, expressing it as the feeling of a small village within a city. “It’s one of the reasons I live here! You get that communal sense that your neighbours are an extension of your own life.”

“It’s almost a sense of betrayal if the development is so inconsiderate to the lifestyle that people here are already living,” said Bernes.

For many residents in the area, the last straw was a development for 71 Hopewell Avenue brought up earlier this year. The proposed triplex will be a massive structure with three garage doors built to face the street.

The community response was swift and a petition was soon given to city planners with over 400 signatures pressuring the city to change its zoning bylaws.

Attacking the “big box” of zoning bylaws

To the disadvantage of residents like Bernes, the current zoning bylaws mean developers can choose to ignore complaints about inappropriate building design.

“Zoning is kind of like a big box sitting over a property, and as long as you stay inside that box you can pretty much do whatever you want,” explained OSWatch co-chair Brendan McCoy.

But with the added pressure Hopewell has stirred up from residents in the surrounding community, McCoy is optimistic the snowball effect from complaints around the city could lead to changes in the zoning bylaws.

While McCoy said he is not sure if anything can be done in the immediate future to prevent Hopewell from developing as planned, he remains hopeful.

“City staff recognizes there is problem,” he said, “my experience is that changes from the city are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Typically, real change that is going to stick takes time and effort by a whole bunch of people.”

McCoy will be speaking for the community on Nov. 16, 2010 at the application hearing for the 71 Hopewell development. Many residents of Old Ottawa South are expected to attend.

Candice Bernes speaks to the infill in her neighbourhood bellow:

 

Typical front porch homes on Hopewell

A recently built infill development on the corner of Hopewell and Grosvenor

An inside look at the Mayfair Theatre

When Bank Street’s Mayfair Theatre was dedicated a heritage site on Oct. 8, 2008 Lee Demarbre was ecstatic. For Demarbre and his partner this meant the Spanish style atmospheric cinema was as good as theirs. Winning the bid for ownership was easy now corporations like Shoppers Drug Mart were unable to tear down the theatre for their franchise.

A view from inside the theatre. Spanish architecture creates an atmosphere of old-world charm

“We had wanted to open a movie theatre for a while but competition was hard,” said Demarbre in a phone interview. “Declaring this place a heritage building saved it and gave us the opportunity to grab the spot.”

Since then, the Mayfair has had its ups and downs with business. “What we do well with is some older stuff that you haven’t seen on the big screen before, we’re doing well with stuff like Jaws or Back to the Future,” said Demarbre. “Some months suck, some months are like, ‘why did we do this,’ but some months rock!” he said, explaining the Mayfair has made some changes this year in order to bring up their net profit.

“Everyone has to make money. Trying to make a lot of people happy is difficult. ‘You’re not showing enough women’s movies this month’ or ‘you’re not showing enough zombie movies.’”

For Demarbre, the entire movie experience is what makes his job and the Mayfair Theatre special. “When the movie starts the curtain opens, that’s the silver screen,” adding that he feels chain cinemas are noisy and “disgusting” in comparison.

It is pretty clear that for Demarbre, movies will always be a passion, “I’m here all the time as an audience member. It drives my wife crazy!”

To check out movies and show times now playing at the Mayfair Theatre, Click here.

Music and meditation mixed on Bank Street

While exploring Old Ottawa South the other day I happened to notice a poster on the corner of Sunnyside Avenue and Bank Street advertizing for a free meditation concert at The Garden of Light. Having never been to a mediation event and excited by the word “free”, I was naturally enticed and decided to go and check out the live music Sunday night.

When stepping up to the brightly lit store on Bank Street 10 minutes before show time, my eyes were immediately drawn to the vivid colours in the window.

Blue, orange and red, the colours came from the bright saris worn by the featured performers, Sangit Surabhi, or The Fragrance of Music, a female vocal and instrumental group performing that night.

Store owner Utsahi St-Amand spoke to me before the performance about the meditation aspect of the music, written by spiritual author Sri Chinmoy.

“He literally wrote thousands of songs,” St-Amand said. “It invites you to become peaceful, meditative, and soulful.”

The group performs his lyrics to the sound of a flute, harp, violin and drums, and combined with the smell of burning incense, I could easily imagine myself transported to a local village in Tibet or India.  The aesthetic was made complete by the many Buddhist and Hindu artefacts filling the small store on Bank Street.

“I am fortunate enough to travel, so I go around the world a little bit and shop,” St-Amand told me, pointing to a gold-plated statue of the Buddha.

The proud owner said his store has hosted meditative concerts before, explaining it’s customary in some eastern religions for local businesses to offer spiritual experiences to their community free of charge.

Continuing with the custom, The Garden of Light is hosting a free incense workshop on Oct. 24, 2010.

Reduce, Reuse, Shop

At The Clothes Secret, one of Bank Street’s many locally run businesses, family is important. And what is a typical family practice? Trading clothes of course! What woman or man, boy or girl, doesn’t recall the eagerly anticipated box of hand-me-downs?

The Clothes Secret has been working as a community level hand-me-down facilitator in Old Ottawa South for 20 years now. As a clothing consignment store, gently used apparel is brought in for resale, with a portion profiting the store and the excess clothing going to local charities. 

Owner Valerie MacIntosh believes second-hand clothing is an important business right now in light of the economic recession.

“It’s a form of recycling,” she said in an interview at her store. “People get clothes at a more economical price and it keeps it out of the landfill.”

MacIntosh’s daughter, Chelsea Pépin, grew up around clothes in her mother’s store and is a firsthand witness to changing attitudes about second-hand clothing.

“People are realizing they don’t need to spend $2,000 on a fur coat or $100 on a pair of jeans, which I would never do now!”

With the fall season in full swing and winter coming fast, The Clothes Secret will likely see many thrifty Ottawans sifting through its racks, looking to revamp their wardrobes with second-hand items. After all, when living in a society focused on a shift to greener practices, what could be a more exciting way to recycle than by shopping!