Bigras: Restoring the ByWard Market needs an all-in approach

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This article is written in response to The ByWard Market Needs Fixing, a letter from the editor, Jan. 12:

The Lowertown Community Association agrees that the ByWard Market has been, is and can be a vital asset to Ottawa’s downtown. We congratulate the Ottawa Citizen for focusing on this, and we look forward to working on enhancing/improving our beautiful Market. We certainly hope that the editor’s call for input will result in many offering thoughts and solutions.

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Your proposal to include the entire city in thinking about the revival of the ByWard area is important: the core of the nation’s capital should matter to everyone. Problems such as homelessness cannot be solved within only one community. The Lowertown Community Association, and area Coun. Stéphanie Plante, are championing an initiative to develop citywide solutions to these problems. City Coun. Ariel Troster has recently echoed this as well, stating that each of Ottawa’s wards must provide affordable housing with required services.

Thousands of people live in and around the Market and Lowertown. Many are long-term residents; others have moved here for the farmers’ market, interesting shops, the urban buzz and the proximity to daily services and iconic landmarks. But as you have pointed out, over the last 15 years we have seen a steady decline with the loss of the farmers, small retailers and neighbourhood services. We’ve also seen an increase in the number of bars, restaurants, pot shops, and in crime and homelessness.

In 2012, the community association sent a letter to then-mayor Jim Watson requesting a secondary plan for the area that would look at the challenges and opportunities facing the Market in order to create a specific planning framework with clear objectives and a strategy to achieve them. Instead, the city opted for piecemeal initiatives such as the creation of Ottawa Markets and the ByWard Market District Authority, and the adoption of a public realm plan. None of these initiatives has slowed the decline of the Market. The community is still waiting for a secondary plan that would explain which initiatives are necessary to revitalize the Market.

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In lieu of city support, the Lowertown Community Association has done two community visions (2012 and 2020) based on surveys and focus groups. The association is considering doing another visioning exercise. However, without political support, the vision and the tools for implementation are illusory. Can the city be convinced to create a secondary plan for the Market and to undertake citywide programs to solve the problems that are plaguing the area?

Crucial steps would help the Market succeed

To start, the Lowertown Community Association proposes the following crucial steps:

• Planning: Undertake an overall plan to guide the future of the Market as mandated by the city’s own Official Plan.

• Housing: Find “rooms” in existing structures throughout all 24 wards where unhoused individuals (those with little need for extra or special services) can have a safe space with a door that locks.

• Social services: Find transitional housing with services throughout the 24 wards in small-scale units (townhouses, convents, etc.) for the unhoused who need services such as mental health or addictions’ support.

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• Close one of our three large shelters (with individuals noted above moving to transitional housing).

• Beautify and animate the ByWard Market/Lowertown with more lighting (year-round), greenery, benches and events.

• Pedestrianization: We applaud the closing of some streets to vehicles. We would encourage more pedestrianization (perhaps a full York Street Plaza in front of the Ottawa sign?), which has been proven to increase foot traffic and business. Other cities such as Quebec City, Montreal, London, Paris etc. have transformed or returned their historic market areas to be pedestrianized.

These areas are seen as a really unique feature that house the most historic and vibrant parts of a city and that’s what the ByWard Market has the possibility to be.

• Work with the NCC to encourage diversity of businesses in the Market — not just bars/restaurants — perhaps through a rent-to-income approach for these businesses.

• Create sustainable and affordable opportunities for farmers to return to the ByWard Market to sell their produce on a daily basis during the growing season. The loss of the farmers is a tragedy for the Market and for those who live here.

There is no doubt that the Market’s heritage character and its proximity to important national and city institutions call for a serious effort in planning its future so that it becomes the jewel we can all be proud of. Ottawa’s prosperity is tied to the success of its downtown — of which the Market is a vital part.

Sylvie Bigras is the president of the Lowertown Community Association.

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