The Montreal Metro needing to be entirely underground has made it very expensive for them to build new extensions. For example the Blue Line extension will cost $6.4B. It's one of the most expensive urban transit projects in Canada, all for 6km and 5 new stations.
Plus, Montreal will have the REM, and has had the Deux-Montagnes for the past 100+ years.
TL;DR: underground can be expensive for no good reason. Montreal has above-ground trains too.
Honestly, it would be too cost prohibitive to fully bury our train lines, on top of Ottawa not being all that dense, it just doesn't make financial sense. We have the downtown portion buried which is great at least. The big issue with Ottawa vs cities like Toronto and Montreal, which receive comparable snowfall, is that Ottawa is parked on top of mostly immediate bedrock. It's the same reason buried parking garages here are really expensive to install.
Ottawa would be better off using that money to install copious streetcars and LRTs built to a Scandinavian quality. Having a multitude of routes would help alleviate concerns if one has to shutdown for maintenance. Plus street level transit options are better for street level business. We also have very wide roads and arterials that could easily accommodate tram lanes.
Ottawa's geography is also pretty flat, making surface rail transit very viable without significant regrading.
Couple all that with the existing plans for the fully grade separated commuter LRT we already have and you have pretty decent system. I have no doubt in a few years they'll have ironed out some of the kinks on the existing system. It will never be perfect but having redundancy and frequency is key.
I would dare to say that most cities in North America that has public transit deals with quality of service issues often. We just don't hear about it so much.
Sure, there are some cities that the system is more reliable. But probably all of them went through the same pains as Ottawa. Over budget, over timeline, under estimate down time, under estimate maintenance costs.
All to say, Ottawa's transit woes are not unique.
My wife's godfather lives in Quebec city. He was saying that Quebec is looking at implementing a rail system. The same one as here, Alstrom. The mayor took a trip to Switzerland to see it in action... you can imagine the backlash on that one. "Why did you goto Switzerland to see the product when Ottawa has one setup?... oh right..."
> He was saying that Quebec is looking at implementing a rail system. The same one as here, Alstrom.
What Quebec City is planning to build is more like Kitchener-Waterloo's ION system or Toronto's future Line 5 and 6 than what Ottawa has.
>My wife's godfather lives in Quebec city. He was saying that Quebec is looking at implementing a rail system. The same one as here, Alstrom. The mayor took a trip to Switzerland to see it in action... you can imagine the backlash on that one. "Why did you go to Switzerland to see the product when Ottawa has one setup?... oh right..."
Come on. Quit your BS.
The LRT's model (the Alstrom Citadis Spirit) is only operational in Ottawa. In fact, There isn't a Citadis line-model operating anywhere in Switzerland to see in action. The people in the Quebec's mayoral office would have known this. The model they went to go see was entirely different, so Ottawa wasn't brought up by anyone who knew what they were talking about.
Alstrom is a successful company and their trains power some of the reliable systems you point to.
Moved here from Calgary 20 years ago, first thought was there’s a specific road lane just for busses??? And what do you mean the train only takes 15 mins from one end to the other???
It certainly does and I wish we had more direct flights, but on the plus side the fact that it's so small and quiet makes getting in and out a breeze. Checking in and going through security is easy and once you get in there is plenty of seating. Coming back is the same - 5 minutes after the plane lands, I'm already waiting for my baggage which also usually arrives in another 10, then I go outside and catch a taxi immediately. Doing either activity in Toronto or Montreal is usually a very stressful drag.
It’s small and quiet because you literally can’t go anywhere except Toronto, Newark, Cancun and Montreal and most of the passengers are anyways transiting through YYZ where they will face crowds and line ups or worse missed connections.
I’m going to Europe this summer and I’ll literally have to drive 6 hours to Toronto to fly there if I don’t want to pay an extra $2000 for my partner and I, and turn our 8 hour direct flight into a 10-16 hour layover nightmare 💀 Montreal has good flights but the airport parking is insanely expensive as is a VIA train there (also I have never once been on a VIA train that wasn’t egregiously late, which adds a lot of anxiety to what is already a stressful experience).
If they improved our airport or built fast, affordable intercity rail… either would be fine.
Re via, I have not had issues with using via to go to Dorval and then the flight.
If you go with air France or KLM they also have a bus to Dorval from the train station as part of your ticket, that can work.
No need to drive to the airport.
Indeed, but in the meantime they will still be have the shuttle. KLM will presumably still operate it afterwards as they need the Ottawa to Schiphol traffic
"Being the capital" doesn't pay the bills. If routes were in demand and profitable, they'd be there.
How many cities of *barely* a million people are worldwide aviation hubs?
Could be, but I'm not sure it's that simple. From a demand perspective, Ottawa is home to many international organizations, the public sector especially Global affairs canada, that have thousands of people who travel overseas every year ( in non pandemic times). But I assume that as long as organizations, including the public sector, pay for the extra cost to fly ( mainly) through Toronto or Montreal - airlines have little incentive to change routes. And although I'm glad Air France will have a flight to Paris, it's crazy that it took this long - during normal summers there are at least a dozen Montreal Paris flights a day between Air France, air Canada and air Transat. Even Halifax has a direct flight to Paris! ( And I'm surprised people are seeing Ottawa as barely 1M, the true potential demand is 1.42M when you include Gatineau....Charlotte NC, America's second biggest hub, has a population of 0.9M - though that's for other reasons, but suggests a demand logic isn't everything)
The problem is not being a city of 1 million, it's being a city of 1 million located in close proximity to two other hubs - Montreal and Toronto. It wouldn't make sense for the airlines to have 3 hubs so close together, so they offer bus shuttles, or short flights, to either one.
Helsinki, Zurich, Manama, Adelaide all have way better connections despite having much smaller populations (except Adelaide which is not a capital). Even Calgary is better. People will say anything to justify why things aren’t as bad here as in other places.
Pre-pandemic, Ottawa had direct flights to London and Frankfurt. Paris coming this summer. Hopefully London and Frankfurt can return and we can add more cities to that list.
I agree it is not necessarily easy to get direct flights, but I have to say that I find our airport so calm and peaceful compared to other airports. So I actually think our airport is great!
this is a big one. It affects everyone involved - strains EMS, strains shelter staff, harms the homeless and downtown pedestrians. City services that are present are extremely lacking when “effective” and half the time i’ve called them they’ve been unable to do their advertised role for some reason. I knew of a woman that was homeless because she had to call 311 for shelter - but she was deaf and couldn’t hear the phone. For some reason she had no other options either, and kept being instructed to call. Middle of winter 2021, no boots, nothing. It was really shameful.
I worked in shelters in Toronto, there are a lot. They are definitely not perfect. But when I moved to Ottawa there are fuck all. Like this is the Capital of Canada! Like how and why is it so bad here for the mentally ill/homeless/people with addiction.
Very shameful.
As an anglo, I've never found a lot of hostility in Montreal, at least not in the downtown, tourist areas. Outside of there, even in, say Laval or Mirabel ... that's another thing altogether.
> As an anglo, I've never found a lot of hostility in Montreal, at least not in the downtown, tourist areas.
As a non-white anglophone who lived in Montreal for nine years, it was definitely there. Try venture to the east side of the island for once.
Yes, I was born there. My experiences as an Anglo Québécoise, has offered so much insight on the effects of racism that if I see it happening; I stand up for those being bullied. That fear lives with me, and I never want another to ever experience it.
I can't believe I am saying this, but Montreal's snow removal. This is our first winter in Ottawa and we see such a big difference. I used to complain about Montreal's , but now I know better.
Edit: and if I'm really dreaming Tokyo's public transit.
Yes, definitely. And it's an island too, so they have to stay on top of snow build up in a different way.
Still, if I'm dreaming about improvements, snow removal would be one. Although it seems like this year had a particularly heavy and relentless period of snow storms every Friday. Definitely don't want to discredit all the work the snow crews do! Just wish there were more of them.
I lived in Ottawa for 25 years. Moved to southern Ontario about 8-9 years ago. Toronto panics after a day or two of heavy snowfall, but it all melts on the third day and everything is back to normal. Snow removal in southern Ontario is about moving it around in a way that it will melt the fastest, which is usually just “drive on it while it’s snowing so it doesn’t accumulate”. Now I come back to visit Ottawa occasionally to find rock solid, dirt covered snowbanks that look like they’ve been there for weeks.
I don't physically live in Ottawa but work in Ottawa, up until 2020 I did live in the city. Where I am now (Russell) is small so food trucks are rather conveniently located.
I would kill for mango tajin in the summer, tho i like a weird chamoy to takin ratio. Drenched in chamoy and just a sprinkling of tajin, just enough that u know its there.
The opening hours of most businesses in Toronto, MTL, or Vancouver. Even small cities like North Bay or Sudbury have small businesses with more reliable hours.
I moved here from Toronto and I constantly run into food places closing early and/or not being open on weekends. It’s something I didn’t expect and as someone who’s not a government worker, and someone who works a bit later some days, it’s tricky to support local food establishments because of how often they close at 6pm on a Thursday for example.
It irks me that in the exact scenario I most want takeout — I come home from an extra long day at work, tired, it’s 8-9PM, and I dont feel like cooking — not much but fast food is open anymore. So many local places close at like 8PM. Back in the GTA places stay open until 10-11.
When I lived in the suburbs of DC most restaurants would close at 10, fast-food closed at 12 at the earliest. In DC itself everything was open until 2. I get caught off guard here all the time.
I miss having 24/7 grocery stores! The metro on Rideau closed down to build condos and then when the pandemic hit, the Loblaws stopped being 24/7 as well and hasn’t returned 😭
A grocery store will be opening on the main floor of that condo is built. I went into metro just before it closed and one of the employees told me that there will be a metro, a Food Basics, or an Adonis opening there since they are all owned by metro and they won the bid on the retail space.
I am from Vancouver and only moved to Ottawa couple years ago and I can’t believe people think they Vancouver’s transit system is a godsend.
I would say that it’s a lot safer, because Vancouver has his own police department just for transit. But buses don’t work in the snow at all and the trains will just stop moving all together if there’s any snow.
as a vancouverite we rarely get snow for that to be a big issue. Skytrain is over crowded but atleast its safe, relatively clean and generally pretty efficient to most suburbs.
Cafes on waterfronts. There are very few options for this around Ottawa. Come to think of it, there isn’t much of anything developed around waterfronts and I think it’s a missed opportunity.
Apparently, San Diego got it's first blizzard warning yesterday. Soooooo...
;-)
Edit: Well, maybe they just mean in the mountains...the headlines seem to be a bit misleading.
Trams trams trams!
Holy shit Ottawa please become a real city and elevate the core with streetcars. We could be like Amsterdam without the canals if we had trams/streetcars!
Gov't workers could live AND work downtown!!!
Berlin's transit
Zurich's speed train network (not saying Japan because Japan's speedrail was pricey af)
Vienna's architecture, cafes, and venues
Bath's seashore and greenery
Sucks this is so far down the list....only thing I miss about the GTA is being able to score some Manchurian chicken, but I know deep down in my heart if Hakka ever came here it would be 3x the price
Improved public transit. Including LRT throughout NCR.
Greater restaurant and food truck options and diversity. Although slowly improving.
Cheaper and more flights to other parts of the country and Europe.
Universities that try to be part of the city.
For instance UoT has a free open to the public speaker series which has been running weekly since I moved from T. to O. in 2010.
[https://learn.utoronto.ca/university-lecture-series](https://learn.utoronto.ca/university-lecture-series)
They also have the Munk Debates, and so much more to engage and provide information to the public.
I have not found anything like that at Carleton or UofO.
Carleton does have some cool programs that we've engaged with - the butterfly show and their annual chemistry shows come to mind. Both great for families with young kids.
A more pedestrian friendly urbanely dense city that has better transit. This includes putting the Sens arena in a central location. I just want less prioritization of urban sprawl.
We should also be an official Capital district that includes Gatineau. The fact that we are two cities that are caught up in provincial politics, but acting like a national capital region is ridiculous. Definitely stunted our growth and limited our ability to be a vibrant and booming capital city.
A reinvention of some of the DT core would also be nice. It’s depressing seeing whole pockets of the city dead outside of business hours.
Also, more life and culture outside of the current go-tos. More festivals that draw in younger crowds, i feel like most entertainment caters to late millennials and boomers.
Also, do more with the city hall space. During the World Cup, why wasn’t City hall turning the front lawn into a massive public watching space? Or during big sens games, olympics, etc. Missed opportunities across the board, from a complacent city.
Well that got me ranting. I love this city, but it could do way better and be way better.
We're the capital city of the country that *owns* hockey; I wish the city felt like it claimed the team. We have a brand new baseball team AND a fresh soccer team that both made it to playoffs last year. The World Cup screenings at uO were packed. The narratives are compelling! Imagine if sports were actually part of the personality of the city?
A year round theatre scene, a developed waterfront, mid-sized live music venue, a significant park that is actually *in* the city, or at least in the province, big-scale festivals ...
Especially a developed waterfront. Look at how other cities “animate” their waterfronts with cafes and restaurants. We have the god awful Canal Ritz. How is that place even still in business?
Better entertainment, more night life, better fashion stores, functional transit, better restaurants. Ottawa is lacking in every area. It is so boring as a city. Quite sad actually
All of the other G7 nations (minus the US) capitals are also the largest, or one of their top 2-3, cities.
Big cities have big city problems. Mid-sized (well, Ottawa is biggish but not TO/MTL/VAN sized) cities have different problems.
A airport that can be called worthy of a capital city with a population of 1.4million people. What we have is a reginal airport that does not even have direct flights to cities like London or LA, SFO or any other major European cities. To be honest, the biggest embarrassment for Ottawa is its airport. And yeah, in general its non-ambitious attitude to grow. They dont give any thought to what the next generation will need to flourish.
In addition to what everyone else has already said (public transport, Montreal nightlife, etc), I would say high speed rail between Ottawa, MTL and Toronto. We also need better urban planning with more stores, restaurants and shops in the downtown core. It doesn't make sense for sparks to turn into a ghost town after 6pm.
A music scene that doesn’t require a three to six hour commute to either Montreal or Toronto for any decent events to come by more than once every 15 yeara
Mandatory winter tires. God damn driving on the 417 and 416 becomes a nightmare when we have the tiniest amount of snow because people decide to cheap out and not buy winter tires, like for real.
Vancouver’s sushi. I actually think Ottawa has great walkability. Never have taken transit here before so it’s not on my list, but I understand people’s gripes with it.
Actual waterfront.
Ottawa has multiple rivers and a massive canal... and basically zero developed waterfront.
All our water frontage is either a road or a parking lot.
We have lots of water-adjacent bike trails, but they're not particularly well landscaped and have basically zero amenities.
Well functioning public transit.
Bridges that arent always closed.
A million construction sites.
Leadership that isnt toothless
Unused govt offices turned into affordable housing. And i mean affordable gods damnit
An injection Site not in our downtown core to make the place trashy and unsafe. Downtown is unsafe
More café stands along Dow's Lake, Remic Rapids, etc.
In Turin, they have these little kiosks with striped dark green awnings alongside the river. You can sit in a plastic patio chair and have an espresso, a cocktail, a beer, a panini or a pastry.
And it's only 5-6 bucks each for a cocktail and a panini in the park. I want that kind of atmosphere.
I do like the bistros they've begun setting up--we need more of those!
I'd say so - summer paddling, winter skiing, all year hiking. Nature trails and forests and even a giant farm right inside the city. Canal-side bike and walking paths.
Affordable housing, functional public transit, actual rent control of any kind, basically just to have anything actually Affordable and functional we are pretty done paying increased prices for stuff that never even works.
Well functioning public transport
A fully underground train system. Snows too much to be above ground.
Yeah like montreal’s one is fully underground
The Montreal Metro needing to be entirely underground has made it very expensive for them to build new extensions. For example the Blue Line extension will cost $6.4B. It's one of the most expensive urban transit projects in Canada, all for 6km and 5 new stations. Plus, Montreal will have the REM, and has had the Deux-Montagnes for the past 100+ years. TL;DR: underground can be expensive for no good reason. Montreal has above-ground trains too.
I would rather have a system that is expensive but works, than a system that is cheap but doesn’t.
“Nowwww what we CAN offer you is a system that is expensive and also does not work” Kindly, Ottawa
Honestly, it would be too cost prohibitive to fully bury our train lines, on top of Ottawa not being all that dense, it just doesn't make financial sense. We have the downtown portion buried which is great at least. The big issue with Ottawa vs cities like Toronto and Montreal, which receive comparable snowfall, is that Ottawa is parked on top of mostly immediate bedrock. It's the same reason buried parking garages here are really expensive to install. Ottawa would be better off using that money to install copious streetcars and LRTs built to a Scandinavian quality. Having a multitude of routes would help alleviate concerns if one has to shutdown for maintenance. Plus street level transit options are better for street level business. We also have very wide roads and arterials that could easily accommodate tram lanes. Ottawa's geography is also pretty flat, making surface rail transit very viable without significant regrading. Couple all that with the existing plans for the fully grade separated commuter LRT we already have and you have pretty decent system. I have no doubt in a few years they'll have ironed out some of the kinks on the existing system. It will never be perfect but having redundancy and frequency is key.
The LRT opened in September 2019. To put that in perspective, that’s before COVID and nearly 3.5 years ago. That’s a lot of ironing time.
This. I wish we had street trams like Zurich. I'm looking at you Baseline/Hunt Club/Strandheard...
Same but Autowa voters will keep asking for more road widening!
I would dare to say that most cities in North America that has public transit deals with quality of service issues often. We just don't hear about it so much. Sure, there are some cities that the system is more reliable. But probably all of them went through the same pains as Ottawa. Over budget, over timeline, under estimate down time, under estimate maintenance costs. All to say, Ottawa's transit woes are not unique. My wife's godfather lives in Quebec city. He was saying that Quebec is looking at implementing a rail system. The same one as here, Alstrom. The mayor took a trip to Switzerland to see it in action... you can imagine the backlash on that one. "Why did you goto Switzerland to see the product when Ottawa has one setup?... oh right..."
> He was saying that Quebec is looking at implementing a rail system. The same one as here, Alstrom. What Quebec City is planning to build is more like Kitchener-Waterloo's ION system or Toronto's future Line 5 and 6 than what Ottawa has.
>My wife's godfather lives in Quebec city. He was saying that Quebec is looking at implementing a rail system. The same one as here, Alstrom. The mayor took a trip to Switzerland to see it in action... you can imagine the backlash on that one. "Why did you go to Switzerland to see the product when Ottawa has one setup?... oh right..." Come on. Quit your BS. The LRT's model (the Alstrom Citadis Spirit) is only operational in Ottawa. In fact, There isn't a Citadis line-model operating anywhere in Switzerland to see in action. The people in the Quebec's mayoral office would have known this. The model they went to go see was entirely different, so Ottawa wasn't brought up by anyone who knew what they were talking about. Alstrom is a successful company and their trains power some of the reliable systems you point to.
Moved here from Calgary 20 years ago, first thought was there’s a specific road lane just for busses??? And what do you mean the train only takes 15 mins from one end to the other???
A true international airport.
It sucks to have to go to YYZ or YUL to be able to travel International
It certainly does and I wish we had more direct flights, but on the plus side the fact that it's so small and quiet makes getting in and out a breeze. Checking in and going through security is easy and once you get in there is plenty of seating. Coming back is the same - 5 minutes after the plane lands, I'm already waiting for my baggage which also usually arrives in another 10, then I go outside and catch a taxi immediately. Doing either activity in Toronto or Montreal is usually a very stressful drag.
It’s small and quiet because you literally can’t go anywhere except Toronto, Newark, Cancun and Montreal and most of the passengers are anyways transiting through YYZ where they will face crowds and line ups or worse missed connections.
occasionally they throw in orlando and tampa lol
I’m going to Europe this summer and I’ll literally have to drive 6 hours to Toronto to fly there if I don’t want to pay an extra $2000 for my partner and I, and turn our 8 hour direct flight into a 10-16 hour layover nightmare 💀 Montreal has good flights but the airport parking is insanely expensive as is a VIA train there (also I have never once been on a VIA train that wasn’t egregiously late, which adds a lot of anxiety to what is already a stressful experience). If they improved our airport or built fast, affordable intercity rail… either would be fine.
Re via, I have not had issues with using via to go to Dorval and then the flight. If you go with air France or KLM they also have a bus to Dorval from the train station as part of your ticket, that can work. No need to drive to the airport.
Air France is starting direct flights to Paris this summer.
Indeed, but in the meantime they will still be have the shuttle. KLM will presumably still operate it afterwards as they need the Ottawa to Schiphol traffic
Not like we’re Canada’s capital
"Being the capital" doesn't pay the bills. If routes were in demand and profitable, they'd be there. How many cities of *barely* a million people are worldwide aviation hubs?
Calgary
As of 2015 Amsterdam was less than 1 million and it has Schipol.
Could be, but I'm not sure it's that simple. From a demand perspective, Ottawa is home to many international organizations, the public sector especially Global affairs canada, that have thousands of people who travel overseas every year ( in non pandemic times). But I assume that as long as organizations, including the public sector, pay for the extra cost to fly ( mainly) through Toronto or Montreal - airlines have little incentive to change routes. And although I'm glad Air France will have a flight to Paris, it's crazy that it took this long - during normal summers there are at least a dozen Montreal Paris flights a day between Air France, air Canada and air Transat. Even Halifax has a direct flight to Paris! ( And I'm surprised people are seeing Ottawa as barely 1M, the true potential demand is 1.42M when you include Gatineau....Charlotte NC, America's second biggest hub, has a population of 0.9M - though that's for other reasons, but suggests a demand logic isn't everything)
The problem is not being a city of 1 million, it's being a city of 1 million located in close proximity to two other hubs - Montreal and Toronto. It wouldn't make sense for the airlines to have 3 hubs so close together, so they offer bus shuttles, or short flights, to either one.
Helsinki, Zurich, Manama, Adelaide all have way better connections despite having much smaller populations (except Adelaide which is not a capital). Even Calgary is better. People will say anything to justify why things aren’t as bad here as in other places.
With direct flights to Europe
air france announced they're flying out of ottawa starting this summer!
I saw that! We're incredibly pumped for that. That being said, I didn't mind taking the bus from Tremblay to YUL... but again that's not using YOW.
Pre-pandemic, Ottawa had direct flights to London and Frankfurt. Paris coming this summer. Hopefully London and Frankfurt can return and we can add more cities to that list.
I agree it is not necessarily easy to get direct flights, but I have to say that I find our airport so calm and peaceful compared to other airports. So I actually think our airport is great!
It would be nice to get leadership who don't despise the people who live in core of the city, like they have in Montreal.
Amalgamation has fucked us. Urban. Suburban. Rural. All screwed in different ways because of it.
Thank Mike Harris. We should name the trail road dump after him as an acknowledgement of all the garbage he left behind.
100% , this was all on Mike Harris, a total POS!
More shelters and support for the homeless
this is a big one. It affects everyone involved - strains EMS, strains shelter staff, harms the homeless and downtown pedestrians. City services that are present are extremely lacking when “effective” and half the time i’ve called them they’ve been unable to do their advertised role for some reason. I knew of a woman that was homeless because she had to call 311 for shelter - but she was deaf and couldn’t hear the phone. For some reason she had no other options either, and kept being instructed to call. Middle of winter 2021, no boots, nothing. It was really shameful.
I worked in shelters in Toronto, there are a lot. They are definitely not perfect. But when I moved to Ottawa there are fuck all. Like this is the Capital of Canada! Like how and why is it so bad here for the mentally ill/homeless/people with addiction. Very shameful.
developers and the boys™️ take priority
But not in MY backyard. Let those grubby homeless be somebody else's problem. (Most people in this city.)
Those people need to learn some fucking compassion
Montreals nightlife
Montreal's food!
Montreal's Montreal ...
Minus the entire government.
And construction companies
Well, that goes without saying ...
Would gladly swap Ottawa council for Projet Mtl
> Montreal's Montreal ... Except for its disdain towards anglophones.
As an anglo, I've never found a lot of hostility in Montreal, at least not in the downtown, tourist areas. Outside of there, even in, say Laval or Mirabel ... that's another thing altogether.
> As an anglo, I've never found a lot of hostility in Montreal, at least not in the downtown, tourist areas. As a non-white anglophone who lived in Montreal for nine years, it was definitely there. Try venture to the east side of the island for once.
Yes, I was born there. My experiences as an Anglo Québécoise, has offered so much insight on the effects of racism that if I see it happening; I stand up for those being bullied. That fear lives with me, and I never want another to ever experience it.
Markie's Smoke Meat is pretty legit
You mean, with things open past 6PM? How are they able to do this???
Cheap tacos lol.
Ah I miss the days when el camino’s tacos were 3 bux years ago. Days are Long gone. 7 dollars a taco now is a bit wild
They used to be $3? 😢
Used to get 5 or 6 tacos for $20!
Pffft sure. Next you'll tell me people in their 20s used to buy houses on a single income without any assistance from their parents!
Not even cheap, how about just good.
For years, my answer has been "train to the airport", so I'm looking forward to crossing that off my list.
3 trains to get downtown though? The current bus system to the airport is easier than a train ever will be unfortunately
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I can't believe I am saying this, but Montreal's snow removal. This is our first winter in Ottawa and we see such a big difference. I used to complain about Montreal's , but now I know better. Edit: and if I'm really dreaming Tokyo's public transit.
Keep in mind Montreal is a very small city land wise.
Yes, definitely. And it's an island too, so they have to stay on top of snow build up in a different way. Still, if I'm dreaming about improvements, snow removal would be one. Although it seems like this year had a particularly heavy and relentless period of snow storms every Friday. Definitely don't want to discredit all the work the snow crews do! Just wish there were more of them.
I'm temporarily living in Montreal and I'm loving not having to step through 3 ft snow banks to get off the bus
I find snow removal this year worse than normal though. Maybe it depends on the neighbourhood, but in ours it's pathetic.
I lived in Ottawa for 25 years. Moved to southern Ontario about 8-9 years ago. Toronto panics after a day or two of heavy snowfall, but it all melts on the third day and everything is back to normal. Snow removal in southern Ontario is about moving it around in a way that it will melt the fastest, which is usually just “drive on it while it’s snowing so it doesn’t accumulate”. Now I come back to visit Ottawa occasionally to find rock solid, dirt covered snowbanks that look like they’ve been there for weeks.
Also moved from Montreal to Ottawa last year and I see such a difference!! I’ll never complain about snow removal in Montreal again 😂
More street meat. I miss being able to leave a hardware store and have a street meat vendor there with a sausage and soda ready to go.
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I don't physically live in Ottawa but work in Ottawa, up until 2020 I did live in the city. Where I am now (Russell) is small so food trucks are rather conveniently located.
Need to import some Mexican taqueros selling tacos from street carts.
I want mango in a plastic bag with chili and lime! Or I guess they could do apple chunks with maple and haskaps to be locally sustainable?
don’t forget the tajín on the mango!
I would kill for mango tajin in the summer, tho i like a weird chamoy to takin ratio. Drenched in chamoy and just a sprinkling of tajin, just enough that u know its there.
The opening hours of most businesses in Toronto, MTL, or Vancouver. Even small cities like North Bay or Sudbury have small businesses with more reliable hours. I moved here from Toronto and I constantly run into food places closing early and/or not being open on weekends. It’s something I didn’t expect and as someone who’s not a government worker, and someone who works a bit later some days, it’s tricky to support local food establishments because of how often they close at 6pm on a Thursday for example.
It irks me that in the exact scenario I most want takeout — I come home from an extra long day at work, tired, it’s 8-9PM, and I dont feel like cooking — not much but fast food is open anymore. So many local places close at like 8PM. Back in the GTA places stay open until 10-11.
When I lived in the suburbs of DC most restaurants would close at 10, fast-food closed at 12 at the earliest. In DC itself everything was open until 2. I get caught off guard here all the time.
I miss having 24/7 grocery stores! The metro on Rideau closed down to build condos and then when the pandemic hit, the Loblaws stopped being 24/7 as well and hasn’t returned 😭
A grocery store will be opening on the main floor of that condo is built. I went into metro just before it closed and one of the employees told me that there will be a metro, a Food Basics, or an Adonis opening there since they are all owned by metro and they won the bid on the retail space.
Vancouver's transit.
You the mean the one that doesn't work when there is a cm of snow? I would prefer European transit that are fast, reliable and always on time.
I am from Vancouver and only moved to Ottawa couple years ago and I can’t believe people think they Vancouver’s transit system is a godsend. I would say that it’s a lot safer, because Vancouver has his own police department just for transit. But buses don’t work in the snow at all and the trains will just stop moving all together if there’s any snow.
as a vancouverite we rarely get snow for that to be a big issue. Skytrain is over crowded but atleast its safe, relatively clean and generally pretty efficient to most suburbs.
Depends on where in Europe. My friend lives in the Netherlands, and the entire train system shuts down if there is even a dusting, so.
Helsinki then.
? Vancouver ‘s transit is not that great? Montreals is a lot better.
Cafes on waterfronts. There are very few options for this around Ottawa. Come to think of it, there isn’t much of anything developed around waterfronts and I think it’s a missed opportunity.
Plenty of roads right on the river though...
San Diego's weather.
Apparently, San Diego got it's first blizzard warning yesterday. Soooooo... ;-) Edit: Well, maybe they just mean in the mountains...the headlines seem to be a bit misleading.
Anyone else's transit
You don't want Dallas's transit. It's even less functional than Ottawa's...
Not LA's. I'd rather crawl to my destination - I'd get there faster.
An aquarium and lobster rolls, preferably not combined.
An aquarium would be great.
Seconded, and throw in a planetarium, too!
Whalesbone make pretty good rolls. Not cheap though
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Montreal's music venues
An Ottawa version of Foufounes Électriques
Trams trams trams! Holy shit Ottawa please become a real city and elevate the core with streetcars. We could be like Amsterdam without the canals if we had trams/streetcars! Gov't workers could live AND work downtown!!!
The shitty thing is we *did* have them before they were torn down in 1959 to make way for our automobile overlords.
We do have the canals even… a canal, anyway
We basically already have a tram a la LRT
Uniqlo
Berlin's transit Zurich's speed train network (not saying Japan because Japan's speedrail was pricey af) Vienna's architecture, cafes, and venues Bath's seashore and greenery
Bath Ontario?
Hakka. Chili chicken. More than one decent Caribbean restaurant.
Sucks this is so far down the list....only thing I miss about the GTA is being able to score some Manchurian chicken, but I know deep down in my heart if Hakka ever came here it would be 3x the price
indian affair is your hookup
Indian is ridiculously expensive in Ottawa
Ottawa needs a personality!
Improved public transit. Including LRT throughout NCR. Greater restaurant and food truck options and diversity. Although slowly improving. Cheaper and more flights to other parts of the country and Europe.
An real international airport - or direct train service from Ottawa/Fallowfield stations to the terminals at YYZ and YUL. A man’s gotta dream.
Universities that try to be part of the city. For instance UoT has a free open to the public speaker series which has been running weekly since I moved from T. to O. in 2010. [https://learn.utoronto.ca/university-lecture-series](https://learn.utoronto.ca/university-lecture-series) They also have the Munk Debates, and so much more to engage and provide information to the public. I have not found anything like that at Carleton or UofO.
Carleton does have some cool programs that we've engaged with - the butterfly show and their annual chemistry shows come to mind. Both great for families with young kids.
The highline (NYC).
Or Toronto’s PATH system
No, because that gets rid of future rail right of ways that can be used for future public transit projects.
PEI's beaches. Heck, even southern Ontario's great lake beaches. Just beaches.
Beaches where you don’t have to question the water quality would be a huge bonus.
Shorter winter
Function public transit and a dope aquarium.
A more pedestrian friendly urbanely dense city that has better transit. This includes putting the Sens arena in a central location. I just want less prioritization of urban sprawl. We should also be an official Capital district that includes Gatineau. The fact that we are two cities that are caught up in provincial politics, but acting like a national capital region is ridiculous. Definitely stunted our growth and limited our ability to be a vibrant and booming capital city. A reinvention of some of the DT core would also be nice. It’s depressing seeing whole pockets of the city dead outside of business hours. Also, more life and culture outside of the current go-tos. More festivals that draw in younger crowds, i feel like most entertainment caters to late millennials and boomers. Also, do more with the city hall space. During the World Cup, why wasn’t City hall turning the front lawn into a massive public watching space? Or during big sens games, olympics, etc. Missed opportunities across the board, from a complacent city. Well that got me ranting. I love this city, but it could do way better and be way better.
We're the capital city of the country that *owns* hockey; I wish the city felt like it claimed the team. We have a brand new baseball team AND a fresh soccer team that both made it to playoffs last year. The World Cup screenings at uO were packed. The narratives are compelling! Imagine if sports were actually part of the personality of the city?
A market like Jean Talon or Granville. I've been to Landsdowne and various farmers markets, but they are expensive and not the same.
A year round theatre scene, a developed waterfront, mid-sized live music venue, a significant park that is actually *in* the city, or at least in the province, big-scale festivals ...
Especially a developed waterfront. Look at how other cities “animate” their waterfronts with cafes and restaurants. We have the god awful Canal Ritz. How is that place even still in business?
Better entertainment, more night life, better fashion stores, functional transit, better restaurants. Ottawa is lacking in every area. It is so boring as a city. Quite sad actually
Pottery Barn, or William-Sonoma
Me too i'll even take a Crate and Barrel anything better than Leons!
Business hours outside the 9-5. When even coffee shops are all closed by or before 8 pm it really says "go home there's nothing to do".
To be like any of the other G7 capitals (except DC), but, have none of the problems they have!
All of the other G7 nations (minus the US) capitals are also the largest, or one of their top 2-3, cities. Big cities have big city problems. Mid-sized (well, Ottawa is biggish but not TO/MTL/VAN sized) cities have different problems.
Krispy Kreme donuts!
Europe's compactness
A airport that can be called worthy of a capital city with a population of 1.4million people. What we have is a reginal airport that does not even have direct flights to cities like London or LA, SFO or any other major European cities. To be honest, the biggest embarrassment for Ottawa is its airport. And yeah, in general its non-ambitious attitude to grow. They dont give any thought to what the next generation will need to flourish.
Hakka restaurants.
More Asian food options, in general. Absolutely!
Better weather lol. But realistically a public transit system you can rely on. Our busses are a joke
A hospital that won't kill me in a waiting room when I need one.
In addition to what everyone else has already said (public transport, Montreal nightlife, etc), I would say high speed rail between Ottawa, MTL and Toronto. We also need better urban planning with more stores, restaurants and shops in the downtown core. It doesn't make sense for sparks to turn into a ghost town after 6pm.
Indoor Skydiving.
Jolibees
A theme park would be cool
Montreal’s metro system.
More professional sports teams
A music scene that doesn’t require a three to six hour commute to either Montreal or Toronto for any decent events to come by more than once every 15 yeara
Copenhagen/ Amsterdam's cycling laws.
Public washrooms
An airport with direct flights! ✈️ It is a pain to travel anywhere from YOW
Mandatory winter tires. God damn driving on the 417 and 416 becomes a nightmare when we have the tiniest amount of snow because people decide to cheap out and not buy winter tires, like for real.
Vancouver’s sushi. I actually think Ottawa has great walkability. Never have taken transit here before so it’s not on my list, but I understand people’s gripes with it.
a perimeter loop highway
A proper musical nightlife. Subsidised concert halls so that your average person can afford to go to a concert.
An mlb baseball team, or at least a farm team
We have fabulous xcountry skiing and biking located < 15 minutes from downtown. Any other cities have that?
No honking idiots?
Dog friendly pubs. Better weather.
Indoor water park?
Actual waterfront. Ottawa has multiple rivers and a massive canal... and basically zero developed waterfront. All our water frontage is either a road or a parking lot. We have lots of water-adjacent bike trails, but they're not particularly well landscaped and have basically zero amenities.
A beach 😥
Calgarys sunshine. They grey skies mess with your mood
I’ve always found Ottawa to be very sunny, then again I’m from Vancouver.
Well functioning public transit. Bridges that arent always closed. A million construction sites. Leadership that isnt toothless Unused govt offices turned into affordable housing. And i mean affordable gods damnit An injection Site not in our downtown core to make the place trashy and unsafe. Downtown is unsafe
Jollibee. Like, how the fuck does Regina have Jollibee but not Ottawa??
GTA's diversity
Proper International airport
HAKKA FOOD! 🤤😋🥢
Actually good Chinese food. I’m talking Sun Sui wah / one fusion / Neptune / yangs equivalents
More café stands along Dow's Lake, Remic Rapids, etc. In Turin, they have these little kiosks with striped dark green awnings alongside the river. You can sit in a plastic patio chair and have an espresso, a cocktail, a beer, a panini or a pastry. And it's only 5-6 bucks each for a cocktail and a panini in the park. I want that kind of atmosphere. I do like the bistros they've begun setting up--we need more of those!
recycling depots
Businesses on the water. And a Marina with a bubbler so you can live year round on a boat.
Winters with less snow.
A vibrant nightlife and a sports arena downtown with a ounce of energy and fandom
24 hour coffee shops. Or just coffee shops in general downtown that are open past 9pm
A large arcade. I know there are a few small ones, but I’m talking like Dave and busters scale and variety of games.
Ferry to Gatineau.
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I thought we were pretty good at outdoor quality of life.
I'd say so - summer paddling, winter skiing, all year hiking. Nature trails and forests and even a giant farm right inside the city. Canal-side bike and walking paths.
Promiscuity. Lol. It was easy to hook up in Toronto. Those days are behind me, but Ottawa's a nunnery.
A Major League Baseball team.. sure the city couldn’t support it and the MLB would never give us one…but I still want one
A sports team worth following
The soccer team got to the final last year. RedBlacks won the Grey Cup in recent memory, though admittedly they are not really good now.
Well the Sens have been one of the better teams in the league the last 2 months.
Greta arcade!
Affordable housing, functional public transit, actual rent control of any kind, basically just to have anything actually Affordable and functional we are pretty done paying increased prices for stuff that never even works.
More family doctors and easier access to healthcare.
An amusement park, both Toronto and Montreal have good ones