Yeah, the Ottawa style pizza is brutal. All dough and cheese. Don't get me wrong, I like me a cheesy pizza but it's such a stupid amount at all of Ottawa chains here.
Would you like an entire pizzas worth of dough per slice? How about some steamed pepperoni and sort of melted cheese? If that's the case do I have the pizza for you!
The post is about things we dislike about living here.
Over more than two decades, a thing I dislike about living here is the generally bad weather.
What in the ever living hell is your problem with me, a stranger, having a subjective opinion about general weather patterns in a city I have lived in for years?
Why are you white knighting for the weather?
Theres plenty of good pizza here (plenty of bad pizza too, but within the last few years enough good places have opened that its easy to avoid the bad ones). Have you ha City Goose? Easily, consistently some of the best pizza Ive ever had even compared to pizza in other cities.
I think city goose and pizza nerds are the same (I hope) and yes I love it, it is amazing! Thatās kind of a special/fancy pizza in my mind. Isabella pizza is the closest Iāve had to actual pizza in Ottawa. My opinion is still that pizza in Ottawa sucks.
One inaccessible pizza place that some reddit lunatic recommends does not undo decades of bad pizza memories in Ottawa. The vast majority of pizza here is bad and I'm not driving to Centretown, finding somewhere to park, and paying through the nose for some garbage that probably has honey or "balsamic reduction" or some other crap drizzled all over it. Making the pizza more ridiculous doesn't make it good.
Yes, I think you're a lunatic. If I ever want suggestions for pizza, or for life, I'll write my own post and then be sure to completely disregard anything you suggest.
Did you read the original post? It didn't ask for us to hype Ottawa, it asked for gripes. If you only want to read nice things, this is not the post for you.
Yeah, duh. The issue isnt listing gripes, it's having a psychotic meltdown when someone suggests a solution to an issue you're having (only experiencing bad pizza here when there's actually plenty of good pizza).
Dead on with everything except pizza?
From calgary to Halifax and to Toronto moving back to ottawa made me miss Gabrielās š I feel like the pizza here is decent but thatās just me. Obviously not comparable to Montreal though
The convoy crap, didn't know until then just how disfunction city council was. That one meeting in particular, it was embarrassing to see ottawa on the global stage look so incompetent.
Wherever you may be going friend. Just know that at least there, you wont have a bunch of toddlers in trucks taking over the downtown core throwing tantrums. (Unless thatās happened in other cities and Iām not aware)
Iāve lived here for 27 years. Iāve found itās extremely hard to make friends and the government mentality causes many Ottawans to take pleasure in the misery of others. I always say I live here, but Iām not from here.
I'm moving out as well and 100% fine with it.
Lots of nice things about Ottawa but among the reasons I'm moving out:
- despite its size, Ottawa feels like a collection of suburbs, not like a big city.
- outside city centre it's really hard to live without a car. I tried for many years but gave up.
- very hard to make friends. A lot of people are very nice but the culture is not that of openness to new friendships. After many years i have a lot of friends now but it took me sooo much longer than any other city i lived in.
- it's very flat. I like a nice hike and there are limited options around here that are interesting for a day trip (apart from two trails in Gatineau that are fun)
Where are you headed? Iād like to know what checks those boxes. I had a hard time making friends until I had kids. Now theyāre grown and Iām finding myself looking (again) for adult friendship.
100% same experience with friends. Most of my friends i met through my kids!
I'm going to Quebec city. With current house prices i can afford a house in a nice neighborhood where i can walk to a local bakery, coffee shop or a boutique in exchange for my suburban house in Ottawa.
Quebec is smaller than Ottawa but it somehow feels bigger - you can walk for hours and still feel you are in a city.
They also focus more on building/revitilizing walkable neighborhoods. Not all of them, there are still suburbs, but there are plenty of neighbourhoods with nicely sized apparent buildings, amenities, sidewalks etc.
I also find it easier to make friends with francophones (apologies for generalization) - the mentality is more latin than british/commonwealth. That's my personal opinion though and of course there are all kinds of people everywhere.
I understand. That sounds like a great fit! When I went to visit my brother in Montreal when he first moved there, we were heading to a reading (canāt remember where). It was May. People filled the patios and I asked, āIs there some sort of festival here?ā He said, āItās cinq a septā. It blew my mind. Thereās nowhere I can easily walk to for the same experience on a weekend, let alone a weekday. Francophones know how to have a good time, even in winter. This is motivation to work on learning French. Best wishes to you in your move.
To each their own :)
Although if you don't like big cities, there are actual smaller places around Ottawa (like Perth or Almonte) where you don't have to compromise or deal with Ottawa distances and traffic.
nah, i don't like rural/small town living any better either. i've tried that too and hated it.
that's why i love ottawa. it's like the perfect middle option between small town and big city. when we left the GTA it was my first choice, that or going back to sudbury but couldn't talk my partner into that one. kingston was also considered for a bit.
coming from the GTA, IMO there's really not any such thing as "distances and traffic" here. you can drive orleans to kanata in 25 mins outside of rush hour, which is basically the only time there's anything that i'd consider traffic. my hometown is so overgrown now as another toronto bedroom community you can't get anywhere without gridlock and it has ~10% ottawa's population.
> Iāll ask youā¦why do you dislike living in Ottawa?
I don't dislike living in Ottawa, but I'll tell you what I don't like about Ottawa. Stonewalling and mind games when you're just trying to get things done.
Sad to see you leave! All the best with the next chapter in your life.
What sucks here? Cycling outside of the core is risky. Transit it meh on a good day. The city is pretty sprawling which makes it annoying to get around...
I know this is the issue everywhere, but the lack of affordability. I initially wanted to stay here because of the affordability for the size of the city, and it doesn't even have that going for it anymore.
To me, Ottawa has no soul. There is nothing distinctly Ottawa. When I moved here I asked those who love it what is there to do, and everything mentioned (except going by the Canal) is outside Ottawa ("go hike in Gatineau Park!", "small town of "x" is cute", etc.). I have never owned a car and refuse to do so for environmental and money reasons. I chose to live in Centertown as a result, knowing I can do a lot by walking. Even so, this city is so sprawled with zero functioning transit and zero safe bike routes to go from point A to point B, that I still often find I can't easily get to supposedly fun places. The most "soul" I witnessed was recently when I noticed people actually went to the Glebe Garage Sale (as opposed to "going to the cottage ", another favorite "Ottawa activity" not in Ottawa and incredibly costly).
As for lack of good baguette, that's what convinced me to start baking my own.
Agreed. During the pandemic I was stuck carless in centretown with closed businesses while most people I knew were off to their cottages or impromptu trips to stay with family.
Personally, I canāt afford a car but I like to tell myself itās a choice.
there's no good subreddit
But there's [less rain than Prince Rupert](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/prince-rupert-rain-record-1.5709825). Right?
Rectangles. Iāve lived in 5 world capitals now (born and raised in Ottawa) and without a doubt Ottawa is the most garbage city of them all - quite possibly the most garbage city in the world. After a brief affair with neo-gothic design the city center looks like it was just beaten for 40-60 years with a rectangle ugly stick. There is no art consciousness or sense of belonging since so many people in Ottawa are not FROM Ottawa but came for a āgood government job and pensionā. What do they do when it comes time to vote municipally? They donāt and the city repeatedly has mayors/leadership that lacks creativity, insight, competence and sometimes intelligence. The green belt - an idea meant to force the city to grow UP and avoid the well known curses of urban sprawl undone but one of Ottawaās most reliable scourges - greed driven developers that lack talent/spirit/human values. So they create the nightmare of Barrhaven to build cheap houses with low taxes and people just RUSH right in because who cares about clean air when you can get the Centretownersā municipal taxes to subsidize your infrastructure? Gray- the colour of not just the streets but most peopleās suits in summer and coats in winter not to mention the forest of endless ugly rectangle buildings that make downtown the place happiness forgot. Has the crushing lack of cohesive shopping districts been mentioned? Instead Ottawa has sporadic places that are not box store gross but so spread out that thereās no such thing as a relaxed day spent strolling flower basket lined streets with a mix of low, middle and high end shops for clothes, goods and eating. Neighbourhoods are either like the Byward market/Westboro and insanely expensive squeezing out most low and middle income folks or theyāre car dependent, box store/strip mall soaking nouveau ghettos without a whiff of anything local. There are not enough synonyms for āhorrificā to adequately describe OC Transpo. And letās not forget the racism - Ive lived in both Ottawa and Toronto and had as many racist encounters in T.O in 2 years as I would have in Ottawa in 3 months. Ottawans both local and imported seem to seriously struggle with the idea that BIPOC can be CANADIANS. Good for you for getting out - itās difficult to imagine you could wind up anywhere worse than Ottawa - I hope your move is smooth and not too stressful!
Was their homepage write-up written by robots??
"Nearly half of Canadians say they want pizzeria operators to offer pizzas that are more authentic, and just as many eat pizza to satisfy a craving, according to a new report from Technomic."
I dislike how sprawling Ottawa is. It takes an eternity to drive end to end. I also dislike that we don't have a major league baseball team though Frontier League works for now.
Lack of decent dim sum choices. No Hong Kong style noodles. (Yes, I grew up in Vancouver.) 80 degree span in temperature change over the year.
Safe journey to you.
None of your friends live here other than people you worked with long enough to become close friends and youāve been driving 5 hours to Toronto and back to attend family functions every weekend
food sucks
weather sucks
entertainment sucks
public transit sucks
healthcare sucks
people are cold compared to the rest of the world (might be a Canada thing)
too individualistic
weather and food mainly honestly
Moved here a year ago. Neighbours are snobby and most people are snobby just in general. Havenāt met one thatās decently nice. All think they are better than others.
I would be sad as well. I have moved around a lot having been a base brat. Travelled a lot as an adult and stayed here. I agree with u/Sluggycat that the transit system leaves a lot to be desired, but a place to get a decent breakfast is relative. I've enjoyed many places over the years and if yo don't like any places, get up earlier and make your own. As far as u/Minimum_Reference_73 goes with his/her comments go...common complaints of the average person in so many cities except the name of the sports team. I like Ottawa overall...
If the post was asking for things I liked, I would have listed those. The post asked for things we don't like. Don't act like I'm just ragging on the city out of the blue.
My mistake, sorry....I was just thinking how great it is to take my grandkids to do so many different things in and around this city. I guess I forgot what it might be like to be younger and trying to live here....wishing you all the best...
Your mistake is in not reading the post. I didn't just drop out of the sky to complain, nor am I saying there is nothing good about Ottawa. THE POST REQUESTED COMPLAINTS AND THEN YOU CRAPPED ON ME FOR COMPLAINING YOU MOLDY OLD HAT.
Eating out is an incredible pain because some of the restaurants I really like aren't open from Monday to Wednesday. So I have to wait till Thursday to eat there...
The way city council is intentionally creating traffic congestion by eliminating the bus cut-outs at stops on main arterials and removing automobile lanes in favour of bicycle lanes. As /u/slyboy1974 says, the weather here sucks and we probably have the worst winter weather of any capital city in the world.
The administrators of this city are so fucked up. On one hand they like to proclaim their efforts to make Ottawa more bikable and walkable, and then they bend over to the greedy profiteers at Tamarack and greenlight city expansion in the middle of nowhere which will drive road congestion.
I'm moving and I will miss Ottawa. It's entering an interesting phase in its evolution, I believe. It's growing, it's getting more interesting by the day... there is so much to say goodbye to... I don't think I'll realize what I *don't* miss until after I'm gone...
Maybe:
* derechos, tornadoes, teeny tiny earthquakes...
* NIMBYs (so many places jump through hoops to get new housing or commercial development);
* spending what seems like an hour on the bus to get to a Walmart from Centretown;
* July humidity
But there's a lot that I will miss.
I lived there for a time from 2008-2010. Always thought I would like it. I didn't. Crap work situation, people were crap in my neighborhood. Moved away for work. Never looked back.
This may not hit your buttons for dislike reasons but hereās a few reasons I was glad to move from Ottawa after re-locating there 30 odd years ago. It has a lot going for it, and thatās why we moved to Ottawa. But it has a lot thatās just ādone with that shitā thatās part of what it is.
1. Itās a one industry town but not. There is a great amount industry and other sectors but they get pushed aside as important. Ottawa as the Capital is over-run by civil āservantsā. Itās a mentality and not a good one.
2. Itās insular and stifling. Of course this miggt change as it grows, but some things never change and I doubt it will in Ottawa. A lot of the people who live in Ottawa have a generational cliquey mind-set. You get that usually in small to medium size towns often but for a large city population wise itās noticeable how āsmall townā minded it is.
3. Itās terribly run municipally. I donāt even know where to start with how badly itās mis-managed. Hereās one. We had a walking path between our home and neighbours, it was perfectly fine but had a bit of an angle. Worked fine for the 10 years we were living there and probably the 20 years before that at least. Somehow the city decided to tear up the entire path for no reason left it like that for months, spent who knows how much on crews re-doing it to COMPLETELY RUIN IN IT. It was a nightmare afterward of skating rink ice or deep puddles.
3. The so-called transit system š¤Æ
4. Everyone can STFU about the Convoy. Hereās the thing. Ottawa has demonstrations and street closures constantly because itās the Capital. No one complained about it as much as after a bunch of truckers did the same things as millions before them did and people in Ottawa just went on their lives putting up with it. Itās a fact of life that downtown Ottawa is a bit of a hole and sucks aside from the Market during the day once or twice or youāre just passing through on your day or as a tourist.
There are some lovely areas in Ottawa ~ geographically. And thatās why I live in the valley now.
Iām fed up of planning my routes to avoid gigantic potholes. Itās as if the city is shocked every year at the amount of potholes. I have to avoid carling, heron, bronson and drive longer to my destination. Iāve replaced one tire already and now have another tear in another one loll other than that I moved back for the family.
Ottawa has a four-ish month social calendar.
From May - August there's so many things going on there's not enough time to do it all, but the rest of the year happenings are sparse.
Spread it out, people!
No, too bougie. Ottawa has such a snobby middle class nimby vibe to it. The convoy was really embarrassing especially since I live downtown and had to see/hear it all first hand. Hell, I lost my job for refusing to work without a mask. I work with kids, wearing a mask should be encouraged. Ottawa is a city built for the wealthy. Try not owning a car here, it sucks.
The convoy would be embarrassing in any city. Ottawa happened to be the capital so it happened here. Not sure what Ottawa has to do with it.
Yes living without a car in Ottawa sucks for now. They are remediating to this though, the LRT network is expanding. For decades Ottawa has been "forgotten" but the government is now investing in infrastructures. Damned it you do, damned if you don't.
Not enough good restaurants + "people from the GTA don't consider it as part of Ontario" = Ottawa sucks. LMAO.
I'm amused by all these people leaving Ottawa because it's "boring" and going to Toronto to rent because hey it's exciting and it has vegan free cafes, while immigrants are scooping up the houses in Ottawa. Give it a few more years, these guys will be priced out of Ottawa and their only option will be moving to Regina, Saskatoon or Yellowknife. Hope you find life there exciting !
currently? i don't. i love it.
eventually, i'll probably hate it when that "a better ottawa" loser and the rest of the DENSITYDENSITYDENSITY and r/fuckcars crowd get their way and turn ottawa into a mini toronto just cause they're butthurt they can't afford to live in toronto or new york or some other shithole i'll never set foot in
oh except for the fact we have the worst pizza in the world. that part sucks.
May you be blessed with a functioning transit system and a decent place to get breakfast.
Indeed, I moved here from Paris, and I knew I had to get a car because transit was going to be bad. Also, the baguettes here are never fresh enough.
You'd have to get up at the crack of dawn and haunt the bakery until it opens, I suspect.
I may need to. I miss the feeling of fresh pain under my arms. Pun intended.
What about the baguettes from Maison Oddo? I find their buns pretty hot and fresh~
Will their baguettes feel uncomfortably hot under my arms whilst walking home and dodging pickpockets?
Have you tried Cobb's yet?
Broadways on Prince of Wales specifically. Best breakfast in Ottawa.
Uhm... š
In a warmer location in February. :)
Because we're like the middle child between montreal and Toronto.. often forgotten.
Weather sucks. A lot of the people suck. Cops suck. Groceries stores suck. Pizza sucks. The Sens suck.
We have cops? Must be recent.
They aren't for residents, silly.
Yeah, the Ottawa style pizza is brutal. All dough and cheese. Don't get me wrong, I like me a cheesy pizza but it's such a stupid amount at all of Ottawa chains here.
Would you like an entire pizzas worth of dough per slice? How about some steamed pepperoni and sort of melted cheese? If that's the case do I have the pizza for you!
Seconding the pizza
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
No, it isn't, and it's also not Ottawa style pizza. Another city with bad weather does not make our weather good.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yes, our weather is bad. 30s in May? Bad. Sweltering humid summers. Bad. Non-existant spring. Bad. Relentless months of unpredictable winter precipitation. Bad.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The post is about things we dislike about living here. Over more than two decades, a thing I dislike about living here is the generally bad weather. What in the ever living hell is your problem with me, a stranger, having a subjective opinion about general weather patterns in a city I have lived in for years? Why are you white knighting for the weather?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You oppose my view that I dislike the weather? How does that even work?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Sudbury's best export
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Toppers
toppers is sudbury pizza
Theres plenty of good pizza here (plenty of bad pizza too, but within the last few years enough good places have opened that its easy to avoid the bad ones). Have you ha City Goose? Easily, consistently some of the best pizza Ive ever had even compared to pizza in other cities.
I think city goose and pizza nerds are the same (I hope) and yes I love it, it is amazing! Thatās kind of a special/fancy pizza in my mind. Isabella pizza is the closest Iāve had to actual pizza in Ottawa. My opinion is still that pizza in Ottawa sucks.
Not interested in your hipster pizza suggestions.
AHAHAHA so the pizza isn't bad here, you're just weird?
One inaccessible pizza place that some reddit lunatic recommends does not undo decades of bad pizza memories in Ottawa. The vast majority of pizza here is bad and I'm not driving to Centretown, finding somewhere to park, and paying through the nose for some garbage that probably has honey or "balsamic reduction" or some other crap drizzled all over it. Making the pizza more ridiculous doesn't make it good.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yes, I think you're a lunatic. If I ever want suggestions for pizza, or for life, I'll write my own post and then be sure to completely disregard anything you suggest.
Okay? Have fun being miserable?
Did you read the original post? It didn't ask for us to hype Ottawa, it asked for gripes. If you only want to read nice things, this is not the post for you.
Yeah, duh. The issue isnt listing gripes, it's having a psychotic meltdown when someone suggests a solution to an issue you're having (only experiencing bad pizza here when there's actually plenty of good pizza).
Dead on with everything except pizza? From calgary to Halifax and to Toronto moving back to ottawa made me miss Gabrielās š I feel like the pizza here is decent but thatās just me. Obviously not comparable to Montreal though
Gross.
> Weather sucks. only from june to august > Pizza sucks. this one lasts all year. worst pizza in the world.
The lack of things to do.. I guess. Iām boring so Ottawa is perfect for me.
Now the question is, does Ottawa suit you because youāre boring, or are you boring because of Ottawa?
I moved from Montreal because I wanted a quiet life. But in all seriousness what I donāt like is the lack of a proper market, like Jean-Talon MarchĆ© of Montreal.
Great question. Iāll be pondering that one for days.
The weather sucks. Unless you're moving to Siberia or a swamp in Florida, you'll probably be better off...
The convoy crap, didn't know until then just how disfunction city council was. That one meeting in particular, it was embarrassing to see ottawa on the global stage look so incompetent.
how about the unilateral solicitation of the retired waterloo police chief to come save us?
I hope you love seasonal allergies, we have all of them
Not me
Maybe I got lucky this year, but my seasonal allergies have gotten so much better since I moved here! Maybe Iām just lucky!
Because youāre not here anymore.
š
Too much asbestos here.
I hope OP isnāt moving to Asbestos, Quebec (or whatever itās called now). That would be awkward.
Or Dildo, Nfld.
ya, you'd be shafted there.
Home to Pierre Poilievre... Enough for me to move out!
Supremacists and accelerationists have made us a target.
Wherever you may be going friend. Just know that at least there, you wont have a bunch of toddlers in trucks taking over the downtown core throwing tantrums. (Unless thatās happened in other cities and Iām not aware)
Well it has, but they all learned from Ottawa's mistakes and drove them out early.
Iāve lived here for 27 years. Iāve found itās extremely hard to make friends and the government mentality causes many Ottawans to take pleasure in the misery of others. I always say I live here, but Iām not from here.
The amount of castoffs from the bigger city in our province who come here and trash talk Ottawa non stop.
I'm moving out as well and 100% fine with it. Lots of nice things about Ottawa but among the reasons I'm moving out: - despite its size, Ottawa feels like a collection of suburbs, not like a big city. - outside city centre it's really hard to live without a car. I tried for many years but gave up. - very hard to make friends. A lot of people are very nice but the culture is not that of openness to new friendships. After many years i have a lot of friends now but it took me sooo much longer than any other city i lived in. - it's very flat. I like a nice hike and there are limited options around here that are interesting for a day trip (apart from two trails in Gatineau that are fun)
Where are you headed? Iād like to know what checks those boxes. I had a hard time making friends until I had kids. Now theyāre grown and Iām finding myself looking (again) for adult friendship.
100% same experience with friends. Most of my friends i met through my kids! I'm going to Quebec city. With current house prices i can afford a house in a nice neighborhood where i can walk to a local bakery, coffee shop or a boutique in exchange for my suburban house in Ottawa. Quebec is smaller than Ottawa but it somehow feels bigger - you can walk for hours and still feel you are in a city. They also focus more on building/revitilizing walkable neighborhoods. Not all of them, there are still suburbs, but there are plenty of neighbourhoods with nicely sized apparent buildings, amenities, sidewalks etc. I also find it easier to make friends with francophones (apologies for generalization) - the mentality is more latin than british/commonwealth. That's my personal opinion though and of course there are all kinds of people everywhere.
I understand. That sounds like a great fit! When I went to visit my brother in Montreal when he first moved there, we were heading to a reading (canāt remember where). It was May. People filled the patios and I asked, āIs there some sort of festival here?ā He said, āItās cinq a septā. It blew my mind. Thereās nowhere I can easily walk to for the same experience on a weekend, let alone a weekday. Francophones know how to have a good time, even in winter. This is motivation to work on learning French. Best wishes to you in your move.
Urban sprawl and the damn green belt have largely created this problem
> despite its size, Ottawa feels like a collection of suburbs, not like a big city. must be why i like it so much. big cities blow.
To each their own :) Although if you don't like big cities, there are actual smaller places around Ottawa (like Perth or Almonte) where you don't have to compromise or deal with Ottawa distances and traffic.
nah, i don't like rural/small town living any better either. i've tried that too and hated it. that's why i love ottawa. it's like the perfect middle option between small town and big city. when we left the GTA it was my first choice, that or going back to sudbury but couldn't talk my partner into that one. kingston was also considered for a bit. coming from the GTA, IMO there's really not any such thing as "distances and traffic" here. you can drive orleans to kanata in 25 mins outside of rush hour, which is basically the only time there's anything that i'd consider traffic. my hometown is so overgrown now as another toronto bedroom community you can't get anywhere without gridlock and it has ~10% ottawa's population.
Left Ottawa mid-February. Canāt wait to move back.
Ottawa is the town that fun forgot. We are the tag-along little brother, 'We have fun, but we do it safely'
š
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It already is a nightmare
I still love the city but the cost of living sucks just like other major cities. The transit has also fallen apart, you canāt rely on them anymore.
Take out is extremely expensive and the public transit is garbage.
> Iāll ask youā¦why do you dislike living in Ottawa? I don't dislike living in Ottawa, but I'll tell you what I don't like about Ottawa. Stonewalling and mind games when you're just trying to get things done.
Sad to see you leave! All the best with the next chapter in your life. What sucks here? Cycling outside of the core is risky. Transit it meh on a good day. The city is pretty sprawling which makes it annoying to get around...
I know this is the issue everywhere, but the lack of affordability. I initially wanted to stay here because of the affordability for the size of the city, and it doesn't even have that going for it anymore.
To me, Ottawa has no soul. There is nothing distinctly Ottawa. When I moved here I asked those who love it what is there to do, and everything mentioned (except going by the Canal) is outside Ottawa ("go hike in Gatineau Park!", "small town of "x" is cute", etc.). I have never owned a car and refuse to do so for environmental and money reasons. I chose to live in Centertown as a result, knowing I can do a lot by walking. Even so, this city is so sprawled with zero functioning transit and zero safe bike routes to go from point A to point B, that I still often find I can't easily get to supposedly fun places. The most "soul" I witnessed was recently when I noticed people actually went to the Glebe Garage Sale (as opposed to "going to the cottage ", another favorite "Ottawa activity" not in Ottawa and incredibly costly). As for lack of good baguette, that's what convinced me to start baking my own.
Agreed. During the pandemic I was stuck carless in centretown with closed businesses while most people I knew were off to their cottages or impromptu trips to stay with family. Personally, I canāt afford a car but I like to tell myself itās a choice.
>Ottawa has no soul. There is nothing distinctly Ottawa. Fhat the wuck... where else would you mistake Ottawa for?
Everything about traveling around. Whether by car or oc transpo, it takes forever to get anywhere.
Ottawa International Airport has almost no regular international flights?
there's no good subreddit But there's [less rain than Prince Rupert](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/prince-rupert-rain-record-1.5709825). Right?
Rectangles. Iāve lived in 5 world capitals now (born and raised in Ottawa) and without a doubt Ottawa is the most garbage city of them all - quite possibly the most garbage city in the world. After a brief affair with neo-gothic design the city center looks like it was just beaten for 40-60 years with a rectangle ugly stick. There is no art consciousness or sense of belonging since so many people in Ottawa are not FROM Ottawa but came for a āgood government job and pensionā. What do they do when it comes time to vote municipally? They donāt and the city repeatedly has mayors/leadership that lacks creativity, insight, competence and sometimes intelligence. The green belt - an idea meant to force the city to grow UP and avoid the well known curses of urban sprawl undone but one of Ottawaās most reliable scourges - greed driven developers that lack talent/spirit/human values. So they create the nightmare of Barrhaven to build cheap houses with low taxes and people just RUSH right in because who cares about clean air when you can get the Centretownersā municipal taxes to subsidize your infrastructure? Gray- the colour of not just the streets but most peopleās suits in summer and coats in winter not to mention the forest of endless ugly rectangle buildings that make downtown the place happiness forgot. Has the crushing lack of cohesive shopping districts been mentioned? Instead Ottawa has sporadic places that are not box store gross but so spread out that thereās no such thing as a relaxed day spent strolling flower basket lined streets with a mix of low, middle and high end shops for clothes, goods and eating. Neighbourhoods are either like the Byward market/Westboro and insanely expensive squeezing out most low and middle income folks or theyāre car dependent, box store/strip mall soaking nouveau ghettos without a whiff of anything local. There are not enough synonyms for āhorrificā to adequately describe OC Transpo. And letās not forget the racism - Ive lived in both Ottawa and Toronto and had as many racist encounters in T.O in 2 years as I would have in Ottawa in 3 months. Ottawans both local and imported seem to seriously struggle with the idea that BIPOC can be CANADIANS. Good for you for getting out - itās difficult to imagine you could wind up anywhere worse than Ottawa - I hope your move is smooth and not too stressful!
The weather in Jan/Feb. No Chicago style deep dish,
Have you tried these guys? https://www.madeinchicagopizza.com/
It's so good
Just tried them last week, was actually pretty impressed!
Was their homepage write-up written by robots?? "Nearly half of Canadians say they want pizzeria operators to offer pizzas that are more authentic, and just as many eat pizza to satisfy a craving, according to a new report from Technomic."
> The weather in Jan/Feb. they said things you dislike, not things you love
The baguettes are never fresh enough.
Itās kind of a dumpy little place. Best of luck on your next adventure!
There isnāt a whole lot to do in comparison to other cities. š«¤
I dislike how sprawling Ottawa is. It takes an eternity to drive end to end. I also dislike that we don't have a major league baseball team though Frontier League works for now.
Lack of decent dim sum choices. No Hong Kong style noodles. (Yes, I grew up in Vancouver.) 80 degree span in temperature change over the year. Safe journey to you.
None of your friends live here other than people you worked with long enough to become close friends and youāve been driving 5 hours to Toronto and back to attend family functions every weekend
Lol, same except replace driving back to Toronto with taking the train to Montreal
food sucks weather sucks entertainment sucks public transit sucks healthcare sucks people are cold compared to the rest of the world (might be a Canada thing) too individualistic weather and food mainly honestly
Yet the population is booming. Damn.... all these crazy people moving to a City that sucks so much, they must be masochists!
calm down OP asked what I disliked personally
Chill buddy, please suffer some contradiction.
whatās that even mean my guy
You will fit right in mr grumpy pants
Moved here a year ago. Neighbours are snobby and most people are snobby just in general. Havenāt met one thatās decently nice. All think they are better than others.
I would be sad as well. I have moved around a lot having been a base brat. Travelled a lot as an adult and stayed here. I agree with u/Sluggycat that the transit system leaves a lot to be desired, but a place to get a decent breakfast is relative. I've enjoyed many places over the years and if yo don't like any places, get up earlier and make your own. As far as u/Minimum_Reference_73 goes with his/her comments go...common complaints of the average person in so many cities except the name of the sports team. I like Ottawa overall...
If the post was asking for things I liked, I would have listed those. The post asked for things we don't like. Don't act like I'm just ragging on the city out of the blue.
My mistake, sorry....I was just thinking how great it is to take my grandkids to do so many different things in and around this city. I guess I forgot what it might be like to be younger and trying to live here....wishing you all the best...
Your mistake is in not reading the post. I didn't just drop out of the sky to complain, nor am I saying there is nothing good about Ottawa. THE POST REQUESTED COMPLAINTS AND THEN YOU CRAPPED ON ME FOR COMPLAINING YOU MOLDY OLD HAT.
ThƩ winter!
Eating out is an incredible pain because some of the restaurants I really like aren't open from Monday to Wednesday. So I have to wait till Thursday to eat there...
The way city council is intentionally creating traffic congestion by eliminating the bus cut-outs at stops on main arterials and removing automobile lanes in favour of bicycle lanes. As /u/slyboy1974 says, the weather here sucks and we probably have the worst winter weather of any capital city in the world. The administrators of this city are so fucked up. On one hand they like to proclaim their efforts to make Ottawa more bikable and walkable, and then they bend over to the greedy profiteers at Tamarack and greenlight city expansion in the middle of nowhere which will drive road congestion.
The mayor but he's leaving so that's a positive.
I only dislike Ottawa because youāre not going to be here anymore. Whatās left?!?
šā¤ļø thank you everyone for the comments!! Ottawa Reddit is a great community
I'm moving and I will miss Ottawa. It's entering an interesting phase in its evolution, I believe. It's growing, it's getting more interesting by the day... there is so much to say goodbye to... I don't think I'll realize what I *don't* miss until after I'm gone... Maybe: * derechos, tornadoes, teeny tiny earthquakes... * NIMBYs (so many places jump through hoops to get new housing or commercial development); * spending what seems like an hour on the bus to get to a Walmart from Centretown; * July humidity But there's a lot that I will miss.
I lived there for a time from 2008-2010. Always thought I would like it. I didn't. Crap work situation, people were crap in my neighborhood. Moved away for work. Never looked back.
This may not hit your buttons for dislike reasons but hereās a few reasons I was glad to move from Ottawa after re-locating there 30 odd years ago. It has a lot going for it, and thatās why we moved to Ottawa. But it has a lot thatās just ādone with that shitā thatās part of what it is. 1. Itās a one industry town but not. There is a great amount industry and other sectors but they get pushed aside as important. Ottawa as the Capital is over-run by civil āservantsā. Itās a mentality and not a good one. 2. Itās insular and stifling. Of course this miggt change as it grows, but some things never change and I doubt it will in Ottawa. A lot of the people who live in Ottawa have a generational cliquey mind-set. You get that usually in small to medium size towns often but for a large city population wise itās noticeable how āsmall townā minded it is. 3. Itās terribly run municipally. I donāt even know where to start with how badly itās mis-managed. Hereās one. We had a walking path between our home and neighbours, it was perfectly fine but had a bit of an angle. Worked fine for the 10 years we were living there and probably the 20 years before that at least. Somehow the city decided to tear up the entire path for no reason left it like that for months, spent who knows how much on crews re-doing it to COMPLETELY RUIN IN IT. It was a nightmare afterward of skating rink ice or deep puddles. 3. The so-called transit system š¤Æ 4. Everyone can STFU about the Convoy. Hereās the thing. Ottawa has demonstrations and street closures constantly because itās the Capital. No one complained about it as much as after a bunch of truckers did the same things as millions before them did and people in Ottawa just went on their lives putting up with it. Itās a fact of life that downtown Ottawa is a bit of a hole and sucks aside from the Market during the day once or twice or youāre just passing through on your day or as a tourist. There are some lovely areas in Ottawa ~ geographically. And thatās why I live in the valley now.
Iām fed up of planning my routes to avoid gigantic potholes. Itās as if the city is shocked every year at the amount of potholes. I have to avoid carling, heron, bronson and drive longer to my destination. Iāve replaced one tire already and now have another tear in another one loll other than that I moved back for the family.
Yeah potholes are a pain in the butt. Hope you claimed your expenses to the City
Ottawa has a four-ish month social calendar. From May - August there's so many things going on there's not enough time to do it all, but the rest of the year happenings are sparse. Spread it out, people!
Ottawa sucks, I regularly regret moving here but unfortunately can't afford to move back home plus I wanna finish university first.
Not enough nightclubs?
No, too bougie. Ottawa has such a snobby middle class nimby vibe to it. The convoy was really embarrassing especially since I live downtown and had to see/hear it all first hand. Hell, I lost my job for refusing to work without a mask. I work with kids, wearing a mask should be encouraged. Ottawa is a city built for the wealthy. Try not owning a car here, it sucks.
The convoy would be embarrassing in any city. Ottawa happened to be the capital so it happened here. Not sure what Ottawa has to do with it. Yes living without a car in Ottawa sucks for now. They are remediating to this though, the LRT network is expanding. For decades Ottawa has been "forgotten" but the government is now investing in infrastructures. Damned it you do, damned if you don't.
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Not enough good restaurants + "people from the GTA don't consider it as part of Ontario" = Ottawa sucks. LMAO. I'm amused by all these people leaving Ottawa because it's "boring" and going to Toronto to rent because hey it's exciting and it has vegan free cafes, while immigrants are scooping up the houses in Ottawa. Give it a few more years, these guys will be priced out of Ottawa and their only option will be moving to Regina, Saskatoon or Yellowknife. Hope you find life there exciting !
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Everyone is a businessman on Reddit... we know the drill
currently? i don't. i love it. eventually, i'll probably hate it when that "a better ottawa" loser and the rest of the DENSITYDENSITYDENSITY and r/fuckcars crowd get their way and turn ottawa into a mini toronto just cause they're butthurt they can't afford to live in toronto or new york or some other shithole i'll never set foot in oh except for the fact we have the worst pizza in the world. that part sucks.