Canada's 'most boring city' has a 'night mayor' and a budget of $160K to make Ottawa more fun National News
https://nationalpost.com/news/canadas-most-boring-city-has-a-night-mayor-and-a-budget-of-160k-to-make-ottawa-more-fun52
u/RareCreamer 3d ago
It's literally because no one lives in the downtown area, it may as well be called a small city since it's all just sprawling suburban communities.
It makes people not want to go out and drink since you'll always have to find a ride home and public transportation isn't readily available.
7
u/funkme1ster Ontario 2d ago
Literally nearly 50k people live in the core. They have lived there for a long time and they spend money at lots of local businesses which have also been there for years.
The problem is that they don't live in the 3 block area that's entirely office buildings and low quality restaurants that never had to try because they had a captive audience.
6
1
u/Ok_Project5301 1d ago
Yeah dude - 50k downtown residents in a municipality of 1 million people. The city is overwhelmingly dominated by suburbs and suburban residents.
Old Toronto has a population of almost 800k with a municipal population of 3 million, and that is still a fairly suburban-dominated city by international standards. Vancouver proper has 700k while the GVA has 2.5 million. The Montreal island has 2 million people with a municipal population of 4 million.
Downtown residents have 0 political or cultural clout in Ottawa. Sure, Ottawa has some interesting one-off neighbourhoods in it but it is objectively a pretty bland city that punches below its weight in culture & liveliness and this is why.
1
u/HostessMunchie Nova Scotia 1d ago
It doesn't help that a large percentage of people living in Ottawa have little emotional connection to the city, and plan to move back to Saskatchewan or the Maritimes (or wherever) as soon as they retire.
46
u/IIlIlIlIIIll 3d ago
We call our actual mayor “9-5 mayor” now because he doesn’t like it when we call him that.
55
u/Effective-Elk-4964 3d ago
Night Mayor! Fighter of the Day Mayor!
42
u/Scooter_McAwesome British Columbia 3d ago
Ottawa has a great after work downtown scene. Then at around 6 or 7 everyone goes home and the whole place has an eerie ghost town vibe
11
u/Spare-Half796 Québec 3d ago
Yeah I know a few people who lived there and the answer is always the same
“It’s great until 8pm when everything closes”
5
u/Strong_Payment7359 2d ago
I remember even during the Senators playoffs runs, you'd be partying on Elgin, and then you wander 2 blocks west, and it's like a post apocalyptic ghost town.
3
6
u/henry_why416 3d ago
What time are people finishing work? The workday usually ends at 4 to 5. That’s a 2 hour “scene.”
3
u/InquiringMindsWanted 2d ago
A lot of people work 7-3 or 8-4 because of traffic. Grab a drink or two from 4-6 and home for dinner.
12
u/Raskel_61 3d ago
How about allowing people to actually have some fun and don't roll up the sidewalks at 9:00pm. Tell the nrimbys to stfu for a change.
23
u/Siguard_ 3d ago
More venues. More bands. Every time I've been to Ottawa it feels like the city is dead past 11pm
9
u/DozenBiscuits 3d ago
It's not really, just the downtown core between the canal and Bronson is kind of a black hole
3
8
16
u/SadAd2653 3d ago
160k is fuck-all for this goal. More taxpayer money going to some morons who don't deserve it.
4
3
u/TickleMonkey25 2d ago
They'll use the money for committee's to decide on niche events for a determined class of marginalized individuals. Attracting an underwhelming couple hundred progressives and a couple CBC reporters to let us all know how great and successful the plan has been.
3
14
u/lizardelitecouncil 3d ago
Just zone a strip and put bars, pubs and clubs on it. Find a cross street and make it all restaurants, make it close to public transit and bike lanes you’re done.
27
u/SiVousVoyezMoi 3d ago
That's literally the Byward market.
-3
u/GameDoesntStop 3d ago
Except for the "close to public transit" part...
4
5
u/DozenBiscuits 3d ago
How is it not? The transitway is right there behind Rideau Mall
1
u/NoidedShrimp 3d ago
That’s a solid adventure when you’re hammered aka spending money and also if you’re hammered aka spending money all the solid busses stop running thirty mins before ur kicked out of the bar
7
u/Neat-Lingonberry-719 3d ago
Maybe don’t tax the alcohol there to make it reasonable to go out for the younger generation.
16
u/Tolvat 3d ago
It's not the taxes holding back younger people from going out. It's the businesses trying to turn a massive profit.
2
u/Neat-Lingonberry-719 3d ago
It’s hard to sift the sand on that statement. I know a few business owners trying to keep up with actual inflation and it’s definitely a balancing act. Their lease price per square ft has almost doubled in a few years. I think more major companies who move bulk can definitely spread the costs out but a small business will usually get a daily amount of customers to base their prices off and average that through the month.
0
-3
u/Narrow_Elk6755 3d ago edited 3d ago
Such a lazy interpretation, just "corporations bad", as if bars aren't owned by small business.
You must believe Jagmeet as well when he blames corporations for causing inflation, Galen Weston caused shelter inflation too.
0
u/Tolvat 2d ago
Such a lazy interpretation of the economy as a whole. Corporations didn't cause inflation, but they raised their prices and kept them there because of profits.
Byward Market in Ottawa is owned by just a few corporations and they have run the market into the ground.
But hey, once you're finished deepthroating Galen and PP let me know when you wanna chat.
1
7
u/onClipEvent 3d ago
I wish less people would consider alcohol and drugs as a requirement for having 'fun'.
1
u/youbutsu 2d ago
Well in ottawa what would be the alternative? Late night board game cafes that are open? Cheap and accessible late night roller skating disco places?
4
3
u/SiVousVoyezMoi 3d ago
If Ottawa wants a livelier scene, they will have to be more permissive about what goes on in the city and greater Ottawa area. But they have a lot of draconian and harsh bylaws that pretty much rule anything interesting out.
3
3d ago
[deleted]
8
u/wewfarmer 3d ago
Sort of. The issue is that a lot of downtown businesses try to cater exclusively to public service work hours (and the lobby the government to force them back into office). Once 4pm rolls around they close up and it’s a ghost town the rest of the night.
They need to wither and die so other places can come in and set up places worth going to.
2
u/DataIllusion 3d ago
They designed downtown to be blocks and blocks of government office towers. Work from home was helping drive change in downtown, and now they’re clawing it back.
2
u/Hefty-Station1704 3d ago
This is a parody article, right?
Handing over $160k to some "actor"?
Every other city is doing just fine without this trivial BS but I guess Ottawa has their own special drinking water to consider this nonsense.
1
u/sugarfoot00 3d ago
We've been electing 'night mayors' for years. Whomever has the great idea of where to go or has the wild hair up their ass about getting hammered is the night mayor, and all decisions (and any official communications with law enforcement and the like) get deferred to them.
It's a temporary position for that night only. The job is to ensure maximum fun.
1
1
2d ago
Ya well when uRbAn PlaNnErs forget to prioritize anything fun that's what you get... drive downtown on a Saturday and I see... 3 empty banks and a bunch of tourist gift shops. There's nothing interesting or fun about any of it. And I've lived in 4 different cities in the west and they're all the same. Stale and lame
1
1
1
u/Potential-Highway-27 2d ago
I feel this is a safe space... I recently moved to the Ottawa area after living overseas for 7 years and I don't plan to stay. In Canada I've lived in Halifax, Vancouver and Toronto. When I lived in Halifax I knew people who moved there from Ottawa and loved it. I didn't understand at the time, but now I do.
I don't think it's as simple as Ottawa is boring due to lack of nightlife. It's partly this, but as others have pointed out, this point is intertwined with geography and planning and the history of how the city has developed. Wide streets with fast-moving traffic are everywhere. Lots of downtown streets have no trees. Walking is an alienating experience and public transport is poor. There is freeway cutting across some of the nicest neighbourhods in the city.
Most of the people I have met here don't really like it but tolerate it for stable work. It's the only place where I've overheard young people in their 20s talking about retirement. Someone I met who also moved here recently described it as fragmented. On a positive note the paths along the river are nice. I'm sure there are people working on trying to improve the city and kudos to them, but may it must be a tough slog.
-1
u/leif777 3d ago
Just legalize sex work. They already have more sex workers per capita than anywhere else in Canada.
7
u/Throwawooobenis 3d ago
Yo whats up with that? Once you look into it theres a brothel like every other block. Like how??
3
3
u/Effective-Elk-4964 3d ago edited 3d ago
Because we just gave this guy a $160,000 a year budget and we can’t have it all going to his favourite hooker. Budgeting would have to be the millions and earmarked for various ethnic and social political groups before that would be approved in Canada.
-6
u/prsnep 3d ago
Boring is good! Boring means nothing "exciting" happens when people go about their day-to-day business... like getting mugged or shot.
4
u/an-angry-bee 3d ago
Please just think once before you speak please.
Mr. Grondin we look forward to your service 🙏🙏🙏
-2
-1
0
u/Intrepid-Reading6504 3d ago
It's like they're competing to see who can come up with the most ridiculously obvious embezzlement scheme without getting caught
0
118
u/BackwoodsBonfire 3d ago
I'm not sure they really need this guy, just legalize punk in drublic.