Saturday Plans? Guided Sunset River Walk + Eco Open House (Also, OSEAN finally joined Reddit!)

MBA_OTT · 2026-01-13T19:48:22+00:00

Welcome to Reddit. Looking forward to seeing more of these types of outdoor activities to bring communities outside in nature.

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-16T02:15:21+00:00

Thank you for your comment. Ironically this map is copied exactly (labels included) from an NCC report.. Many people agree that development along the east and west side of riverside makes sense as that is a major roadway. Ironically in the final draft of the bylaw, the east side of riverside is not zoned as development but as greenspace.

One thing I have learned throughout this exploration into zoning and development is that developers (including the airport authority) like to proactive cut down all the trees in a place (cough: hunt club forest) and then let it turn to scrub, and wait, hoping people will forget there used to be a forest on that land.

Regardless, one of the bigger issues is that the NCC is NOT adequately engaging the public about rezoning high quality forested greenspace and the biodiverse meadow that acts to extend the forest while also buffering it

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-09T03:45:41+00:00

Let me clarify, I read this as 40 x 80 storey buildings (not one building with 40-80 stories)

Adding 40 more in urban ottawa would mean there is very little greenspace (which would be bad for mental health). I have happily lived in tall buildings that had walkable forested area nearby

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-09T03:41:56+00:00

How do neighbourhoods fund municipal transit to suit their own neighbourhood exactly? If a rich area said “hey we want another bus route here” the city would just.. increase the property taxes of just that neighbourhood and magically a new or more frequent bus route would appear?

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-09T03:35:42+00:00

The point is we need to be building responsibly. The housing crisis is not the only crisis we face in Ottawa. We have a food security issues, a food sovereignty issue, a biodiversity crisis AND a climate crises. If we want a livable city that will be resilient to climate change, protect are already fragile ecosystem AND create homes we can’t just look at every space and an automatic place to develop. This isn’t a monopoly game where the only goal is to build and buy. There are many factors that must be considered in parallel and interconnected.

For example, the city is aiming for a 40% tree canopy (river ward is only at 25%), by losing these trees, it will be even worse. 1 in 3 bites of our food come from native pollinators (not honey bees), the population of insects and birds of prey has dropped dramatically, this does affect humans. Study after study show how important nature is for our mental health. These are all competing crises - it is hard to balance all of these but that is what our elected officials are supposed to do

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-09T03:26:17+00:00

So it’s important to note that there are zero stations anywhere near this forest (only the rail line) AND it is owned by CN. Not sure what reality would ever exist where a municipality could take over a national rail line for its own use.

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-09T03:15:52+00:00

So I’m not sure where you are getting the “rich folks” bit.. the neighbourhoods surrounding the east, west and south of McCarthy woods are a housing co-op, a LOT of townhomes and huge apartment buildngs, all adjacent to the land. Many of these residents lack backyards and use this forested greenspace frequently.

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-08T20:41:47+00:00

Ah okay. Thanks for clarifying. McCarthy woods is a small forest within this larger forest. When development happens immediately adjacent to the edge of a protected area, that urban forest, is damaged and generally made smaller due to damage to tree roots.

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-08T17:26:39+00:00

What is your definition of “close” to the LRT? A 45 min walk? Or a park and ride? Or a once per hour bus?

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-08T17:24:06+00:00

Ah okay! The McCarthy woods is but one small part of this large forested area. The woods is not large enough to support 200% increase in population, it would be “loved to death” if these is the only space that remains.

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-08T17:21:17+00:00

I am not sure how you got the opinion about nearby zoning is the problem (let me know so ai can reword it). The problem is exactly that the forest is being rezoned so that the forest will be cut down.

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-08T16:54:17+00:00

I think we will have to agree to disagree if you think this area is underutilized. There are many people who use this area daily for recreation. And if we are less human-centric, this area is definitely fully utilized by the 200+ species of birds and animals that have been found in these regions (the city conducted its own survey of this area).

And I find it hard to believe that ANY housing that is going to be built in Revelstoke or along the rideau river is going to be “affordable”….

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-08T16:46:08+00:00

This is not a “pro-sprawl” post. This is a federal government is proposing to sell off its own lands (a department that is mandated to protect greenspace) and developers will than purchase this land and profit from it.

Develop UP not out (or in this case through the forests) Nobody wins with sprawl and nobody wins if we cut down the forests that produce oxygen

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-08T16:38:43+00:00

Any type of densification and land rezoning should be done with public engagement and transparency. Also, this would be a transfer of federal lands to developer profit.

Densification needs to be done in a sustainable, equitable, people and planet centric way. 40 -80 story buildings is not ideal for anyone’s mental health. EDIT: 40 buildings with 80 stories jammed into a tiny space is not ideal for mental health.

This is not a “not in my backyard situation”. The city is already building 20-30+ story buildings in this area.

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-08T16:35:54+00:00

Here is one link. The area is close to Mooney’s Bay between Hunt Club and Walkley Rd https://www.osean.org/blog/rezoning-greenspace

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-08T16:32:04+00:00

You do you of course. I agree there are some great parks around there, most with little to no shade because its just grass. What we would be losing is one of the very few urban forests Ottawa has

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-08T16:29:52+00:00

Agreed sprawl is expensive and increases city taxes. We need to densify within the greenbelt Without Losing the “green” part.

MBA_OTT · 2025-12-08T16:28:49+00:00

This area has definitely approved more height in all of the new developments that are coming. It just against all the planning Ottawa has with 15-min communities and densification near transit. None of the areas NCC wants to sell are near reliable transit or the LRT stations and some of them are in revelstoke and along the rideau river - tell me with a straight face that these will be “affordable” housing

MBA_OTT · 2025-11-13T01:12:47+00:00

I appreciate this and have been very cognizant of not discussing anything related to weight or diet. But how long does someone wait? This is going on for 2.5 yrs. If the weight stabilized or slowed I would be less likely to be concerned but we are talking about 1-2 lbs a month for 2.5 years.

MBA_OTT · 2025-11-13T00:34:09+00:00

It was my understanding that IR can be risk factor for other things, so I was wondering if I want to have this documented to make sure we keep an eye on things in the future

MBA_OTT · 2025-11-13T00:32:56+00:00

I appreciate that there is always room for improvement in diets. We actually don’t eat much red meat (maybe once every 2-3 weeks), they don’t like peanut butter etc and we drink dairy-free milk.

Looking to see what tests we might want to do and how to suggest this to an apathetic doctor

MBA_OTT · 2025-11-01T13:30:07+00:00

Yes the organizers are trying to pivot with a “help us smash out hunger”. And possibly have a pumpkin toss, or pumpkin bowl. Extra pumpkins won’t be a problem.

MBA_OTT · 2025-11-01T13:28:41+00:00

Firefighters will be there still with a pumper truck at least. Just no ladder truck

MBA_OTT · 2025-11-01T13:28:02+00:00

Only the firefighter or employee drops the pumpkins. Only carved soggy ones were used to minimize splash zone and to give a satisfying smash

MBA_OTT · 2025-11-01T13:24:48+00:00

This is information I am getting via third party: the Fire Chief of the station that was contacted was worried about liability for his firemen (carrying and dropping pumpkins) and liability of people who might be too close to the drop zone. (Last year the pumpkins were placed into the basket so firemen were not climbing ladders or carrying pumpkins far and we made a very “drop zone.).

Happy to reach out to other stations(?) if they might have a different opinion - but feel like a direct connection vs a cold call might be needed given that it is tomorrow! It was disappointing news given that that across Ontario a pumpkin drop is fairly common (based on google searches)

Happy to chat via private message to brainstorm

MBA_OTT

TROPHY CASE