Why we should improve Kent Street in downtown Ottawa
A couple weeks ago I wrote about how the City of Ottawa blocks urban improvements, now I’m going to write about a specific urban improvement and why we should fix it.
Kent Street in downtown Ottawa is a dangerous and ugly urban arterial road. The Centretown Community Association is advocating for its improvement. As part of this goal, we have adopted the street and will be hosting a clean up on October 5. Please consider signing up to participate here.
Here’s why we should improve Kent Street:
Safety
Kent Street is wide and fast. This despite many people living on it, and many cyclists and pedestrians travelling downtown. Slowing down speeds increases safety, which is exactly what Kent Street needs.
Majority of residents don’t drive
I feel like a broken record consistently citing Ottawa’s Orgin Destination survey, but it’s great data. The majority of people in urban Ottawa don’t drive, and yet the majority of streets in Centretown are arterials designed to move cars quickly above all else.
Last week with Jeff Leiper’s office, we counted traffic on Bay and Laurier during rush hour, and 40% of the traffic was bikes or scooters. With traffic increasing from return to office and parking prices higher than ever, we need to focus on more affordable and efficient modes of transportation.
Residents asking for it
Kent Street became a focus for the Centretown Community Association because over a year ago a father who lived in an apartment on the street came to me and said he didn’t feel it was safe for his kids.
At the end of 2023, CCA’s transportation committee surveyed our members and Kent Street was voted the #1 area in need of improvement. It’s clear that residents in Centretown want a more beautiful and thoughtful version of Kent Street.
Rewarding the most productive areas
Kent Street is a very financially productive street, with lots of dense apartment buildings and office towers. It’s certainly an area that brings in much more property tax revenue than it consumes.
On the topic of giving residents what they ask for, Charles Marohn has a relevant passage in his book Confessions of a Recovering Engineer (page 71), referring to downtown Springfield, a neighbourhood with high financial productivity (high value per acre):
“The downtown of Springfield should never want for basic sidewalk maintenance. The poor neighbourhoods next to the downtown should never have streets full of potholes, overgrown ditches, or backed-up pipes.”
The same applies to downtown Ottawa.
Charles mentions that building wealth begins with the recognition that the best investments address a real and urgent need experienced by people living in the neighbourhood, and StrongTowns has a four step process for identifying this kind of opportunity:
Humbly observe where people in the community struggle
Ask the question: What is the next smallest thing we can do right now to address that struggle?
Do that thing. Do it right now.
Repeat.
Ward 14 is byfar the most tax productive ward in the City of Ottawa. Centretown residents badly see the need for improvement on Kent Street, it’s about time we start investing and building a better downtown core.
More buildings going up
There’s a ton of construction slated for Kent Street right now, with the old greyhound bus station being developed and more buildings being proposed further North. There are so many reasons these buildings going up justifies improving Kent Street:
These buildings will have minimal parking, and we need to ensure new residents have options to get around safely. If we don’t provide good bike or walking options street parking will be a mess.
These projects will bring in significant development charges, which should be used to improve the area nearby.
Large construction projects can be difficult to live near, and if we want to encourage density and discourage NIMBYism, we need to show the positives that density can bring, like additional money for neighbourhood improvements.
Thanks for reading and please consider subscribing if you are not already. In part 3 I’ll be covering how to improve Kent Street.