“It feels like something went really wrong,” said Aubin, who chaired the King Edward Task Force. “Here’s something that we had in Ottawa that was super unique, and we lost it.”
It’s all the more painful to compare those images with the King Edward Avenue of today. Picnics have given way to open drug use, the lovers’ path replaced with a median lined with panhandlers instead of elm trees.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
It was a grand boulevard, alive with the sound of horses’ hooves and children’s play, a favourite spot for young lovers walking under rows of elm trees buzzing with cicadas.
Momy would take a bologna sandwich and her dolls to picnics, right in the middle of the avenue, on a linear park built over a creek once known as the “Bywash.”
King Edward had a “village atmosphere,” with family grocers and horse-drawn wagons selling milk, but those stately elm trees added a touch of splendour.
“It’s come in waves over the years, where people have had this strong nostalgia and sense of loss and there’s a feeling of somehow needing to restore what was lost,” Aubin said.
The city’s strategy remains basically the same, according to its official plan: work with higher levels of government to explore a new bridge to divert the trucks from the downtown core.
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) said it’s working with the National Capital Commission (NCC) to help the federal government consider its options for a sixth crossing over the Ottawa River.
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