Saturday afternoon I joined a good number of people in Old Ottawa South for one of the weekend’s walking tours, part of  the Jane’s Walk event. I’d estimate there were at least 70 of us, which seemed to catch even the organizers off guard.

Our guide Leo Doyle, himself a resident on Sunnyside, delivered a wonderful snapshot of the neighbourhood’s evolution. Turns out Old Ottawa South was one of the city’s first suburbs. With the construction of the Bank Street bridge and the arrival of the streetcar, it became more accessible to the less affluent, so the suburbs moved further out. Imagine that!

The highlight for me was when Leo took us back to 1971 and the widening of Sunnyside. Not only was this a civil engineering project, but inadvertently it resulted in social engineering. Large trees were cut down and sidewalks were narrowed, all in the name of traffic flow, but sadly at the expense of a neighbourhood's soul. Leo added some context by pointing out that 1971 was the same year Toronto cancelled plans for the Spadina expressway, illustrating the start of a reversal in Ontario’s “car first” philosophy. Just not soon enough for Sunnyside. This part of the tour took me to a dark place...a place where our welcome sign would read: “Ottawa: the city where yesterday’s mistakes are made today.”

For inspiration, look up: The Palladium, new car pool lanes on the Queensway, the Champlain Bridge widening, scenic car routes along both sides of the Rideau Canal and along the Ottawa River, tax freezes from 2000-2004, a promised tax freeze for 2007-2010, and King Edward Avenue.

Congratulations to the guides and organizers of Jane’s Walk. Here’s looking to next year’s weekend.

Update: Sabrina Bowman is an organizer of Jane’s Walk. She tells me they had 90 participants for Sunnyside and 680 overall for all the walks. Bravo!