About Ottawa
I’ve been meaning to post about my two-and-a half days in Ottawa for a couple of weeks now, but as you can tell from the recent lack of activity on Goyave, I’ve been rather busy lately.
This was my second time in the National Capital, and the first not in the dead of winter. Although to be honest, the weather could have been better — gusts of wind and the occasional sleet made the 2-h drive quite a pain. Of course it started getting better as we left on the Wednesday afternoon. Oh well, spring is here to stay now.
Impressions of the town… actually pretty positive. Sure, it doesn’t compare with Montreal, nor should it — it’s 3-4 times as small, and seems to have fairly harsh height restrictions ensuring an utterly non-impressive skyline. It also has a lot of redeeming qualities, like the compact, walkable financial district, the parliament hill and the ByWard market. It did seem like pretty much the only spot in town for close-to-decent nightlife, though.
One thing I learned from living in Montreal for almost two years now is that most Quebeckers view Ontario in general as a rather dull place. This proved true, as every stereotype should at least once for good measure, on that particular Tuesday night. Penguins vs. Senators, pretty intense game towards the end, with the winning goal for the Sens coming later rather than sooner. And the only two guys cheering… were us, the two Montrealers (yeah, the Habs are out playing golf, in case you didn’t know. So Ottawa will have to do.) Maybe the pub was full of tourists, but somehow I doubt that. Oh, and people got carded too — I didn’t though, which is actually more scary than cool. In all fairness, the drinking age in Ontario is 19, and I’m well past that. At least the fish n’ chips was good.
On the city itself and its urban form — I’m not exactly a party animal, so the lack of action is not much of a problem — I found Ottawa to be a very North American city, more so than I expected actually, knowing Toronto and Vancouver. I guess I need to explain that, so here goes: I think the commonly held stereotype that Canadian and US cities look similar is total crap. Seriously, when I see Toronto or Vancouver, I don’t see a generic NA city. Vancouver is pretty obvious: scores of glassy, green-ish condo high-rises packed on a small peninsula — there’s a reason why it’s called Hongcouver, and I don’t see that as a racial slur against its large Asian population. The city has been consciously modeling itself, in part thanks to the aforementioned Asian immigrants, after Hong Kong. The only other place on this continent that Vancouver could possibly claim some similarity to would be San Francisco — admittedly not the American cliché. What about Toronto? Sure, Toronto is this large, sprawly metropolis-on-the-lake. And yet it’s nothing like, say, Chicago or Detroit. Its green belt and heavily transit-oriented development (look at Mississauga for instance) look definitely European to me, as does the downtown mix of old and new buildings — not just any random mix: turn-of-the-century Victorian and modern, International-style glassy Euro/Asian scrapers. I honestly think Toronto looks more like London, UK, than any American city. Which is why I didn’t really expect Ottawa, the Canadian capital of all places, to look that much American, complete with sprawly suburbia and downtown expressways. If it wasn’t for the height restrictions, it would almost remind me of Omaha. Or… Montreal.
All in all, I loved the place. I’m not ready to pack up just yet, but I could see a point in my life when, confronted with a move to the ‘burbs, living in a place such as Ottawa would make sense, as I do believe it is one of the best in its class. For now though, I’ll keep enjoying the urban experience of Montreal for a while. The white picket fence will have to wait.