Following the great reader feedback over the past several days, we have decided to run a follow-up group of articles for The Future of Ottawa series. If you have any suggestions for topics that we should cover, email us at apartment613@gmail.com, contact us on our Facebook page, write a suggestion in the comment box in one of the articles in the series, and/or if you use Twitter, send a message using the hashtag #futott.
The Future of Ottawa series was only meant to be a one-time event. The original plan was to publish a different guest post from Monday to Friday this past week and then leave it at that.
To our pleasant surprise, however, the series generated a fair bit of buzz. Whether through comments on the blog site, Twitter, our Facebook page or in personal conversations, numerous readers voiced their views on the future direction of our city. Some were so keen on continuing the discussion they asked if we could publish another round of articles.
So after giving it some thought, Apartment613 has decided to continue The Future of Ottawa series, with the next group of guest columns likely coming in the early spring.
But what other topics could we cover? Several readers suggested that we publish a piece in response to Jonathan Westeinde’s guest post on the proposed redevelopment of the Domtar lands by Windmill Development Group. While many readers were thrilled with this proposed project, others were critical, citing the interest of First Nations for the site.
Others pointed out that plans to redevelop Arts Court and the Oblate lands contain exciting opportunities. Turning to the guest authors, some readers noted that the series lacked female voices, something that will not be repeated in the next group of stories.
Andrew Cohen’s piece also generated a fair bit of discussion, with some readers praising him and others shaking their head in disbelief. Perhaps, then, we could ask someone to write a post that doesn’t focus on supposedly past blunders, but rather makes the case that this city is a leader in offering its residents a very high-quality of life, with a future that contains even more cultural and recreational opportunities.
Thinking of the numerous recreational opportunities in our region, (e.g. hiking in Gatineau Park, skating on the canal, cycling on the more than 600 kilometres of bicycle paths in our region), another potential column could be the future plans to improve the city’s cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.
We are just at the beginning stages of organising the next series of articles. If there is a particular topic you would like to cover let us know, and we will see if we can get someone to write a guest column about it.
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