DECEMBER 2015 A Voice of Riverview Park VOL.7 NO.5 No stopping the $70 million AVTC hospital link road by Bill Fairbairn Sciences Campus, support fu- ith Riverview Park ture hospital growth, facilitate opposition cast any development of National aside, the hospi- Defence Medical Centre lands Wtal link road is going ahead and improve the traffic flow. through mud, water, dynamite Construction is scheduled to and considerable loss of trees continue until December 2017 for quicker ambulance access with follow-up landscaping in and in the near future promised 2018. improved traffic flow on Alta The work now has resulted Vista Drive and Smyth Road. in a slowdown of traffic dur- The project provides a link ing rush hours at the Alta Vista between Riverside Drive and Drive crossover site. Work on the Hospital Ring Road. The the Riverside Drive site in- City of Ottawa, in its latest volves construction of three update, repeats that the link is bridges, sewers and a water needed to improve transit ser- vices to the Ottawa Health See page 19 Flashback to 2011 Braving freezing temperatures Riverview Park residents protest the rising cost of the hospital Rachel: A small helper doing a big job for Park Cleanup link road and their loss of green space. Photo Credit: Chris Wightman Photo credit:Shawn Bardell Spend your winters warm. Spend them with us. Winter Getaways available to suit all care needs. Call today for more information. Limited space available Winter “stay-cation” packages available 613.739.0909 / 751 Peter Morand Crescent, Ottawa, ON. K1G 6S9 Page 2 Riverview Park Review DECEMBER 2015 Traffic! by Geoff Radnor ur little community of Riverview Park in Ottawa is close to the city centre. OMany years ago Alta Vista Drive was known as Churchill Avenue and was in the pastoral outskirts of the city. Today we are surrounded by roads full of traffic that are like- ly to become even more congested Lots of empty parking spots around the community More empty parking spots just waiting for more vehicles in the not too distant future. Let us look at our borders. To the under construction at 405 Termi- retail component but certainly found out that diesel engine cars north we have Industrial and Cor- nal Ave.-. adjacent to the one fin- does still add to the total amount are emitting pollution from their onation Avenues, to the west there ished last year. In the Train Yards of new traffic. We are told that exhausts by up to 40 times that are the two closely parallel routes complex there is an addition with The Ottawa Hospital, General allowed by regulations. Will the of Alta Vista Drive and Riverside three new retail outlets opened in Campus, employs over 7,000 peo- answer be electric cars? The only Drive, to the east there is Russell November (two were still vacant), ple; there are expansion plans too, pollution they cause is that emit- Road and St. Laurent Boulevard and construction has started on so there will be more traffic on the ted by the electrical power genera- and to the south, Smythe Road. more retail space on Industrial Hospital Link road. The develop- tions stations using oil. Over 50% Where the new Hospital Link fits Ave. next to the Pioneer gas sta- ment of the National Defence of our electrical energy is gener- in, we are not too sure, but you can tion. Opposite this, on the south Medical Centre will one day, in ated by nuclear power, very low be sure that it will make it easier side of Industrial, is a large vacant the not too distant future, maybe emitters of pollution. for more cars to enter Riverview space that will one day be devel- 10 years or so, bring more traffic But will these electric cars ever Park. Traffic will increase. oped. All of this retail and service to the area. The huge Belfast Yards be cheap and able to give you a As readers of this newspaper space is surrounded by parking for of the Light Rail project will bring drive to Montreal or Toronto (or will know from Kris Nanda’s ex- more cars. Traffic will increase to many more commuting workers to to Manotick) without stops to haustive coverage of the RPCA fill those empty spaces. our surrounding streets. Yes, more charge your batteries? Now that Planning and Development Com- On the corner of Industrial and traffic. oil prices have tumbled to the low mittee, much is going on around Neighbourhood Way is a multi- How many have noticed that the $40s and the price of gas at the us in Riverview Park. level residential building that may Queensway East-bound on-ramp pump is hardly $1.00 we are now There is a new office tower now not attract as much traffic as the at St Laurent has been closed? almost encouraged to continu- I am sure that those now clog- ing the daily commute by car. The ging the Riverside Drive alterna- new LRT line is not going to come tive know about it. Very often the close enough to Riverview Park north bound traffic at 4:30 pm is to make it an option. However we hardly moving from Smythe Road are fortunate to have excellent OC all the way to the Queensway, with Transpo service. TIS’ THE SEASON TO HEAR BETTER. a prime location for congestion So it does look extremely likely being at the intersection of River- that automobile traffic will con- side Drive and Industrial. tinue its upward surge all around Is all this extra traffic surround- us and we will all need to be more ing our neighbourhood suffocated vigilant when we take our cars and us? By how much will this increase enter the crowded main roads that in pollution shorten our life ex- surround our peaceful neighbour- pectancy? We have only recently hood. Happy Holidays from our family to yours. Kowalski Hearing Solutions is a full-service hearing aid center serving the area of Orleans and Ottawa East. We will do our best to provide Hearing Solutions for your budget. • Complimentary Consultations and Hearing Tests. HOLIDAY SPECIAL • Sale, Service and Repairs to all Makes and Models. • Price Match Guarantee. $250 OFF ANY PAIR OF HEARING AIDS. ANY For more information or to make an appointment TECHNOLOGY. ANY MANUFACTURER. please call our clinic today. No referral required. Registered + A FREE BOX OF BATTERIES. with ADP, WSIB, DVA, ODSP BEARBROOK ROAD SOUTHPARK DR. INNES ROAD 613.424.8600 G L KOWALSKI E 2600 Innes Road, Blackburn HEARING N SOLUTION P A R Hamlet, Ontario K1B 4Z6 K D R INNES ROAD . learn more about us at kowalskihearingsolutions.com $250 o a pair any tech ant manufacture Traffic signs: They’re all around us! box of batteries with purchase DECEMBER 2015 Riverview Park Review Page 3 Far fewer Christmas Tree fires by Maria CampbellSmith ward Johnson, became the first to would equal a $2000 cost today!) capitals. Ottawa’s Parliament t was in the 17th century that use strings of tiny electric lights to So, candles continued to be the Hill Christmas lights display wealthy Germans began the decorate and illuminate his family’s more common decoration for fam- begins December 2, 2015 and runs custom of decorating ever- Christmas tree. It was quite a nov- ily Christmas trees – and fires con- through to January 7, 2016. Igreen trees with small candles at elty. tinued to be a risk. A quick road trip to Upper Christmas time. Eventually this The December 27, 1884 edition Back to Albert Sadacca Canada Village (Parks of the St. custom spread internationally of the New York Times described Albert Sadacca’s family ran a Lawrence) near Morrisburg, Ontar- and many Christian families at- it in detail: “Mr. Johnson (President novelty company in New York. io will reveal an even bigger Christ- tached little candles with melted of the Edison Company for Elec- One of their products, for exam- mas spectacle. Their “Alight at wax or with pins to the branch tric Lighting) this year displayed ple, was a decorative wicker cage Night” holiday lights festival in- tips of their Christmas trees. This a tree with 120 electric lights and with an electrically-lit toy bird in- made for a sparkling display in the colored globes on a motorized, re- side. Young Albert was distressed home but it also posed a serious volving 6 foot tall Christmas tree. that families met with fiery disas- fire hazard. The trees were usu- It thrilled his children and the in- ters from their candlelit Christmas trees. The teenager convinced his fam- ily to produce simple strings of electric lights as safer Christmas tree decorations. Their first year of sales were not strong. They sold only 100 strings of lights but Albert added to his idea. They painted the bulbs to offer more colourful lights. As electricity became more common in homes, post WWI, the electric Christmas lights took hold. Albert Sadacca, with his broth- ers Henri and Leon, would go on to form the NOMA Electric Compa- ny – the largest Christmas lighting corporates nearly a million lights company in the world! Electricity and numerous rustic, wintery still means fire hazards, but strings events for visitors from December and displays of sparkling, coloured 4, 2015 to January 2, 2016. lights are now a mainstay of the Taffy Lane, in Orleans, has holidays. become famous for its neighbour- ally only lit for Christmas Eve and vited guests.” Local Christmas Light Shows hood explosion of Christmas lights the beauty seemed to outweigh By 1895, U.S.