Centerpointe is a very respectable neighbourhood to live in. There are restaurants, lots of businesses, a few schools nearby, and a big park. In terms of walkability though, there are several elements that just don’t seem to fit in.
Parks are great within cities, but they have to be well integrated into the urban fabric.
The Park
Centerpointe Park is a beautiful area in the heart of Centerpointe. There’s a pond in the center, several soccer fields, and huge trees. It’s a great place to walk your dog, to relax, and to unwind. This park would be perfect for a small community outside the city. But what makes it not fit in the middle of Centerpointe? Parks are great within cities, but they have to be well integrated into the urban fabric. And Centerpointe… isn’t. It’s too big for the middle of a neighbourhood. That space could be put to much better use, or even spread out over the city, making it much more well used. Apart from that though, it’s very difficult to get around when you need to get somewhere quickly. The paths that go through it are very few, and they connect to the rest of the neighbourhood in very few places. If the park was incorporated into the city around it, by adding more pathways going through in useful strategic places, it would make walks to daily needs something to look forward to. Nature is a great way to make a walk more fun. Also, the large space could be used for community events to increase the life in the neighbourhood.
College Square
College Square isn’t technically part of Centerpointe. It’s a plaza, right beside the neighbourhood, that consists of big stores and a huge parking lot right in the middle. There are hardly any trees, so in the summer, you’re in the full sunlight and heat of the pavement (not fun). This is the place where everyone in Centerpointe and surrounding neighbourhoods does their shopping. It’s very easy if you have a car to park close and walk to the store you want. But for a pedestrian, it’s quite unpleasant to walk to, which encourages the use of cars. College Square is quite useful though, so we think it should have its place in a commercial area, far from a walkable neighbourhood.
For a pedestrian, it’s quite unpleasant to walk to, which encourages the use of cars.
Centerpointe Drive
Centerpointe Drive is one of the main streets in the neighbourhood, but also one of the most inconvenient. Walking along Centerpointe Drive can be unpleasant in many ways: there is sometimes only a sidewalk on one side of the street. Also, there are fences that run along the side of the road, making the walk extremely boring. And then, because it’s such a big road, and the sidewalks are so close to the road, the cars seem to zoom past you every minute. On the other hand, this road has a lot of potential to be super useful for walkers, because it’s the main street in Centerpointe. If it was made pleasant to walk on, everyone would use it for their daily activities, and it would even attract small shops and walking destinations along the way.
Centerpointe is a very respectable neighbourhood to live in.
Vast parking lots
Parking lots are an important part of a neighbourhood, because it allows multiple people to park their cars in one place, unfortunately they too have bad aspects. Centerpointe is one neighbourhood with numerous and vast parking lots, most in College Square. Those parking lots take up a lot of space that could be used for businesses, grocery stores, retail stores and more. Not only that but parking lots create a “heat island”, which is really unpleasant to walk through because of their increase in ambient temperature.
Overall, neighbourhoods should be accessible to all residents and walkable to any necessary resources. Centerpointe as a neighbourhood has lots of potential, and could become a more welcoming and walkable place for the residents.
We asked high school students from an urbanism class to contribute to the conversation about walkable neighbourhoods in Ottawa. This blog was written by Yasmina Achkar and Eveline Guindon.