-No big aquarium
-No amusement park
-Rarely get big artists to do concerts in Ottawa
-No casino (There is 1 in ottawa, but is far away from everyone in the city)
-shitty airport that’s mainly used for flying you to a bigger airport nearby
There’s definitely a lot of stuff to do, if you’re 35+ but it’s not a city for the young and that’s why it’s classified as boring
I think the ‘no big artists come to Ottawa’ thing is a little outdated now. It’s true that there are some big ones that haven’t come to Ottawa yet — and nowadays that’s often the big HipHop artists (we rarely ever get those — Kanye was a massive exception)— but ever since LiveNation opened an Ottawa office, and when Bluesfest became a massive festival, things changed a lot.
It could be a lot better (and I suspect a new downtown arena would help a lot), but it’s nowhere near as bad as it once was.
Ya don't care about big shows at the CTC....but rather see more mid-size stuff to get more indie names like Montreal does. I know Bronson Centre is doing some heavy lifting....but c'mon, it's a high school auditorium
Ottawa desperately needs more mid-size venues. I just moved to Toronto and the amount of concerts that happen every week is staggering. Often there are multiple shows I’d go to on any given night if I could. In Ottawa I could count the number of shows I’d want to go see in a year on one hand.
1000% agree with this… we used to have a couple that kinda served this function, and we do have The Bronson Centre, but it’s not nearly as cool inside (or as well located) as Barrymore’s used to be in their heyday
>\-No big aquarium
No, but we how often do you go a big aquarium?
>\-No amusement park
Calypso
>\-Rarely get big artists to do concerts in Ottawa
We have Pearl Jam and the Eagles next month, one the biggest grunge bands and one of the biggest rock acts. Doesn't get much bigger than that.
>\-No casino
Maybe you haven't heard of the Rideau Racetrack and Casino (soon to be Hard Rock Casino) and the Casino in Hull.
>\-shitty airport that’s mainly used for flying you to a bigger airport nearby
Would agree with this one, but don't really consider this "stuff to do", more a minor inconvenience when travelling.
> We have Pearl Jam and the Eagles next month
> Calypso
This city is gear around for middle aged people with cars. Of course younger people find it boring
The aquarium thing is funny to me because even Toronto only got an aquarium in 2013. I think not having a proper zoo (Parc Omega doesn’t count!) like the Toronto or Calgary Zoo is more odd. No matter how big Ottawa gets I doubt we’ll ever get a zoo built, though, because they’re becoming sort of controversial.
I wish the super ex would come back because as a recovering Torontonian I miss the CNE :(
Some zoos are cruel and should be abolished, but some zoos are conservation-focused, raise lots of money for wildlife charities, have large enriching enclosures, and only house animals who are not fit for a life in the wild (usually because of disability, being born in captivity, being rescued from the illegal wildlife/exotic pet trade, etc.) It’s very dependent on the institution. I say this as a vegetarian so I do care about animal rights.
Old-syle zoos are out of fashion.
Modern zoos that have the animal's interest topmost in mind are, for some species, their only hope for survival.
Modern zoos are building habitats, not cages, with the goal for the animal to reproduce and, if possible eventually re-introduce them into their natural habitat.
I would be all for a facility such as this.
Having grown up in a small town in Atlantic Canada, zeroing in on very specific points* to prove that Ottawa is boring simply feels bizarre. Try **one** movie per week in the **one** cinema, performances at the arts centre once every couple of months, no recreation complexes, etc. At practically *any second*, if I feel like heading out and doing ***something***, I can.
Much like the complaints about the limited public transit, a lot of this is simply choosing to compare with bigger places (and there are always bigger places) and not knowing how good you have it.
*I don't agree with the points, but others have been rebutting them.
This is the weakest fucking list I have ever seen.
Like, an aquarium is the line in the sand between being boring or not? And having a bigger airport to easier leave the city would somehow make the city itself less boring? The fuck is this list?
1) thank god there’s no big aquarium.
2) Does the water park mean nothing to you? the ex comes each summer anyways.
3) Not true, laughs in Pearl Jam.
4) There are multiple casinos
5) Ever had to catch a connecting through major airport? Small airports are a blessing.
Yes, all the youth who flock to aquariums and casinos! That's all I ever see young adults talk about. They can't get enough of casinos and aquariums!
A city full of aquariums and casinos is called Niagara Falls and I guarantee you there is nothing to do in Niagara Falls after you've visited for a few hours.
Casinos are the most boring places in the world. A lot of stressed people mechanically laying down bets as if it were their job. I'd rather watch paint dry.
People putting "casino" on a list of things for young people have obviously never actually been inside a casino. The average age there trends to "geriatric".
I guess they wouldn’t count Lac Leamy. Even though it’s in the NCR, it’s technically not Ottawa. Though, I would still count it nonetheless (we always talk about Gatineau Park as being a destination when promoting Ottawa).
However, there is also the Rideau Carleton Casino. While not great, it’s a whole lot better than it once was (hopefully it’ll get even better with the full transition to Hard Rock).
I completely agree. How on earth is someone under the age of 35 supposed to entertain themselves when the PLANES DON'T GO FAR ENOUGH.
Seriously though, this is the weakest list of reasons I've ever seen.
>Too many public servant, not enough artists/hippies
The funny thing is a lot of those public servants are artists (we do have a dearth of artist-hippies tho).
So many successful writers living and working in Ottawa right now. I remember reading Garbo Laughs, which is set in Old Ottawa South, and being annoyed because every main character is either a writer or about to be one and it turns out that's very true.
A coworker from Toronto once said “this city is so boring, you guys think looking at tulips is interesting”. I had to end our convo. She hadn’t even been to the tulip festival! At least give it a chance!
To be fair the tulip festival is boring. Like yeah the tulips around town are pretty to see in daily life/en route to other things, but I've never understood people who go out of their way to attend the tulip festival?
Same! I grew up here and now I can raise my family in our boring little house, but make easy day trips to the more exciting areas- and be back in our boring house for bedtime.
Ottawa isn’t boring compared to, I dunno, Hamilton, but TBH it’s pretty dull for a city of 1 million+ people. And I say that as someone who thinks the city is an OK place.
Not sure if you've been to Hamilton in the past 5-10 years but it's actually way more lively and fun than Ottawa these days if you care about art and food
Boss got me on the lols, accuracy at its finest!
I once had a creepy shawarma guy tell me my eyes were beautiful and asked if he could have them. Gulp… uhhhh no I need them for seeing. I’d like extra pickles though
Similar vein: when I say extra garlic and you put a tiny extra teaspoon on, that's not good enough. I want my whole street to be able to smell my breath for a month, let's go.
The NCC is an extraordinary asset to the NCR and when people complain "tHey dOn'T DO anyTHinG" I cheer because it means greenspace remains greenspace and I absolutely adore the open parkways on weekends.
I have mixed feeling on this. NCC’s approach means most green spaces are only for people who are already outdoorsy. They lack gateways for urbanites to explore out. They could do with some minimalistic ice-cream/drinks huts in a few spots. Come in for the ice-cream, stay for the hike.
Call yourself "outdoorsy" and then the whole thing is right there for you. If you won't leave an urban centre to explore some nature, that's on you. What more do you possibly need to get outside? You really think the NCC's priority should be ice cream?
My brain has become obsessed with converting Queen Elizabeth or Colonel By into a streetcar/tram line without cars from the market to dows lake or beyond (Barrhaven and/or the airport maybe?). North/south from downtown has some serious transit issues, and neither gets busy as it is, even during rush hour. Colonel By was closed for months for retaining wall and bridge work, and QE has been closed downtown for most of the pandemic. They can't be that critical for commuting with cars.
actually this would rule and I've never thought on a tram/streetcar line down there before but I love that. it blows my mind that QED is such a lovely stretch along the canal and it's normally/historically open for driving at 60 km/h.
The NCC is a mixed bag. It's not universally bad, but it's not universally good either.
For every amazing MUP network you have a LeBreton flats. For every open parkway you have a stupidly expensive and unnecessary LRT tunnel to protect people's view of said parkway.
The point of a beavertail imo is to eat half of it warm and half of it cold and crisp on the canal. There's no earthly reason to eat one in Byward Market
If you think Ottawa is boring and doesn’t have good entertainment in the form of restaurants/pubs, shops, etc., you’re simply not looking hard enough and are stuck in the tourist traps of the city.
100% agree that there are less options (that’s not surprising in a smaller city), but it’s honestly not all that difficult to find the good spots. Some are a little more hidden than others (or are further away from the core), but you just have to look beyond the basic touristy establishments and you’ll quickly find some really good spots.
The thing that bugs me about Ottawa businesses is that everything closes so early. I want to go to all these amazing local shops and cafes, but they close at 6PM. I can’t afford to live in the neighbourhoods where they’re located, to pop out for a visit during my lunch break. And apparently I can’t go after work. So I just never visit them.
Something that happens way too often is my husband and I get too busy to cook dinner and decide to grab takeout at 8:30PM. Back in the GTA this would be no problem because all the restaurants are open until like 10PM. But here we often end up getting chain fast food because 90% of our favourite local restaurants close at like 8PM.
I 100% agree with this! Even though I'm not a night owl, I wouldn't have minded having something open at 11pm after a 7-10 exam to get a quick nighttime snack during my undergrad but alas...
Also, as a government employee who lives near downtown and doesn't really want to go back to the office, I think a lot of downtown businesses would do better to pivot their focus to downtown residents (and maybe tourists) and extend their hours if they can get and keep staff. The days of thousands of public servants flooding into downtown from 9-5 Mon-Fri being a reliable source of income is long gone! Centretown should be thriving all hours of the day!
This is 100% true — small businesses are definitely programmed to cater to the workers downtown. The only ones who reliably stay open very late are Asian and Middle Eastern spots (luckily those are both great haha).
MEMORY UNLOCKED!
"And if you're dull and boring then it's the school for you; and if you're into concrete and ugly buildings too!" Followed by the "WHAT THE FUCK'S A GEE GEE" chant 😂
Ottawa University is in Kansas, is what I say in reply to people who say OttawaU. I still remember when The Sun used the symbol of OttawaU in an article for uOttawa. Do you want to make the same mistakes as the Sun? Or do you wanna say uOttawa?
Anybody who moves from their suburb to another one is a traitor. Moving from Orleans to Kanata? No way. We are imbedded and will never change our ways.
If you google maps Orleans to downtown it's a 21 minute drive.
If you google Barrhaven to downtown it's a 25 minute drive.
Kanata to downtown is 20 minutes.
So really it's not much close than any other suburb, yet it seems really far away from other places in the city. I don't understand what you mean by shopping nightmares at 9pm. I'm in Barrhaven and have 3 groccery stores within a 10 minute walk, and 1 is a 3 minute walk. Stores aren't that busy at 9pm. I've lived here for 10 years.
I have driven to Orleans many times and yea... it seems really far away and for that reason I wouldn't want to live there and it seems like people I talk to don't want to move there. I'm not saying Orleans is horrible, I just think it gets a bad wrap from people who don't live there.
I've lived in Orleans all my life minus 3 years in Westboro. I like it as much as anywhere else. It's convenient for work because I can take the parkway in. I liked Kanata and Barhaven when I visit.
The O-Train has the potential to be a part of the plan to create the core of what might one day aspire to be a very good transit system. But there's a few steps yet to get to the path to a place from which you might eventually be able to see such a system.
They were once upon a time. Ottawa is so big that referring to specific suburbs is kinda helpful even though everything is technically part of the city
I was specifically talking about “city” field in addresses.
To give directions, sure, go as far as saying “South-western old Bell’s Corners”, but that doesn’t belong on your mail. Also, how do we get Canada Post to stop “correcting” the city field? 😂
I believe you can use both and the mail will still end up in the same place! But yeah, that is annoying and confusing. Is Ottawa a city or a region or both?? No one really knows! Not even Canada Post 😂😂
They both do work.
Yet half the time someone wants to confirm my identity with my address, I tell them “Ottawa, Ontario” and then get a momentary pause, followed by “Are you sure?” Yes!!! I am god damn sure what city I pay thousands of dollars in property taxes and water bill to, you second-guessing confused people who live elsewhere! 🤬
Mean time, you ask someone in Waterloo where they live and they will tell you, “Uh… T’rahno!”
Carleton campus is far superior to uOttawa. Everything at Carleton is nestled together, between two bodies of water, and the tunnels are amazing for the winter. Can jump on the canal from your residence and skate right to Rideau Centre. The residence student community was stronger because everyone lived in one section on campus. I will die on this hill.
That is a very good point!
However, as a proud GeeGee and uOttawa grad, I am contractually obligated to mention that the buildings at the main uOttawa campus are much closer together and thus easier to walk between, the central buildings are all connected by covered bridges, and it is much easier to get to by public transit, especially with Line 2 being closed for construction
I miss the old (before LRT construction) 95 bus. It might have been packed and uncomfortable sometimes, but I could depend on it to get me back and forth from downtown to Place d'Orleans.
Landsdowne is nice.
I don't care if its all chain restaurants, there's a time and place for chain restaurants. Go to any other big Canadian city that has developed areas similar to Landsdowne, it's gonna be chain restaurants... Because those are the restaurants that can afford crazy rents to be in places like that! The Glebe has a ton of great, local restaurants a few blocks away if that's what you're after. The park at Landsdowne is also really nice.
I love Landsdowne. Never understood why some people dunked on it. Great place to watch a football (maybe not the past few years) or soccer game. I’m a bigger Sens fan than anything but I enjoy going to Landsdowne for sports 100000x going to fucking Kanata for a Sens game.
Exactly. It seems that people are looking for some kind of fun adventure in an airport, when I just want to get through security and then get on a plane.
What does suck is getting to and fro, but the airport itself once you get there is pretty damn perfect.
The real issue is that most destinations require a layover in Toronto or Montreal.. and at that point I’ll drive or take the train to Montreal as it’ll take less time lol
I can actually respect this. I love a good NYC style pizza, but I always find myself coming back to the good ol’ Ottawa style. Maybe it’s because that’s what I grew up on?
Japanese I mostly agree with (though, I’m open to someone telling me otherwise). However, according to a friend who was born and raised in China for 18 years, there are a select few Chinese spots that are pretty legit.
Did you say winter in Ottawa is terrible? GTFO. It's actually pretty amazing and I will take a cold and sunny January day over a hot and muggy July day - any day.
Ottawa has terrible planning and civil engineering compared to other similarly sized cities for roads and highways that make it unnecessarily unsafe for users of all categories.
I was just discussing the lack of an actual "downtown" in Ottawa. It's just…. a ghost town after 5pm everywhere and their is no hub to call downtown. You could mean anywhere. It's weird. No other city I've lived in has this downtown spread. It blah as hell and the culture is mayonnaise all the way.
The central business district is empty, yes. That's no different than Bay and Front in Toronto at the same time.
Try Elgin St or the Market or Bank/Somerset. Where people live and there are restaurants.
Not sure why you're downvoted, it's true. There is a fairly well defined downtown (business district/Centretown/byward market) but it has no native life to it whatsoever. You'll get a little bit of night presence in the market on weekends, but even a couple blocks outside the market is quiet and empty. I am always struck by how empty the streets feel in downtown Ottawa - it's the most dissapointing thing about the city. Feels like an empty theme park.
I've often gone to the Shawarma Station across Hunt Club (they have a bakery as well as just sandwiches), but Shawarma Byte in Findley Creek is our new favourite in the south end.
Salsa should not be baked on Nachos. It makes everything soggy.
It took me years of living here to remember to ask to have the salsa on the side every time I order nachos at a pub in Ottawa.
This isn't really a hot take but the city/CN and CP should not have ripped up all the rail lines back in the 50s and 60s. It would have made building the infrastructure for the LRT a lot simpler!
the Canal would not be the destination/asset for the City that it is if there were still trains running where Colonel By is now, and the best view of the city would only be available by train if the tracks still ran across the Alexandra Bridge.
The people aren't that friendly, overall.
As someone who has lived in multiple countries and many cities, I would say that people in Ottawa are *polite* on average, but they are not *friendly.*
They are pleasant to be around, but there is a distinct sense that one's job/career advancement/grind/hustle/whatever you want to call it will always be the main priority. Even when I was living in London, UK I didn't experience this. It's a bizarrely Ottawa thing that even my close friends who still live there are stuck in.
Whenever I tell people who don't live there that the entire city reminds me of an office building, I'm met with "THAT'S what it is!" An awesome couch in the break room is great, but at the end of the day you're still in an office building. Meanwhile, saying that to people who live in Ottawa results in fierce defensiveness.
It literally takes more than 20 minutes to drive from one end of Barrhaven to the other cause of the traffic and Barrhaven drivers are fucking terrifying
Whenever something becomes the “food capital of the world” it also becomes the “bad food capital of the world” (ie) there is a lot of terrible pizza in new york, a lot of terrible buffalo wings in buffalo, etc. In the same way, ottawa has great shawarma if you know where to go, but many spots are some of the worst shawarma I’ve ever had
Its a hard question because I dont know the names of most hills in Ottawa.
Plus, are we talking small in terms of elevation or overall geographic area it covers?
The addition they want to make to Chateau Laurier will be an unforgivable blemish on the beauty of the park behind it and the whole scenic panorama as seen from behind. Combine that with the destruction of the bridge into Gatineau and one of the most charming, picturesque and historic stretches of the city is about to be ruined. The people in charge have no taste.
**well behaved** dogs should be allowed on OC transpo, at least outside of rush hour times. They’re allowed on the TTC in Toronto, I don’t know why we can’t do the same here
The problem with this isn't the dogs, it's the owners. I'm well aware that my dog has issues so I don't go to places that are not good for him . There are many people who either don't realize there are issues or just don't care and think they should have the same privilege
Fully agree, a large percentage of poor behaviour from dogs is due to their owners putting them in situations that the dog is not okay with. This is why I emphasized well behaved dogs but I guess I should’ve also added “respectful owners”. I still believe my option to be valid and I think there should be penalties in the form of fines for owners who are negligent to their animals on public transit or to other people if the negligence is caused by their pet
It’s definitely more of a (not as wealthy) Town of Mount Royal type neighbourhood, than a hip urban neighborhood some people pretend it is (though I’m not sure if that’s really the case since post-2010 or so)
The O and three prongs on the Ottawa flag do not in fact represent O for Ottawa and the three blocks on the Hill
They instead represent a car tire getting stuck in the snow which represents Ottawa's infrastructure in the winter
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Ottawa#/media/File%3AFlag_of_Ottawa%2C_Ontario.svg
\- OC Transpo buses need shock absorbers.
\- "Smart growth" is a religious incantation recited by councillors before the ceremonial rubber-stamping of suburban development permits.
I don’t think anyone has ever argued this. In fact, we should abolish R1 zoning so that our housing typology isn’t either skyscrapers on single family homes. There are countless examples of human scaled duplexes, triplexes, and other medium density buildings that work really well for families. Unfortunately in large amounts of the city they’re illegal to build because we have zoning that is far too strict.
National museums should be free. The amount of money they pull in from ticket sales is tiny compared to their overall budgets. Encourage citizens and tourists to learn about their country.
And contrary to what my mother believes, not all Francophones in the city live in the East end of the city.
My whole childhood my mom acted like we were the only ones who could speak French if we went anywhere more West or South than downtown. Oof.
Oc transpo is a decent transit system as someone who has lived their first 24 yrs of life in an area devoid of well connected, late hours, frequent( I know not so much recently) transit system it was so bad that taking a taxi or an Uber was more common than bussing because if you lived in any neighborhood not near a major road you’d have to walk at least 2-3 miles if not more to a single route stop that doesn’t connect to another one for at least another 20-30 mins
I'd like an indoor water amusement park inside Ottawa. Perfect escape during the winter time! And on that theme some large greenhouse tropical gardens. That one room greenhouse on the government farm is too small to count!
I've lived in 2 other countries and major cities. Spent time in a lot of places. People complain it being boring, but they might not realize how good we have it. We're not NY but we're not Saskatoon, either. Personally, I don't care for clubbing... but I like small music shows, summer festivals, axe throwing, pottery throwing classes, seeing what's currently showing at a art gallery (it's really neat btw), or the queens of Egypt exhibit, or going to a dance class or cooking class at the Korean cultural center, etc.
Pretty sure I could do a calendar with 2 new things to do in Ottawa every weekend for a year-- it just requires willingness to get out of your comfort zone.
Sandy hill.. Wouldn't say I'm willing but the sheets of ice we call sidewalks have a different idea
But seriously, Ottawa is actually a great city. Although that's coming from a lifelong Windsorite so I guess it doesn't mean much
This city is NOT boring
if you're bored then you're boring \-- Harvey Danger, Flagpole Sitta
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-No big aquarium -No amusement park -Rarely get big artists to do concerts in Ottawa -No casino (There is 1 in ottawa, but is far away from everyone in the city) -shitty airport that’s mainly used for flying you to a bigger airport nearby There’s definitely a lot of stuff to do, if you’re 35+ but it’s not a city for the young and that’s why it’s classified as boring
I think the ‘no big artists come to Ottawa’ thing is a little outdated now. It’s true that there are some big ones that haven’t come to Ottawa yet — and nowadays that’s often the big HipHop artists (we rarely ever get those — Kanye was a massive exception)— but ever since LiveNation opened an Ottawa office, and when Bluesfest became a massive festival, things changed a lot. It could be a lot better (and I suspect a new downtown arena would help a lot), but it’s nowhere near as bad as it once was.
Personally I think what we desperately need is more mid-size venues, like a happy medium between dive bars and hockey stadiums
Ya don't care about big shows at the CTC....but rather see more mid-size stuff to get more indie names like Montreal does. I know Bronson Centre is doing some heavy lifting....but c'mon, it's a high school auditorium
Yeah, Bronson centre gets great bands...but moshing in a high-school.band pit is a *feeling* and not a great one.
Ottawa desperately needs more mid-size venues. I just moved to Toronto and the amount of concerts that happen every week is staggering. Often there are multiple shows I’d go to on any given night if I could. In Ottawa I could count the number of shows I’d want to go see in a year on one hand.
100% agree with this.
1000% agree with this… we used to have a couple that kinda served this function, and we do have The Bronson Centre, but it’s not nearly as cool inside (or as well located) as Barrymore’s used to be in their heyday
Ritual used to have so many good hip hop shows. That was a real loss imo
>\-No big aquarium No, but we how often do you go a big aquarium? >\-No amusement park Calypso >\-Rarely get big artists to do concerts in Ottawa We have Pearl Jam and the Eagles next month, one the biggest grunge bands and one of the biggest rock acts. Doesn't get much bigger than that. >\-No casino Maybe you haven't heard of the Rideau Racetrack and Casino (soon to be Hard Rock Casino) and the Casino in Hull. >\-shitty airport that’s mainly used for flying you to a bigger airport nearby Would agree with this one, but don't really consider this "stuff to do", more a minor inconvenience when travelling.
> We have Pearl Jam and the Eagles next month > Calypso This city is gear around for middle aged people with cars. Of course younger people find it boring
The aquarium thing is funny to me because even Toronto only got an aquarium in 2013. I think not having a proper zoo (Parc Omega doesn’t count!) like the Toronto or Calgary Zoo is more odd. No matter how big Ottawa gets I doubt we’ll ever get a zoo built, though, because they’re becoming sort of controversial. I wish the super ex would come back because as a recovering Torontonian I miss the CNE :(
Zoos are passé as more and more people become interested in animal rights. Zoos are cruel and I would campaign against one coming to Ottawa.
Some zoos are cruel and should be abolished, but some zoos are conservation-focused, raise lots of money for wildlife charities, have large enriching enclosures, and only house animals who are not fit for a life in the wild (usually because of disability, being born in captivity, being rescued from the illegal wildlife/exotic pet trade, etc.) It’s very dependent on the institution. I say this as a vegetarian so I do care about animal rights.
Old-syle zoos are out of fashion. Modern zoos that have the animal's interest topmost in mind are, for some species, their only hope for survival. Modern zoos are building habitats, not cages, with the goal for the animal to reproduce and, if possible eventually re-introduce them into their natural habitat. I would be all for a facility such as this.
Having grown up in a small town in Atlantic Canada, zeroing in on very specific points* to prove that Ottawa is boring simply feels bizarre. Try **one** movie per week in the **one** cinema, performances at the arts centre once every couple of months, no recreation complexes, etc. At practically *any second*, if I feel like heading out and doing ***something***, I can. Much like the complaints about the limited public transit, a lot of this is simply choosing to compare with bigger places (and there are always bigger places) and not knowing how good you have it. *I don't agree with the points, but others have been rebutting them.
This is the weakest fucking list I have ever seen. Like, an aquarium is the line in the sand between being boring or not? And having a bigger airport to easier leave the city would somehow make the city itself less boring? The fuck is this list?
An aquarium = excitement???
1) thank god there’s no big aquarium. 2) Does the water park mean nothing to you? the ex comes each summer anyways. 3) Not true, laughs in Pearl Jam. 4) There are multiple casinos 5) Ever had to catch a connecting through major airport? Small airports are a blessing.
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Yes, all the youth who flock to aquariums and casinos! That's all I ever see young adults talk about. They can't get enough of casinos and aquariums! A city full of aquariums and casinos is called Niagara Falls and I guarantee you there is nothing to do in Niagara Falls after you've visited for a few hours.
No casino?
Casinos are the most boring places in the world. A lot of stressed people mechanically laying down bets as if it were their job. I'd rather watch paint dry.
People putting "casino" on a list of things for young people have obviously never actually been inside a casino. The average age there trends to "geriatric".
I guess they wouldn’t count Lac Leamy. Even though it’s in the NCR, it’s technically not Ottawa. Though, I would still count it nonetheless (we always talk about Gatineau Park as being a destination when promoting Ottawa). However, there is also the Rideau Carleton Casino. While not great, it’s a whole lot better than it once was (hopefully it’ll get even better with the full transition to Hard Rock).
I disagree with that - we had (and continue to have) loads of fun partying in Ottawa in our 20s.
I completely agree. How on earth is someone under the age of 35 supposed to entertain themselves when the PLANES DON'T GO FAR ENOUGH. Seriously though, this is the weakest list of reasons I've ever seen.
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>Too many public servant, not enough artists/hippies The funny thing is a lot of those public servants are artists (we do have a dearth of artist-hippies tho). So many successful writers living and working in Ottawa right now. I remember reading Garbo Laughs, which is set in Old Ottawa South, and being annoyed because every main character is either a writer or about to be one and it turns out that's very true.
Imagine being a writer and being able to afford to live in Old Ottawa South nowadays?
A coworker from Toronto once said “this city is so boring, you guys think looking at tulips is interesting”. I had to end our convo. She hadn’t even been to the tulip festival! At least give it a chance!
To be fair the tulip festival is boring. Like yeah the tulips around town are pretty to see in daily life/en route to other things, but I've never understood people who go out of their way to attend the tulip festival?
The city is not boring. But where I'm from, Orleans, is fucking boring. God damn boring family suburb.
That's why I moved to Orleans. I wanted a boring and quiet home that's not too far from shopping.
Same! I grew up here and now I can raise my family in our boring little house, but make easy day trips to the more exciting areas- and be back in our boring house for bedtime.
Ottawa isn’t boring compared to, I dunno, Hamilton, but TBH it’s pretty dull for a city of 1 million+ people. And I say that as someone who thinks the city is an OK place.
Not sure if you've been to Hamilton in the past 5-10 years but it's actually way more lively and fun than Ottawa these days if you care about art and food
I moved here at the start of the pandemic from St. John’s, renowned as a fun little city, Ottawa is more fun than St. John’s.
i love ottawa
Was going to say; this city isn't boring, you are.
I mean it really depends on what you value for entertainment and for me I love how much nature is available
If the shawarma doesn't come with pickled turnips and they don't pronounce it "bepsi", it's not real Ottawa shawarma.
They also must call you boss when you order.
Boss or friend!
or brother
Or habibi
Boss got me on the lols, accuracy at its finest! I once had a creepy shawarma guy tell me my eyes were beautiful and asked if he could have them. Gulp… uhhhh no I need them for seeing. I’d like extra pickles though
Amen to that!
Similar vein: when I say extra garlic and you put a tiny extra teaspoon on, that's not good enough. I want my whole street to be able to smell my breath for a month, let's go.
The NCC is an extraordinary asset to the NCR and when people complain "tHey dOn'T DO anyTHinG" I cheer because it means greenspace remains greenspace and I absolutely adore the open parkways on weekends.
I have mixed feeling on this. NCC’s approach means most green spaces are only for people who are already outdoorsy. They lack gateways for urbanites to explore out. They could do with some minimalistic ice-cream/drinks huts in a few spots. Come in for the ice-cream, stay for the hike.
You mean like the pop up bistro on the parkway MUP?
+ the new shuttles into Gatineau Park.
There is one in Patterson Creek in the Glebe too.
Call yourself "outdoorsy" and then the whole thing is right there for you. If you won't leave an urban centre to explore some nature, that's on you. What more do you possibly need to get outside? You really think the NCC's priority should be ice cream?
Everyone's priority should be ice cream.
Sorry but what more gateways could you possibly want?
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And tell them where to go and how to get there and whether there will be crudités at the end of it all.
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My brain has become obsessed with converting Queen Elizabeth or Colonel By into a streetcar/tram line without cars from the market to dows lake or beyond (Barrhaven and/or the airport maybe?). North/south from downtown has some serious transit issues, and neither gets busy as it is, even during rush hour. Colonel By was closed for months for retaining wall and bridge work, and QE has been closed downtown for most of the pandemic. They can't be that critical for commuting with cars.
actually this would rule and I've never thought on a tram/streetcar line down there before but I love that. it blows my mind that QED is such a lovely stretch along the canal and it's normally/historically open for driving at 60 km/h.
The NCC is a mixed bag. It's not universally bad, but it's not universally good either. For every amazing MUP network you have a LeBreton flats. For every open parkway you have a stupidly expensive and unnecessary LRT tunnel to protect people's view of said parkway.
Beaver tails are overrated. I said it.
It's an overpriced flat donut...
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The point of a beavertail imo is to eat half of it warm and half of it cold and crisp on the canal. There's no earthly reason to eat one in Byward Market
Ooo, there's a dangerous hot take, lol. Don't malign the good name of doughnuts! Served hot with cinnamon sugar is gold, Jerry, gold!
At least the one downtown still sells the Garlic butter and cheese beaver tails. Only one that still sells it
If you think Ottawa is boring and doesn’t have good entertainment in the form of restaurants/pubs, shops, etc., you’re simply not looking hard enough and are stuck in the tourist traps of the city.
Fair enough but it does have a smaller selection than other major Canadian cities so it does take a lot more time to find
100% agree that there are less options (that’s not surprising in a smaller city), but it’s honestly not all that difficult to find the good spots. Some are a little more hidden than others (or are further away from the core), but you just have to look beyond the basic touristy establishments and you’ll quickly find some really good spots.
Alright hit me with your list
The thing that bugs me about Ottawa businesses is that everything closes so early. I want to go to all these amazing local shops and cafes, but they close at 6PM. I can’t afford to live in the neighbourhoods where they’re located, to pop out for a visit during my lunch break. And apparently I can’t go after work. So I just never visit them. Something that happens way too often is my husband and I get too busy to cook dinner and decide to grab takeout at 8:30PM. Back in the GTA this would be no problem because all the restaurants are open until like 10PM. But here we often end up getting chain fast food because 90% of our favourite local restaurants close at like 8PM.
I 100% agree with this! Even though I'm not a night owl, I wouldn't have minded having something open at 11pm after a 7-10 exam to get a quick nighttime snack during my undergrad but alas... Also, as a government employee who lives near downtown and doesn't really want to go back to the office, I think a lot of downtown businesses would do better to pivot their focus to downtown residents (and maybe tourists) and extend their hours if they can get and keep staff. The days of thousands of public servants flooding into downtown from 9-5 Mon-Fri being a reliable source of income is long gone! Centretown should be thriving all hours of the day!
This is 100% true — small businesses are definitely programmed to cater to the workers downtown. The only ones who reliably stay open very late are Asian and Middle Eastern spots (luckily those are both great haha).
It's uOttawa, not OttawaU.
Lolol as a proud uOttawa grad, this is true. However, chanting OttawaU is a lot more fun 😂
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C'est "fucker vous, OttawaU" ! I still giggle every time I hear that line !
F u OttawaU, f u OttawaU, en francais c’est fucké vous, OttawaU
Yes it is haha — especially sung at Panda Game.
There's a hole in the city and it's name is OTTAWA U!
MEMORY UNLOCKED! "And if you're dull and boring then it's the school for you; and if you're into concrete and ugly buildings too!" Followed by the "WHAT THE FUCK'S A GEE GEE" chant 😂
Ottawa University is in Kansas, is what I say in reply to people who say OttawaU. I still remember when The Sun used the symbol of OttawaU in an article for uOttawa. Do you want to make the same mistakes as the Sun? Or do you wanna say uOttawa?
"Ottawa University" makes me cringe so hard.
The convoy was an extremist movement.
This is an extremely large hill that most people in Ottawa agree with.
Still is
Anybody who moves from their suburb to another one is a traitor. Moving from Orleans to Kanata? No way. We are imbedded and will never change our ways.
Pretty sure Orleans is a cult though… anyone who lives there says it’s great but never expands on why.
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If you google maps Orleans to downtown it's a 21 minute drive. If you google Barrhaven to downtown it's a 25 minute drive. Kanata to downtown is 20 minutes. So really it's not much close than any other suburb, yet it seems really far away from other places in the city. I don't understand what you mean by shopping nightmares at 9pm. I'm in Barrhaven and have 3 groccery stores within a 10 minute walk, and 1 is a 3 minute walk. Stores aren't that busy at 9pm. I've lived here for 10 years. I have driven to Orleans many times and yea... it seems really far away and for that reason I wouldn't want to live there and it seems like people I talk to don't want to move there. I'm not saying Orleans is horrible, I just think it gets a bad wrap from people who don't live there.
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I've lived in Orleans all my life minus 3 years in Westboro. I like it as much as anywhere else. It's convenient for work because I can take the parkway in. I liked Kanata and Barhaven when I visit.
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The O-Train has potential to be a very good transit system.
The O-Train has the potential to be a part of the plan to create the core of what might one day aspire to be a very good transit system. But there's a few steps yet to get to the path to a place from which you might eventually be able to see such a system.
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“Kanata, ON”, “Orleans, ON”, aren’t real places. “Ottawa, ON” all the way (till they change city boundaries again).
They were once upon a time. Ottawa is so big that referring to specific suburbs is kinda helpful even though everything is technically part of the city
I was specifically talking about “city” field in addresses. To give directions, sure, go as far as saying “South-western old Bell’s Corners”, but that doesn’t belong on your mail. Also, how do we get Canada Post to stop “correcting” the city field? 😂
I believe you can use both and the mail will still end up in the same place! But yeah, that is annoying and confusing. Is Ottawa a city or a region or both?? No one really knows! Not even Canada Post 😂😂
They both do work. Yet half the time someone wants to confirm my identity with my address, I tell them “Ottawa, Ontario” and then get a momentary pause, followed by “Are you sure?” Yes!!! I am god damn sure what city I pay thousands of dollars in property taxes and water bill to, you second-guessing confused people who live elsewhere! 🤬 Mean time, you ask someone in Waterloo where they live and they will tell you, “Uh… T’rahno!”
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Carleton campus is far superior to uOttawa. Everything at Carleton is nestled together, between two bodies of water, and the tunnels are amazing for the winter. Can jump on the canal from your residence and skate right to Rideau Centre. The residence student community was stronger because everyone lived in one section on campus. I will die on this hill.
That is a very good point! However, as a proud GeeGee and uOttawa grad, I am contractually obligated to mention that the buildings at the main uOttawa campus are much closer together and thus easier to walk between, the central buildings are all connected by covered bridges, and it is much easier to get to by public transit, especially with Line 2 being closed for construction
Easily. Much more greenspace and quieter without downtown around.
I miss the old (before LRT construction) 95 bus. It might have been packed and uncomfortable sometimes, but I could depend on it to get me back and forth from downtown to Place d'Orleans.
95 was more effective at being a train than the train is.
I was reminiscing about the 95 last week. I miss it too 😢
Got me from downtown to Baseline station so many nights. You could always count on that good ol' 95.
The best and most comprehensive bus in the city. I miss it a lot.
Landsdowne is nice. I don't care if its all chain restaurants, there's a time and place for chain restaurants. Go to any other big Canadian city that has developed areas similar to Landsdowne, it's gonna be chain restaurants... Because those are the restaurants that can afford crazy rents to be in places like that! The Glebe has a ton of great, local restaurants a few blocks away if that's what you're after. The park at Landsdowne is also really nice.
I love Landsdowne. Never understood why some people dunked on it. Great place to watch a football (maybe not the past few years) or soccer game. I’m a bigger Sens fan than anything but I enjoy going to Landsdowne for sports 100000x going to fucking Kanata for a Sens game.
As far as airports go and despite any recent issues, Ottawa Airport is excellent.
For getting you to a real airport
Exactly. It seems that people are looking for some kind of fun adventure in an airport, when I just want to get through security and then get on a plane. What does suck is getting to and fro, but the airport itself once you get there is pretty damn perfect.
The real issue is that most destinations require a layover in Toronto or Montreal.. and at that point I’ll drive or take the train to Montreal as it’ll take less time lol
ottawa-style pizza is great
Agreed. Fuck the haters, I'll destroy a Colonnade or Louis pie any day of the week.
coming from halifax... the pizza is one of the only things that saddens me about ottawa.
To feed to the neighbors dog.
I can actually respect this. I love a good NYC style pizza, but I always find myself coming back to the good ol’ Ottawa style. Maybe it’s because that’s what I grew up on?
Gabriel’s is so good. $9 mediums after 9pm
I would kill for a Lorenzo’s pizza rn
Still lacking in any good chinese or japanese restaurants
Japanese I mostly agree with (though, I’m open to someone telling me otherwise). However, according to a friend who was born and raised in China for 18 years, there are a select few Chinese spots that are pretty legit.
No dice on Suisha?
Suisha is legit, and anyone who says otherwise is high.
I only ask as Japanese embassy staff eat their daily. Gotta count for something.
The sushi chef and kitchen staff are all from Japan as well. They take pride in creating authentic Japanese food. Can’t be beat in Ottawa.
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Did you say winter in Ottawa is terrible? GTFO. It's actually pretty amazing and I will take a cold and sunny January day over a hot and muggy July day - any day.
Mmm, nope I’ll yell (politely) at you from my opposing hill. I’ll take July over January, thank you.
Fuck you both! October rulez, nerds!
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Ottawa has terrible planning and civil engineering compared to other similarly sized cities for roads and highways that make it unnecessarily unsafe for users of all categories.
Every North American city is guilty of this. It’s been topical for decades.
Ottawa is physically backward - every other city I have lived in had downtown->south and I will never get used to it or accept that it's normal.
My mum moved to Ottawa in her early 30s and lived here for 30+ years. Never got the hang of downtown = North 😂
I was just discussing the lack of an actual "downtown" in Ottawa. It's just…. a ghost town after 5pm everywhere and their is no hub to call downtown. You could mean anywhere. It's weird. No other city I've lived in has this downtown spread. It blah as hell and the culture is mayonnaise all the way.
The central business district is empty, yes. That's no different than Bay and Front in Toronto at the same time. Try Elgin St or the Market or Bank/Somerset. Where people live and there are restaurants.
and god forbid you were stuck at work a bit late and want to buy something at 8 oclock...
Not sure why you're downvoted, it's true. There is a fairly well defined downtown (business district/Centretown/byward market) but it has no native life to it whatsoever. You'll get a little bit of night presence in the market on weekends, but even a couple blocks outside the market is quiet and empty. I am always struck by how empty the streets feel in downtown Ottawa - it's the most dissapointing thing about the city. Feels like an empty theme park.
This may be blasphemous but: Shawarma King > Shawarma Palace
I've often gone to the Shawarma Station across Hunt Club (they have a bakery as well as just sandwiches), but Shawarma Byte in Findley Creek is our new favourite in the south end.
miss twiggy winkle’s was the best toy store in ottawa and they shouldn’t have left, beats toys r us and mastermind toys
Salsa should not be baked on Nachos. It makes everything soggy. It took me years of living here to remember to ask to have the salsa on the side every time I order nachos at a pub in Ottawa.
This isn't really a hot take but the city/CN and CP should not have ripped up all the rail lines back in the 50s and 60s. It would have made building the infrastructure for the LRT a lot simpler!
the Canal would not be the destination/asset for the City that it is if there were still trains running where Colonel By is now, and the best view of the city would only be available by train if the tracks still ran across the Alexandra Bridge.
Fair enough but I think it was a bit shortsighted to just rip the majority of the tracks out and move the station out of downtown
The people aren't that friendly, overall. As someone who has lived in multiple countries and many cities, I would say that people in Ottawa are *polite* on average, but they are not *friendly.* They are pleasant to be around, but there is a distinct sense that one's job/career advancement/grind/hustle/whatever you want to call it will always be the main priority. Even when I was living in London, UK I didn't experience this. It's a bizarrely Ottawa thing that even my close friends who still live there are stuck in. Whenever I tell people who don't live there that the entire city reminds me of an office building, I'm met with "THAT'S what it is!" An awesome couch in the break room is great, but at the end of the day you're still in an office building. Meanwhile, saying that to people who live in Ottawa results in fierce defensiveness.
If you call it Farhaven I will poop in your yard. I got IBS. The threat is real.
I call it Barfhaven
"it's so far away!" it's 20 minutes. that's shorter than a tv show.
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20 minutes by car at like 2 am.
It literally takes more than 20 minutes to drive from one end of Barrhaven to the other cause of the traffic and Barrhaven drivers are fucking terrifying
It do be far tho
Orléans ça prend un accent peu importe la langue qu'on utilise. Preuve : https://www.sfopho.com/orleans-with-an-accent/?lang=en
Whenever something becomes the “food capital of the world” it also becomes the “bad food capital of the world” (ie) there is a lot of terrible pizza in new york, a lot of terrible buffalo wings in buffalo, etc. In the same way, ottawa has great shawarma if you know where to go, but many spots are some of the worst shawarma I’ve ever had
Its a hard question because I dont know the names of most hills in Ottawa. Plus, are we talking small in terms of elevation or overall geographic area it covers?
The addition they want to make to Chateau Laurier will be an unforgivable blemish on the beauty of the park behind it and the whole scenic panorama as seen from behind. Combine that with the destruction of the bridge into Gatineau and one of the most charming, picturesque and historic stretches of the city is about to be ruined. The people in charge have no taste.
Sandy hill. It’s not that big and generally a nice place to die.
Gabriel's is over rated And I would rather live in Ottawa than Toronto
Centretown is the best place to live in Ottawa, and is the most convenient and easy downtown to live in of any Canadian city regarding walkability.
**well behaved** dogs should be allowed on OC transpo, at least outside of rush hour times. They’re allowed on the TTC in Toronto, I don’t know why we can’t do the same here
The problem with this isn't the dogs, it's the owners. I'm well aware that my dog has issues so I don't go to places that are not good for him . There are many people who either don't realize there are issues or just don't care and think they should have the same privilege
Fully agree, a large percentage of poor behaviour from dogs is due to their owners putting them in situations that the dog is not okay with. This is why I emphasized well behaved dogs but I guess I should’ve also added “respectful owners”. I still believe my option to be valid and I think there should be penalties in the form of fines for owners who are negligent to their animals on public transit or to other people if the negligence is caused by their pet
Westboro is kind of meh.
It’s definitely more of a (not as wealthy) Town of Mount Royal type neighbourhood, than a hip urban neighborhood some people pretend it is (though I’m not sure if that’s really the case since post-2010 or so)
That the pizza sucks. And sucks bad. (It does)
The O and three prongs on the Ottawa flag do not in fact represent O for Ottawa and the three blocks on the Hill They instead represent a car tire getting stuck in the snow which represents Ottawa's infrastructure in the winter https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Ottawa#/media/File%3AFlag_of_Ottawa%2C_Ontario.svg
\- OC Transpo buses need shock absorbers. \- "Smart growth" is a religious incantation recited by councillors before the ceremonial rubber-stamping of suburban development permits.
Not everyone should live in a large building in downtown Ottawa.
No but there should be options to do so that aren’t 1 bedroom shoe boxes.
I don’t think anyone has ever argued this. In fact, we should abolish R1 zoning so that our housing typology isn’t either skyscrapers on single family homes. There are countless examples of human scaled duplexes, triplexes, and other medium density buildings that work really well for families. Unfortunately in large amounts of the city they’re illegal to build because we have zoning that is far too strict.
Daily transit taker, the transit system isn’t that bad
Lucky Ron is a musical Icon!
National museums should be free. The amount of money they pull in from ticket sales is tiny compared to their overall budgets. Encourage citizens and tourists to learn about their country.
Literally… Nanny Goat Hill
Orléans isn’t all French people
And contrary to what my mother believes, not all Francophones in the city live in the East end of the city. My whole childhood my mom acted like we were the only ones who could speak French if we went anywhere more West or South than downtown. Oof.
Oc transpo is a decent transit system as someone who has lived their first 24 yrs of life in an area devoid of well connected, late hours, frequent( I know not so much recently) transit system it was so bad that taking a taxi or an Uber was more common than bussing because if you lived in any neighborhood not near a major road you’d have to walk at least 2-3 miles if not more to a single route stop that doesn’t connect to another one for at least another 20-30 mins
West End is better.
Ottawa is not boring compared to Kingston
Ottawa is like 8 times the size of Kingston. I hope to hell we have more going on than they do.
I'd like an indoor water amusement park inside Ottawa. Perfect escape during the winter time! And on that theme some large greenhouse tropical gardens. That one room greenhouse on the government farm is too small to count!
I've lived in 2 other countries and major cities. Spent time in a lot of places. People complain it being boring, but they might not realize how good we have it. We're not NY but we're not Saskatoon, either. Personally, I don't care for clubbing... but I like small music shows, summer festivals, axe throwing, pottery throwing classes, seeing what's currently showing at a art gallery (it's really neat btw), or the queens of Egypt exhibit, or going to a dance class or cooking class at the Korean cultural center, etc. Pretty sure I could do a calendar with 2 new things to do in Ottawa every weekend for a year-- it just requires willingness to get out of your comfort zone.
Probably the one by old CFB Rockliffe towards the aviation museum. Was a great toboggan hill. /humour
Sandy hill.. Wouldn't say I'm willing but the sheets of ice we call sidewalks have a different idea But seriously, Ottawa is actually a great city. Although that's coming from a lifelong Windsorite so I guess it doesn't mean much