Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

After reading your article concerning the volume of traffic (including trucks) that Carlington will be forced to swallow due to protective measures by neighbourhoods bordering our ward, I remember different decisions made in past years which have had impacts on our forgotten ward.

Remember when...?

• Carlington was considered as the site for the new swimming complex? The lands which were part of the Experimental Farm west of Merivale were suggested. Unfortunately, the suggestion was discarded, with the response that these lands were “not for sale.”

• Carlington Park, where ball diamonds, a ski slope and an arena existed, was not feasible to accommodate another sports facility (the pool), due to “soil tests”?

• A survey of the population residing in the then Carlington-Westboro ward claimed that more children lived north of Carling in Westboro than south of Carling in Carlington?

• Westboro was awarded the swimming facility, although soil tests of the site there also showed bad soil conditions?

The Councillor of our old ward lived nearby the site recommended by our city officials. At that time, within one kilometer of the proposed new swimming facility, a swimming complex already existed at the YMCA.

Today, we now have three swimming complexes within a kilometer of each other, all in Westboro. There is the YMCA on Lockhart, Dovercourt complex on Dovercourt, and the new facility on Broadview Avenue. All these facilities are located in the same ward. Is this good planning or fair treatment?

It seems the new city of Ottawa can boast the Golden Triangle, the residential area near the Rideau Canal, and the Blue Triangle: all those swimming facilities in Westboro within a kilometer of each other.

Compare this with the new Loblaws triangle: Merivale Road, Carlingwood and the new Kirkwood Avenue location. As a resident of Carlington, I would like to thank Loblaws for their logical planning in regards to the sites chosen for their stores.

The locations are strategic in serving the residents proportionately and fairly. Why could city politicians not have had the same logic in their decisions in past years?