Old Ottawa South: A walk on the Sunnyside

Photo:  Construction to widen Sunnyside Ave.

Old Ottawa South has become one of Ottawa's most popular and successful neighbourhoods. Construction of a new Bank Street Bridge in 1912, and the southward extension of the streetcar, stimulated the development of this suburb. 

But the car-oriented urban planning of the 1950s, that activists such as Jane Jacobs criticized and opposed, took hold in Ottawa. The streetcar tracks were ripped up in 1959, and roads such as Sunnyside were widened to speed up vehicular traffic as if it were the only thing that mattered. Fortunately, in Ottawa South and elsewhere, citizens fought back and worked to preserve and to restore neighbourhood liveability. This walk traces the death, life, and renewal of Old Ottawa South and its streetscapes.