Saving Sparks: Once more, but nothing revolutionary
Task is certainly difficult, but if right theme is created, there could be hope yet
The city is holding a public consultation on Saturday on how to revive Sparks Street. Again. Trying to make Sparks Street into our Distillery District or Crescent Street will be hard. But if we’re determined to keep it a pedestrian mall, it has to actually be a pedestrian mall.
With light-rail stations due to open nearby, an Indigenous centre promised for Wellington Street and a push on by the federal government to spiff up the Parliamentary Precinct, the city is holding a public consultation Saturday on how to revive Sparks Street. Again.
Wait, no, it’s too soon to be cynical. I’ll hold off for a few hundred words.
The session will be led by Mayor Jim Watson. That’s unusual, and a sign of how seriously the city is taking it.
The city controls the “public realm” on Sparks — the street part, in between the buildings. That’s very important but it’s also limited. A street can be built and appointed as beautifully as you like, but it’s the activities and businesses that define it, not the quality of the cobblestones and comfiness of the benches.
The federal government is the major landlord and has become notorious for its caprice. It doesn’t need to compete with other landlords for prestigious tenants. Flexibility is key, which is directly at odds with making Sparks a destination with character. It’s just not something the feds have any incentive to care about.
Watson talked to my colleague Jon Willing about Sparks Street in a stock-taking interview Thursday (the kind of thing he’d have done before Christmas if his appendix hadn’t abruptly resigned). More condos and restaurants, especially on the south side of the street, give him reason for overall optimism, he said, though with reservations.
“I’m pessimistic because the north side is by and large run by the federal government,” Watson said. “The challenge we have with the north side is there are so many changes taking place with the Parliamentary Precinct that the government is not willing to give out long-term leases because they need a lot of swing space. I think we have to look at Sparks Street in a multi-step approach. What are some short-term wins we can bring to the street to help revitalize it, animate it, to make it a place where you feel you really want to head to after work?”
The National Capital Commission’s 50-year plan talks about nice-ing Sparks Street up, along with numerous other streets linked to Parliament and other major national sites. They “must reciprocate the quality of design and possibly mirror some of the major urban design features that confer the unmistakable signature of the capital,” the plan says, in a sentiment repeated in multiple places.
That general expression of goodwill is as detailed as the plan gets about Sparks, though.
Any plan for Sparks has to deal honestly with the fact Sparks Street’s strongest market for business is public servants and political staff; there’s a reason banks, suit shops, barbers and hairdressers, dentists and opticians are so prevalent. They’re not super-fun, they’re not tourist draws — or any draw at all after hours. But they have built-in clienteles.
Touristy gift shops aren’t active draws, either: they take advantage of the tourists who wander by, but nobody says, “Oh, when you’re in Ottawa you simply must try the maple candies and buy a T-shirt with a moose on it.”
The area just off Parliament Hill is a business district and in most cities business districts are kind of boring. People don’t go to King and Bay in Toronto or de Maisonneuve and Stanley in Montreal unless it’s for work. They’re useful, not exciting. Trying to make Sparks Street into our Distillery or Crescent Street will be hard.
A year ago, when the latest civic meditation on Sparks began, I wrote the only column I’ve produced with the argument “let’s just give up.”
That’s still an option. But if we’re determined to keep it a pedestrian mall, it has to be a pedestrian mall, not a pedestrian mall with 71 exceptions allowing a lot of driving and parking on it. Sparks’s pedestrian-ness is a joke — more dangerous and silly than any ordinary street. Businesses need deliveries, but restrict them to limited hours, rigidly enforced. No trades or construction vehicles outside those hours, either, unless they’re actively in use for a job. Yes, that’ll be inconvenient. Suck it up.
“I think the delivery people want to go right to the doors. I’m sorry — you stop on Queen or O’Connor or Metcalfe, get a dolly and bring your stuff in,” the mayor said Thursday. “I think we need to put bollards in, both to prevent the cars, but also from a security point of view.”
Either way, Sparks will need a theme for the city’s publicrealm work to plug into. Nicer street furniture isn’t enough by itself. The merchants’ association former executive director Les Gagné brought a New Year’s Eve party and junk-food-fests and the idea of a zip line, trying out the idea of “a place where something’s always going on.” It was energetic and experimental, though it also seemed scattershot.
Maybe something self-consciously seasonal, building on tulips in the spring, patios in the summer, harvest in the autumn, icy delights in the winter. Nothing revolutionary there but also no huge risk of a disaster.
Aim low and maybe we can hit the target. “Not a face-plant” would still be a step up from the Sparks we’ve known for decades.