Tunney’s Pasture Station

Scott Street at Holland Avenue

When journalist Allan Fotheringham infamously dubbed Ottawa “the town that fun forgot” in the 1960s, he might well have been thinking of Tunney’s Pasture. With its bland mid-century office buildings sprouting up from vast windswept swaths of asphalt and lawn, it’s like something out of 1984. It’s certainly not the sort of place where anyone lingers after the workday is done.

Public Services and Procurement Canada is hoping to change that, with plans to build office space for up to 15,000 additional employees, along with retail space and some 3,700 residential units along Parkdale Avenue. The thought of thousands of additional cars jamming Parkdale and Holland has many residents on edge, although the hopes are that many new residents and workers will use the LRT. (Just in case, though, there are plans to connect the Sir Frederick Banting Driveway on the west side of Tunney’s to the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway.)

The real hub of the ’hood, however, is a few blocks south on pedestrian-friendly Wellington Street, home to restaurants and independent retail (although, recently, more chain outlets are setting up shop). Arguably, the Wellington vibe is more of a draw than either Tunney’s Pasture employment or a Transitway/ LRT stop. After all, the median assessed value of properties in Kitchissippi Ward (of which the Tunney’s area is one small part) rose by seven percent between mid-2012 and mid-2016, in the midst of LRT construction disruption.