Views from the core
Bianca Zamor
Living and working, playing and eating — this young spin instructor finds it all downtown
How long have you lived downtown? Bianca: Since 2014. I had gotten a job with the government a few years prior to that, and then I decided to move downtown from Orleans. I’ve lived here ever since.
What prompted you to move downtown?
Mostly work, because the commute from Orleans was completely unreasonable. One of the reasons why I hadn’t moved sooner was because I didn’t really want to have roommates. I couldn’t afford anything downtown on my own. When I started dating my now ex-boyfriend, he needed a place, and I needed a place, and it was perfect.
What do you enjoy about the location? The fact that I’m at the core of absolutely everything. I don’t mean to sound like every other person who lives downtown, but the proximity to everything is kind of a big deal. I got a car two years ago and even the things I use it for are close. Snowboarding, for example: it’s so easy to go to the ski hill on the Quebec side because I live right next to the bridge.
Then there’s the fact that downtown things are open longer. If you want to get Uber Eats at three in the morning, that’s possible. And then there’s all the nice little boutique places, like the shops on Elgin.
What would you like to see improved? Though I love living downtown, the parking situation is terrible. I’m sure that it’s the same in every city in the world, but there’s snow in Ottawa. They’re usually really good about clearing the streets, but not everywhere downtown. So parking is always a pain. I guess they really want people to use the LRT. But what about people who don’t have access to those things? Like my mother lives in the boonies and my brother who lives in Nova Scotia. When they come to visit me, they use their cars. For them, it’s an ordeal every single time they come to visit me to find parking — even paid parking.
Since we’re talking about things to improve, it would be great to have a north-south highway so that Bank Street could be a little less crazy.
Another thing that I’ve noticed is that the size of apartments just keeps shrinking as new buildings go up. Yet they’re still so expensive. Obviously bigger apartments would be nice.
More doable, maybe, is just making it a bit prettier. Centretown, which is where I live, is very concrete-heavy. Where are the pretty lights and the trees and the greenery? I know we have parks here and there but when I walk down Metcalfe, for example, it would be nice if there were more trees. I remember going to the Old Port in Montreal and noticing that it was very pretty. Why don’t we have that in downtown Ottawa?
What project(s) or issues are you paying attention to?
The so-called Freedom Convoy was a huge thing that affected me heavily, though I can’t say that I’ve paid attention to it since it ended.
I know that since George Floyd, though, there’s been a lot of talk about inequality and I am a woman of colour. So I hear about and experience these issues on a daily basis. I’ve really started caring about these issues, and it’s reflected in my work as manager at Barres and Wheels on Elgin. We’ve all worked very hard to create the right space that’s actually inclusive without being fake or tokenizing. It’s a wonderful gym and studio space where everyone is welcome and feels safe and wants to be there, and that includes the staff.