🍃  After 30 years, and an amalgamation into the City of Ottawa, a tunnel connecting Kanata’s Centrum shopping centre to the Canadian Tire/Staples complex across the street, has been approved. The 140 metre long tunnel will go under Terry Fox Drive, resulting in traffic disruption for two years. Most of the cost will be paid by development charges authorized by the now-defunct Kanata City Council, who voted for the plan decades ago, and are still waiting to be spent.  The point is to improve traffic flow. – Sannah Choi at CBC

The CBC says there was a public meeting last year about this – but THE OTTAWAN can’t find any mention of it at Engage Ottawa. If you, constant reader, do find it, please email a link to us at hello@theottawan.com

🛹  The City has a few pop-up visits organized for its ‘Skateboard and Roller Sports Strategy’. Currently, the City assumes one skatepark for every 50,000 residents but it wants to hear from people about new locations and the quality of the existing ones.

The pop-ups are:

• Tuesday, August 19
  • Constance Bay Skateboard Park – 262 Len Purcell Drive 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm 
• Wednesday, August 20
  • Blackburn Park, 190 Glen Park Drive – 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
  • Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex – Stefan Wenek Park, 1490 Youville Drive 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
• Thursday, August 21
  • Lansdowne Park, 450 Queen Elizabeth Drive – 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm 
  • McNabb Park – Charlie Bowins Skateboard Park, 435 Bronson Avenue 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm 
• Wednesday, August 27
  • Bridlewood Core Park, 65 Stonehaven Drive 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
  • Richcraft Recreation Complex — Blair Aiken Skateboard Park, 4101 Innovation Drive 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm 
• Thursday, August 28
  • Berrigan Park — Treehouse Mike Memorial Skatepark, 51 Berrigan Drive 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm 
  • Manotick Arena – Centennial Park, 5572 Doctor Leach Drive 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Or, one can fill out the online survey. 

 – City of Ottawa

🍃  The Carp Barrens trail reopened over the weekend. The 3 km trail had been closed since May to protect at risk ground-nesting birds and turtles. Now that the pesky wildlife has birthed their rotten kids, humans can once again enjoy ‘one of the most ecologically significant areas in the region. Outcrops of exposed one billion year old Canadian Shield bedrock are folded into glacial-scraped ridges and troughs of provincially significant wetlands and ponds’. – Friends of Carp Hills Facebook (h/t West Carleton Online)

🚴  Professional cyclist Michael Woods has announced his retirement. At 38 years-old, and after 11 years as a professional, Woods plans to retire in October, the end of the season. Woods represented Canada in two Olympic Games, and was the third Canadian to win a stage in the Tour de France. Woods currently races for Israel-Premier Tech. – Ted Raymond at CTV

↪ Gabriela Dabrowski and her New Zealand partner Erin Routliffe won the Cincinnati Open women’s double title yesterday.

MONDAY

• The Barley Mow on Merivale is hosting a Stand-Up Comedy open mic. Are you brave enough to get up on that stage? 

• Wayward Improvised Theatre’s Wheel of Whatever improv event gets underway this evening in the group's new home, Southmister United Church. 

• ByTowne Cinema: Sorry, Baby, Detour: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Eddington   

• Mayfair Theatre: My Mother’s Wedding, Funny Face, Breathless  

  Gigs

• Karaoke Mondaze. Atomic Rooster

TUESDAY

• Cirquonscient brings its enchanting Faerie Picnic to Strathcona Park. Bring your own picnic and blanket and settle in for aerial performances and acts of whimsy all around you. Free but donations are welcome.  

• Pull together your brainy squad and register for Overflow Brewing’s Trivia Tuesday. 

• 🆓 The party that is Capital Pride is underway but in addition to the fun and celebratiions you'll find events like tonight’s Capital Pride Financial Literacy Clinic. Whether you’re planning a business or you just want to feel more confident in your money dealings, this session is a safe place to ask all the awkward questions. 

• Overflow Brewing hosts this month’s Queers & Beers: Pride Edition, featuring live music from BLK PRL and OK Naledi. 

• ByTowne Cinema: Souleyman’s Story, Casques Bleus (A War Movie) Director Q & A, Boys Go To Jupiter 

• Mayfair Theatre: Shook, My Mother’s Wedding, Punch-Drunk Love  

  Gigs

• Chris & Kat. Night Oat

• Lex 13 and the 13s. Avant-Garde Bar

• Trivia Tuesday. Irene's Pub

• Kiesza. Club SAW

WEDNESDAY

• Check out the jazz vibes at Night Oat (Jazz Jam)  and Bar Robo (Jazz Nite with Sam Cousineau). 

• Capital Pride nightlights: Irene’s Pub welcomes Fruit Cake: A Gay Ass Variety Show. The 2025 Capital Pride Human Rights Panel will discuss queer community building and human rights, with perspectives from around the world. The 2025 Capital Pride Advocacy in Action panel will explore the history of blood donation and the 2SLGBTQ+ community in Ottawa. 

• ByTowne Cinema:  Folktales, Restoration: High and Low, Boys Go To Jupiter 

• Mayfair Theatre: Shook, My Mother’s Wedding, Breathless 

• Gigs

• The Extensions, GRFN. LIVE on Elgin

JUST ANNOUNCED / NOW BOOKING

• Ottawa Urbanism Book Club will meet at Sunnyside Public Library next Monday August 25 to discuss James Wilt's Do Androids Dream of Electric Cars: Public Transit in the Age of Google, Uber, and Elon Musk.

• On Friday September 19, Strong Towns Ottawa will transform the east side of Bank Street between 1st and 5th Ave in the Glebe for PARK(ing) Day. The global initiative temporarily turns on-street parking into vibrant people-centric spaces for an entire day (11:00 am to 7:00 pm).