While some residents call it a student ghetto, others say this neighbourhood is one of the most convenient and beautiful places in the city to live; Sandy Hill is the heart of Ottawa’s urban core and home to over 40 embassies, a National Heritage site (The Laurier House), Strathcona Park, and the Galerie SAW Gallery.
From an aerial view, the Sandy Hill neighbourhood looks roughly like a slice of pie. On the long western side it is bordered by the Rideau Canal. The northern edge is cut off just before the Byward Market, at Rideau Street. The other long side of the pie-shaped neighbourhood is hugged by the waters of the Rideau River, marking a clear distinction between Sandy Hill and Vanier district to the east. At the most southern point is the Queensway.
Twenty-five-year-old, Amanda Shendruk, has lived in the Sandy Hill neighbourhood for three years. Shendruk works as Editor-in-Chief for Ottawa University’s newspaper The Fulcrum, and a part-time copy editor at the Ottawa Citizen.
Shendruk says she can understand why parents with young children complain of noise levels. She jokingly compares the teems of university students to pesky black squirrels.
“It’s completely overrun with students,” Shendruk says, “ … but it’s lively and diverse and very beautiful at the same time.”
Permanent resident, Deborah Edwards, says it was the location that brought her to Sandy Hill three years ago. She wanted to be closer to downtown, and enjoys walking in Strathcona Park. Her only complaint about the area was the noise.
Opinions on the neighbourhoods’ challenges are varied, but three issues were commonly brought up:
- Relations between students and permanent residents
- Infrastructure, such as the University’s need to expand, and
- Beautification and cleaning up the neighbourhood.
Robert Stehle is president of the local community association, Action Sandy Hill (ASH). The group provides assistance and leadership for the community, giving a voice to the residents of Sandy Hill. Stehle commented on how little student housing is provided by the University of Ottawa. This leads to a huge influx of university students into the residential housing market in Sandy Hill.
Stehle says both re-active and pro-active measures need to be taken to ensure that student-resident relations remain on an even keel.
“We want to embrace the students, grow together and maintain our community together,” says Stehle.
Travis Comeau, a fourth-year chemical engineering student attending the University of Ottawa, says he gets along well with his non-student neighbours.
“My street has a barbeque every year when the students get back. We’re pretty buddy buddy,” says Comeau.
Ted Horton, vp university affairs at the University of Ottawa, encourages students to get to know their neighbours and become more aware of the city’s bylaws and tenant’s rights. Horton says The Good Neighbours Committee, which he sits on, was created to allow permanent residents to voice concerns about late-night parties and garabage problems. Stehle also sits on this board, and says it is also meant to educate students about their responsibilities as neighbours in the community.
The next issue, infrastructure, has two components: University development and aging heritage sites
Horton first mentioned the University’s developmental concerns. Right now it’s growth is being squashed because it is stuck between the Rideau Canal, Rideau Street and the Queensway. The only other option is to move into the Sandy Hill neighbourhood.
“The community will need to accustom itself to greater intensification,” says Horton.
The second component is the fact that Sandy Hill contains many old heritage buildings. This aspect makes it very beautiful, according to Fulcrum Editor, Shendruk, however, it means rental housing is often in shabbier shape.
Resident and student, Levannia Lildhar, is in her third year at Ottawa University. She says her only complaint about the area is that her rent is high and her landlord often takes much too long to fix things in their heritage house.
Lildhar is also part of a co-operative, called the Sandy Hill People Food Co-op. Each member of the staff owns a part of the company, and Lildhar says it’s her way of helping the community.
“It provides organic foods at a lower cost,” she says.
It also supports local artists and plans to expand in the next few weeks to include a local, independent café, which will sell fair trade coffee.
Beautification of the neighbourhood is tied very much to infrastructure and student-resident relations.
Planting more trees in the neighbourhood, and build temporary parks in places of future development are some of the initiatives Stehle said ASH was involved in. As well, he says there is a collaborative effort this year to build an outdoor arena. University students, permanent residents and their kids are joining forces to construct the seasonal ice rink.
“I believe we can live together and I believe we can create a good community together,” says Stehle, “this is our community, what can we do to maintain it and be proud of it.”
The newly elected councilor for the Sandy Hill region, Mathieu Fleury may be the source of fresh ideas that the neighbourhood needs to tackle these challenges.
Three community leaders:
1. Robert Stehle
President of Action Sandy Hill
planning@ash-acs.ca or info@ash-acs.ca
613-241-4646
2. Allan Rock: President of the University of Ottawa
(613)562-5809
3. Mathieu Fleury: Recently elected Councillor of Rideau-Vanier
Three active groups/teams/clubs in the community
1. Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.ca/members/find_a_group/amnesty_groups/indexshow.php?id=36
(amnesty international blog: http://www.amnesty.ca/blog2.php?blog=member_news&page=16 )
2. Sandy Hill People Food Co-op: www.peoplefood.org
3. ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists): 2 Daly, www.actraottawa.ca, 613-292-5193
Helpful and informative Sandy Hill neighbourhood blogs:
1. Perspective Ottawa By: Blake Batson http://fwix.com/ottawa/share/8b94272f8c/mathieu_fleury_for_rideau-vanier_says_ottawa_citizen
2. Action Sandy Hill:
3. http://www.sandyhillottawa.com/category/blog/ : General Sandy Hill Blog (not updated regularly)
http://www1.ash-acs.ca/en/?page_id=475 : Action Sandy Hill (ASH)
http://capitalneighbourhoods.ca/english/sandy-hill/index.aspx : Great map of neighbourhood with interactive links
http://sandyhillcommunitygarden.blogspot.com/ : Sandy Hill Community Garden (only two 2010 postings)
http://sandyhillsoneandonly.blogspot.com/ : the blog for Sandy Hill’s local newspaper (IMAGE)
http://actraottawa.ca/ : Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) website, contains a blog.
http://www.president.uottawa.ca/blog/ : UOttawa’s blog from the president (Allan Rock)
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