Searching for Chinatown

I did an interesting exercise this morning as I was preparing for my work day.

I queried “Chinatown” in the ottawacitizen.com search engine and these are the headlines that appeared. Stories that are repeated are only mentioned once in my list. Here we go.

Officer’s killer says sorry, 33 years after the fact December 14, 2010

Iran demands answers in teen’s death December 13, 2010

Golden neighbourhoods December 04, 2010

Bronson work at risk, Holmes says November 30, 2010

Bank Street business association to fight plan for Laurier bike lanes November 27, 2010

Parking meter decapitations put locked bikes at risk November 20, 2010

The graffiti artist November 14, 2010

Fired up to compete November 11, 2010

Holmes easily wins another four years October 26, 2010

Smart fit October 16, 2010

Chinatown gate welcomes the world October 08, 2010

Preston as destination September 28, 2010 (okay this one is “reaching” with regard to it being a Chinatown article but it DOES mention the arch)

Use funds from provincial savings to support social housing, advocacy group suggests September 24, 2010

City staff find projects to beat stimulus deadline September 23, 2010 (it’s about the arch again)

A ramble on Preston September 21, 2010 (this one suggests that Chinatown should be renamed “Asia Town”.

Fire breaks out at Somerset eatery September 05, 2010

On Labour Day weekend, a timely tale about September 04, 2010

Taking art to the streets September 04, 2010

Two wheels, one street, one controversy September 03, 2010

A perfect mish-mash on Peptides new CD August 28, 2010

Get ready for the invasion August 24, 2010

Three held in bank firebombing may face terrorism charges June 18, 2010 (personally, I wouldn’t actually say that this place is in Chinatown)

2006: Ward 14: Somerset: Veteran Diane Holmes earns a chance to celebrate silver anniversary in office April 29, 2010

Archive: Candidates offer contrasting positions on rail project April 28, 2010

City closer to building Somerset-Donald Street pedestrian bridge April 06, 2010

Any way you slice it, Ottawa’s culinary scene is hot — and getting hotter. December 30, 2009

That’s about it in the Citizen’s search engine. Not all bad press I suppose.

 

 

 

Dec 13th – N,W and S

What a weekend in Chinatown. With the cold, chilly and festive weather comes lots of lunchtime eaters! The Dim Sums were BIZZY!

Here is the News: Though the “who” in the shooting has somewhat been solved (ie the guys who did it were caught), it seems the question of “why” has not. The police are looking for help and now with the Iran breathing down Canada’s neck, who knows what will happen.

Also in news, a partner assault stabbing occurred on Cambridge at the rooming house on the weekend. Lots of police circling the hood after that one. The guy who got stabbed is okay.

Now the Weather: The slush from the freezing rain has clogged many of the sewers leaving lots of deep gooey puddles. Be careful of speeding cars at Bronson and Somerset.

Sports: Two things. Where does one get quality skate sharpening in C-Town? Bert’s Bike Shop, now closed, used to offer that service but now he is gone. Speaking of which, where did he go?

The second thing. If shopping can be considered a sport, the two craft/art sales were an in-the-park homerun with locals. It certainly was a destination for many shoppers and it was nice to see so many locals at pretty social event.

Two visitors to Shanghai's Craft Sale.

For those interested in more photos of the Craft extravaganza at the Shanghai Restaurant, come peek here (Don’s Facebook page).

That’s all for now folks. If you hear of any more gossip/local happenings, please pass me a note  and I will post it.

Epilogue

Well, they caught the men who killed the boy. Pretty scary stuff.

Not so good for the reputation of the neighbourhood but it would be denial if one were to say that there was no drug activity in the area. It bothers me that it happens and that some people turn a blind eye or are accepting/open to the whole thing.

But to get back to the killing, it is good to hear that those who saw the shooting spoke out. Thank you.

Bookended by disaster

Today was not a good day in Chinatown.

On one end, there was a homicide. On the other, there was a house fire.

House fires are pretty common around here because most of the houses are old and some are not very well kept (especially those where the landlord doesn’t care).

Homicide is not something that happens regularly around here. And it is scary. The news say that a 16 year old boy was shot and dumped out of a car this morning on Booth St. Shocking. But someone got a license plate number, somebody performed CPR until the paramedics came and a mother wrapped the boy in a blanket as he bled to death. Hearing that local strangers came to his aid gives a little bit of comfort to an awful event.

Police on Booth Street (Ottawa Citizen photo)

The house fire was just east of Bronson on Somerset. There is not much visible damage to the house if you look from the front. But the news said that additional firetrucks were called in. I guess they knew that if it was a Chinatown house, it would pretty much burn down in minutes.

Here is a Google Streetview image of where the house is. I am not too sure if it is the brick apartment or the white house.

Somewhere around here there was a fire today

News, Weather and Sports from Ottawa’s Chinatown

News: Though not technically part of Chinatown as it is more over in Mechanicsville, I will report on the New 168 Market.  168 is closed. The stock has been removed and there is a For Lease sign outside. Is this another loss due to the behemoth T&T? I don’t know. It will be missed. Click here for some reviews on the place.

Bye-bye 168

Weather: Today Ottawa’s Chinatown has been blanketed by lovely fresh snow. It is cold out. I will take some photos of the arch and post them. I will also see if there are any other photos of the winter arch online.

and Sports: With the arrival of winter and the upcoming X-mas holidays, we are welcoming the Plouff Park/Plant Bath outdoor skating rink. Some might say that it is technically not part of Chinatown, but rather Little Italy. But there is no outdoor rink in “Chinatown” so we will have to share.

New Grade Wool Restaurant – mystery solved

For those who have the iPhone app for Facebook, if you check-in while standing near the Royal Arch, you will see that there is a restaurant called the New Grade Wool Restaurant.

It was a mystery of what or where this place was. Was it an secret location? A new yarn shop? Finally using trusty old Google, I figured it out.

It is actually a huge typo most likely generated by the iPhone typepad — it guesses what you are trying to spell with sometimes hilarious results. New Grade Wool Restaurant = New Great Wall Restaurant. And actually, the New Great Wall Restaurant is no longer there. It is now Yummy Sushi.

Job Posting for Chinatown

Well I heard a rumor that Grace Xin was leaving the Chinatown Bia. I can reluctantly say that it must be true.

I stumbled upon the job posting on the BIA’s website.

Click here for the link.

Whoever gets the job has big shoes to fill!

On December 12th, C is for CRAFT in C-town

There are two craft sales in Chinatown on Dec. 12th. One is hosted by Shanghai Restaurant and the other by Raw Sugar Café. Lots of local/neighbourhood sellers of art and craft will be there.

RAW SUGAR ARTS & CRAFTS SALE!
Sunday, December 12 – 12pm-4pm

The raw raw is having a 2nd annual holiday arts and craft sale! There will be cards and t-shirts and jewellery and vintage tea sets and some knitted stuff and some etched stuff and some Kelp records stuff. And the lovely Lisa Poushinksy will be entertaining us with some carols. It’s gonna be craft-astic!

Shanghai Restaurant

okay, it’s done, let’s move on

This blog has been on ice. But today I have decided to resurrect it. I have been feeling pretty guilty that I abandoned it just when the arch stuff finally started to get interesting.

But even though the arch is complete, there are other things going on in C-town.

I found an interesting blog that reviews the various Pho restaurants. I wanted to share it. Go here.

That’s all for now.

Nice close-up photos of the arch

The Ottawa Citizen has a photo gallery of the painters working on the arch. Nice close-up shots showing all of the detail that is probably only seen up close or with a telephoto lens.

There is also a nice photo of Barry, the project manager.

Click here to link to the Citizen.

Also, photo blogger, Watawa, posted a very nice photo of the arch recently.

Click here to link to Watawa’s entry.

Enjoy!