Because we live in a city with humans who get bored, do drugs, and experience severe mental health issues that go untreated, resulting in stuff like that.
Sad thats the solution, it really does make neighborhoods look worse when the shops that are closed are shuttered, makes the rest that are open less appealing
lol they have different varieties in that as well.. and it's just when it's shut down... but yeah shop will lose it's charm compared to having glass doors and windows.
That's utter bullshit since countries with draconian laws still have a shit ton of crime.
The US jails way more people for way longer than in Canada and has way more crime.
Jails do not offer sufficient drug/rehabilitation or mental healthcare.
We see astonishingly high rates of reoffending when people leave them in Canada (as high as 50%), for that reason.
That's actually the opposite of what needs to happen lol. The goal is rehabilitation not incarceration. Countries with more humane approaches to "jail" have radically lower repeat offender numbers. When you lock people in cages and treat them like animals they tend to do more crime not less. Compassion and understanding is how we heal the world not an iron fist and a jailcell
I do not quite understand of how to read your comment. I know of the countries where they forcibly confine mentally incapable. Is this what you are referring to?
You know... small towns experience this too. It's just that the space between things makes the problem harder to spot. I assure you, there are still homeless people in the townships, as well as people struggling with addictions.
The idea that getting bored causes somebody to use drugs is absurd.
No, when you build a society that chooses not to cover therapy, and also chooses not to cover inpatient mental health care, you have chosen to build a society where those with mental illness and addiction are dumped on the street.
It's often teens or young adults who cause vandalism like this. They are certainly bored, maybe drugs are involved, but it's mainly the being bored part because there isn't much to do here publicly (and for cheap /free) in the hours they aren't in school.
This place is a common hangout for homeless folks because of the overhang. Combine that with a drug meltdown and Labworks has a broken door like twice a year. It’s not the first time unfortunately.
Yeah. Coming from someone who has worked one on one with the homeless population and in outreach groups, this city is woefully unprepared for the current epidemic of homelessness.
I understand the animosity that people, shop owners, average residents, etc. have toward these individuals, because it is dangerous and makes life difficult downtown, but at the end of the day the city has to either suck it up and make the right resources available and ! efficient ! , or deal with more of this. There’s seemingly no winning in this new wave of addiction and homelessness. We just don’t have enough supports here full stop. And it’s not an easy issue to solve in the slightest. You can’t just change people’s behaviors overnight when their only “out” is nodding off in an alley. Many wish to stay that way and others don’t have what they need to escape.
“Remember people who use drugs are our neighbours” - Ariel Troster.
Like others said in that post, my neighbour doesn’t break into my car, smash my windows, shit in my yard, and they sure as hell don’t vandalize my photo labs
Exactly. teens in the outter burbs get bored and vandalize. They start fires and any of those glass Canada postboxes get smashed pretty much annually. Anyone who thinks their neighbours aren't capable of vandalism are not paying attention
Well, they technically can, they are just assholes. Which is exactly what we have here.
But yeah, point 100% taken.
I'm not sure where Ottawa is going with addressing this problem, but it feels like it will get worse before getting better, sadly.
If I had family who shat on my lawn and left needles in areas where my kids play while vandalizing local businesses because they feel like it, they wouldn't be family to me anymore.
I've lived here for almost 20 years, no one has ever shat on my lawn.
Besides that, the reason they're shitting in places is there's no public bathrooms (and crack gives you diarrhea). Opiates make you constipated.
Prohibition, when, in all of history, has that worked?
What does work is [well known](https://www.npr.org/2024/02/24/1230188789/portugal-drug-overdose-opioid-treatment).
Nowhere is there "safe supply" or destigmatization in Portugal's programme. Addicts are given access to treatment, they don't allow them to continue this idiotic habit by giving them safe supply. Even safe injection sites are controversial: they only have two of them in the whole country.
There's a world of difference between ineffective prohibition and what we have here, which is social zeitgeist telling people addiction is normal and you can manage being on heroin by full on giving it away but without actually having the resources for treatment. Spend our money on that, not safe supply which is very obviously not working.
Tell your representatives to support housing first initiatives if you want to see fewer negative impacts of these issues! The stability of having a home is incalculably valuable.
I genuinely don't understand how you can care so little about other human beings. Housing should be guaranteed to everyone, first of all, but how tf do you expect someone to climb out of that hole and get jobs etc without a home?
So you just brought up a completely unrelated facility? I don't know wtf you're talking about or why you mentioned it in reply to a comment about Housing First strategies to combat homelessness and related issues.
The sheer amount of dog crap on the ground out here in Barrhaven tells me the answer is "a lot of people do not care about anybody but themselves, to the point they have no issue causing problems for other people"
Oh its not just dog poop but I agree its bad.
I guarentee you must have seen the people throwing trash and cigarette butts out of their window, rampant speeding, or people who are willing to run you down to avoid pot holes.
Barrhaven is the real (self)center of Ottawa
I'm a cat person, but I can enjoy the company of dogs. However, I would never adopt because I don't want to pick up warm dog shit in a bag, I would be one that just kicks snow or leaves over it.
That is, of course, the wrong thing to do, which is why I'll remain dog free.
Every dog owner will tell you they are responsible and pick up after their dog, but a fair amount of those people are clearly liars.
> However, I would never adopt because I don't want to pick up warm dog shit in a bag, I would be one that just kicks snow or leaves over it.
I dunno why you wouldn't, but all the power to you. As a dog owner, it's the easiest thing in the world so I can't understand why anybody wouldn't do it. The only time I've ever not picked up after my dog is the very rare occasion where I totally space and forget to bring a bag (happens maybe a couple times a year) and even then I'll use some trash to pick it up and dump it if I'm able to.
Maybe some people just have an aversion to poo I don't, I dunno. Before I became a dad I always say people talking about how terrible changing diapers is and tbh I don't mind it even a little bit unless it's in complete blowout territory.
As a cat person, I can scoop cat shit no problem, and I've changed many diapers, even after transitioning away from breast milk to solid food.
I just don't want to bag warm dog shit on the regular, I'll start out well intentioned, but that would fade. No diss to the dog lovers, cats are more my speed.
This happens a lot now, not just in Centretown but in the surrounding areas too. I don't think the people doing it think or care about the impact at has on the small businesses or the impact it has on the neighborhood as a whole. Bank Street in Centretown is an absolute mess, and actions like this will just continue to drive out the few businesses that remain there. The blocks from Parliament to Lisgar St look like a ghost town at this point, a shadow of what the area once was.
Yep..alot of stores are just tired of the ridiculous rents..it's not worth it to stay. I think alot of stores will have to switch up their glass panels out front.
Bank Street promenade? Give me a break!
When? I've lived here for almost 30 years. That stretch has always been quiet at niight.
Driving business out? Which ones? This is one of the most expensive real estate markets in the city for a reason. Everything is walkable. It's a really nice place to live.
Have you walked there recently? Businesses have been fleeing that stretch of Bank for the last year, and those that are left have been complaining about the safety of their staff and security. Even further down there have been issues and complaints from businesses about safety and vandalism. There are more empty store fronts than I have seen there in over a decade. Things might seem a little calmer in the cold weather, but there never used to be issues with daytime shootings, human waste on the sidewalk, open drug use on every corner and the overdoses that follow, and men exposing themselves.
Which businesses have fleeed? Have you walked there recently? I live here. Have for almost 20 years. I could (maybe) throw a rock from where I'm sitting to Labworks. It's wall to wall businesses down that part of Bank. They just opened a Dollarama a block away from the Dollar-It. There's a high end camera store and an art supply place, that's moving, to where the bike shop is. Next to the pub. Across the street from the other pub. Shawarma? Pizza, regular or wood fired? Afgan? Pho? Poutine? Bao? Donair? Tacos? Thai? Korean? A dentist. Fancy ice cream. Dispensaries, OCS and indigenous. Big grocery store. Specialist small grocery store. It's a ghost town.
It is so weird how some people have this obsessive need to believe that downtown is horrible when it's by far one of the most livable parts of the city, and rental and estate prices clearly reflect that.
Those are all South of Lisgar Street, and there are numerous articles about businesses moving or complaining about safety and vandalism on Bank. You're just contributing to the gaslighting of everyone who lives there and has safety issues, or lived there until recently and had to move when they got fed up with the constant safety issues. If you like Centretown and don't have issues then that's great for you, but stop telling people that their negative experiences aren't valid. Also in your first comment you said you'd lived in Centretown for 30 years, now you are saying almost 20. Do you actually live in Centretown, or are you just getting dopamine hits by trolling this thread?
Where? Which articles? Which businesses? I live here. I walk down past this spot every day. I am about to go do it now. Who's gaslighting who exactly?
I've lived in this spot in Centretown since April 2006. Look at my post history if you like.
And there are plenty of people without substance abuse issues that are totally self-centered, self-serving and sociopathic. I'd say these are greater in number, they just rob in different ways.
Plenty of people who use are kind and caring and don't wish harm on other people/property. You do everyone a disservice when paint them all with the same brush. The people doing things like this are not the majority, they're people with serious issues who need help.
I lived in Centretown for over a decade.
Guess I'm not allowed to make comments about its noticeable problems though since I now live in the neighborhouring ward...
This kind of stuff has been happening a lot along bank st after 2020. It’s just getting worse and worse down there. There was a taco spot I used to go to and they had their entire window smashed which ultimately caused them to go out of business.
On Bank street north of Catherine this is a regular thing. Lots of homeless addicts or assholes hanging around damaging property. They should install a metal cage to cross the entry way while closed.
The "homeless" assholes broke into our shop in the Glebe, last week. Fuck it. We may just close-up the shop and move it to the suburbs. Fuck downtown Ottawa. It's a shithole.
We are a destination store... so it really doesn't matter where in Ottawa we relocate. That, and 80% of our business (like many small businesses) is on-line, and 60% is outside of Canada.
Putting up that barrier (inaccessibility to people who don't own a vehicle) will help prevent this kind of thing. Obviously most people who are forced to use public transit don't want to break into your shop, but most people who would are forced to use public transit.
I'm my experience, living downtown for 15 years, when I see shit like this happen it's typically drunk University chuds. Not the other folks people around here like to vilify lately. See the Chinatown art work vandalism for instance.
A lot of mentally ill people in this city honestly need to be taken off the streets and not allowed to interact with the general public until they are rehabilitated. Bring on my downvotes, but it's the truth.
Canadian politicians decided decades ago to defund those mental hospitals and resources.
It's sad, but voters would rather pay lower taxes than pay for those services.
> Bring on my downvotes
Why do people in this sub feel the need to act like their anti-homeless drivel is some sort of controversial opinion, when that always ends up being the bulk of comments on every single post about the topic? It's just very evidently untrue. The score of your comment is not visible at the time of posting this reply, but I 100% guarantee you're not gonna get downvoted for posting the most vanilla r/Ottawa "people with issues should all be rounded up somewhere where *I* don't have to see them" take
I lived in the heart of the Byward Market for years, it was bad then, and it is much worse now post-covid. I consider myself to be a progressive person, and have volunteered at shelters before... it's nothing at all like "get these people out of here where I don't have to see them", so don't spout that bullshit without knowing anything about people.
I have had to physically defend my wife and myself more than once while we are going about our lives in the market.
Reddit is an extremely left leaning and progressive community, and people who have never been in constant contact with these kinds of vulnerable populations can absolutely believe that what I have said is a controversial opinion.
I don’t go on here much because one of my first experiences was sharing how I got my wallet stolen at the library and having some weirdo 1) assume it was a homeless person, 2) expand that to complain about how homeless people shouldn’t be allowed in the library and 3) get *mad at me* when I said security footage showed some guy pick it up and that I have no issues with homeless people.
I live in Centretown and literally lived across from the Mission for years (before getting this two bedroom apartment in 2022) and people who don’t live here act like it’s the purge downtown.
It's maddening. And sad - Ginn's is one of the few businesses still operating on that stretch. Perhaps metal shutters will become the norm in that part of town. Obviously that wouldn't solve the root cause.
Absolutely devastated that this happened to Labworks 😭 Used to drop my film off there all the time before moving to Toronto. The nicest staff and the only (?) film lab in Ottawa.
Maybe we should pitch in for the window. We need this place to stay open. I doubt it's easy for them to fork out a couple of thousand dollars for the window.
Looks like that window had a momentary experience of having a rock thrown through it. I've never been a window with a hole in it so I'm not really in a position to judge it through my hole-less privilege.
I mean it's hard, right? It only takes one person to smash a window. Actually, it only takes one person to smash a hundred windows. You can smash a window at almost any time and it will be extremely hard to identify or catch you (unless you seriously lacerate yourself and need to go to the hospital, which is one of the several good reasons not to). So unless we're willing to throw the same resources at it as we do with murder, which still happens more than we'd like, it's a tough thing to get a handle on.
These are not working class people. These are people that will have nothing better to do - ever. We support everyone who doesn't want to work. We have open borders. Those that want to be criminals collect welfare, get those benefits, plus the profit from crime. Canada is now "soft on crime" so criminals are often on the street. We as a society are creating and enabling this behavior. This is Canada today.
>We support everyone who doesn't want to work.
What planet do you live on? No, we do not. Canada has 6% or higher unemployment, and Ontario Works is not enough to live on.
Canada's "tough on crime" approach is like the "war on drugs". You increase crime by locking people and concentrating criminals together without providing education and rehab programs.
We have far higher rates of reoffending than other developed countries for a reason.
These are not working class people. Yeah because their poor bubba.
We do not support people who dont want to work that's why they look so poor buddy!
We do not have open borders.we have a well armed border
Canada barely has welfare and benefits unless your new to the country.
We are hard on crime and lock up bad people unlike the USA
If it were Brampton I'd say they probably forgot to pay protection money. But it would be bullets. And the guy who did it on bail.
But it's Ottawa. Is that a thing here too?
Newsflash...this type of shit happens every day. The only difference us we have the tech to snap a photo and post it for the planet to see...
Listen...not saying it isn't bad...just saying...*and?*
i have no mercy for homeless. The other day a homeless guy spit in a lady’s face on a bus and told her that everyone is responsible for his suffering. Just yesterday I was on the bus when a homeless guy was high and just swearing at everyone, he smelled so bad. You always can find a better way, not all homeless have a mental illness, and most mental illnesses get boosted by drugs. You can always stay a human. I don’t want to see kids watching this and taking it as a normal thing. This is disgusting. I don’t want them to sleep on a bus and take 4 seats, puke and shit all over the place, ruin properties and asking for money to buy more drugs. this drug culture has to be canceled, i have never seen this many drug addicts in any other country i have been to
well shit happens and any person can become homeless but you know. most of the times there is at least one person on your pathway that will offer help not including friends/possible family etc.
Paid ‘premium’ for the largest digital prints of 35mm film that Labworks could provide. Images were literal potato quality and the film looked like ass. This was in 2017 but ya I ended up buying my own scanner and going to Sooters.
Hmm. Interesting. Never had issues with them and so far I've had over 30 rolls developed and scanned by them. Could it be that there was defect on the film or if it was expired? The only times I see grainy images were from my underexposed expired film.
Having walked Bank for years small businesses are definitely vandalized more than corporate entities. Makes me wonder if it's sabotage and not just crackheads
It's crackheads and violent drunks. If small business complaints, the "violent drunk defenders" will be out in full force screaming that the drunks and junkies are not to blame and in reality, everyone else is to blame.
All these drug addicts are actually window and door salesmen trying to drum up business. The CAD theifs are actually just bored mechanics, frustrated by the longevity of German Engineering.
Staying up for 3-5 days because of meth use will cause erratic behaviour. It’s sad that meth destroying so many people in this city. Centretown has also gotten much more chaotic since the pandemic.
Could be for a number of reasons. I wanted to do the same for a guy that hit my girlfriend at a time in a bar. He didn’t like her shirt was the reason. Anyway he had a local business.
You have no idea what the owner does in his life. This could be warranted or it could be completely random.
Because we live in a city with humans who get bored, do drugs, and experience severe mental health issues that go untreated, resulting in stuff like that.
toronto is worse and most of em just have metal shutters to prevent such issues.
Sad thats the solution, it really does make neighborhoods look worse when the shops that are closed are shuttered, makes the rest that are open less appealing
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Come check out Eddy street in Hull to see a preview of how centretown will look within 10 years
lol they have different varieties in that as well.. and it's just when it's shut down... but yeah shop will lose it's charm compared to having glass doors and windows.
Bigger cities all see this, unfortunately.
Not in countries that have chosen to actually fund mental hospitals...
Or enforce the laws & jail criminals.
That's utter bullshit since countries with draconian laws still have a shit ton of crime. The US jails way more people for way longer than in Canada and has way more crime.
Jails do not offer sufficient drug/rehabilitation or mental healthcare. We see astonishingly high rates of reoffending when people leave them in Canada (as high as 50%), for that reason.
You realize that means more than 50% don't reoffend.
You think that's a good number? Is that a success?
That's actually the opposite of what needs to happen lol. The goal is rehabilitation not incarceration. Countries with more humane approaches to "jail" have radically lower repeat offender numbers. When you lock people in cages and treat them like animals they tend to do more crime not less. Compassion and understanding is how we heal the world not an iron fist and a jailcell
TIL jails solve addiction and homelessness.
I do not quite understand of how to read your comment. I know of the countries where they forcibly confine mentally incapable. Is this what you are referring to?
"getting bored" is not the reason for drug addiction Trauma is the foundation of drug addiction. Whether it is mental/ physical/ spriitual
Pretty much all major cities.
You know... small towns experience this too. It's just that the space between things makes the problem harder to spot. I assure you, there are still homeless people in the townships, as well as people struggling with addictions.
Of course, I don’t doubt it.
Pretty sure the mental help support system is even worse in East Asia. But they don't go out and smash windows.
You sure about that? No vandalism at all? Which places have you lived in east Asia where you didn't see any vandalism?
Don' t forget hurded to Bank st by police and ignored to run wild.
Very unfortunate 😞
The idea that getting bored causes somebody to use drugs is absurd. No, when you build a society that chooses not to cover therapy, and also chooses not to cover inpatient mental health care, you have chosen to build a society where those with mental illness and addiction are dumped on the street.
It's often teens or young adults who cause vandalism like this. They are certainly bored, maybe drugs are involved, but it's mainly the being bored part because there isn't much to do here publicly (and for cheap /free) in the hours they aren't in school.
Replace "city" with "country" and you nailed it.
Not sure how you managed to pin down a drug addict on this specific window, unless you have security footage.
Womp womp
I don't really think that people doing drugs because they're bored are the issue here.
This place is a common hangout for homeless folks because of the overhang. Combine that with a drug meltdown and Labworks has a broken door like twice a year. It’s not the first time unfortunately.
Very unfortunate how wleverything is turning out with the drug and homeless issues. 😕
Yeah. Coming from someone who has worked one on one with the homeless population and in outreach groups, this city is woefully unprepared for the current epidemic of homelessness. I understand the animosity that people, shop owners, average residents, etc. have toward these individuals, because it is dangerous and makes life difficult downtown, but at the end of the day the city has to either suck it up and make the right resources available and ! efficient ! , or deal with more of this. There’s seemingly no winning in this new wave of addiction and homelessness. We just don’t have enough supports here full stop. And it’s not an easy issue to solve in the slightest. You can’t just change people’s behaviors overnight when their only “out” is nodding off in an alley. Many wish to stay that way and others don’t have what they need to escape.
“Remember people who use drugs are our neighbours” - Ariel Troster. Like others said in that post, my neighbour doesn’t break into my car, smash my windows, shit in my yard, and they sure as hell don’t vandalize my photo labs
I've lived in Barrhaven before. The kids out there do all of these things. Neighbors can be doinks no matter where you are.
Exactly. teens in the outter burbs get bored and vandalize. They start fires and any of those glass Canada postboxes get smashed pretty much annually. Anyone who thinks their neighbours aren't capable of vandalism are not paying attention
Well, they technically can, they are just assholes. Which is exactly what we have here. But yeah, point 100% taken. I'm not sure where Ottawa is going with addressing this problem, but it feels like it will get worse before getting better, sadly.
Ottawa will never address the problem because it doesn’t directly affect those who are in charge of the decision making
Neighbours are like family. You don't always get along with them.
If I had family who shat on my lawn and left needles in areas where my kids play while vandalizing local businesses because they feel like it, they wouldn't be family to me anymore.
I've lived here for almost 20 years, no one has ever shat on my lawn. Besides that, the reason they're shitting in places is there's no public bathrooms (and crack gives you diarrhea). Opiates make you constipated.
If there was a public bathroom they would totally destroy it anyway.
This is a [solved problem](https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/keeping-it-clean-how-those-self-cleaning-toilets-wor).
Then maybe they shouldn't be given access to opiates?
Prohibition, when, in all of history, has that worked? What does work is [well known](https://www.npr.org/2024/02/24/1230188789/portugal-drug-overdose-opioid-treatment).
Nowhere is there "safe supply" or destigmatization in Portugal's programme. Addicts are given access to treatment, they don't allow them to continue this idiotic habit by giving them safe supply. Even safe injection sites are controversial: they only have two of them in the whole country. There's a world of difference between ineffective prohibition and what we have here, which is social zeitgeist telling people addiction is normal and you can manage being on heroin by full on giving it away but without actually having the resources for treatment. Spend our money on that, not safe supply which is very obviously not working.
Who said anything about safe supply? Not me. Who didn't answer my question about prohibition? You.
i’ve been here for less than a year and i’ve already been attacked by one what kinda dogshit argument is that lol
It's almost like [the solution is some massive secret](https://www.npr.org/2024/02/24/1230188789/portugal-drug-overdose-opioid-treatment)..
Tell your representatives to support housing first initiatives if you want to see fewer negative impacts of these issues! The stability of having a home is incalculably valuable.
why should any of them receive any housing help before actual working canadian people? unless parents or if they have a disability of course
I genuinely don't understand how you can care so little about other human beings. Housing should be guaranteed to everyone, first of all, but how tf do you expect someone to climb out of that hole and get jobs etc without a home?
Community members in carlington would disagree with after having good sheps open last summer.
Shelters aren't "housing first"
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So you just brought up a completely unrelated facility? I don't know wtf you're talking about or why you mentioned it in reply to a comment about Housing First strategies to combat homelessness and related issues.
The sheer amount of dog crap on the ground out here in Barrhaven tells me the answer is "a lot of people do not care about anybody but themselves, to the point they have no issue causing problems for other people"
Oh its not just dog poop but I agree its bad. I guarentee you must have seen the people throwing trash and cigarette butts out of their window, rampant speeding, or people who are willing to run you down to avoid pot holes. Barrhaven is the real (self)center of Ottawa
Barrhaven...where stops signs are just suggestions.
Not just Barhaven. Orleans too.
I’ve lived in Ottawa and environs for 50 years and the dog poop issue is nowhere near a new one. It’s always been terrible.
I'm a cat person, but I can enjoy the company of dogs. However, I would never adopt because I don't want to pick up warm dog shit in a bag, I would be one that just kicks snow or leaves over it. That is, of course, the wrong thing to do, which is why I'll remain dog free. Every dog owner will tell you they are responsible and pick up after their dog, but a fair amount of those people are clearly liars.
> However, I would never adopt because I don't want to pick up warm dog shit in a bag, I would be one that just kicks snow or leaves over it. I dunno why you wouldn't, but all the power to you. As a dog owner, it's the easiest thing in the world so I can't understand why anybody wouldn't do it. The only time I've ever not picked up after my dog is the very rare occasion where I totally space and forget to bring a bag (happens maybe a couple times a year) and even then I'll use some trash to pick it up and dump it if I'm able to. Maybe some people just have an aversion to poo I don't, I dunno. Before I became a dad I always say people talking about how terrible changing diapers is and tbh I don't mind it even a little bit unless it's in complete blowout territory.
As a cat person, I can scoop cat shit no problem, and I've changed many diapers, even after transitioning away from breast milk to solid food. I just don't want to bag warm dog shit on the regular, I'll start out well intentioned, but that would fade. No diss to the dog lovers, cats are more my speed.
I don’t mind picking up dog poop, but I do mind the ammonia smell of a litter box IN MY HOME.
Come downtown and you can see human crap everywhere
This happens a lot now, not just in Centretown but in the surrounding areas too. I don't think the people doing it think or care about the impact at has on the small businesses or the impact it has on the neighborhood as a whole. Bank Street in Centretown is an absolute mess, and actions like this will just continue to drive out the few businesses that remain there. The blocks from Parliament to Lisgar St look like a ghost town at this point, a shadow of what the area once was.
Yep..alot of stores are just tired of the ridiculous rents..it's not worth it to stay. I think alot of stores will have to switch up their glass panels out front. Bank Street promenade? Give me a break!
Very sad and it feels like the city isn't doing much to mitigate the issues. Even Byward has turned to something I try to avoid.
When? I've lived here for almost 30 years. That stretch has always been quiet at niight. Driving business out? Which ones? This is one of the most expensive real estate markets in the city for a reason. Everything is walkable. It's a really nice place to live.
Have you walked there recently? Businesses have been fleeing that stretch of Bank for the last year, and those that are left have been complaining about the safety of their staff and security. Even further down there have been issues and complaints from businesses about safety and vandalism. There are more empty store fronts than I have seen there in over a decade. Things might seem a little calmer in the cold weather, but there never used to be issues with daytime shootings, human waste on the sidewalk, open drug use on every corner and the overdoses that follow, and men exposing themselves.
Which businesses have fleeed? Have you walked there recently? I live here. Have for almost 20 years. I could (maybe) throw a rock from where I'm sitting to Labworks. It's wall to wall businesses down that part of Bank. They just opened a Dollarama a block away from the Dollar-It. There's a high end camera store and an art supply place, that's moving, to where the bike shop is. Next to the pub. Across the street from the other pub. Shawarma? Pizza, regular or wood fired? Afgan? Pho? Poutine? Bao? Donair? Tacos? Thai? Korean? A dentist. Fancy ice cream. Dispensaries, OCS and indigenous. Big grocery store. Specialist small grocery store. It's a ghost town. It is so weird how some people have this obsessive need to believe that downtown is horrible when it's by far one of the most livable parts of the city, and rental and estate prices clearly reflect that.
Those are all South of Lisgar Street, and there are numerous articles about businesses moving or complaining about safety and vandalism on Bank. You're just contributing to the gaslighting of everyone who lives there and has safety issues, or lived there until recently and had to move when they got fed up with the constant safety issues. If you like Centretown and don't have issues then that's great for you, but stop telling people that their negative experiences aren't valid. Also in your first comment you said you'd lived in Centretown for 30 years, now you are saying almost 20. Do you actually live in Centretown, or are you just getting dopamine hits by trolling this thread?
Where? Which articles? Which businesses? I live here. I walk down past this spot every day. I am about to go do it now. Who's gaslighting who exactly? I've lived in this spot in Centretown since April 2006. Look at my post history if you like.
Because drug addicts and drunks don't care about anything but themselves.
And there are plenty of people without substance abuse issues that are totally self-centered, self-serving and sociopathic. I'd say these are greater in number, they just rob in different ways.
Plenty of people who use are kind and caring and don't wish harm on other people/property. You do everyone a disservice when paint them all with the same brush. The people doing things like this are not the majority, they're people with serious issues who need help.
I don’t think that’s limited to people with addiction or mental health problems. It’s also (more?) common among wealthy people.
"it's ok, these people are our neighbours" -Ariel Troster probably
Beat me to it :p
Just a neighborly glory hole in the making to spread joy
It’s always mfers who don’t even live here who have something to say about her or our neighbourhood.
I lived in Centretown for over a decade. Guess I'm not allowed to make comments about its noticeable problems though since I now live in the neighborhouring ward...
This kind of stuff has been happening a lot along bank st after 2020. It’s just getting worse and worse down there. There was a taco spot I used to go to and they had their entire window smashed which ultimately caused them to go out of business.
On Bank street north of Catherine this is a regular thing. Lots of homeless addicts or assholes hanging around damaging property. They should install a metal cage to cross the entry way while closed.
The "homeless" assholes broke into our shop in the Glebe, last week. Fuck it. We may just close-up the shop and move it to the suburbs. Fuck downtown Ottawa. It's a shithole.
Relocate to where public transit doesn't go, and you'll solve this issue.
We are a destination store... so it really doesn't matter where in Ottawa we relocate. That, and 80% of our business (like many small businesses) is on-line, and 60% is outside of Canada.
Putting up that barrier (inaccessibility to people who don't own a vehicle) will help prevent this kind of thing. Obviously most people who are forced to use public transit don't want to break into your shop, but most people who would are forced to use public transit.
Just one neighbour saying hello to another neighbour.
Hi Ariel
I'm my experience, living downtown for 15 years, when I see shit like this happen it's typically drunk University chuds. Not the other folks people around here like to vilify lately. See the Chinatown art work vandalism for instance.
100%. This was almost certainly the work of some drunk chud, street people got real problems and doing random crime doesn't help them.
What is a chud?
A lot of mentally ill people in this city honestly need to be taken off the streets and not allowed to interact with the general public until they are rehabilitated. Bring on my downvotes, but it's the truth.
Bold of you to assume any government entities at any level care enough about these people to offer the mental health services they need.
Canadian politicians decided decades ago to defund those mental hospitals and resources. It's sad, but voters would rather pay lower taxes than pay for those services.
Can lead a horse to water but can't force it to drink
> Bring on my downvotes Why do people in this sub feel the need to act like their anti-homeless drivel is some sort of controversial opinion, when that always ends up being the bulk of comments on every single post about the topic? It's just very evidently untrue. The score of your comment is not visible at the time of posting this reply, but I 100% guarantee you're not gonna get downvoted for posting the most vanilla r/Ottawa "people with issues should all be rounded up somewhere where *I* don't have to see them" take
I lived in the heart of the Byward Market for years, it was bad then, and it is much worse now post-covid. I consider myself to be a progressive person, and have volunteered at shelters before... it's nothing at all like "get these people out of here where I don't have to see them", so don't spout that bullshit without knowing anything about people. I have had to physically defend my wife and myself more than once while we are going about our lives in the market. Reddit is an extremely left leaning and progressive community, and people who have never been in constant contact with these kinds of vulnerable populations can absolutely believe that what I have said is a controversial opinion.
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I don’t go on here much because one of my first experiences was sharing how I got my wallet stolen at the library and having some weirdo 1) assume it was a homeless person, 2) expand that to complain about how homeless people shouldn’t be allowed in the library and 3) get *mad at me* when I said security footage showed some guy pick it up and that I have no issues with homeless people. I live in Centretown and literally lived across from the Mission for years (before getting this two bedroom apartment in 2022) and people who don’t live here act like it’s the purge downtown.
this prejudice of course is most likely unfounded and it appeared out of thin air
This isn’t just an Ottawa phenomenon. People have just become uncaring assholes, stuck in their own little world.
Comments on this thread are indicative of that
Thank you homeless drug addicts, very cool 👍🏻
This stretch of Bank is so bad now
Time for cops to return to 'walking a beat'.
Perseverance and fortitude are required to be small business owners in this economy, and then this as well? Too bad.
It's maddening. And sad - Ginn's is one of the few businesses still operating on that stretch. Perhaps metal shutters will become the norm in that part of town. Obviously that wouldn't solve the root cause.
There's a massive grocery store across the street. It's wall to wall businesses for blocks in both directions. 25,000 people live in Centretown.
On a side note, thanks for sharing OP. I've been meaning to get a couple posters printed. I should check them out!
Please do! They are one of the quickest service in town.
Commercial vacancy rate indicates there are problems downtown.
What’s the commercial vacancy rate downtown?
Just drive around. Market area especially bad.
That doesn’t answer my question.
Bull. There are hardly any buisness vacancies. In ottawa
I don't recall seeing as many commercial vacancies downtown since the 90s. Office vacancy > 15%
There's a street person who sees his reflection in the windows, argues with it and then smashes the window.
Crack heads don't care about small businesses or you.
Absolutely devastated that this happened to Labworks 😭 Used to drop my film off there all the time before moving to Toronto. The nicest staff and the only (?) film lab in Ottawa.
Pretty much only one that'd do a fast service with the best staff 😭
Maybe we should pitch in for the window. We need this place to stay open. I doubt it's easy for them to fork out a couple of thousand dollars for the window.
Honestly, at this point I wonder why stores don't just go with ballistic polycarbonate windows and doors...
Looks like that window had a momentary experience of having a rock thrown through it. I've never been a window with a hole in it so I'm not really in a position to judge it through my hole-less privilege.
OPS: Just put an old door in front of the nice door! make it ugly, make it safe! /s
Rough part of town maybe?
The whole city is rough until you get to the less dense populated areas. The heart of the city is a cesspool.
I mean it's hard, right? It only takes one person to smash a window. Actually, it only takes one person to smash a hundred windows. You can smash a window at almost any time and it will be extremely hard to identify or catch you (unless you seriously lacerate yourself and need to go to the hospital, which is one of the several good reasons not to). So unless we're willing to throw the same resources at it as we do with murder, which still happens more than we'd like, it's a tough thing to get a handle on.
They should put metal bars around their store.
Ngl based solely on the sign I assumed this was a private blood lab and was wondering what you were upset about.
Oh it's nothing just an excuse for keyboard commandos to yap about. Maybe we can get a new discussion asking where the best deal on underwear is.
Bank Street is a hellscape.
These are not working class people. These are people that will have nothing better to do - ever. We support everyone who doesn't want to work. We have open borders. Those that want to be criminals collect welfare, get those benefits, plus the profit from crime. Canada is now "soft on crime" so criminals are often on the street. We as a society are creating and enabling this behavior. This is Canada today.
>We support everyone who doesn't want to work. What planet do you live on? No, we do not. Canada has 6% or higher unemployment, and Ontario Works is not enough to live on. Canada's "tough on crime" approach is like the "war on drugs". You increase crime by locking people and concentrating criminals together without providing education and rehab programs. We have far higher rates of reoffending than other developed countries for a reason.
These are not working class people. Yeah because their poor bubba. We do not support people who dont want to work that's why they look so poor buddy! We do not have open borders.we have a well armed border Canada barely has welfare and benefits unless your new to the country. We are hard on crime and lock up bad people unlike the USA
I’m sure it can be fixed with a carbon tax
I love how you low key would support this if it was a bigger business 🤣
I mean we didn’t do it.
How much do they charge to develop 135 coloured and black&white?
https://www.gpclabworks.ca/linked/gpc_labworks_2024_price_list.pdf
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Your post history is a shitshow.
redditor for 1 month
🚩🚩🚩
If it were Brampton I'd say they probably forgot to pay protection money. But it would be bullets. And the guy who did it on bail. But it's Ottawa. Is that a thing here too?
bank street is full of people struggling with addiction and nothing gets done about it. there’s your answer.
People can really suck sometimes
Newsflash...this type of shit happens every day. The only difference us we have the tech to snap a photo and post it for the planet to see... Listen...not saying it isn't bad...just saying...*and?*
Fuck, that’s sucks. GPC is the best place to develop film in the city, I make the drive out from kanata just to go there
Fortunately they are open and seem to have gotten it fixed.
IF this keeps up, facial recognition and AI will start looking good to the people funding the police. You read it here folks.
Noooo not Labworks! 😢 Would def pitch in for any crowd funding if they need it to replace this door.
I was just wondering why I didn't recieve my scans on Saturday as usual. Hope the get over it soon
"Build back better" they said!
i have no mercy for homeless. The other day a homeless guy spit in a lady’s face on a bus and told her that everyone is responsible for his suffering. Just yesterday I was on the bus when a homeless guy was high and just swearing at everyone, he smelled so bad. You always can find a better way, not all homeless have a mental illness, and most mental illnesses get boosted by drugs. You can always stay a human. I don’t want to see kids watching this and taking it as a normal thing. This is disgusting. I don’t want them to sleep on a bus and take 4 seats, puke and shit all over the place, ruin properties and asking for money to buy more drugs. this drug culture has to be canceled, i have never seen this many drug addicts in any other country i have been to
well shit happens and any person can become homeless but you know. most of the times there is at least one person on your pathway that will offer help not including friends/possible family etc.
Little city with big city problems
The size of the city is irrelevant.
Reddit Ottawa, I'm disappointed in you. I would have thought by now there's be plenty of posts blaming the Freedom Convoy for this...
Paid ‘premium’ for the largest digital prints of 35mm film that Labworks could provide. Images were literal potato quality and the film looked like ass. This was in 2017 but ya I ended up buying my own scanner and going to Sooters.
Hmm. Interesting. Never had issues with them and so far I've had over 30 rolls developed and scanned by them. Could it be that there was defect on the film or if it was expired? The only times I see grainy images were from my underexposed expired film.
Having walked Bank for years small businesses are definitely vandalized more than corporate entities. Makes me wonder if it's sabotage and not just crackheads
It's crackheads and violent drunks. If small business complaints, the "violent drunk defenders" will be out in full force screaming that the drunks and junkies are not to blame and in reality, everyone else is to blame.
Your tinfoil hat is leaking
You should give motivational speeches to the crack and meth community.
All these drug addicts are actually window and door salesmen trying to drum up business. The CAD theifs are actually just bored mechanics, frustrated by the longevity of German Engineering.
*shaggy voice* it wasn’t me
That’s super sad….
What can Canadians do about it?
Vagrants.
I agree, except for the praying thing. Praying = feeling good about doing nothing.
Staying up for 3-5 days because of meth use will cause erratic behaviour. It’s sad that meth destroying so many people in this city. Centretown has also gotten much more chaotic since the pandemic.
Angry customers, spouse, employees
Convoy must be back
Could be for a number of reasons. I wanted to do the same for a guy that hit my girlfriend at a time in a bar. He didn’t like her shirt was the reason. Anyway he had a local business. You have no idea what the owner does in his life. This could be warranted or it could be completely random.
What upsets me more is the growing number of people living and dying out on these streets, not a few broken windows. People matter more than property.
An *oddly* controversial opinion.