Show Some Progress, Night Mayor: MULVIHILL
“This doesn’t happen overnight” says Mathieu Grondin, the City of Ottawa nightlife commissioner. It has been a bit longer than overnight for the ByWard Market.
Grondin believes his job is to work behind the scenes rather than be upfront and personal with business owners and patrons alike. Apparently, he doesn’t organize parties, doesn’t open new clubs, and he isn’t the official emcee for the ByWard Market. So, what exactly does he do?
There haven’t been any recent big parties and no new clubs have opened their doors so it’s hard to envision what, if anything, he would have to emcee. There are, however, a fair number of market businesses that recently closed their doors for good. Yet another long-time business, the ByWard Fruit Market, is closing its doors at the end of May after more than a quarter-century in business.
Perhaps Grondin could enlighten the residents as to when we might expect something positive to happen for the ByWard Market (we would be happy to publish his response to this post). Let’s face it, the skating rink was a complete bust. Thus far, the silence is deafening.
Donna Mulvihill is a community activist and former hospital coordinator
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@Miss Donna:
My family and I where in the byward market over the weekend (Saturday afternoon) and had lunch at one of our favorite burger placed and that was as we remember it. Then we couldn’t go to our favorite Gelato spot as it was closed down. Couldn’t find a desert spot that interested us so we packed up and straight back to the burbs.
We found the byward market had no vibe, no energy and the whole area seemed like it was on life support… except of course The Heart and Crown, thanks to St. Patrick’s day weekend.
I don’t think any work has been done behind the scenes, or in front of the scenes and for that matter in the scenes. It’s so sad to see the whole area gone to where it is today, shame on the City of Ottawa.
About that skating rink … I’m just waiting to be told that not every venture is going to succeed; that you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette; that it’s all about trying things and not being afraid to fail; etc., etc.. I’m even expecting to hear Wayne Gretsky (“You miss every shot you don’t take.”) quoted at us.
Yes, it’s to be expected that there will be mistakes along the road but the expectation that the road will lead to some successes is higher than that for the failures. Since M. Grondin shares virtually nothing with us, we have no idea if he has any actual plan never mind whether it’s working or not. Perhaps that’s intentional since he can now point to any advances and take full credit for them while we will be none the wiser.
If the nightmare is expecting American tourists to flood The Byward Market when they visit Ottawa I think he’ll find a shortage of red, white, and blue in his technicolour dream. Americans are becoming aware that Canadians are no longer interested in spending money set aside to holiday in the U.S.A and it’s only a matter of time before Americans respond in kind. My advice to the nightmare is a phrase often used by curlers, “Be ready to switch to plan B”.