“In The Glebe, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada” by Hodnett Canoe is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Complaints about graffiti in Ottawa are on the decline according to an analysis of the city’s service requests data.

As of August 2017, the dataset shows complaints are down nearly 50 per cent from 2014, or by a total of 239 complaints.

According to the data, complaints reach a yearly spike between April and June, while colder months like January see as few as eight complaints compared to 73 seen in June last year.

The City of Ottawa defines graffiti on its website as the “etching, painting or placing of a mark on public or private property”. Whether on public or private property, graffiti is an act of vandalism under the city’s graffiti management bylaw and vandals can face fines of $615.

City Council enacted the Graffiti Management By-law 2008-1 which makes placement of graffiti a bylaw violation as opposed to dealing with vandals under the Criminal Code.

Charge for graffiti under the code is “mischief under or over $5,000”. Graffiti vandals may be subject to additional community service hours and or criminal charges that could result in a criminal record.

City bylaw manager Roger Chapman said in an email statement that the majority of graffiti-related complaints involve tagging, which is writing or painting an identifiable symbol or “tag”.

Chapman attributes the decline in complaints to the prompt removal efforts and prevention initiatives, such as the Mural Program, which he says has proven effective in discouraging graffiti vandalism.

He says prompt cover-up or removal of graffiti is the most effective method of combating the problem because vandals want their work to be seen, so if graffiti is removed quickly, future acts are discouraged. The sooner graffiti removal is attempted, the easier and more effective it is.

The Mural Program works to discourage unsolicited graffiti while promoting arts and culture within the city. As a part of the program, art professionals can apply to design mural projects, which are large-scale wall paintings on designated underpasses across the city.

The City of Ottawa also has three legal graffiti walls which are free spaces where graffiti is permitted and encouraged.

Albert Street Education Centre Retaining Wall located 422 Slater Street is one of the city’s legal graffiti walls.

Sandy Hill resident Hannah Kim says, “When I see graffiti, I see it as a form of art, not vandalism.”

Sandy Hill is part of Ottawa’s Rideau-Vanier ward, which also covers most of the ByWard Market, Lowertown and Vanier neighbourhoods and sees the highest amount of graffiti complaints across the city annually.

Kim says the graffiti doesn’t bother her as she feels it adds to the urban feel of the community.

“Coming from a city like Toronto, I really like the vibe and the vibrancy that the art pieces bring to my neighbourhood,” she adds.

Kim says the only time when she would make a complaint about graffiti would be if the vandalism propagated hate speech. “I don’t want to see that kind of stuff in my community because I feel like it just brings down the whole morale,” she adds.

Ottawa’s most recent case of hate-motivated graffiti happened during November last year, when a teen vandalized two synagogues, a mosque, a Jewish prayer house and church with racist slurs and symbols like swastikas with red paint.

Kim says incidents like this although rare would in fact deter her from living in such areas as a woman of colour.

Chapman says community members play a vital role in keeping their neighbourhoods graffiti free. When residents see graffiti, they are encouraged to report it by calling 3-1-1 or report the incidents online. Due to the sensitive nature of hate graffiti, the city urges residents report incidents by calling in immediately.

Residents of Ottawa’s core continue to be the source of most complaints for noisy festivals in the city, according to data compiled by Ottawa 3-1-1.

Somerset Ward, which encompasses the neighbourhoods of Downtown Ottawa, Centretown, and Lebreton Flats, was the source of 38 per cent of festival-related noise complaints made to Ottawa 3-1-1 — the highest of any other ward in the city.

Most of the calls, the 2016 data shows, were made in the height of the summer, during prominent music festivals like RBC Bluesfest and the electronic music festival Escapade, both of which are held at Lebreton Flats.

But noise disruptions due to these big ticket festivals, especially Bluesfest, have been decreasing over the last few years, according to Somerset Ward resident Jacob Billingsley.

“Admittedly, it used to be a lot worse,” Billingsley, who lives on Walnut Court, in front of Albert Street, said. “[A few years ago] my windows were shaking, you can hear the music loud and clear from my living room and it was quite disruptive.”

Billingsley said Bluesfest has since changed their stage set-up, having them face away from dense residential neighbourhoods around the area. This change was made after a lot residents complained to the city, he added.

The festival has also enforced a stricter 11:00 p.m. curfew on artists as a result of residents’ complaints, he said.

However, a decent amount of noise continues to be a reality of living in Somerset Ward, and music festivals can get especially loud at night when concert-goers are heading home, Billingsley said.

“It’s never bothered me personally,” he said. “But I can sympathize with the parents [in the area] who have to put little kids to bed when the music is really loud . . .  I can see that being really frustrating.”

According to the City of Ottawa, there is a spike in noise-related complaints following big sporting events and concerts due to spectators moving to entertainment districts or private parties.

However, the city said in a report released earlier this year that “most festivals are recurring annual events that are expected and accepted within the community,” and therefore the number of calls has dwindled over the years.

According to the city’s website, festival planners are required to submit an noise-bylaw exemption application to the city prior to their event. However, there are restrictions, including an 11-day limit on festivals and a curfew of 11 p.m., no exceptions, from Sunday to Thursday.

While Somerset Ward is the source of the highest number of complaints for festivals, data from 2014 to 2016 shows it is  second to Rideau-Vanier for overall noise complaints in the city, where calls are more frequently made for general music and shouting. Capital ward, located just south of Downtown Ottawa, comes in third.

Despite living in one of the loudest areas in Ottawa, Billingsley has made Somerset Ward his home for almost 10 years, and the area has its perks due to close proximity to the O-Train and Ottawa’s downtown core.

“The benefits of this location far out weigh the noise levels . . .  the concerts add background noise, but you only really notice it if you pay attention.” Billingsley said.

In their noise bylaw report released this year, the city acknowledges “cultural and economic” benefits to the growing number of festivals in the city. The city has also considered extending the curfew for Landsdowne Park in Capital Ward, as more events and festivals are moving to the area.

Residents within a municipal boundary west of Ottawa’s downtown core filed the most complaints about water quality in 2016, according to an analysis of data the city uses to track service requests.

Kitchissippi was the source of 73 out of 328 complaints related to water odour, taste, and discolouration—that’s more than double the number of complaints made in any other ward that year.

Kitchissippi Councillor Jeff Leiper says the few calls his office receives about water quality are generally related to construction projects, particularly road renewals.

“Our ward has some very old streets,” says Leiper, “so I think we’re seeing more renewal projects than the rest of the city, which would then lead to more complaints.”

The City of Ottawa’s map of planned constructions projects shows most are concentrated in urban areas than in suburbs, where generally less water quality complaints are made.

Leiper says when a road renewal takes place, workers will install temporary water services. Residents’ tap water may run brown for a few minutes when the system starts operating, which he says can cause some to make a complaint.

If residents complain about water quality to the City’s 311 phone service, staff can direct them to the water department, which may dispatch first responders to test their water quality.

But those cases are rare, says Stephanie, who works for Ottawa 311 and did not wish to provide her full name.

“We just ask that the callers keep running the cold water for some time and it ends up clearing out,” she says. “It’s very rare that we actually have to attend.”

She also says some complaints are related to construction, which may involve a watermain break that can cause air bubbles to change the colour of the water.

Despite the higher number in complaints, Leiper says he has no reason to believe that Kitchissippi has any problems with drinking water.

“The water quality is excellent, but with some of the city projects where we put people on temporary water, I think that sometimes kicks off a number of calls.”

Leiper, who is also a member of the City’s environment and climate protection committee, says he regularly reviews reports monitoring water quality.

“What I’ve seen is that the City’s water quality is excellent and I am not concerned about it at all.”

Kitchissippi resident Taleb Almansoori says he’s not concerned about the quality of his drinking water either, even with a few construction projects starting on his street.

“I never encountered any problems, even before that,” he says.

The ward is home to one of two water purification plants that clean water extracted from the Ottawa River before it is delivered across the city to homes and businesses.

Leiper says he pays close attention to reports on the quality of drinking water treated and distributed from the Lemieux Island water purification plant, which met provincial and federal standards in 2016.

“Water is something I take really, really seriously. It is fundamentally the most important service that we provide.”

Quality Inn Orleans in northeastern Ottawa has the highest number of public health infractions of any hotel in the city, according to an analysis of data from Ottawa Public Health. Between February 2012 and October 2017, the two-star hotel had a total of 131 public health infractions.

The majority of the infractions pertained to the hotel’s pool and hot tub. The most common types of infractions included not signing or completing daily records, not maintaining required chlorine or pH levels, and not having well maintained emergency and first aid equipment, as outlined by Regulation 565 under Ontario’s Health Protection and Promotion Act.

Inspections by Ottawa Public Health are done on both a routine and complaint basis to ensure that facilities comply “with safety and injury prevention standards, as well as to reduce the risk of waterborne illness,” according to their website. Pool regulations prevent the growth and spread of illness-causing bacteria such as E. coli and Shigella.

Quality Inn Orleans, a branch of the Choice Hotels franchise, offers guests a continental breakfast and has had 17 infractions pertaining to their food services. Infractions include not using thermometers to verify food preparation and storage temperatures, and improper kitchen sanitation.

The number of infractions peaked in 2016, with a total of 56. However, as of October 2017, the number of infractions decreased to 18. Farzana Reza, General Manager at Quality Inn, said that last year they had issues with one of the pool’s pumps. “Everything has been replaced, everything is now fine,” she said. “I don’t think we had any major issues.”

The hotel has a rating of 3 out of 5 on TripAdvisor and ranks #61 out of 68 hotels in Ottawa, according to the travel website. “The general disregard for cleanliness, safety and comfort will make your homecoming all the more special,” reads one review from October 2017. Other poor reviews have commented on inadequate front desk service, dirty rooms, and the pool and hot tub temperature being too cold.

Other guests have found their stays satisfactory. Melissa Levy, who recently stayed at the hotel for a business trip, said her room wasn’t ready after her late arrival, but hotel staff then quickly prepared her room. “The room was nice–not the fanciest but had everything you needed and a very comfortable bed,” said Levy. “The hot tub was great, but the pool’s a little cold and shallow for my liking.” Levy also said that the receptionist was “amazing”.

Keith Bonnell, a Carleton University student who occasionally stays with his father at the hotel, stayed for four nights in October and has been in three different rooms over his previous visits. “It really depends,” said Bonnell “In some rooms, some things are falling apart, but the room we have now is good.” Of the three rooms he’s been in, one had a faulty bathroom door lock and a chair was “falling apart”.

“It’s a good hotel,” said Bonnell. “I think the reason why we keep coming back here is because it’s cheap.” Quality Inn Orleans costs around $114 per night.

 

 

Some of the most common violations committed by Ottawa food establishments during public health and food safety inspections included failure to protect food from contamination and failing to use thermometers to check cooking temperatures, according to an analysis of the City of Ottawa’s inspection data.

Food establishments most frequently violated a maintenance bylaw, meaning the food premises weren’t kept in clean and good condition. Second on the list was failing to keep equipment in the right condition, while the third was not holding foods at the right temperatures, whether it was reheating or freezing food items.

The fourth most common violation though was not being able to protect food from contamination. City inspectors found that a total of 757 food establishments from 2015 to 2017 were found to be “not in compliance” with the bylaw set out in Ontario’s Health Protection and Promotions Act. Each violation is considered either critical, semi-critical, or non-critical. According to the OPH website, failure to protect food from contamination is considered a critical violation, along with other infractions like not storing food at the right temperatures, or not ensuring the hand wash station is used only for hand washing.

 

Number of Businesses in Violation of Each Bylaw

Namaste India, a restaurant located in Old Ottawa South, topped the list of highest number of violations for 2016 with eight violations on eight separate occasions, and even requiring enforcement action to be taken on their Dec. 21, 2016, inspection. Inspectors picked up on a range of infractions, like not sanitizing the surfaces of equipment often enough and not using special washing solutions to clean large utensils.

Barbara Smith, a public health inspector with OPH, says that when action is taken, it usually means an inspector has issued a ticket to the restaurant. She says at first, inspectors will give a warning and provide the restaurant the chance to correct the error, but if the problem occurs repeatedly, a fine could be issued.

Meanwhile, Silver Spoon Thai Cuisine in the Carlingwood area has the most infractions for 2017 for food not protected from contamination, with four violations recorded during inspections done this past January, April, May, and the most recent on August 24. During their August inspection, inspectors found that food items were stored too close to the floor and that certain foods weren’t stored at the right temperature.

Both restaurants declined to comment.

Irena Knezevic, a professor at Carleton University who specializes in food and health regulations, says that concern over food safety in restaurants is valid, but that for the most part Ottawans are safe. She says that it is not necessarily hard to meet the rule of protecting food from contamination, but that the criterion is broad.

“I think that individuals often run a greater risk of eating contaminated food at their own homes than in restaurants. We don’t exactly have a torrent of food poisoning incidents in Ottawa, and these violations indicate that establishments are being scrutinized, or else they would not be ‘caught.’”

Generally, Knezevic considers eating out to be safe in Ottawa and that a violation may not be as critical as it sounds.

Smith agrees that the bylaw is written broadly, as it is meant to protect food from a variety of potential contamination causes because there are so many factors to consider in restaurants.

Emily Reed, a Carleton University student, is wary of the food safety in some Ottawa restaurants after suffering from a food poisoning incident several years ago while eating out. She is glad to hear that restaurants are being inspected often by the City and that they are catching errors.

“As a customer,” she says, “I’m definitely reassured.”

Dog bites are becoming an issue in the Rideau-Vanier ward of Ottawa according to the City of Ottawa’s 311 database.

There have been 69 reported 311 calls for dog bites within the Rideau-Vanier ward, which covers most of the ByWard Market and the western part of Vanier. This is the highest total for any ward within the city, edging out Alta Vista who sits in second with 63 calls.

Any owner of a dog who has bitten or attacked someone could face charges under Ottawa By-Law.

That is the situation that Scott Wilson, who had recently moved to Ottawa, found himself in when his Labrador Retriever bit a person who was walking by his Cathcart Street home just north of the ByWard Market.. According to Wilson, a man had approached and greeted his dog who was chained up in his front yard before getting bitten on accident.

“She’s a playful dog and loves attention. I think she just got too excited and accidentally bit down on his hand,” said Wilson.

The bite cut open the man’s hand and as Wilson described “needed nothing more than a Band-Aid.” Unfortunately, it went further than that and Wilson was eventually disciplined for the incident.

To avoid a possible court date, Wilson and the city came to an initial agreement that forced him to use a muzzle on his dog whenever he took it out in public but later the charge was dropped.

“It was overkill, and quite frankly it was embarrassing. He’s a gentle dog and there really was no need for it,” said Wilson on having to use a muzzle.

Wilson’s case was just another statistic added to the alarming amount of 311 calls across the city. Since 2016, there have been 898 calls about dog bites and 369 of those calls have been made in 2017 to this point.

The least number of calls concerning dog bites were Osgoode with 20 and Stittsville with 16. The two wards combined makes up just 52 per cent of the total number of calls that have been reported in the past two years.

Wilson says he can see why the Rideau-Vanier ward has a problem with frequent dog bites. He explained how often he sees dogs unattended on the porches of homes with no leash to contain them at all.

“Add in a high volume area where people often walk instead of drive and you have a problem on your hands,” said Wilson

In terms of discipline, Wilson was let off easy as the city’s by-laws get much stricter based on the severity of the bite.

According to the Ontario Dog Owner’s Liability Act if a dog were to attack a person the owner may have to pay a fine to help their recovery from any injuries. Other resolutions may involve posting signs warning of a vicious dog or even building a fence around the property to contain the dog.

Ottawa’s Animal Care and Control By-Law states that in cases of serious attacks or bites, a dog may be seized and “destroyed” or in other words put down.

Complaints about potholes in Ottawa this year have already exceeded the number of complaints made in 2016, according to an analysis of the city’s monthly service requests data.

The analysis shows that between January and August of 2017, over 27,000 residents called the city’s 311 line to complain about “road travelled surface,” more than 5,000 the number last year and more than double the number in 2015. According to the city, most of these calls are about potholes and other concerns about the quality of roads.

 

Potholes are also the most common reason for 311 calls across all 24 of Ottawa’s municipal wards. However, two wards stand out for the high number of complaints. Residents of River Ward and Alta Vista Ward have called 311 about the quality of roads about 20 per cent more than any other this year.

“It doesn’t mean there are more potholes in River Ward than any other ward,” River Ward Councillor Riley Brockington said. “It just means my residents are maybe more active at calling them in.”

In fact, Brockington said he encourages his constituents to call 311 when they come across potholes during their commute. By reporting them to 311, Brockington said the potholes get logged by the city and prioritized when it comes time to fill them in.

Between January and June of 2017, the city filled over 195,000 potholes, according to Luc Gagné, director of roads and services for the City of Ottawa. That’s an increase of more than 20,000 compared to the same time last year.

 

Brockington blames the number of potholes on the weather. “Last year the winter was brutal,” he said. There were about 80 days last winter when the city experienced a “freeze-thaw,” when the temperature swings from above zero to below zero, according to Brockington.

Although it’s true that the repeated melting and freezing of water over the winter can contribute to potholes by widen existing cracks in the pavement, that’s not the only reason for potholes, according to Carleton Professor of Transportation Engineering Abd El Halim.

El Halim said he thinks cities such as Ottawa have the wrong approach to paving roads in the first place, leading to serious problems down the line. The steel rollers that Ottawa uses to pave roads leave hairline fractures in the pavement, similar to the cracks that appear in pastry dough after being rolled out, according to El Halim.

Once these initial cracks are created, El Halim said it’s easy for water to trickle in, freeze, expand and, after repeated cycles of thawing and freezing, create the potholes that Ottawa residents complain so often about.

“It’s a shame,” he said. “We landed a small machine on Mars a few million kilometres away from Earth, and until now we can’t solve a problem that’s two metres away from our houses.”

However, El Halim also said he has a solution. He calls it AMIR, and it’s an alternative to the asphalt rollers used in most cities. Instead of using a steel roller, El Halim said AMIR uses a rubber belt that prevents cracks during the paving process.

“I’m a taxpayer before I’m a researcher. … I don’t want to pay taxes that go down the drain,” El Halim said. “But I’m also a researcher, so I can find the solution, which I am doing now.”

Although El Halim said he’s encouraged the city to change their paving process, so far AMIR has been limited to test runs. “People sometimes are afraid of the new,” he said.

However, for councillors such as Brockington, the focus remains on resolving the concerns of constituents.  He said he’s been lobbying the city to direct more funding to repair potholes in the next budget cycle.

Ottawa Public Health data reveals the Quality Inn has committed more than triple the number of healthy and safety violations than any other hotel in the city.

The Quality Inn, an establishment located in an Ottawa suburb, has been identified as the hotel in the capital that has failed the most Public Health inspections in the city from 2016 onward according to analysis published by the City of Ottawa.

The franchise location at 3363 St. Joseph Boulevard in Orleans offers a variety of amenities including a continental breakfast and access to a heated indoor pool and spa and of the many health code violations the hotel committed most pertained to food safety and the province wide regulations on public pools.

The data revealed that the hotel failed 52 inspections, ranging from issues with safe food temperatures to cleanliness of the pool deck, between the beginning of 2016 to the present day. During the inspections, Ottawa Public Health ranks the establishment a number between 0 and 99 if they are not in compliance and 99 or 100 if they are in compliance with the Health Protection and Promotion Act, a provincial law intended to deliver public health programs and services and prevent the spread of disease in Ontario.

Although the Ottawa Public Health food safety inspection says the hotel kitchen is approved for operation, it is noted that the establishment was not in compliance with all general food safety expectations outlined by the province. Critical violations include improper sanitation and many of the semi-critical violations involved “improper maintenance of mechanical equipment” and inadequate “use of thermometers to verify food preparation and storage temperatures”.  Enforcement action has been taken since.

It is noted that the hotel committed multiple violations since 2016 pertaining to kitchen operations, however, establishments like hotels which provide amenities like pool access are subject to Recreational Water Inspections by Ottawa Public Health as well. Once again, the Quality Inn was deemed in compliance, but not without a series of critical and non-critical water safety violations. The most concerning of the violations having to do with adequate chemical levels in both the pool and the spa.

Melissa Jackiewicz from Pembroke stayed at the Quality Inn last May during her son’s hockey tournament. She said the team chose the hotel because it was budget friendly and provided amenities like a pool to entertain the boys when they weren’t on the ice. Jackiewicz describes her experience at the hotel as “atrocious”, claiming that the “entire hotel is beyond filthy”, hotel staff and management “lacked customer service abilities”, the pool was “cloudy, over chlorinated with a deck covered in ants”. She also mentioned the hot tub blocked off with caution tape and continental breakfast contained “moldy muffins and curdled cream”. “I wouldn’t recommend staying here even if there weren’t other hotels!” Jackiewicz said.

Ottawa Public Health staff visit public pools on a routine and complaint related basis to make sure the pool is in compliance with the regulations and that any infractions are corrected in a timely manner, according to Michelle Goulet, a health inspector at OPH. “During an inspection we [health inspectors] also determine if the infraction is actually a health hazard, which means that it is considered an immediate threat to the public, for example a potential drowning or risk of exposure to water-borne illness” she said, “If we come to the conclusion that a health hazard exists we may decide to close the pool.”

Jackiewicz says that when she voiced her concerns to management of the Quality Inn via email, she received a “very general” and “impersonal” apology from the hotels general manager Farzana Reza, stating that if she decided to visit the hotel at a later date they would provide her with a “superior experience”. Reza gave no further comments.

 

To get a good night’s sleep, there are some factors that you can control: drinking a warm glass of milk, tightly pulling your curtains closed or sipping on some chamomile tea. Then there are some things that you just can’t control, namely the boisterous barking of your next-door-neighbour’s dogs in the middle of the night.

According to a data analysis of Ottawa 3-1-1, the City of Ottawa’s telephone and online complaint system, dog barking noise complaints increase by 60 per cent between April and May. Calls remain high for the rest of the summer months, peaking in September, then falling steadily by the time October rolls around.

 

 

The number of complaints varied from ward to ward, but some trends were easier to spot between primarily urban versus primarily rural wards. Eastern urban wards, like Rideau-Vanier, Orleans, Somerset and Alta Vista, had the highest numbers of dog barking complaints, with calls in these wards being up to nearly 85 per cent higher than those rural wards, such as Rideau-Goulbourn and Osgoode.

“I live in the middle of nowhere, way far out in country, and when my dogs bark, they sure aren’t quiet about it!” says Ashley Ladouceur, a dog lover with three furry friends of her own. “But the reason that none of my neighbours would ever complain is because I don’t have any close neighbours in the first place.”

Ladouceur, who also volunteers at Ottawa rescue shelter Sit With Me, explains that the biggest misconception that people have about barking, is that dogs just bark to annoy or disrupt. She says that although this may be true in some cases, a dog’s real reason for barking is important. “Dogs bark to tell you how they feel or what they need, which is important for any dog owner,” she declares. “Always expecting your dog not to bark is basically saying that you don’t want them to communicate with you, which is totally unreasonable.”

 

There are several reasons why dogs in urban areas tend to garner more complaints. Kim Cooper is the owner of Best Friends, an Ottawa-based dog training organization. She has over 30 years of dog-training experience and explains that urban dogs have unique issues that their owners must address. “Dogs can get cramped up in smaller houses or apartments, which would cause them to bark more than dogs with more space to run around in,” she adds that “a lot of dogs, especially in apartments, aren’t getting the exercise they need.” She says that walking your dog daily can help cut down on excessive barking. She points out that “a tired dog is a more well-behaved dog.”

Dog barking noise violations fall under the City’s Animal Care and Control bylaw, which explains that the owner must control any of their dog’s “needless” barking, which they suggest owners do by meeting a dog’s daily food water, shelter and companionship needs. They do not give the definition or criteria by which they assess the term “needless.”

There are some important limits to this data to keep in mind. This is the first year that dog barking category has been included in the City’s data, so it is impossible to go through the 3-1-1 records from previous years to see if Ottawa’s dogs are getting noisier or quieter.

The City of Ottawa website urges neighbours to communicate with each other before calling the 3-1-1 number or complaining online. Kim agrees, saying that she believe that the best thing to do is talk to your neighbour directly, which gives them a chance to seek help. “If you talk to your neighbour, then maybe they’ll be more willing to give you a few days or weeks before complaining to higher authorities, like the City of Ottawa.”