Ottawa ACORN Stands Up for 142 Nepean!
Posted August 25, 2022
Posted August 25, 2022
On Tuesday, August 23rd, members of Ottawa ACORN congregated at the six-unit rental at 142 Nepean Street to begin our rally and march for the day! We kicked things off with a review of the situation: this building was a relief for low-income families to find, due to its reasonable prices even in downtown Ottawa, but recently Developers Glenview and Taggart decided it needed to go. Their plan is to demolish these tenants’ homes and replace them with a surface-level office parking lot!
We in Ottawa have been working tirelessly on this campaign for months- whether braving the snow in January or pouring our hearts out at the last City Planning Committee meeting during deputations. Staff and volunteers have knocked on doors throughout Centretown to spread awareness of the situation and gather signatures for our petition, in order to show the City Council that the people of Ottawa DO care about protecting affordable housing.
After we finished the first part of our rally, we pushed onwards to march towards City Hall. Pedestrians on Nepean, Elgin and Laurier Ave W got a taste of members’ energetic chants and eye-catching signs! Streets echoed with the sounds of some of the classics like “Who are we?” -”ACORN!” “What do we want?” “STOP the demovictions!” “When do we want it?” “NOW!”
We planted ourselves in front of City Hall and continued our chanting for some time before attendees broke off to participate in our phone blitz. Calls were made to the city councillors making up the Planning Committee demanding that they put people over parking! These were especially important seeing as that same committee is voting on whether to allow this blatant injustice on Thursday, August 25th. Councillor Catherine McKenney had some very insightful words on the situation that were well received by all before we made our goodbyes and left for home- and to continue the fight for tenants at 142 Nepean St!
PRESS
Ottawa Citizen: Controversial application to turn downtown six-plex into parking lot returns to planning committee Thursday
Le Droit: Démolition pour un stationnement: projet dénoncé au centre-ville d’Ottawa
