The city’s promises of active transportation and safe, walkable neighborhoods fall short when parents are told their children cannot safely walk a few hundred meters to school. This happened earlier this year when the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority’s new “Community Danger Zone” designation officially recognized what residents have been reluctant to admit until recently: our neighborhood is abandoned. Children who have to walk to Devonshire Community Public School, Cambridge Street Community Public School, and St. Anthony is now being bused because the neighborhood is considered a danger to “student safety and peace of mind,” the sad entry said. It means the failure of municipal and provincial systems – police, bylaw enforcement, public maintenance and access, as well as health and housing – has translated into policy that changes the way children experience their own community.
