This May 17 2012 Letter to City of Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, and City Council, plus Chief Stakeholders, including the Media... updates my views towards the LRT, with added concerns about downtown Sparks St, the Environment, and the City's Heritage Building Designation Policies.

1. Greetings Mayor JIM WATSON and OTTAWA CITY COUNCIL,
I have also sent this email to several Media Contacts and Chief City Stakeholders.
I am simply reaching out to you as a concerned native citizen of Canada's Capital in quickly making: 3 MAJOR
Refreshing Points regarding the FUTURE of OTTAWA.
1- OTTAWA LRT “TRAIN to NOWHERE” ASAP?
There has been a ton of hoopla about where the Downtown Transit Tunnel & its passenger terminals will
be built. Amazingly, nobody yet knows where it will extend to from downtown! The plan is to spend billions of
dollars to apparently start digging this “Tunnel to Nowhere” ASAP? The assumption all along, has been that this
estimated $2.1 Billion Dollar tunnel would be for an LRT...
The solution that I propose is that this Downtown Transit Tunnel (which is likely necessary to relieve traffic
congestion in the downtown area) be only utilized for City Buses (at least for the time being).
My alternate proposal is to build a South-Based Light Rail Transit Route or New Transitway, which will
begin at the Ottawa International Airport and continue directly on to Scotiabank Place...(Please see my LRT
attachment).
OTTAWA really needs an Express Transit System between its BIG TICKET TOURIST LANDMARKS:
The OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT & SCOTIABANK PLACE!
2- HORTICULTURE BUILDING: $10.3+ Million Dollar Waste of Taxpayer's Money!
Only the facade should likely be retained...(The prairie “Heritage” example of a Frank Lloyd Wright associate is
a “nice building” and...probably wouldn’t be the 1st to be demolished).
-How sustainable is moving this building...Is it affordably solid enough to sustain a move?
*Are they planning on disinfecting the bottom of the building (as well as the ground underneath)?
http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=8445
http://www.ottawa.ca/en/city_hall/planningprojectsreports/public_consult/lansdowne_partnership/gallery/slide217/index.html
3- SPARKS St
Why don’t we hear much more about this seemingly perpetual, visually empty, embarrassing economic
albatross? It is strategically situated one block parallel to the Parliament Buildings...and is a tragic waste of
obviously Prime Real Estate! A sustainably smart, step by step visionary solution...is not rocket science.
Thank you for your valuable time :-)
Michael Pastien
Capital Physics (613)799-9110
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/michaelpastien
*PS: I’m multifacetedly available for hire as a consultant, think tank lobbyist, copywriter, marketer, etc and will
warmly appreciate referrals for paid work!