I’ve only been in Ottawa a few years now, but I have come to closely associate myself with the Hintonburg community I live in. I’m not an activist or anything, but I’ve been fascinated in where the neighbourhood’s come from, and where it’s going.
From a real-estate point of view, the area’s “up and coming” setting a new direction and some, seemingly random new title “Wellington West,” avoiding the less desirable associations of Mechanicsville and the burg.
Historically, it’s a dilapidated section of Ottawa’s main street, and an example of urban decay from the severing of a vital, traffic based, artery. That’s in a nutshell, obviously, there are those out there who know more about it than I, and I encourage you to leave a comment to point us in a slightly better direction.
For the most part my neighbours have been friendly and helpful, if not often drunk, but you can see a lot of young families moving into the area, since the homes are old and full of character, and the rooming houses can’t hold out with increasing property values forever. It (Hintonburg, not the rooming house next door) also seemed to be the source of most of the party-goers at the Spacing Ottawa party I went to a few weeks back, though I have yet to run into any of the number of bearded gentleman – or the strikingly pretty women – who attended, again. There must be a clubhouse around here I haven’t found yet.
Wellington West Villag actually refers to the area between Holland and Island Park, whereas Hintonburg refers to the area between the O-Train tracks and Holland. Of course, some will eventually call it Westboro *shudder*.
I could say tons about the development of the area. sufficed to say, I think it will remain more colourful than other up and coming neighbourhoods, given that there are parts of the neighbourhood that just have poorer housing stock. This is probably a good thing.
We should meet for a beer at the Elmdale soon.