22 March 2019

OPL — working to maintain inequity

Shortly the Rosemount branch of the Ottawa Public Library, the red dot on the map, will close for renovations. To maintain local service the OPL will open at a temporary rented storefront location nearby.
The map shows the areas within 30 minutes by public transport from the Main library downtown (in blue) and the Carlingwood branch (in red). There's a huge overlap in service areas both of which include the Rosemount branch.
So why is it a priority to fill a temporary gap in service while ignoring areas of the city inside the greenbelt permanently more than 30 minutes from any OPL branch by OCTranspo?
The answers I received from OPL staff are (1) staff at the Rosemount branch need to keep employed, and (2) residents accustomed to local service kick up a fuss when they lose it.

1 comment:

judylynne said...

This particular inequity is somewhat akin to one I have just experienced in my small town. The Town Infrastructure Department, faced with some sidewalk repairs to the sidewalk on one side of our street made a decision to completely remove the sidewalk on this side of the street because there are lots of other streets with sidewalks only on one side of the street. So in order to establish some sort of sidewalk equity, they are now going to remove one from our street. Be careful what you wish for: equity is not always what it is cracked up to be!