The In-Between State

On a recent Tuesday evening, March 18, individuals trickled in and out of the Centretown Community Health clinic. The clinic wasn’t open for business as usual, and these people were not patients seeking treatment. They were, rather, advocates of a years-in-the-making proposal to turn Bank Street, between Gloucester and Gilmour, into Ottawa’s Rainbow Village. Inside the clinic, they were viewing sketches of the proposed “streetscapes” and filling out a survey denoting their desire for pride-coloured flags to hang from streetlamps.

Unfortunately, the idea is not as simple as it sounds. The sketches and survey are part of a proposal that will be presented to the municipal government following the redevelopment of the Bank Street roads in the area, but what was once a solid organization is being undermined by divided businesses, some of whom support the Village, others who do not want to be associated with such an idea. The proposal is still nothing more than that – a proposal which city planners claim will be taken seriously, although they are under no obligation to do so.  

In effect, the Ottawa Village is like the in-between state between waking life and dreams: it floats in and out of existence. Several businesses on the street are operated by GLBT owners (such as 1 in 10, After Stonewall and Wilde’s), while several others are gay friendly. On a recent walk down the street, I saw several gay and lesbian couples walking hand in hand and the vibe is casual and easygoing. In this way, the street already operates as a de facto Village without the signs and banners. These emblems of a Village, however, offer potentially lucrative tourist dollars and an official designation of a safe queer space for the GLBT community.

As with every dream, there are pros and cons. The timing makes sense given that the street will be unveiled with a shiny new face following the reconstruction (a nice change from the gritty hobo slum look it currently sports), although the new look and official designation could potentially hike rent rates. A recent conversation with a Bank Street business owner suggested that rent hikes in other high profile Villages (most notably Toronto) nearly killed the locally owned independent GLBT businesses, which already struggle to get by with a small but loyal customer base. In that case, the shiny surface of the Rainbow Village would only be a polish, undermining the efforts of local committees and advocacy groups in favour of a Village, complete with American Apparel and other big box conglomerates.

What a nightmare indeed!

As it stands, the future of Ottawa’s gay village is up in the air. As a resident of the area, I can only hope that the Bank Street committee and the city planners work together to provide an open and accepting space for all residents. Whether this includes banners, stickers and queer oriented businesses is uncertain, but for now I can dream that Ottawa will soon have its own little gay safe haven – the perfect place for some romantic hand-holding.

For more information on the Bank Street struggle (with a biased viewpoint), check out Capital Xtra’s recent coverage: http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=2&STORY_ID=4525&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=1

© 2008 Joe Lipsett; licensee (Cult)ure Magazine.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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