I have begun to take an inventory of the area in and around the catchment of the Convent Glen Orleans Wood Community Association. I want to explore the inequal distribution of services and stores and shops that are a large part of making nice places to live. Since I live in Convent Glen North, that’s where I’ll be focusing (see map below).
My ‘methodology’ for this test is described in more detail here: The Village Test: Auditing the Place Deficiency in Convent Glen North, and this page also has links to my full analysis so far.
As we go through each category, I’ll be awarding points on a scale from 0 to 5 based on the number and quality of the amenities in that category nearby (within a 10-15 minute walk). A true village will have multiple places in nearly all categories within that distance, so let’s see how we do in Convent Glen North.
Coffee shops are a great third place for work, social connection, or a quick break.
This type of place can be known by all kinds of names: café, coffee house, espresso bar, teahouse. They honestly don’t even have to serve coffee. Anywhere you can pick up a drink and a treat or light meal fits the bill here, something like a smoothie bar would also qualify in my mind. These places are perfect to meet someone for a drink and stay to chat, take a walk nearby, or just grab and go if you’re in a hurry.
Cafes are a great local amenity that can easily fit right into the fabric of a residential street. They could even be run out of a converted garage or built into the main floor of a mixed-use residential building. This kind of business adds a ton of social life and appeal to a community, and they make for a very easy and convenient trip for a date, a social gathering, or lunch meeting.
Here’s the Coffee Shop situation in Convent Glen North
I’ll just say it, we are lacking in places to get “a coffee” (again, could be any drink) north of the 174 highway. There are coffee places a short bike, bus, or drive away, but with the way the community is designed (no protected bike routes and infrequent bus service), almost anybody getting a coffee here is driving or doing it at home.
Overall Score
Coffee Shops get a 0/5 in CG North.
My Urbanist Take on Coffee Shops
In the urbanism space, you do hear about big concerns when it comes to low-impact commercial spaces like a coffee shop being integrated into a residential area (as they are in almost every place on Earth *except* North American suburbs). Probably the biggest is that a popular cafe will just turn a residential street into a parking lot, swamped with traffic and noise and chaos. And you could absolutely ruin a street by going about this the wrong way.
Putting a Starbucks with a drive-thru window and a big parking lot on your street would probably be horrible, even if you love coffee. That sort of thing is *not* what I’m describing when I picture a low-impact coffee shop in a residential neighbourhood. What I picture is a small, low-key community owned and operated business, with a coffee bar and 4-5 tables with chairs, maybe a small patio for the warmer months outside. I picture no parking lot, and maybe setting up a few available street parking spaces with restrictions that make it inconvenient or a pain for someone to drive there and stay for hours.
When your coffee shop is forced (by exclusionary zoning) to only exist in a commercial strip or plaza where literally nobody lives nearby, it feels like the only way to have such a business is to maintain a giant parking lot and have everybody drive. But building such a business into the fabric of a neighbourhood is a recipe for reducing friction in people’s lives and creating memorable community experiences.
When you can only create such a business in places that aren’t close to where anybody lives, your natural customer base will always be quite low (aside from staff at other nearby businesses). Setting up a shop like this in a residential area means locals are regulars, and people can actually get to know eachother and spontaneously meet rather than feeling like the only way to chat with people is to set aside specific ‘coffee time’.
Third places like coffee shops are the ideal first steps in a mixed-use ‘village’ community in the suburbs, and they’re sorely needed here.
Do you have coffee shops embedded in the fabric of your community? Can you walk there, and do you see local friends and neighbours? We’d love to hear from you in the forum (comments below) or on Facebook/Instagram/Bluesky about your experience. Also, come to our next Urbanism Club meeting, over lunch on Tuesday:
The Eastern Ottawa Urbanism Club meets regularly. Learn more:
Very cool initiative. Inspiring me to to do something similar! Did you get to try Beyond Cafe? It’s quite unique and quaint. Iranian ownership with ( I assume ) Iranian inspired food and drink. I’ve been 4 or 5 times and have been very happy every single time. It’s a bit of a time warp in there but pretty cool. I’d be really happy to see more coffee shops on street corners in residential neighbourhoods once the zoning changes start being implemented.
I’m not really a coffee drinker, so I don’t visit many places like that (though I’m much more likely to visit one when it’s close or I get invited by someone). Looked cool based on the pictures though, and I’d be interested to visit at some point when I get the chance.
I’m looking forward to making the case over the next couple of years that we should be able to have ‘corner store’-type zoning across the city, not just in N5-N6 zones like it is currently as of the new bylaws. I intend to try to make the case through this series that Convent Glen North really desperately needs this kind of stuff.