A recent vehicle break-in on Dunston Terrace and a vehicle alarm around midnight have raised the collective conscience of the neighbourhood. These events have occurred within the past 7 day period from the posting of this blog entry.
From the flood of emails that ensued, there are some ideas about what should be done - both from the City's end as well as the neighbourhood's perspective.
Please enter your comments to this post and rest assured that its contents will be shown to both Councilor Deans and our Neighbourhood Constable - Gary McCoy.
- Put in a barrier across the pathway at the foot of Dunston - good idea or bad
- What type of barrier if you want to see one constructed
- Keep cars in your garage
- Other suggestions
Let's see what types of ideas our group can come up with ...
Cheers,
The Blogmeister
Is there any possibility that we could convert Solera into a "semi-gated" community? As there are only 2 access roads, the deployment of some sort of controlled entrance such as speed bump or even potted plants at the road entrances as they have done in the Glebe would provide a sense of community and might deter vandals?
ReplyDeleteBill St Arnaud
175 Solera Circle
We are not convinced that closing the access to the pathway will resolve the few concerns that are felt to be related to the access.
ReplyDeleteThe closure would inconvenience the people who use the access legitimately almost daily.
How could it be effectively closed without steering determined people through the adjoining backyards with their relatively easily scaled fences?
We are an “up-scale” area in a mixed neighbourhood. All parts of the neighbourhood (and the city) are, unfortunately, susceptible to crime. That is perhaps why burglar alarm companies have been quite successful selling systems in Solera.
If you are interested, there is a website that displays geographically all the Ottawa Police reports. It can be found at: http://www.crimereports.com/map?search=Ottawa+Ontario#
If the access is closed off and issues continue, would the access be re-opened ?
Jim and Gwen
185 Solera Circle
Put a gate closing the pathway with either combination or key lock that only residents of solera circle can access. We use to live on Burleigh private, east end of the city and when the community decided to do this closing the patway to the wood behind, it cut a lot of traffic to our neighbourhood, it worked well over there and I'm sure it will work the same here. :-)
ReplyDeleteHello everyone: We have been reading with careful attention to all the e-mails and postings on the blog about life and recent events in our neighbourhood. Michel and I have given this a lot of thought and wish to share our opinions with you.
ReplyDeleteThe spat of stolen vehicles, vehicle break-ins and other attempts are basically crimes of opportunities and convenience. The opportunity is one of easy access in and out of the area. The path and access to Hunt Club directly certainly is a major factor in making these crimes much easier to commit for the criminal. So the argument goes on about closing or somehow restricting the use of the path to the greenbelt. Closing off the path for the folks living at Royal Oak Court reduced their crime rate to ZERO!
However, we probably need to think bigger picture. Perhaps we should completely close off Dunstan Terrace at Hunt Club. Think about it for a moment. Why is there a road such as Dunstan that is open at Hunt Club? Perhaps to allow easy access to the sales centre, but what happens when that no longer exists? It only provides the opportunity to go west on Hunt Club. Those requiring to go east need to use Cahill and the traffic light.
Turning right off of Dunstan onto Hunt Club is a dangerous proposition at the best of times. The site lines east are extremely dangerous as west bound traffic is travelling at 80 km/hr. It is a matter of time before someone turning right off of Dunstan gets “t-boned” trying.
Every other residential community near us has access to Hunt Club by a street that has a traffic light at Hunt Club. This allows them to get onto Hunt Club safely. If we close off Dunstan, it is not that great a hardship to use Cahill and the safety of a traffic light, to either go east or west.
The Royal Oak court community, the Southport community, the Scarlett community and every other along Hunt Club, have access to Hunt Club by using a street with a traffic control device.
Therefore, I believe that we need to close off Dunstan Terrace at Hunt Club before we close off the path to the greenbelt. Closing off both would be best of course.
These are simply our opinions that we believe would completely reduce the “criminal” foot traffic that invites those crimes of opportunity.
Cheers
Roger & Michel
144 Solera Circle.