Dozens of protesters bumrushed a launch party thrown by a condo developer to rebrand a downtown neighbourhood “South Central Ottawa” on Tuesday evening.
They made their presence felt outside of the James Street Pub, scrawling their concerns in chalk on the sidewalk.
“GO HOME YUPPIE SCUM,” read one message.
“CONDOS ARE INVADING OUR COMMUNITY,” read another.
A young pub staffer was assigned to clean it up.
“At least it’s chalk, and not paint,” he said.
Several people went inside.
One even dumped glitter on David Wex, partner of Urban Capital Property Group, which is developing numerous projects downtown.
“When we came here around four, five years ago, the area around Bank and Gladstone was mostly parking lots and things like that, so it was… sort of an area where the vibrancy stopped in the street, between Centretown and moving down to the Glebe,” said Wex.
The area proposed to be renamed is along Bank St. between Catherine and Somerset Streets.
With redevelopment and new retail, “we thought it would be great to sort of increase the awareness of this area by coming up with a brand,” said Wex.
Anti-poverty group Under Pressure opposes the campaign.
http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/07/10/protesters-crash-condo-rebranding-event
Kelly Roche - Storyteller 