Great Glebe Garage Sale organizers frustrated with city's traffic restrictions

Large crowds on Bank Street at First Avenue for the Great Glebe Garage Sale on May 28, 2022. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

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The Glebe has been home to the Great Glebe Garage Sale for over 40 years. While a lot has changed overall, the event has been a “constant” for residents of that area.

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But as the sale enters its fifth decade, the association that has been organizing it since 1986 is sounding the alarm over what it says is a lack of meaningful consultation by the City of Ottawa before imposing new traffic restrictions.

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“This is the first year there have actually been traffic restrictions,” Glebe Community Association president John Crump said in an interview with the Ottawa Citizen, adding there were discussions last year, but the restrictions were not implemented then.

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Crump says the garage sale has operated safely for four decades and the association is not sure why “all of a sudden” traffic restrictions are being imposed for the event on Saturday, May 23.

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“We were never given a reason, other than vague safety concerns,” Crump wrote in a May 21 news release.

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Sam Woods, the Great Glebe Garage Sale co-ordinator, said the city got formally involved last year, when it asked the association to apply for a special permit to host the event.

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A few weeks ago, the city denied the association’s application for a permit this year, according to Woods, who later found out that the denial wouldn’t prevent the association from hosting the event.

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“They feel that the event itself is unsafe and creates a high likelihood of vehicle-pedestrian interactions,” he said.

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In denying the permit, Woods said, the city argued that the scale of the event required “centralized oversight.”

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“Given the distributed nature and number of participants involved, the level of control is not feasible,” an email to Woods read.

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Heidi Cousineau, the city’s manager of Traffic, Safety and Mobility, Public Works, said in a statement to the Ottawa Citizen, that the city consulted “community representatives, the ward councillor’s office, the local Business Improvement Area, operational reviews,” in advance of implementing new traffic measures.

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Cousineau said the consultation also included “ongoing feedback from residents and city partners,” adding that key considerations included “impacts on residents, traffic flow, accessibility, parking, safety, and neighbourhood navigation.”

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But Woods said the city failed to keep him in the loop during these consultations.

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“It’s like they have a math for how they make the decisions about parking and street closures and are not listening to the people who are boots on the ground, attending the event year after year,” he said.

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Crump said “there needs to be some frank discussion after this about how the city engages with communities, especially in a large event like this.”