Site crowd sleuths Sutcliffe's ‘Good morning’ posts, proves mayor loves NCC

Article content

In person, he pivots quickly between earnest high-mindedness and wry cynicism.

Article content

According to his current accounting (he manually vets all submissions), almost half of solved MORKS — 194 NCC versus 238 city — were taken on or of NCC lands.

Article content

With no promotion apart from his and some others’ Bluesky posts, he says the site has generated hundreds of visits.

Article content

For Dave Hicks, the man behind the Live. Love. Mayor. site, the “crowd sleuthing” is helping determine how much Mayor Mark Sutcliffe is leaning on National Capital Commission largesse for his photographic celebrations of Ottawa. Photo by Spencer Colby /Postmedia

Article content

The engagement time speaks for itself, in the form of around 500 solved MORKS (some solved MORKS are neither city nor NCC).

Article content

Hicks awards digital “swag” to winners.

Article content

Sceptics will say that the NCC owns a lot of land, much of it in Ottawa’s prettiest spots.

Article content

Yet the number of NCC sites featured in the mayor’s social media series is especially odd, Hicks points out, given the sometimes antagonistic relationship between Sutcliffe and the agency.

Article content

Sutcliffe, for example, sought to curb the NCC’s Queen Elizabeth Driveway active transportation program, which introduced temporary closures of the QED for pedestrians and cyclists. Under his leadership, the city also applied to federal court for a review of the voluntary payments the NCC and other government agencies pay in lieu of taxes, which the city said were too low.

Article content

Article content

Article content

But Hicks’s main bugaboo is that the NCC is spending money on the National Capital Region while Sutcliffe touts the virtues of low taxes. Says Hicks: “Why is he not taking photos of, you know, a water main break or people waiting for the bus that’s never gonna show up?”

Article content

He is not alone in remarking on the mayor’s appreciation for NCC amenities.

Article content

Though Hicks envisioned and began designing the site as far back as a couple of years ago, it was a Bluesky post by Ottawa investigative reporter Luke LeBrun that prompted him to launch now.

Article content

“On behalf of myself, Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and 999,998 other Ottawa residents, I’d like to thank the National Capital Commission for making Ottawa such a great city,” LeBrun wrote earlier this month in response to a “Good morning Ottawa / Bonjour Ottawa” photo taken at Remic Rapids Park and featuring intricately balanced rocks at the Kichi Zìbì Mikan multi-use pathway.

Article content

The pathway is one of Sutcliffe’s favourite photographic subjects, likely part of his near-daily running routine, one that also often appears to include the Chief William Commanda Bridge.

Article content

Article content

“Dave’s website is great,” LeBrun wrote in an email. “He’s turned Mark Sutcliffe’s social media posts into a digital scavenger hunt. It’s fun putting your visual memory of your own city to the test by attempting to locate the mayor’s photos of random sections of NCC multi-use pathways on a map.”

Article content

When asked for comment on how many of his “Good morning Ottawa / Bonjour Ottawa” photos are on or of NCC land, Sutcliffe said via email: “I love our beautiful city. I enjoy sharing pictures of the many sites I see when I’m running or travelling around the city. That’s all there is to it.”

Article content

For Sarah Gelbard, a MORKS aficionado who first met Hicks on what she refers to as “old-school Ottawa Twitter” around 15 years ago, Live. Love. Mayor. provides the dual gratification of allowing her to solve a puzzle while also scratching a longtime political activist’s itch.

Article content

“I’ve been tempted to go out on my bike to confirm some sites but I haven’t quite reached that level of dedication,” says Gelbard, who teaches in the criminology department at the University of Ottawa and in the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism at Carleton University.