Etienne Lefebvre

@etiennelefebvre.bsky.social

I'm interested in finding ways to ensure Ottawa has functioning water mains by the time I get old. It would be nice to have drinking water when I retire. Sustainable Transportation Coordinator @envirocentre.bsky.social | Board Member @strongtownsottawa.ca

Do you know this building? I saw it when I was walking around Amsterdam, and I just had to look up the floorplan. It's an office building that they retrofited for residential. They removed the internal staircases and put them on the balconies. End result = hybrid single-loaded corridor design

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Here's one of my favorite single stair designs from Paris. 13 floors, 91 units. Since there's no internal hallway, each unit runs the length of the building allowing cross ventilation and lots of natural light.

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Toon Dreessen@toondreessen.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I love @sustainabletall.bsky.social posts but am saddened that this sort of accessible, family friendly, sustainable apartment building is impossible to build in Canada. We need our codes and standards to get with it @catmckenney.bsky.social @maritstilesndp.bsky.social we need code reform 1/

I was in Montreal this weekend for the opening of their pedestrian streets. The vibe was amazing. We stopped at a patio and asked the waiter if they get more business during pedestrian days, he says "oh ya, we are way more busy, we have twice the amount of staff on hand".

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The City of Ottawa posted the raw speed data from before and after Doug Ford banned speed cameras and the effect is so obvious it's not even necessary put a line marking when that happened. This chart shows the percentage of drivers going 15km/h or more over the posted limit.

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Disappointment at council today. Council just passed a motion from Councillor Menard for the Bank Street bus lane study which will restrict bus lanes even further from staff's proposed 3 hours to 2 hours. This means we will get no data about how parking affects bus flow in the area.

Motion brought forth to council by Councillor Menard, which sought to restrict the bus lanes on Bank Street from 3 hours in each peak direction to 2 hours.

Shoutout to @derricksimpson.bsky.social for hosting the monthly Ottawa Urbanism Bookclub! I definitely think that attending the book club inspired me to take my reading ambitions to the next level this year 😎

Parking Reform Network@parkingreform.org · 8mo ago

What’s on our team’s reading list? Our Comms Coordinator, @etiennelefebvre.bsky.social, shares the five books that most influenced his thinking on cities in 2025. parkingreform.org/2025/12/18/f...

The 2026 Draft Budget is out. The mayor was nice enough to instruct staff to include a donation link to help crowdfund additional revenue to make up for all the efficiencies 🙃 Who's gonna pitch in with me to make sure we have funding to repair water main breaks?

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We're part of a group of organizations taking part in a rally this Friday, 8:30 am, against Lansdowne 2.0. If you're against the cuts to affordable housing, the lack of public transit improvements, the huge amount of debt that will be taken on and reduce spending for other priorities, join us!

A poster promoting the rally against Lansdowne 2.0 occuring this Friday, November 7th, 2025, at 8:30am in front of City Hall (Marion Dewar Plaza). Multiple organizations have their logos included at the bottom, from left to right : Horizon Ottawa, Better Ottawa, Reimagine Ottawa, Strong Towns Ottawa, and Free Transit Ottawa

Today at the #lansdowne 2.0 discussion, Darrell Cox, the Glebe BIA representative, spoke about how they think dedicated bus lanes would be amazing for the project, and how it'd improve getting people to Lansdowne events. Glad to hear such support from the Glebe BIA on how bus lanes improve the area!

We heard from many groups today about the Tewin development. This is unfortunately going to be a development that further entrenches us into unsustainable sprawl. Property taxes have not and will not be able to provide long-term support for these types of developments. We have decades of evidence.

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I head again today from Ottawa By-law, they're no longer accepting reports for illegal driveway expansions or hardscaping or front yard parking. Apparently there are only 4 officers for these zoning issues and there are far too many reports than they can keep up with. They need more resources.

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