gatineau

Dates travelled: 2007; August 14, 2016; August 20, 2017; almost every weekday 2018 – pandemic 2020; a few times before 2016

The first time I remember going to Gatineau I was barely 18 and in university. I would’ve taken a cab over with other 18 year olds to the strip of clubs known not only for serving 18 year olds from Ontario (the drinking age is 19 in Ontario, 18 in Quebec), but only known for letting in underage teens and having quasi-middle age men grope at them in foam parties. Those were different times, I think.

Gatineau is, by far, the third-largest city in Quebec, following the provincial capital (Quebec City) and Canada’s second-largest city, Montreal. What Gatineau is really an inter-provincial city, grouped together with Ottawa by many since the only thing separating the two is a relatively narrow river and a number of congested bridges. The economies are tied, thanks to the share of federal government buildings near the river on both sides, and many refer to the area by its collective name (the national capital region).

For most of the time that I’ve lived in Ottawa, I would not only not think to cross the inter-provincial border (not a real border), but I would actively disparage it. Gatineau was not the type of place you’d go for the day, unless you were an avid biker going to Gatineau Park or were 18. Maybe also if you were going to pick up a lot of beer and save a tiny bit of money. Some people moved there to save money because the cost of living is substantially cheaper than places just a 15 minute walk on the other side of the bridges, but if you moved there in your late teens or early 20s, your social life would almost certainly die because no one would visit you.

While Ottawa was beginning to experience its hipster resurgence on a wider scale – there are always pockets of these things, eventually gathering momentum like little waves in a tide – Gatineau was right along with it. Instead of the beaten up clubs that wouldn’t meet most public health standards, they now have a small downtown geared towards up-and-comers and government workers. And for an area increasing its density, the green space in the city adjacent to the city centre has become even more appealing.

When I started working in Gatineau, the first pub I can remember going to for was a brewery that had been open for five or so years. It had a lot of seating space and an upstairs with the bathrooms and a couple other rooms, and a small patio extending from upstairs. I later found out it was no other than Le Bop, the first club I ever went to back when I thought I was supposed to go to clubs, one of the dirtiest of them all, now converted to a local brewery with a variety of IPAs and stouts on tap.

It’s not just the breweries that have started to make Gatineau a bit cooler. There are events, like this weird one that took over a large green space near one of the busiest bridges, where plants were groomed to look like animals and other objects for nice families to take their pictures in front of.

There are also things like small tennis tournaments, where I got to see Canada’s now best tennis player win a single and double tournament while she was only about 16, as evidenced by this creepy candid shot I was able to get when watching just on the other side of a fence.

And there are also public markets and municipally-funded gentrification art adorning its gothic office structures.

Right along the river, and expanding along a road on either side of one of the smaller bridges, is a big development project. This project was opposed for years because it’s on disputed land, but as per usual, money wins the development battle. This project is going to significantly increase the density in the area and continue to gentrify the area that was once thought of, and still largely is, beaten up and lower income. These new condos will be filled with government employees and rented out to tourists on airbnb, and a bunch of new restaurants and other places like that will no doubt follow.

Another wrinkle on the riverside development plans is the recent flooding in the area. I don’t remember ever hearing about the Ottawa River flooding, but twice in the past few years it has significantly, leading to bridge closures and a lot of people in more rural parts having their homes destroyed. I’m not sure what this means for development in the area, but I imagine it’s been considered.

One thing I’m looking forward to about this controversial development, aside from it being over, is making the route safer for pedestrians and bikers. I’ve seen so many red lights run and confusion from drivers in the hectic parts of the morning. Not the mention issues that happen in the messy part of the winter.

Aside from discovering its bars and places to eat at one of the many lunches we have as an excuse to day-drink at work, the other way I’ve gotten to know the urban part of the city is on my lunch walks. Walking around the dilapidated houses, it reminded me of where I grew up in Windsor. Windsor and Gatineau have a lot in common, overshadowed by much bigger cities on the other side of a river, shared economies, historically poor but becoming hipsterized. With the rise in remote work, maybe these cities will continue their resurgence and become of a destination since they’re cheaper to live.

Perhaps fittingly, what I enjoyed most about my lunch time walks were not the walks through the city blocks, but the ones where I’d go down the bike path at the river. On this path, you can see the Ottawa skyline. It’s a different feeling looking at a skyline from a smaller, poorer city – the place across the river seems to hold more promise or grandeur. On a bigger scale, I remember looking from Jersey City over to Manhattan, wondering what it was like to live so close to somewhere so iconic, at the same time being in a completely different world.

Walking alone is a nice way to break up the day. It’s where I get clear my head by thinking through, slowly, whatever’s cycling around. More often than not, walking alone at lunch makes me feel more rejuvenated than sitting in a loud room with my coworkers telling stories and jokes. Maybe I am a classic introvert.

With this pandemic, I am lucky to be able to work from home, across the river from Gatineau and on the southwest part of Ottawa’s downtown. With the way things are, I don’t know when I’ll be going back to the office, and I may never other than to retrieve the belongings that I have left there. If I don’t go back, I may look back on my time there somewhat fondly, but I honestly kind of doubt it. I would have rather stay on this side of the river to go work. But I am more likely to venture across the bridge to do a few things, like go to the park or sit on a patio, or even just to feel like I’m going somewhere one afternoon, whereas before being forced to make this mini-city a second home, I wouldn’t have thought twice about.