Heron Gate

History

The neighbourhood north of Walkely was first built by Minto in 1966, while the neighbourhood south of Walkely was first built prior to 1976. Ottawa City Council approved the construction of 576 units on Heatherington in 1970, and 150 units at the corner of Heatherington and Albion in 1972.

Demographics

The neighbourhood is extremely linguistically and racially diverse. According to the 2016 Census, a plurality of the neighbourhood (42%) is Anglophone and 13% is Francophone. Other major languages include Arabic (12%), Somali (11%), Nepali (4%), Spanish (2%), Creoles (2%) and Persian (2%). It is a plurality Black Canadian (32%), and is nearly equally White (31%). Arab Canadians also make up a significant proportion (15%). Other races include South Asian (7%), Filipino (3%), Latin American (2%), Indigenous (2%), Chinese (2%), West Asian (1%) and Southeast Asian (1%).

Retailers

Main article: Herongate Square

The main shopping area in the Herongate area is the Herongate Square (formerly Herongate Mall). There are also stores nearby which are separate from the mall.

Timbercreek evictions

Most properties south of Heron and north of Walkley, within Baycrest Drive, Sandalwood Drive and Cedarwood Drive are managed by Timbercreek Asset Management who took possession in 2012. In 2016, Timbercreek evicted residents from 80 townhomes in Heron Gate, to make room for new developments in the area. In May 2018, it announced that it would evict residents of a further 150 townhomes, due to structural problems with the buildings. The decision to redevelop the area received criticism from residents and interested parties such as the UN special rapporteur on Adequate Housing, and was described as the "'largest forced displacement in Canada' in recent history."

These evictions were criticized as being part of a broader pattern of racist “reno-victions” or “demo-victions”, as “90% of more than 500 tenants evicted in 2018 after rental properties were allowed to deteriorate were racial minorities”. Nonetheless, Heron Gate has been noted by scholars such as Emily Power, Bjarke Skærlund Risager, and Marina Gomá as an important site of working class, anti-racist activism by its residents. As Gomá notes, “The Herongate Tenant Coalition articulates a different reality to the narrative of Canadian benevolence, embodying class solidarity, denouncing structural racism, and recruiting allies to donate to their legal case against Timbercreek Management.”

Following an extended grassroots activist campaign and a human rights challenge, Timbercreek agreed to provide CAD$2,000 in moving compensation, relocation assistance and negotiated discounts with Ottawa moving companies.

References

References

1. "Place names - Heron Gate".
2. "Our Neighbourhood – #DefendHerongate".
3. Population calculated by combining the populations of Census Tract 5050007.02 with Dissemination Areas 35061282, 35060895, 35061319, 35061320, 35060893
4. (9 May 2017). "THE BEACHBURG SUB: The history of Walkley Yard".
5. (July 7, 1966). "Minto". Ottawa Citizen.
6. Ottawa, Ontario. 1:25,000. Map Sheet 031G05G, ed. 3, 1971; Open Data Producer: Surveys and Mapping Branch, Department of Energy, Mines and Resources; Date published: 1971-01-01 (publication), 2016-01-01 (publication)
7. "geoOttawa".
8. (October 21, 1970). "City Clears Path for Construction Of 2,200 Apartment, Housing Units". Ottawa Journal.
9. (July 18, 1972). "Alta Vista residents force a review of public housing scheme". Ottawa Citizen.
10. (8 February 2017). "Census Profile, 2016 Census - 5050007.02 [Census tract], Ontario and Canada [Country]".
11. (8 February 2017). "Census Profile, 2016 Census - 35061282 [Dissemination area], Ontario and Canada [Country]".
12. (8 February 2017). "Census Profile, 2016 Census - 35060895 [Dissemination area], Ontario and Canada [Country]".
13. (8 February 2017). "Census Profile, 2016 Census - 35061319 [Dissemination area], Ontario and Canada [Country]".
14. (8 February 2017). "Census Profile, 2016 Census - 35061320 [Dissemination area], Ontario and Canada [Country]".
15. (8 February 2017). "Census Profile, 2016 Census - 35060893 [Dissemination area], Ontario and Canada [Country]".
16. "Heron Gate residents, developer sketch out community's future". CBC News.
17. (2018-05-10). "Builder accelerates evictions in Ottawa's Heron Gate neighbourhood as rebuild gathers pace". The Globe and Mail.
18. (2018-07-03). "Heron Gate eviction violates human rights law, United Nations advocate says".
19. (21 August 2018). "Heron Gate mass eviction: 'We never expected this in Canada'". Al Jazeera.
20. (January 2020). "Financialized gentrification, demoviction, and landlord tactics to demobilize tenant organizing". Geoforum.
21. (February 2020). "Women's Housing: balancing 'scaling-up' and 'caring' in Montreal, Gatineau and Ottawa". Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies.
22. (September 2019). "Rent-striking the REIT: Reflections on tenant organizing against financialized rental housing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada". Radical Housing Journal.
23. (31 Jan 2020). "Challenging the Narrative of Canadian Multicultural Benevolence: A Feminist Anti-Racist Critique". OMNES: The Journal of Multicultural Society.
24. (August 2, 2018). "Heron Gate tenants prepare to launch human rights challenge to mass evictions Social Sharing".
25. (August 14, 2018). "Battle lines drawn in Heron Gate, where an evicted community doesn't plan on leaving". Ottawa Citizen.