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Oh, champions of the new library say they’re ahead of their time. They may be right in 30 years. Congratulations.

The LRT. Most new urban transit systems are delayed and fitful. For now, though, our LRT is a maelstrom of mistakes by staff and council. Why, ones asks, has no one been fired?

Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia

The operational flaws in the system will be addressed eventually. What won’t imminently is where the train goes, when the second phase will open, and how effectively it will then serve the suburbs and the airport, too.

Meanwhile, OC Transpo charges among the highest single fares in North America. Its buses are uncomfortable and undependable. Congratulations.

Château Laurier. We ask government to protect the public interest. Ottawa has failed here miserably, too. Council didn’t know what it was doing and nor did staff when this carbuncle on the grand dame addition was initially approved. A mayor with a spine and a council with a vision would have said no to the château’s tone-deaf owners. The city could have refused them. It didn’t. Congratulations.

LeBreton Flats. It isn’t the city’s fault that RendezVous LeBreton had no rendezvous with destiny, but it isn’t surprising. This is the way things are in a dysfunctional capital. The new plan for LeBreton Flats, unveiled recently by Tobi Nussbaum and the NCC, is promising. But as always, it will be years before anything happens. Congratulations.

In other places, there would have been a penalty for this order of malpractice. In Ottawa, a city fiercely committed to mediocrity, no one seems to care.

Andrew Cohen is a journalist, professor and author of Two Days in June: John F. Kennedy and the 48 Hours That Made History.

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