We’re getting to know our neighbours! People on Preston? is a collection of street portraits and short interviews with merchants, residents and patrons who live, work and play on Preston Street. There will be six new stories each week. Click on an image below, or click here to see all of the People on Preston stories in one place.
“I’ve lived around this area most of my life. I lived on Oak Street for 13-and-a-half years. Then I moved to Cambridge. Now I’m moving back to Preston Street again; Preston and Albert. The co-op. My father worked at this store when he was 12 years old. There used to be a butcher shop here at one time.” (Read More)
“I lived on Young Street, on Bayswater, with my mom on Norman Street. I know Preston Pretty well. I’ve lived in Ottawa for 30 years. [My siblings and I] were all adopted from Brazil. We’re very grateful we were adopted by Canadians.” (Read More)
“I live just around the corner. It makes my commute nice [laughs]. I moved in November of 2009. With the winter coming I decided it was time to move closer. I love the neighbourhood. It’s close to Dow’s Lake and I run in the summertime. It’s great to be able to get out and run along the canal. The people in the neighbourhood are super-friendly. The only thing we could use is a grocery store.” (Read More)
“I’m in my 13th year now and the big challenge for us was to get the beautification project. We’d had very little success. As I started to get to know my business owners, I found out 18 of our businesses were getting flooded every time we had rain. That’s because we had a hundred-year-old combined sewer. I sent a letter off to our ward councillor and I got no response whatsoever. Then I figured out a lot of business owners don’t vote down here. So I sent a newsletter to residents and I got 113 letters back. (Read More)
“The founders of Preston Hardware were the Locatelli and Germain families. They started in 1945 and ran a very strong organization. In 1973 we purchased the business from the Locatellis. My brother, brother in law and I have been running it ever since.” (Read More)