Some Ottawans are desperately trying to put SoPa on the map. Others question the point.

Scott May has seen the snide remarks.

The owner of two businesses in the Queen St. Fare food hall recently advanced the idea to brand the seven-block grid south of Parliament Hill as SoPa, just as SoHo abbreviates “South of Houston Street” in New York City. That was all jokesters on social media needed to let loose.

Some pointed out SoPa’s uncanny resemblance to SoDoSoPa, the satirical neighbourhood designation offered up in season 19, episode 3 of the animated TV comedy South Park, in which the show’s mayor tries to revitalize a down-at-heels part of town. Others ridiculed SoPa by suggesting alternate nicknames — NoGle for “North of the Glebe,” anyone? Some pointed out that “sopa” means soup in Spanish, May says.

“It’s just a fun name,” May says in response. “All of this negative publicity is great, because people are talking about it, talking about downtown again, which is something I haven’t heard in over a year.

“It’s less about the name and more about the fact that we’re just trying to draw some attention to the downtown core,” says May.

Party-poopers notwithstanding, a launch event is slated for Wednesday night at Queen St. Fare Wednesday night. The proceeds will help put SoPa on maps — literal ones to be given to downtown hotels for distribution. SoPa’s map lists 23 restaurants and bars, nine hotels and four live music venues including the National Arts Centre.

Of course, downtown Ottawa for decades has been slagged for lacking nightlife and fun after public servants went home to the suburbs. In the early 2010s, a casino and then a zipline were among the proposed improvements for Sparks Street.

The late 2018 opening of Queen St. Fare, where May operates Bar Robo and Q Bar, followed by the arrival of light rail across the street, were supposed to add vibrancy to downtown.

But then the pandemic happened. Overnight, tens of thousands of commuting office workers disappeared from downtown.

Downtown businesses survived the pandemic only thanks to emergency subsidies that mitigated catastrophic losses. May’s businesses, for example, saw revenue drop by 97 per cent during the first year of COVID-19.

Last year’s convoy protest, which happened just as restaurants and bars such as May’s were to re-open following a lockdown, heaped fresh agonies on businesses in what was dubbed the red zone.

Last July, the Downtown Ottawa Revitalization Task Force was struck. Ottawa Centre MP Yasir Naqvi said this group of affordable and social housing advocates, developers, Indigenous leaders, sustainability proponents and business leaders would brainstorm solutions to invigorate downtown. After months of weekly get-togethers, the task force just days ago called for public input via an online form.

But May isn’t waiting around. “There were lots of promises and task forces and studies and wringing of hands. Nothing became of it over the last year,” he says.

At Wednesday’s launch party, six chefs from leading downtown restaurants will serve food while jazz musicians play from the bandstand. Tickets for the bash are $75 each, a price that prompted online sceptics to scoff.

But Devinder Chaudhary, owner of Aiana Restaurant Collective, the fine-dining neighbour of Queen St. Fare in the Sun Life Financial Centre, says he expects to sell 200 tickets — double his expectations.

“Excess funds is a very pleasant problem to handle,” says Chaudhary. He intends to pay the chefs to help offset their food costs, spend on printing maps for hotels, and then donate the rest to Cornerstone Housing For Women, a downtown shelter.

“I’m more happy about that than anything else,” he says. “If we can continue to do that and support our community, I think that is beautiful.”

Chaudhary and May are pushing their “entertainment district” idea in part because it does not fall tidily within the purview of a nearby business improvement area, namely the Sparks Street BIA or the Bank Street BIA.

Asked what she thought of SoPa, Christine Leadman, executive director of the Bank Street BIA and a revitalization task force member, questioned what it could involve and what it might achieve.

“I’m really at a loss for words as to how this will effect change,” she says. “To effect change, it has to be more than mapping out an area and putting out flags.”

Leadman says downtown revitalization will require a host of improvements, including investments from various levels of governments, support for people who have mental health and addiction issues, more green spaces and more public art.

Somerset Ward Coun. Ariel Troster, who also sits on the task force, supports SoPa but calls its “one strategy of many” with the goal of bettering downtown.

“We keep saying we need new ideas to revive downtown,” says Troster. “The great thing about new ideas is sometimes you throw them against a wall, you see what works, you see what doesn’t. I’m glad to see they’re trying something.”

Troster says she’ll be at the launch party. Chaudhary says other high-profile supporters will be there too. MP Naqvi and Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe will attend, as will Sueling Ching, CEO of the Ottawa Board of Trade, he says.

“This is very important for us, for SoPa to get that validation,” Chaudhary says.

On Twitter, Sutcliffe’s principal secretary Daniel-Guillaume Stringer defended SoPa.

“Let’s support businesses who want to re-brand downtown Ottawa,” Stringer wrote. “The venn [sic] diagram of people who complain about downtown Ottawa but then attack any effort by businesses to improve it, is a circle.”

Jantine Van Kregten, Ottawa Tourism’s director of communications, says she’s pleased to see restaurants seeking common cause at the launch. Collaborating, she says, “might be the future, rather than all of a sudden in two weeks seeing signs everywhere that say SoPa.”

It’s too soon for Ottawa Tourism to tout SoPa to visitors and media, Van Kregten says.

“If it becomes common parlance, then great, we’ll promote that,” Van Kregten says. “But it needs to catch on organically.”

phum@postmedia.com

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SoPa launch party
When: Wednesday, Feb. 6, 7 to 10 p.m.
Where: Queen St. Fare
What: A bash for downtown businesses who want to rename their area, with food from the restaurants Aiana, Thali, North and Navy, Cocotte Bistro, Beckta and 1 Elgin, plus live jazz
Tickets: $75 plus fees at eventbrite.ca (search for SoPa)