City of Kitchener
Why all the fuss at City Council about Big Music Fest?
Yesterday’s Kitchener City Council meeting featured lots of fuss about the Big Music Fest. Not the event itself but rather the “secrecy” of planning it and the lack of public consultation. I saw some of it first hand via Rogers TV and read about it in this morning’s Waterloo Region Record and on CBC’s local station. […]
Kitchener
1 in 1000 Conversations on Building Community
I couldn’t believe it a week ago. I arrived at an event where I knew there’d be lots of great content on building community without my Blackberry Z10! That meant I couldn’t tweet the goodness as I’d normally do. Thankfully, I had a notebook and pen. What follows are the notes that I took with […]
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Join me in celebrating successes of Sustainable Waterloo Region
Hey! Sustainable Waterloo Region is an awesome organization doing wonderful things to build a healthy community. I love what they do and applaud its tremendous success especially over such a short period of time. I hope you’ll join me at its annual recognition evening that is a celebration of its success in this shift occurring […]
Why Kitchener needs food trucks
Kitchener needs food trucks because they contribute to lively, vibrant streets and places. While my last post responded to a city staff report (PDF) being considered by city council’s Finance and Corporate Services committee on Monday, this post says what I really want to say about food trucks. Food trucks attract people Let’s start by […]
Will food trucks remain a novelty in Kitchener?
Will food trucks remain a novelty in the City of Kitchener? Or will the city offer a friendly environment for food trucks? That’s the decision facing city council when its Finance and Corporate Services Committee meets on Monday afternoon to consider a staff report (PDF) on the future of food trucks in the city. What does a […]
Why everyone benefits by building the LRT
A very important angle is missing from the ongoing debate about the LRT in Waterloo Region. The LRT benefits everyone. Even if you never step foot on the LRT, you come out ahead. And not by a photo finish. By a wide margin! 1.You save money! Yes, the estimated $818 million cost of the LRT […]
What I heard
So I asked for your feedback on “what I should do in the fall?” Here is an overview of the results. 29 survey responses about 21 responses to the post, on Facebook and on Twitter the post was viewed more than 250 times I’m pleased that about 50 people took the time to let me know […]
Let’s say Danke with Carl Zehr Platz!
Kitchener’s longest serving mayor has decided not to seek re-election. While the news was anticipated, nothing was a sure thing until the official announcement came. When it came, the reality hit that it really was the end of an era. I immediately tweeted, “Thank you @MayorCarlZehr for your dedication to building a better Kitchener. The […]
Quick response to 2014 Kitchener budget
Hard cap decreased flexibility to provide needed services After an 11 hour marathon budget meeting, Kitchener City Council reduced this year’s tax increase from 1.17% to 0.99%. Given how little difference that reduction made to taxes, Council could have used their time more efficiently and maintained or expanded services by showing greater flexibility. While keeping to […]
Kitchener’s planning around rapid transit stations is underway
I read an interesting article on the weekend in the Kitchener Citizen‘s East Edition. It contains information about the City of Kitchener’s preparations for development around the light rail transit stations. I’d like to share this information with other citizens of Kitchener. This article gives you a heads up the coming process to plan around […]
Two healthy community events coming
Hey! Just a quick post to let you know about a couple events coming of interest to people desiring to build healthy communities. Tax is not a four letter word Regional Council didn’t get any feedback at its public input sessions that its 2.8% tax increase was too high. Still, they tried to decrease it […]
Why I stood up for public engagement
Monday’s meeting briefly came to a halt soon after it started, when budget chair Coun. Scott Davey told the audience that councillors would merely listen to delegates, rather than ask questions. The intent was to prevent the meeting from becoming exceedingly lengthy, but the move prompted a strong reaction. An angry James Howe argued he […]
