City of Kitchener
Downtown still requires development charge exemption
Funding section revised Feb. 24 I’m also speaking on Monday to City Council’s Finance and Corporate Services Committee about continuing to development charge exemptions as an incentive for downtown development. Incentives still needed Yes, the revitalization of downtown Kitchener is in full swing. But now is not the time to remove incentives for development there. […]
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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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 […]
Making the best use of Auditorium parking revenues
I agree with Kitchener Rangers President Craig Campbell that the City of Kitchener should not use revenues from the paid parking lot at the Auditorium to pay for bylaw enforcement of on street parking during events at the facility. As part of its 2014 budget process, the city released seven issue papers with proposals to increase […]
How to increase revenue for the City of Kitchener
Property taxes are just one way for municipal governments to raise money. But it’s the one way that gets all the media and attention. So it’s great to see the City of Kitchener exploring how to increase other sources of revenue. As part of its 2014 budget process, the city released seven issue papers with […]
Day 12: Celebrating #12daysforgood
Today, my family and I joined several other Do Gooders, turkey drive and food hamper volunteers at a celebration hosted by the House of Friendship. We were marking the end of the 12 Days for Good and the completion of the distribution of the food hampers and turkeys. A look back at the 12 Days […]
Day 11: Dreaming of a healthy Waterloo Region
I’m a dreamer! Waterloo Region is awesome. We’re blessed to be living in such a healthy community. Yet I’m constantly looking for ways to make things around me better. Even as I celebrate all that is awesome in Waterloo Region, I continue to push to make it even better. Day 11 of the 12 Days […]
Day 10: Tolerance crucial to messy side of community building
Initially, I had some difficulty getting my head around today’s theme. I guess that tolerance is better than intolerance which can lead to all kinds of conflict and hurt. But is that “good “enough? Day 10 of the 12 Days for Good: ACCEPTANCE / TOLERANCE Today’s the tenth day of the 12 Days for Good coordinated as […]
Day 9: Extending hospitality to immigrants
When working at Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank, I became aware that too many immigrants were using foodbanks despite having education, training and experience that meant they could contribute to a better Canada. I also realized that Canadian food bank staples like macaroni and cheese were foreign to immigrants who required culturally appropriate foods. Day […]
