Shirt Tales

• downtown King Street has a stable resident population of approximately 3,000 -- of whom, 25 to 34% live below the poverty line according to Statistics Canada (Sources: Record map "Poverty in Waterloo Region's three cities" & City of Kitchener 2004 Downtown Monitoring Report;
• however, employment in downtown districts is 10,801 ====> the numbers would suggest that most of these employees drive to the suburbs once their day's work is done

Labels: Berlin/Kitchener history, urban planning

# posted by ramblingrose @ 8:57 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Yesterday's Record had a public announcement by the Minister of the Environment &City of Kitchener regarding the results of an Environmental Assessment of Stonegate Creek and Gully. Cf. map above, top right hand corner: Schneider Park to the west of (old) King Street. The creek flows through a subdivision at top of Grand River bank and falls to the Grand River via a gully that can be seen from the Schneider Park trail system at the bottom (trails in red). Photo on left is of the Freeport bowstring arch bridge as seen from Schneider Park.

According to the EA, City of Kitchener taxpayers will have to spend $400,000 to shore up the gully which is eroding quite quickly as a result of a subdivision built there some twenty years earlier. Rambling Rose is quite certain that neither the developer, city planners, or the property owners anticipated that tiny Stonegate Creek could just wash all that land away. An unintended consequence of a planning decision?

Wikipedia provides a summary of unintended consequences:

1. "The Law of Unintended Consequences holds that almost all human actions have at least one unintended consequence. In other words, each cause has more than one effect, including unforeseen effects."
2. "Unintended consequences, or situations where the final outcome is unexpected, can be classed into roughly three groups:
   * positive, usually referred to as serendipity or a windfall
   * a source of problems, according to Murphy's law
   * definitively negative or a perverse effect, which is the opposite result to the one intended"
3. "Robert Merton listed five causes of unanticipated consequences:
   1. Ignorance (It is impossible to anticipate everything)
   2. Error (Incomplete analysis of the problem, or following habits that worked in the past but may not apply to the current situation)
   3. Immediate interest which may override long-term interests
   4. Basic values may require or prohibit certain actions, even if the long-term result might be unfavourable (these long-term consequences may eventually cause changes in basic values)
   5. Self-defeating prophecy (Fear of some consequence drives people to find solutions before the problem occurs, thus the non-occurrence of the problem is unanticipated)
4. Note the law of unintended consequences is not quite the same as Murphy's Law which states " things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance. "If there's more than one way to do a job, and one of those ways will result in disaster, then somebody will do it that way." It is most often cited as "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong" (or, alternately, "Anything that can go wrong, will."
5. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unintended_consequence
   
   

Labels: pensees

# posted by ramblingrose @ 3:40 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

• "The province has given the authority to approve subdivision plans to regional council while council, in turn, has delegated that authority to planning commissioner Rob Horne. That means regional staff and not the elected politicians will ultimately decide the fate of the controversial development."
• Per Regional Council Chair Seiling: "Regional council would expect staff to review all the issues that have been raised and to make sure they have been covered off...The region's review is focused on ensuring the plan complies with provincial and regional legislation and policies. But Horne [Region's Commissioner of Planning] said staff can also consider whether it entails good planning in "a broader, contextual discussion."
• versus....."Smith said it might be "a good thing" for council to make the decision itself on such a contentious issue, rather than relying on staff [as] that would at least provide greater public accountability."
  
• Smith said she and others want to state their case as delegates to a public council meeting. Seiling said they are always free to do that but urged any delegates to send written submissions in advance for staff and council to consider. ..If regional councillors feel some issues have not been adequately addressed, Seiling said they can conceivably ask staff to withhold approval of the subdivision plans pending a report back to council.

• At the same time, because there has already been extensive consultation with the city, Horne said, "my expectation is that we will be supporting the plan."Waterloo city planner Joel Cotter said he also believes the region will approve the plan because "they've been involved from Day 1."

• Because of a summer break, the next full meeting of council is not until Aug. 30. ====> Are the three subdivisions a done deal? Have we just witnessed an act of political legerdemain** in transferring accountability from Council to staff here-- as the integrity of our water supply is a Regional responsibility? **legerdemain defined thus: 1. Sleight of hand. 2. A show of skill or deceitful cleverness: financial legerdemain. Sleight of hand defined:1 a : a cleverly executed trick or deception b : a conjuring trick requiring manual dexterity;2 a : skill and dexterity in conjuring tricks b : adroitness in deception. Sources here: //dictionary.reference.com/browse/legerdemain & http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/sleight+of+hand
• From the technical backgrounder to the Clean Water Act 2005, the following are pertinent to the West Side development issue: " A source of contamination may pose a greater risk to drinking water the closer it is to the wellhead. Contamination may pose a greater risk if it is able to move quickly through some substances. For example, sand is more porous than hard-packed clay and could allow contamination to move through it more quickly.
  http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/water/cwa-animations.htm ===> the proposed Clean Water Pipe Collection system is to move rooftop water to a sandy area where it is to be infiltrated into the regional aquifer?? any risk here? would Chair Seiling drink a glass of water from my rain barrel and deem it safe and uncontaminated?
• more from the Clean Water Act backgrounder: stormwater collection ponds in urban areas that are designed to allow stormwater to directly infiltrate into groundwater is to be considered a provincial risk cf. above
• the provincial technical committee also recommended : 1) No direct infiltration ponds; 2) Limit impermeable surfaces in new developments
• Does the precautionary principle apply here and should Council be asked to apply pending further reports: "The precautionary principle says that the absence of scientific certainty about a risk should not bar the taking of precautionary measures. It addresses situations in which the risk cannot be estimated with any reliability and in which uncertainty prevails regarding the relationship, if any, between cause and supposed effect."
• Waterloo Council was assured that a) the developments did not risk the regional aquifer; and b) that MOE (Minister of Environment) deems roof and foundation water clean. How clean is clean? How many, gentle readers, are currently drinking water from their rain barrels? Knowingly? Rambling Rose must confess she did drink the PCB-laced Moose River waters until insiders filled her in; after that she purchased bottled drinking water.
  
• From an e-mail received: "These developments were originally approved over 18 years ago. Our time to fight them was back then - in 1986, 1988, 1992, 1994 and 1996. Once a District Plan, Draft Plan of Subdivision, zoning changes, etc. have been approved and brought forward and the Developers have been given a reasonable expectation of development and it is far too late for us to do much about it - particularly in a City running out of land and these lands representing 23% of the remaining developable urban area. ...However, the original plans for these subdivisions would have been devastating to a vast area. Plans called for over 3,000 high density homes with all traffic being dumped out onto the Wilmot Line - going from the current 300 cars per day to an estimated 26,000 cars per day which would have devastated the ESPA's and recently approved ESL...." When is enough, enough? Can one ever know?
  

Labels: Grand watershed, James Bay Lowlands, land use, water

# posted by ramblingrose @ 5:44 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Labels: Grand watershed, water

# posted by ramblingrose @ 4:05 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

• an increase in the buffers to protect ESPA 19
• a decrease in the residential density proposed, thereby limiting road traffic through the Environmentally Sensitive Landscape
• the rerouting of the Columbia Street extension away from the ESL
  
• the retention of Wilmot Line as a rural road
• even Council in its approval on Monday night added stringent conditions to the resolution that came in response to input from Monday night's delegates.
  

1. the groundwater will suffer;
2. traffic patterns on Wilmot Line will change because of the funnel:
3. Forested Hills ESPA #19 will be degraded.
   

Labels: Grand watershed, land use, water

# posted by ramblingrose @ 10:05 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

• “The brute force of development is careening into the province’s surviving wild places”
  
• “Shutting the door to any growth in this area is not a viable option”
• “Let’s agree that under no circumstances, should we befoul the source of water that will eventually pour out of our taps. However, assuming that the studies conducted for the city are correct, the Waterloo lands being considered for development have little potential to contaminate regional wells.”
• “The challenge for politicians in Waterloo– and those at regional headquarters who have final say on these west-side developments – is to balance the exigencies of urban growth with the needs of nature. If due diligence is exercised by those in power, this can be done.”

1. Noteworthy in Monday's meeting was how much Councillor's were influenced by both the Editorial position cf. above and the number of phone calls/e-mails each had received. According to one councillor, 99% of these expressed the public's concern with ensuring the safety and integrity of our groundwater supply.
2. The Record's position re projected growth recalls both the Dimby song above ca Expo 67 and background lyrics to Ontario's pavilion and is based on the assumption that growth is inherently good. Seems to me we have replaced the old paradigm of progress no matter what the cost, with growth at whatever cost. Kitchener environmental activist Daphne Nicholls challenged that assumption thus: “Like the rest of the industrialized world, we have followed an idea of progress which began with a vision of bettering the human condition, but which now is closing down the basic life-sustaining systems.”--Daphne Nicholl's opinion piece, “Preserve Hidden Valley woods as a forest for the future,” The Record,18 Feb 06
3. On the question of integrity of the Region of Waterloo groundwater supply, Councillors passed the buck thus:
   1) "the Region is the delegated authority fo source water protection and must approve these subdivisions"; 2) "the Ministry of Environment (MOE) defines clean water" and "MOE considers roof and foundation water clean"===> several delegates questioned the quality of the "clean" water to be piped into the regional aquifer after it had made contact with asphalt roof shingles (possible creosote contamination???) & Professor Frind, world-renowned water expert who testified in Walkerton inquiry, warned Council thus: “We need to realize that we are replacing a natural system that has been functioning for tens of thousands of years with a man-made system which will require monitoring and maintenance forever, with no guarantee that it is going to work.”-- Prof. E. Frind, P. Jalsevac,”Subdivision plans come under fire,” The Record 18 Jul 06.
4. There was much discussion as to the measures the proposed developments would take to protect environment & groundwater/Waterloo moraine and in particular, the Clean Water Collector (third pipe) system to be implement here. A new concept for RR explained thus: a system of pipes to direct rooftop and foundation water from sump pumps to the few existing sandy areas in order to increase clean water infiltration to deep aquifer by 21 to 39%. As well, mention was made of the increase in size of naturalized buffers to protect the two designated environmentally sensitive areas (Forested Hills and Clair Creek). Some of the lots are to have wider frontages to allow for 2 to 3 car parking spaces.
   
5. It has taken years to arrive at these subdivision plans cf. the City report above that shows City planning for the West Side lands began in 1985 and the three subdivision plans approved this week have gone through several iterations to address citizen concerns. The lengthy time process that has been followed to arrive at the compromises detailed in the City report reflect positively on the engaged civic commitment of the larger community and continue a process described by a former City of Waterloo planner: “About 1977 there was a general movement towards environmental awareness in the academic community, including the University of Waterloo, that was quickly transferred to the local community. This movement continued into the 1980's and 1990's, fuelled by strong public concern with the environment and firm political support.”-- Greg Romanuk, Planning Issues in the City of Waterloo”
   
6. Small wonder then that delegates were quick to question obvious bloopers viz. 1) one planner's comment that "some [endangered forest interior] species will be displaced to Wilmot Township"; 2) the condition that 30% of a lot must be landscaped ("math is easy (100-30) = 70% impervious cover per lot; and 3) "ESPA 19 will function as a viable ecological unit but certain species will be misplaced." Note: Rambling Rose previously blogged about forest interior species under blog heading "out of sight, out of mind" at www.grandriver.blogspot.com & offers up this second opinion: “Subdivisions and highways result in net loss of forest cover and fragment what remains. Forest patches in close proximity to urban areas are subjected to invasions by alien species, and natural drainage patterns can be disrupted, placing stress on plant communities. Localized air and water pollution also has an impact on these ecosystems.” Source: Federation of Ontario Naturalists Southern Ontario Woodlands Project go to www.ontarionature.org
   
7. "Over time, humans have been the most destructive of the invasive species."---Burtt, “Forest physician sees watershed health in the trees,” The Record 19 Jan 06
   

Labels: Grand watershed, land use, water

# posted by ramblingrose @ 2:01 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

• local heritage advocates wanted the building located 3.6 metres to the north: "the new building does not belong alongside the "old" 1857 City Hall per letter to editor "it would be a modern-appearing structure very close to classical historical buildings"; other critics complained the new building will demean its historic neighbours; Ken Hoyle summed it up: "this puts in jeopardy a 150-year-old cultural landscape." Source: Dave Pink, "Green light for civic centre," The Record, date?
  
• the Ontario Heritage Trust foundation opposed the planned glass skywalk until the city completes a heritage master plan for City Hall.
• the outside expert opinion? "old and new buildings will be jammed too tightly together and drive [pedestrians] them away," Kevin Swayze, "Critic says city offices misplaced," The Record
• City staff defended the plan "connecting old and new is fundamental part of the plan" cf. Swayze report cited above.
  
• for its part, the local rag opined thus: "This building is much more than a home for city hall staff--it will also be the city's public square and it will stand as a symbol of potential renaissance for the Galt downtown." Source: "A single chance to get this right," The Record, 6 Mar 2006.
• Rambling Rose would suggest Cambridge folks drive over to Guelph next door where historic stone government buildings were seamlessly combined with a modern office tower and allowed for a small park adjacent. It would appear that Cambridge heritage advocates are grieving the loss of public realm space-- as the land to be covered with the new building has been the site of many community events. Galt's evolving history needs to be told in its evolving architecture. The great thing about all of this is that nobody even suggested demolishing the nearby historic buildings!

• the merchants? "When did you ever see a public square in front of a shopping centre?...Ridiculous!" & former Kitchener shopkeeper who moved his Clutches store to Waterloo this spring: "convenient parking was one of the main reasons he ....moved...to Waterloo" ---- Keileen Kelly, "Opinions aired on public square," The Record 11 Jul 06
• City planning staff/consultants? "It is an accepted urban design principle in pedestrian-oriented urban areas, such as uptown, that parking be located at the rear or side of buildings and not along the primary street frontage."-- P. Jalsevic, "Waterloo ready to discuss plan for uptown square," The Record, 8 Jul 06
• academia too had its opinions (two universities call Waterloo home, remember?), Mark Seasons, U of W Professor of Planning: The one piece that is missing [i.e. in the UpTown] a good quality, well-designed, nicely planned public square."-- Keileen Kelly, "Opinions aired on public square," The Record 11 Jul 06
• the outside consultant?  Cynthia Nikitin, PPS advised "Build public space/urban realm not parking garages cf. “Cars don’t shop, people do. If people can park their cars within three to five blocks of their destination, they don’t mind walking. When parking is raised as an issue, it is usually a sign that something bigger is wrong & “shows that an area is not functioning as a destination or great place.”--T. Pender, “Build public spaces urban expert urges,” The Record 22 Jun 06
• Waterloo Council requested another staff report to be considered 25 Sept 06.
• 
  
• In the heart of Waterloo Region, Kitchener's much-vaunted Centre Block redevelopment project has been stalled -- until after the election? Kitchener resident and Record columnist Frank Etherington is left wondering in print: "But where are the innovative, inexpensive programs at the grassroots level that should be nurtured by council to revitalize the core? The type of community-based projects seen in other cities where retailers and councils work hard to beautify streetscapes.?"===> Rambling Rose contrasts the UpTown Waterloo streetscape improvements & new Victorian light installations (costs shared by City and downtown merchants) with the Kitchener streetscape & Victorian light installations (100% funded by taxes via the Economic Development Investment (Fantasy) Fund. Perhaps if Kitchener downtown merchants were to dig to invest more heavily???? but how can they if sales/revenues are down? or is that just an excuse???
  

• "The creation of the Kitchener Public Library-Centre Block Project Committee, and the commitment of $32.5 million in taxpayers money to the project, were only to see if there was private-sector interest in developing Centre Block**, Zehr said."--T. Pender,"Council officially kills Centre Block library plan," The Record, 5 Jul 06
• However, "In early February ... Mayor Carl Zehr said he was ready to fight an election over whether the city should build a new 130,000-square-foot library on Centre Block, which is bounded by King, Young, Duke and Ontario streets." -- op. cit.
• “The Centre Block debacle illustrates how much we need improved leadership, increased political vision and a fresh approach to downtown renewal. Changes voters can make when they go to the polls Nov. 13.” -- Frank Etherington opinion piece, "Scuttling Centre Block plan right move, wrong reason" Link here: http://www.therecord.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=record/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article &cid=1152483909779&call_pageid=1024322085509
  

Labels: land use

# posted by ramblingrose @ 8:25 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

1. Waterloo Moraine contains areas of sand and gravel deposited through glacial activity that contain a series of large aquifers which recharge to and maintain the basic flow of the Grand River and many of its tributaries. These aquifers are also the source of approximately 50% of all the ground water used within the Regional water supply system. The easterly moraine underlies the urban development (Waterloo/Kitchener) are covered by less permeable silt and till materials which limit the infiltration of rain water; the westerly moraine serves as the main recharge for the aquifers & contributes of the water to the aquifers underlying the Waterloo Moraine. The surface sand and gravel deposits are highly permeable and also connected to the regional aquifers; as well, these moraine lands contribute to overall water quantity in the Grand River and to the long-term recharge to municipal supply wells. Source: Region of Waterloo Report P-03-030/E-03-059 dated 15 Apr 03
2. Our regional split water supply system costs more than one where the regional level of government adminsters the entire system; cf 06 costs: Kitchener $509, Waterloo $447 and Cambridge $424 (figures for an average household. =====> Apparently the Region charges the same rate to all three municipalities for the water which each, in turn, distributes to urban households. Rambling Rose is left wondering why should the distribution of water cost more in City of Kitchener than in Waterloo or Cambridge? Surely some economies of scale could be realized? What's going on here?.
3. Our supply of groundwater can be depleted if water is taken out of the ground more quickly than it
   can become naturally recharged. Depletion can also occur naturally during periods of extended drought. It takes 20 years for groundwater to flow to the underlying aquifer; however, reaches stormwater management ponds first. ====> cf. previous post on the Wideman Road water catastrophe wherein one "expert" authority was quoted as saying that the water pumped out could be replaced within a day????
   
4. Both types of source water (surface and ground) are interconnected. ====> Hence, the importance of watershed and landscape-based planning to ensure the integrity of our water supplies. We must overcome political barriers and lines drawn on a map that create jurisdictional boundaries as they will no longer serve us well.
   
5. Activities of an upstream community affect the quantity and quality of a downstream community's water ====> cf. the pristine waters in the upstream Grand River/Damascus Reservoir (photo on right) with the polluted waters of the Grand River flowing under Kitchener's Freeport Bridges(photo on left). The farther south the Grand River travels, the more polluted its waters become. Photos copyright to Sandamara Images 2002.
6. To learn more about our water supply, check out today's blog "Deep River" at www.grandriver.blogspot.com

Labels: Grand watershed, water

# posted by ramblingrose @ 1:09 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

This week's focus on the importance of water finds Rambling Rose reviewing two separate reports re the Wideman Road /Waterloo sewer infrastructure project.

For starters, the story as reported by Brian Whitwham, "Sewer Pipe Sparks Anger," The Record 29 Jun 06 provides the following details:

• 600 metre trench is being dug for sewer and other infrastructure @ cost $ 1,400,000 to service two subdivisions (Laurel Creek Village and proposed Owens); this particular project had been approved by previous Council;
• MOE has also approved the permit to remove groundwater to stormwater system; this "de-watering" application allows for the removal from the regional aquifer of 360,000 liters over 14 days = for a total drawdown of 5,040,000 litres;
• Whitlam cites expert staff opinion that this removal will require only one day for displaced water to be recharged.

Area resident Kevin Thomasson provided the photos and the following account of this particular construction activity: "Several weeks ago construction crews arrived on the site to begin construction. They closed off the road, removed the asphalt and started digging in the sewers. For the first 200 meters things were fine and although they encountered some water, their trench pumps were able to keep up. However as they progressed down the road into the sand layers of the Waterloo Moraine the water became overwhelming. Their pumps could not keep up, their equipment buried, the sand walls of the trenches collapsed as fast as they could dig them. They dug out more and more, attempted to drain off more and more water, and kept bringing in more pumps. Each day the construction workers were increasingly exasperated and there was no end to the flow of the water that kept filling in their trenches. ..

This isn't a surprise to many of us - we know how close the water table is to the surface in these parts, how there is little till layer to protect the Moraine, and that once one digs into the sand and gravel of the Moraine things become messy quickly...

"What resulted next was a plan to drill 171 wells into the Moraine and pump out massive amounts of water to drain the entire water table in this area by an astounding 30 feet! Already they had to build holding ponds and run off controls to try to deal with the massive amounts of water their trench pumps had been trying to keep up with but now they would bring in massive diesel pumps and huge 1 foot diameter pipes to move thousands of gallons of water per hour and drain this area of the Moraine by pumping all the water they could into sewers and eventually into Storm Water Management ponds (which are now flooding due to the amount of water being pumped into them). ..

"This area and adjacent wetlands are now being pumped dry around the clock in an attempt to dig the sewer lines a further 15 feet down into the Moraine over the coming weeks - the entire roadway has already been excavated to the depth of 12 feet creating an impressive half kilometre long canyon but they are less than half way to their ultimate depth...

"Construction workers have been going to surrounding homes warning residents that their wells may run dry over the coming weeks as the massive pumping continues and they attempt to lower the water table in the area by dozens of feet. Apparently, nearby wetlands will be affected too and you can already see that the wetlands to the north are being drained and dried out as millions of gallons of water has to come from somewhere and in the sand/gravel mix of the Moraine (as construction crews have already found out) the water moves and flows incredibly quickly and a vast area can be impacted."

Apparently "Dewatering for sewer pipe installations is a common practice" according to City of Waterloo staff. According to Kevin, "The plan apparently now is to pump massive amounts of pristine freshwater from our aquifers directly into the sewer system in an attempt to drain the area and dig in their pipes. Not only is this an incredible waste of water it could permanently affect the delicate Moraine water table. "

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

Meanwhile, Region of Waterloo residents cheerfully accept the restrictions on water use as a conservation measure. We are all beginning to understand that water demand management will become part of our lifestyles as this Region continues to grow. As the Record advised us, "we might as well get used to restrictions" in its 5 Jul 06 editorial, "Water becomes as valuable as oil."

And every tongue, through utter drought,
Was withered at the root ;
We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.

However, conservation measures need to apply to developers as well as local taxpayers. Projects such as the Wideman Road sewer /road construction project need to be reviewed against current realities. If water is as precious as oil now, how can we have one set of rules for residents (waste not) and another set of rules for developers (go right ahead and draw down the aquifer)?**

He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small ;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

When will we ever learn? Massive flooding followed the wholescale deforestation by early settlers of the Grand River watershed. One hundred years later, urban sprawl continues to remove the till cap from the Waterloo Moraine in spite of warnings of climate warming & the Kyoto Accord. Victorian poet S. T. Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" somehow fits perfectly. Read the entire classic poem here: ttp://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Rime_Ancient_Mariner.html

** Rambling Rose locates more stats on water use: "1,210,000 million gallons of water per day were saved last year" because of water restrictions. Source: Bob Burtt, "Water limits here to stay," The Record, 4 Jul 06. One day's region-wide conservation effort cancelled to construct 600m roadway. Better planning in the future?

Labels: Grand watershed, water

# posted by ramblingrose @ 4:25 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

• ACO president Cathy who publishes the Built Heritage Newsletter available free via e-mail provides this account of the current status of Hamilton's Lister Building: " An hour before the Council was scheduled to vote on whether to allow the Lister Block to be demolished to make way for a replica office building the Minister of Culture, as well as other local MPP’s, and most importantly representatives from the Premier’s office held a conference call with Mayor Larry di Ianni and Joe Mancinelli, the president of the Labourers International Union of North America (LIUNA) the property owner and developer. After considerable discussion in which the Minister made it clear that the province wanted to prevent the demolition, but would prefer that the local council made the decision to do that, a compromise was arrived at that bought everyone some breathing room. The local council voted to demolish, and to wait 60 days to allow for discussions to proceed between the province and the municipality to find ways to protect the heritage building and to allow the development to proceed.The Provincial Facilitator, Alan Wells has been brought in to convene meetings and a steering committee is being assembled for the discussions."
  Information on the campaign to save the Lister Block can be found at: http://www.architecturehamilton.com/savethelister.html
• 
  To get on the Built Heritage e-mail newsletter mailing list:
  To subscribe or unsubscribe to BHN send an email to cnasmith@sympatico.ca
• or go to
• http://list.web.net/lists/listinfo/cnarchitect-heritage
• and fill in the form.
  Hamilton's successful bid to preserve the Lister block involved the entire Hamilton heritage community, municipal councillors, and area MPP's as well as the provincial executive of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario.
  
  Some of us in Kitchener are already members of ACO/North Waterloo Branch but we could use more members to support our desire and will to preserve our historic buildings.
• Why ACO membership? For starters, this is a provincial organization that provides significant support to heritage advocates. The ACO/Architectural Conservancy of Ontario was incorporated 1933 to help communities preserve buildings and structures of architectural merit and places of natural beauty and interest. Go to ACO's website for more info: http://www.hips.com/ACO/
• per Nasmith: "In many communities people move back and forth between both roles of advisor and advocate, but they are distinct. Once the Municipal Heritage Committee (MHC) has given advice their hands are more or less tied. MHC’s are formed and disbanded with each term of Council. It is important to have another heritage body such as the ACO that does the advocacy, public education and provides long-term continuity on heritage matters."
• per Mike Marcolongo, ON Ministry of Culture advisor to municipal heritage committees:
  "Every community has a galvanizing issue & very important to share strategies and future partnerships" cf. Cambridge’s new office building within heritage block, Kitchener’s Forsyth demolition (issues: conflict of interest, Building Code usurped Heritage Act). Small wonder that ACO has experienced significant growth over the past six months!
• Care to join the ACO--North Waterloo Region Branch? Definitely worthwhile**. E-mail Rambling Rose here nagual@sympatico.ca & will forward your e-mail to branch secretary to contact you directly.
• Illustrations of our lost Forsyth legacy courtesy Forsyth family archives: Star Whitewear was the oldest building portion demolished; rooftop restaurant of the Art Deco factory portion; John Forsyth additions to original Star Whitewear building; former Waterloo Market building purchased by Forsyth and now converted to office use in nearby City of Waterloo.

Labels: built heritage, Forsyth

# posted by ramblingrose @ 4:15 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

• a post office downtown as we all believe in snail-mail and good old-fashioned red mail boxes;
• support for our firefighters and a resolution to lobby provincial MPP's to support a presumptive legislation bill;
• support for our reservist troops serving in Afghanistan;
• direction that staff get busy on preventing visiting truckers from smashing into the Park Street rail overpass bridge--delegate pleaded for safety of our children;
• approval of $25,000 to provide public washrooms 24/7 to our homeless who roam the streets at night;
• most noteworthy of all was that the Mayor had left his stopwatch at home & did not once time or timeout delegates when they rambled over the five minutes allocated to delegates (City of Waterloo and Region of Waterloo Councils allow 10 minutes per delegate).

How many years must a mountain exist

Before it is washed to the sea

How many years can some people exist

Before they're allowed to be free

How many times can a man turn his head

And pretend that he just doesn't see

After that, it was down to serious business i.e. what to do about the taxpayer-owned Centre Block properties? For starters, all were agreed that KPL requirements were to be separated from redevelopment of the Centre Block lands. A suggestion was made "to build upon what we already have?" -- a reference to the existing Queen Street library building which an earlier engineering report had deemed unsuitable to support any expansion. Some vague assurances were made that KPL could continue to count on $32,500,000 financial support from the EDIF (economic development interest-to be paid fantasy fund) down the road.

The CAO assured Council that the forthcoming Request for Proposals (RFP) from private developers would spell out a "clear vision of the downtown for centre Block based on the public input" received. For the record, the following items are to be dealt with in the proposed RFP:

*current market value of 2.5 acres of taxpayer-owned lands available for development; land valuations will be done (they were on the steering committee's agenda in March 06 already- and they weren't done then?);

* clear resolution re city-owned historic buildings (Mayfair, Hymmen, and Bell);

* incentives to encourage private sector development (we're running out of land & Places to Grow mandates 40% downtown intensification==> what further incentive does the private sector need?);

* full information on the proposed City parking enterprise (ooops! when did that one sneak in?);

* provide taxable assessment on this block (how high will the proposed skyscraper rise?);

* this RFP will require that proposed buildings be a model of sustainable development.

How many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky

How many years must one man have

Before he can hear people cry

How many deaths will it take till he knows

That too many people have died

Staff concurred and said it would be ready by end September or perhaps October.* The councillors were dutifuly humble as they affirmed "our ears have been opened by public input." ** Even the mayor insisted that it was his role "to reflect the public vision rather than impose [his]." *** One councillor straddled the fence (hopefully) suggesting if this RFP should fail, could the library be put back in? Another suggested City could wait for the "market to mature." ****

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind

The answer is blowing in the wind

Ah yes, it's summer and the living by the Grand is easy and relaxing. Photos: canoeing the Grand near Glen Morris; Wellesley Township Old Order Amish farm with horses and alternative-energy source windmill. Copyright to Sandamara Images 2001-04. Bob Dylan,"Blowing in the Wind." Lyrics here: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/blowing.htm

* Last week CAO wanted to take advantage of hot market and have RFP by August council meet. Are we shuffling a political hot potato around? ** Rambling Rose can't resist the grumble as neither agenda, nor background reports, nor the promised lay citizen memo were made available to the public at this meeting. So much for openness, transparency, and facilitating more public input to open this Council's ears. *** The same mayor who said he would take public input but not listen to it?? **** This, from the same Council, who could not wait for a second structural report on the Forsyth building's public safety issue????

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind

The answer is blowing in the wind

Labels: built heritage, Forsyth, land use

# posted by ramblingrose @ 10:28 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

• 2. The current proposal calls for the City to enter into a partnership with a developer for the redevelopment of eight City-owned properties on the block. Under the current process, the City will select one partner for the redevelopment of Centre Block. The process, scheduled to run over approximately 60 weeks, would be guided by the City’’s Public-Private Partnership Procurement Policy (P3) Guidelines and would be subject, at various stages, to public & is available here: input.http://www.kitchener.ca/pdf/centre_block/p3_procurement_policy.pdf
• Mayor Zehr has already provided guidance to his Council thus: " It is important to separate library from Centre Block issue." As well, he wants feedback from Centre Block citizen lay members.*
• Councillor Weylie wants to ensure City will benefit from gaining assessment income from CB and having residential population downtown.
• Councillor Smola was of opinion that "demolition of the Forsyth factory now provides opportunity to receive desirable proposals for CB site. "
• Maverick Councillor and former CAO, also trained professional accountant, Gazzola requests P. Houston report on costs associated with acquiring CB site, its subsequent maintenance and current market value. Notes acquired from minutes of Finance Committee posted online here:

* Citizen lay member co-chair, Hans Pottkamper/retired banker, of the erstwhile KPL/Centre Block steering committee already had this to say: "the downtown housing market has improved."Rambling Rose is certain that the condo lawyer and real estate broker who serve as citizen lay members will concur with the Citizen co-chair. A reliable source has indicated that none of these three key players live in City of Kitchener. Quoted here:
T. Pender, "Kitchener’s Black Hole," The Record, 30 Jun 06

Last winter, this Council earned its famous black eye from Canada's Heritage Foundation which ranked the Forsyth demolition the #1 worst heritage loss in all of Canda. Last week the local rag prepared an illustration showing the paved-over black space left by that demoltion. Today's editorial, "The library's fiction" hits hard:

• "But now something bizarre has happened, something city hall and the library board might have thought would pass unnoticed in summer's dog days...
• Now that the plan to build a new main library branch on the Centre Block beside city hall is dead, the idea of expanding and transforming the 44-year-old main branch has been trotted out before the public like a prize pony. What's going on? Don't the powers that be think the public has a memory?
• If the reports pooh-poohing the main branch expansion are right, then the existing library should not be expanded. But if the reports are wrong, the public will be left wondering whether it was deliberately misled and asking what other assumptions in the case for better library services are flawed... to arrive at this conclusion: "there must be a book about how to regain a community's trust. It should be recommended reading for city council and the the people in charge of the library."

Can we start by answering the questions posed by the maverick Councillor? by posting all reports online? fewer closed meetings? some old-fashioned honesty and public service?

Gentle reader, it's important to attend...to bear witness by just being present in Council chambers when such important matters are discussed. Try to make time tomorrow night?

P. S. Remember when Council approved repairs to the Mayfair roof last winter? just after the black-eye news story? intended to show how much this Council valued its heritage properties? Well, apparently the Mayfair is still awaiting the promised repairs to its roof. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Labels: built heritage, Forsyth, land use

# posted by ramblingrose @ 11:29 AM 0 Comments Links to this post