See the future of Midtown Kitchener and Waterloo

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Today was the last day of the Central Transit Corridor Community Building Strategy’s forum on creating great places. We focused today on the part of the corridor between downtown Kitchener and uptown Waterloo, ‘midtown’. While we were discussing ideas and possibilities, the Urban Strategies staff worked away at building a model of the midtown corridor out of foam blocks. Current buildings are in white, potential redevelopment and intensification possibilities are blue.

Especially exciting is the redevelopment potential for the RMS property (former Uniroyal factory). Of course, the blue buildings are just conceptual models of what things might look like.

During the meetings, we also discussed many of the nitty-gritties of midtown, like how to make the area more amenable to walking and cycling (and not less), where does parking fit in, and what places we’d like to preserve and which ones are ripe for redevelopment.

Iron Horse Trail at risk

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Proposed relocation of the Iron Horse Trail to accomodate new condos and parking

A development is being proposed at the north end of the Iron Horse Trail. The proposal includes changing the alignment of the trail connecting Park and Caroline Streets around the buildings such that the trail lies between two parking garages. Others have attempted to share their concerns (see A sanctity of trails, Building a place to go, not go around, and Designing to improve the Iron Horse Trail) and I have produced a video attempting to creatively illustrate the potential impact of the development on the trail. I have recently described my reservations about this development in an email to Uptown Waterloo councillor Melissa Durrell. I have included these concerns here:

I am deeply concerned about the impacts to the Iron Horse Trail. Speaking from experience, the present connection between the Iron Horse and the Laurel Trails make it far too easy for new residents to lose their way. Relocating the trail further back and behind a tower will only further exacerbate this problem. If any relocation of the trail needs to be done, it should be to restore its natural alignment to connecting directly to the corner of Caroline and Allen. This would make it more visible, direct, and would make a natural connection between the trail and the future Allen LRT station. I believe there is open space around the future 144 Park development to facilitate this connection.  Continue reading →

Enhancing the place-making potential of Waterloo’s LRT through bike sharing

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Photo credit: The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-news-blog/2012/may/07/new-york-bike-share-scheme-sponsor

This week, the Region of Waterloo Central Transit Corridor Community Building Strategy (say that three times fast) hosts its second “Exploring the Opportunity Forum” focused on creating great places. I encourage you to visit one of their open houses, the walking tour, and the speaker series.

I’m certain we will have some wonderful discussions in the stakeholder workshops. The recent “Power of Ten” Jane’s Walk through downtown Kitchener has no doubt seeded some great ideas and thoughts throughout our community.

One of the things I’d love to see our region explore is enhancing place-making through bike sharing. The Project for Public Spaces identifies bike sharing stations as ideal triangulators. A triangulator is something that links people together in a public space and causes strangers to talk to each other who otherwise wouldn’t. Here’s why they think bike sharing stations accomplish this:

  1. They’re natural conversation starters.
  2. They attract a stream of diverse users at all times of day & night.
  3. They act as casual landmarks that concentrate activity.
In the first speaker series talk in the Community Building Strategy, we learned that cities should aim to maximize exchange space and minimize transportation space. Bike stations appear on the surface to be transportation spaces, but they transform into exchange spaces when people interact with them. Bike sharing can be so much more than a station range extender for light rail. Bike sharing can help us build community here in Waterloo.

Let’s build a great community

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From the Waterloo Region Record

Kudos to The Record for its editorial Monday encouraging participation in the community building process around the coming rapid transit line. I hope that the paper continues to raise awareness so that more people can be engaged in making their neighbourhoods the best possible places to live, work, shop, and play.

In June, Council made the right decision for our Region’s future health and prosperity by voting in favour of light rail transit. If you disagree, merely complaining won’t accomplish much. Instead, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and constructively contribute to the discussion of how to make your neighbourhood take greater advantage of LRT. I was pleased to see a few of the more vocal opponents to rapid transit doing just that at the Region’s workshop last week.

I think we’ll all be surprised by how much we benefit from LRT when the line opens. But we’ll benefit even more if we all have a hand in helping to positively shape our community.

Updated: Iron Barriers Infographic

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Last week, I received an email from a city employee, informing me that he had misstated the standard clearance for gates on the Iron Horse Trail. The standard is actually 4 feet, not 5 feet. So my previous infographic was incorrect.

Even with this pathetically low standard though, based on my measurements, fewer than half of the gates still pass. See my updated infographic below. (Also note how incredibly close the standard width of a trailer is to the width of the gates!)

Updated infographic to reflect Kitchener's standard clearance.

It’s time for Kitchener to stop making excuses and open the gates.