Margaret Avenue "Diet"

Since late last fall, I have heard a lot of comments about the ‘diet’.  Almost all of it has been negative, focusing on the, sometimes erratic, lines that have been painted. Following them carefully while driving could cause an accident. But we all have our own opinions.

You may have noticed that the lines have worn off, and they need to be repainted.  Before they do this, I have asked that City staff speak with us about our concerns.

I have secured a meeting next week (Apr 29 - May 3), and I am looking for any comments, good or bad about the ‘diet’, and your experiences.  While the City did a public consultation, the actual results of that consultation does not seem to work well in practise.  

I encourage you to send me your comments, so we can ensure our voices are heard again.  Sometimes the best laid plans don’t work.  It happens.  Hopefully we will be able to convince City staff that there is a better and safer way to facilitate cycling and traffic calming.  There will be a significant increase in traffic this summer when Weber is detoured/closed, and it will be imperative to get it right for safety sake.

Send your comments to laneburman@gmail.com.  Much appreciated.

Lane Burman

Here are a couple of examples of bike lanes that are clearly painted.

Pre-season Baseball Training a Success

Our Preseason Baseball Conditioning and Training Camp at the Breithaupt Centre has been a success. There are a number of new players as well as some very promising future stars. 

Hopefully this winter weather will stop at some point so more can be done outside. We are keeping our fingers crossed!

There is still time to sign up for our Kids Cricket Program. Details are provided here.

Breithaupt Park gets an "upgrade"

Beginning in 2013, City Council approved an annual park rehabilitation budget for its over 100 older inner city parks.  The City has committed to meet with the residents in the area, and gain knowledge about how we use the parks, and what we feel we would like to see in the parks to make them better for today and for years to come.

Our own Breithaupt Park is first on the city's list.  You may have seen the meeting announcements for our public input on our Blog or on our Facebook page.  Breithaupt Park was chosen first because the City will be fully replacing the playground currently beside the main building.  The playground replacement is independent of the funding allocated for park rehabilitation.

Our Neighbourhood Association has been running an "open" Google Discussion Group, to gather information, and discuss ideas.  Some interesting ideas have been proposed.

I’d like to preface this list with the caveat, that the City is asking for input.  They are not agreeing to, or guaranteeing the ideas will come to fruition.

Cricket In Kitchener would love to turn the section south of Breithaupt Centre into a softball cricket pitch.  This requires minimal conversion and maintenance, and is very cost effective.  Building a pitch suitable for youth will allow us to teach at a ground level and build the sport within the City.  Our Neighbourhood Association is currently running a cricket skills program for youth.

A Pump Track has been suggested as well.  Chris Dewar, our Partnership Director, and local BMX guru, has designed a great pump track.  Don’t worry, I didn’t know what a pump track was either.  He had to send me this link.  Notice how many times he pedals his bicycle.  This is more elaborate then the one Chris has planned, but it gives you the idea nonetheless.  It’s a pretty cool idea.  There are minimal skills needed, you can use a variety of bikes, and it would fill a void for kids 12-18 to do in the area.  There are no jumps on the track, you just use your momentum so there is very low risk for injury.

The forest of Breithaupt Park is one of the best parts of the Centre.  There are many trails throughout, but they don’t all link up.  An idea was discussed to join some of these trails, upgrade their surfaces, and provide signage, both on the trail, and on a larger sign at the entrance to the trails. This will allow a lot more usage of these trails.  Some rest points along the way were suggested as well to help facilitate seniors using these forests.

Adding a maintained path from the New Dawn School on Fairfield to Breithaupt Centre would add year round access from the Fairfield part of the neighbourhood and to the new residents of Victoria Common.

Some of the other ideas were: firepits for the pavillion area, a bocce ball lawn near the existing horseshoe pits, a pond of some sort, more bike racks, new signage for the entrance of the parks and a rainwater retrieval system for the roof of Breithaupt Centre.

All great ideas!  This is the first, and the biggest park to rehabilitate.  There are many more in our neighbourhood, like Lippert Park, Major Park, Hillside Park, Duke Street Playground and Uniroyal Park, that will all be getting some type of rehabilitation.  Follow our Blog for updates on meeting times, or join the conversation by searching MHBP Rehabilitation in Google Groups, or email me at laneburman@gmail.com, to add access.

Lane Burman, President, MHBPNA

It is Earth Day this weekend

If anyone in the MHBP neighbourhood would like to organize an Earth Day cleanup of Breithaupt Park, or Lippert Park, or any other park, lane, boulevard etc., information is available on the city of Kitchener's website here (you can register for supplies as well).

If you are interested, please post on the MHBPNA Facebook page so liked-minded people can get together. If you are not a FB 'friend' yet you can email us and we will forward your name if anyone takes this on.

If enough people do it, why friends, they may think it's a movement.

If a Tree fell

On Duke Street West at Wilhelm, you would have to find another way to drive to work!

A New Community Garden is Launched (or sprouted?)

Click on image above to enlarge poster and for more information click here.

Breithaupt Centre Park Rehabilitation

Beginning in 2013, City Council approved an annual park rehabilitation budget for its over 100 older inner city parks.

Recently, City staff met with residents to discuss and take input on  the upcoming replacement of the Breithaupt Centre Playground.  In addition to the playground replacement, the city also wants to "rehabilitate" Breithaupt Park this year.

This is a great time to review how we use the parks and what we would like to see changed, fixed or added.  We are looking for cost effective, community minded ideas that will improve the Breithaupt Park lands for years to come.  Breithaupt is a beautiful park, and the forest is great, but there are things we can to do to improve the usability of the full park.

If you are interested in joining the conversation, I encourage you to join us at Breithaupt Centre on Wednesday April 10th from 7:00pm to 9:00pm in Room 109 for a brainstorming session.

If you’d like to join the conversation sooner, email us at mhbprehab@googlegroups.com and we can give you access to the discussion online.

Breithaupt is the first of our area parks to receive this treatment.  The Mount Hope Breithaupt Park Neighbourhood Association will be helping to facilitate the conversation, and to gather input from residents.  Together with the City of Kitchener, we can provide improve our inner city parks.

Note: this meeting was originally scheduled for March, but several circumstances led to the city cancelling it. We are now all ready for the new date in April!