Here is a link to the Record's article in today's paper which details some of our concerns.
http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/837124--residents-demand-crossing-lights-on-expanded-weber
Our delegation to the Region on November 21 will have many concerned residents in attendance as well as members of the MHBPNA executive.
Who are the executive you ask? The Blog will be updated with more information on that, but for now here are the basic details:
Lane Burman (President), Kathy Mortimer (Secretary), Colleen Burbach (Treasurer), Ted Parkinson (Communications Director), Ralph Erdman (Program Director). Other members: Louis Burbach, Chris Dewar, Laura Dowell, Trudy Beaulne.
As always, you are free to post comments on the Blog and to contact us via "mhbpna@gmail.com".
If you are doing something interesting in our area and would like to tweet about it, use the hashtag: #mhbp!
Be our friend on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mounthope.breithauptpark
11/5/12
Our Neighbourhood and the Shape of the Future
Many of us have wondered, just what exactly IS the Mount Hope - Breithaupt Park neighbourhood? Our boundary is shown here. One thing that is evident is the vast size of our 'hood. Someone living on Moore and using the King street transit corridor might wonder how anything east of Weber might be related to their lives. And likewise, someone living around Hillside Park might wonder how they can relate to those folks who live around the Mount Hope cemetery.
Therefore:
1. We ask everyone who is concerned about this issue to contact their Regional Councillors through phone, email or letter. Showing support for these concerns is very important.
The main issues and councillor contact info are in this document.
Here is a sample letter you can print or re-write and send to your councillors.
2. The next meeting of Regional Council is November 21, 2012. We will have a delegation from our neighbourhood association address this meeting and we hope many residents can attend as well to show support. We hope that councillors will have received many letters by that time expressing our concerns about the current design.
All of Kitchener's neighbourhood boundaries are a combination of geographical, cultural and political influences. For example, one quarter of Mary Street is in our neighbourhood and about one sixth of the Mount Hope cemetery is not: both or cut off because they run into Waterloo. But the people who live around that area generally don't care about that political boundary when they visit, shop, play etc. It briefly becomes an issue when they pay taxes or vote for city council.
(n.b. You can still join our Neighbourhood Association even if you live outside our boundaries).
(n.b. You can still join our Neighbourhood Association even if you live outside our boundaries).
The MHBPNA is an organized structure that allows us to be recognized by the city and sometimes get their help. We can use it for whatever purpose we want. We can ignore it, or be creative and use it to engage each other. The Neighbourhood Mobilization Alliance is an example of an initiative that came out of the NA but operates autonomously.
Recently the MHBPNA sponsored a culture walk around the issue of the Weber Street Widening and some of the issues we discussed were "how do you interact with the rest of the neighbourhood"? "Where do you walk?" "Drive?" "What streets do you use?"
One thing that was easy to identify was how Weber Street is a major division and it will become even more so when it is widened to four lanes. Around the same time, the "Waterloo Spur Line Multi-Use Trail" (commonly referred to as the "spur line") will encourage more movement within our neighbourhood. Many people walk and bike along it currently, but when the trail is properly built this use will increase and be much safer.
Despite Weber being something of a dividing line, there are many reasons to cross over it. The Breithaupt Centre is located on the east side and many people on the west side use its facilities to swim, exercise, take a course or use one of its meeting rooms. In the winter we might walk or drive to Hillside Park for tobogganing. Lippert Park, which is kind of a centre, has a tennis court, community garden and (in the winter) a skating rink. Many neighbours walk to Central Fresh Market and Giant Tiger and young people cross Weber every day to attend Margaret Avenue School, King Edward and KCI.
With the culture walk, and subsequent discussions among the MHBPNA executive, two major issues have emerged and they both have Wilhelm and Weber as their crux.
1. The spur line trail "ends" at Wilhelm and does not cross Weber. The official plan is that cyclists and walkers would be funneled into the downtown.
2. There will be no stop lights on Weber between Guelph and Wellington streets. The region will add a "pedestrian refuge island" so people can cross the street and rest in the middle with two lanes of traffic on each side.
We believe the "refuge island" is not adequate for the amount of traffic and we need a light at Wilhelm street. During our culture walk (on a Sunday afternoon) we hung out at the corner of Wilhelm and Weber for a half hour and saw a dozen people run across the street during traffic lulls and two people cross in electric wheelchairs.
Everyone agrees that walking to school is desirable but having only a refuge island in four lanes of traffic would endanger children walking to Margaret Avenue and KCI schools. We are sure it would discourage some parents from allowing their children to walk. It would also make it much trickier for people in electric wheelchairs to cross and it would discourage the rest of us from using this route.
A traffic light would encourage more pedestrian and bike traffic along this route and would help the two parts of the neighbourhood to converse with each other. Bike traffic coming south from the spur line would have an option to continue south to the downtown core or east into Lippert Park, Margaret Avenue, Hillside Park, the Kitchener Library or even Centre In The Square.
ACTION PLAN
ACTION PLAN
We arrived at these conclusions late in the process because designs have been submitted and we need to approach regional council to re-open a small part of the contract. We feel it is very important to encourage as much East-West pedestrian and bike traffic as possible in order to make our neighbourhood stronger.
Therefore:
1. We ask everyone who is concerned about this issue to contact their Regional Councillors through phone, email or letter. Showing support for these concerns is very important.
The main issues and councillor contact info are in this document.
Here is a sample letter you can print or re-write and send to your councillors.
2. The next meeting of Regional Council is November 21, 2012. We will have a delegation from our neighbourhood association address this meeting and we hope many residents can attend as well to show support. We hope that councillors will have received many letters by that time expressing our concerns about the current design.
11/2/12
Pumpkins 2012!
Last night in Duke Street Playground, many of our Halloween pumpkins took a little trip and lined themselves up with their candles flickering and enjoyed one last moment of glory before being consigned to the compost of history.
It was great to see many creative designs and they presented a very effective row of mysterious heads. Thanks to Karin and Greg of Little City Farm for organizing it again and it was nice to see our councillor, Dan Glenn-Graham out for the short event.
Over a dozen people from around the area participated, some bringing pumpkins and others just dropping by.
Click on image below for larger picture:
It was great to see many creative designs and they presented a very effective row of mysterious heads. Thanks to Karin and Greg of Little City Farm for organizing it again and it was nice to see our councillor, Dan Glenn-Graham out for the short event.
Over a dozen people from around the area participated, some bringing pumpkins and others just dropping by.
Click on image below for larger picture:
10/26/12
Follow up for Weber Street Widening meeting
On Wednesday, Oct 24 at 5:30 (Lippert Park) several people form our neighbourhood attended a meeting with councillor Dan Glenn-Graham and a regional staff person to talk about the Weber Street Widening design.
The meeting was very informative. The region has approved a pedestrian crossing with a "rescue island" in the middle, but no light. We don't think that is adequate, particularly for all the young students walking eastwards to Margaret Avenue school or west to KCI. But we have to act fast if we want our ideas to influence the design. More information will follow.
The meeting was very informative. The region has approved a pedestrian crossing with a "rescue island" in the middle, but no light. We don't think that is adequate, particularly for all the young students walking eastwards to Margaret Avenue school or west to KCI. But we have to act fast if we want our ideas to influence the design. More information will follow.
10/18/12
Central Art Walk this weekend!
It is the end of October (how did that happen so quickly??) and so it is time for the annual Central Art Walk.
This event happens on Saturday and Sunday and is in our calendar on the right of the Blog.
I could say lots of nice things about this even, but their website is very well organized so just click HERE to find out all about it.
I recommend clicking on their brochure because they have great photos of what each artist creates. So if you prefer paintings to stained glass, it is easy to decide where to go. So have a good weekend of fabulous art and you can get some exercise walking around the 'hood as well.
10/13/12
Weber Street Widening Culture Walk
On September 30, 2012 John MacDonald led members of the Mount Hope Breithaupt Park community on a "culture walk" to discuss the implications of the Weber Street widening. This walk was a result of our neighbourhood winning a "cultural" prize at a Festival of Neighbourhoods event a few years ago.
The MHBPNA would like to thank John for his time. We appreciate his insight into how neighbourhoods work and the many questions he encouraged us to consider about our area.
We met at Lippert Park and talked about some of the issues around what builds a community and the different types of streets and traffic movement that can encourage or discourage people talking to each other and interacting.
John asked us to talk about our patterns of walking, biking and driving and it became clear that Weber street is a dividing line within our rather large neighbourhood. There is a "Mount Hope" side and a "Breithaupt Park" side but many people cross this divide to attend school, walk to Central Fresh Market to shop, or walk or drive over to the Breithaupt Centre.
After discussing some of the general traffic patterns through our neighbourhood we walked over to the west side of the Wilhelm and Weber intersection (The MHBP Blog recognizes that using words like "west" and "north" in the Kitchener/Waterloo area is controversial, but we will use them anyway!).
It quickly became clear this intersection is a "hot spot" for problems with the widening. In the short time we were talking more than a dozen people crossed Weber street including two people in wheelchairs! As far as we know, the plan is to have Weber Street expanded to four lanes with no additional crossing lights from Victoria to Guelph streets. Yet we know children cross this street every day to attend KCI or Margaret Avenue schools and many others cross for different reasons.
We all agreed that we needed an additional crossing, perhaps with a light. Councillor Dan Glenn-Graham attended our walk and said he would discuss this issue with council.
Here is a view looking "south" on Weber Street towards Victoria Street. Lippert Park is on the left and a used car dealership is on the right:
Two big questions were raised about this:
1) What happens to Lippert Park when the road is widened? Apparently it will become a bit larger but it would be nice to have some influence on what gets added. We would like it to be attractive and invite people from both sides of Weber to use it, in spite of the busy street right next to it.
2) The used car dealership on the right will be torn down and Weber street will be straightened so Lippert Park will gain some land. But there will be a strip of land (where the car dealership presently sits) between the road and the train tracks. What will this land look like? Will be be a park (or "parkette") with grass and flowers? Or will it be a vacant "no man's land" with discarded coffee cups?
There will also be a bike trail along the present railway tracks which will end around the new railway bridge to be built over Weber.
It has been very difficult to find any solid information about how this is all going to look. In contrast, the Transit Hub project has invited lots of public input and has elaborate Information Boards they have put on the Web. I have searched the City and Region websites and there is almost no information. Searching for "Weber Street" on the Region's website found a document mysteriously titled MHSW Background which contains several swell "artist's renderings" of what the bridge might look like, including this one:
The Mount Hope - Breithaupt Park Neighbourhood Association is committed to finding out more about the widening which will have a huge impact on our area for many generations to come. We would like to have input into traffic calming, street crossings, making the railway bridge area inviting and "pedestrian and bike friendly" and many other things.
There are lots of questions with few answers so we hope to sponsor an information session in the near future.
Stay tuned to this Blog!
Ted Parkinson
Communications Director
MHBPNA
The MHBPNA would like to thank John for his time. We appreciate his insight into how neighbourhoods work and the many questions he encouraged us to consider about our area.
We met at Lippert Park and talked about some of the issues around what builds a community and the different types of streets and traffic movement that can encourage or discourage people talking to each other and interacting.
John asked us to talk about our patterns of walking, biking and driving and it became clear that Weber street is a dividing line within our rather large neighbourhood. There is a "Mount Hope" side and a "Breithaupt Park" side but many people cross this divide to attend school, walk to Central Fresh Market to shop, or walk or drive over to the Breithaupt Centre.
After discussing some of the general traffic patterns through our neighbourhood we walked over to the west side of the Wilhelm and Weber intersection (The MHBP Blog recognizes that using words like "west" and "north" in the Kitchener/Waterloo area is controversial, but we will use them anyway!).
It quickly became clear this intersection is a "hot spot" for problems with the widening. In the short time we were talking more than a dozen people crossed Weber street including two people in wheelchairs! As far as we know, the plan is to have Weber Street expanded to four lanes with no additional crossing lights from Victoria to Guelph streets. Yet we know children cross this street every day to attend KCI or Margaret Avenue schools and many others cross for different reasons.
We all agreed that we needed an additional crossing, perhaps with a light. Councillor Dan Glenn-Graham attended our walk and said he would discuss this issue with council.
Here is a view looking "south" on Weber Street towards Victoria Street. Lippert Park is on the left and a used car dealership is on the right:
Two big questions were raised about this:
1) What happens to Lippert Park when the road is widened? Apparently it will become a bit larger but it would be nice to have some influence on what gets added. We would like it to be attractive and invite people from both sides of Weber to use it, in spite of the busy street right next to it.
2) The used car dealership on the right will be torn down and Weber street will be straightened so Lippert Park will gain some land. But there will be a strip of land (where the car dealership presently sits) between the road and the train tracks. What will this land look like? Will be be a park (or "parkette") with grass and flowers? Or will it be a vacant "no man's land" with discarded coffee cups?
There will also be a bike trail along the present railway tracks which will end around the new railway bridge to be built over Weber.
It has been very difficult to find any solid information about how this is all going to look. In contrast, the Transit Hub project has invited lots of public input and has elaborate Information Boards they have put on the Web. I have searched the City and Region websites and there is almost no information. Searching for "Weber Street" on the Region's website found a document mysteriously titled MHSW Background which contains several swell "artist's renderings" of what the bridge might look like, including this one:
The Mount Hope - Breithaupt Park Neighbourhood Association is committed to finding out more about the widening which will have a huge impact on our area for many generations to come. We would like to have input into traffic calming, street crossings, making the railway bridge area inviting and "pedestrian and bike friendly" and many other things.
There are lots of questions with few answers so we hope to sponsor an information session in the near future.
Stay tuned to this Blog!
Ted Parkinson
Communications Director
MHBPNA
10/10/12
Annual General Meeting -- Come One, Come All
OK, so if you have been following our NA you might have noticed that the General Meetings have not quite been "annual". But we think it is time to have one and we hope you can join us.
Here is the basic agenda:
Agenda is:
1. welcome and introductions
2. report on activities in 2011-2012
3. Financial report
4. Appointment of Board
5. Discussion of Priorities for 2012-2013
6. engaging participation in Festival of Neighbourhoods
Please come and bring a friend. This is your change to meet the current executive of our MHBP Neighbourhood Association and perhaps get involved. Or at least, become informed.
For more information about our group, our website with documents is here.
Our constitution is here.
Please drop by at 10 am, Saturday morning.
FREE FRIDGE MAGNETS for the first 150 people!!!
Here is the basic agenda:
We will meet in the Solarium at the Breithaupt Centre at 10 am, Saturday, October 13.
Agenda is:
1. welcome and introductions
2. report on activities in 2011-2012
3. Financial report
4. Appointment of Board
5. Discussion of Priorities for 2012-2013
6. engaging participation in Festival of Neighbourhoods
Please come and bring a friend. This is your change to meet the current executive of our MHBP Neighbourhood Association and perhaps get involved. Or at least, become informed.
For more information about our group, our website with documents is here.
Our constitution is here.
Please drop by at 10 am, Saturday morning.
FREE FRIDGE MAGNETS for the first 150 people!!!
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