Why we are different!

Meeting with Regional Staff, continued from this article. 

As I wrote in this article, members of the MHBPNA met with Regional Staff on December 12 to discuss the Weber Street Widening and the Wilhelm Street crossing. At that meeting staff told us that, despite all the concerns expressed by residents, their current plan with a "pedestrian refuge island" in the middle of four lanes of traffic was really the best option; they were not interested in our request for a pedestrian activated light.  They told us they have several hundred requests for stop lights each year and they must be "fair" and our request did not match their paramaters. They said "what if only one person used that light?"

We have had many conversations with neighbours and the overwhelming desire is for a stop light so the crossing is clearly marked.

Staff gave us a couple of examples to provide some context: they said there is an existing light on Frederick Street and Otto and that many people using the Courthouse cross Frederick illegally to use the Tim Hortons and ignore that light. Another example they offered was a recent request for a pedestrian stop light on Fairway Road which has become busier now that it crosses a bridge into Cambridge.

These two examples show a large gap between Regional Staff's perspective and our lived community experience (for example, the first questions John MacDonald asked were "how do you experience your neighbourhood?" "Where do you walk?" The Region has never asked us those questions). Frederick Street is a busy downtown street and Fairway Road is a major commuter route in an entirely different neighbourhood. How could anyone think these examples are comparable? We are asking for a pedestrian activated stop light to maintain the "pedestrian friendly" nature of our area but staff's position is "we have to be fair to everyone and your request doesn't match our rules". 

Our Neighbourhood = Different, Unique, Pivotal, Vibrant

So here are some examples of why our neighbourhood is different from many other areas in the city:

1. We are a downtown neighbourhood where shopping, cultural performances and two urban centres are easily accessible through walking and biking. Many of the people living and moving into this neighbourhood expect to be able to walk around safely. People choose to live downtown because they want a bike and pedestrian friendly experience. If you live around Fairfield road you understand it is a commuting area and it has several "enclosed" neighbourhoods with parks and walking trails. In the Mt. Hope - Breithaupt Park neighbourhood you can easily walk to downtown Kitchener for the Blues Festival, or over to Centre In the Square for a musical or symphony concert. We wish to continue to encourage walking and cycling. 

2. We have three schools in our area: Margaret Avenue, Kind Edward and KCI. Students from all these schools cross Weber, some alone and others with their parents. We believe a stop light at Wilhelm and Weber would make this crossing much safer for our children and that navigating four lanes of traffic, with an island in the middle, would discourage some families from walking to school. What crossing experience would you prefer for your children?

3. The Weber Street widening has many positive elements, but it is placing a huge divide in the middle of our neighbourhood. It will make it more challenging to maintain our West/East contacts and the region owes it to us, the taxpayers, to make this multi-million dollar project as friendly as possible. Despite the increased traffic, we live here and want this area to remain friendly to walking and biking and true to the philosophy of Kitchener's Pedestrian Charter. 

4. We have a neighbourhood with a rich history; it was Kitchener's original "industrial suburb" and is currently being reinvented with the Tannery, Breithaupt Block, Victoria Common and other developments. It is so interesting and amazing that we have led four years of Jane's Walks to share our area with ourselves and others!

5. Wilhelm street could become an exciting pedestrian and biking hub. We believe a stop light will encourage people to cross here and direct bike traffic eastward towards the library and CITS. There will also be hundreds of additional neighbours living at Victoria Common who should be encouraged to walk westward. The current plan for the Rail Trail is to funnel cyclists southward along Weber and into the Kitchener downtown. Let's be a little visionary and think ahead to what our neighbourhood will be like in five years.

The Road Ahead:

Regional Staff will release their report on our request for a stop light on January 25th and it will be available publicly. The MHBPNA Blog will provide a link to it. The Regional Public Works committee meets on the morning of January 29th and members of the MHBPNA executive are planning on attending and presenting our perspective. 

Adding a pedestrian activated stop light to this crossing does not add very much to the cost of the project and there are many opportunities to pursue this goal in the months ahead. It would be a lot easier if staff would be persuaded by the arguments and wishes of the residents who know how we use our streets. But if this is not the case, then we intend to continue pressing this issue. Thank you to everyone who has contacted their Regional Councillor to express their opinion. 

Ted Parkinson

NMA Meeting, this Wednesday, Jan 16, 2013

The meeting of the Neighbourhood Mobilization Alliance is Wednesday, January 16th at 7:00 pm to approx. 8:00 pm, in the Conestoga Room of Kitchener City Hall.

The group was formed 13 years ago by a group of neighbours concerned with the illegal activities then going on in the area.  It continues to meet every second month, on the third Wednesday of the month.  Our agenda now covers a wide range of topics that concern the neighbours.  It’s a very informal meeting which include representatives from bylaw, police and fire as well as our ward councillor.

Much Music Video Dance Report

On Dec 28th, 2012 our Mount Hope - Breithaupt Park Neighbourhood Association organized and sponsored a Much Video Dance at the Breithaupt Community Centre on Margaret Ave. 

We had times separated for kids 9 and under, then 10 and older. The younger group were treated to such hits as Elmo singing "I'm Elmo and I know it" and other age appropriate videos.

The older group showed a lot of talented dance moves and won t-shirts provided by Much Videos. We had approximately 50 - 60 "youngsters" in attendance throughout the night and the Breithaupt Centre gym proved to be an excellent venue. The event was supervised by centre staff and several volunteers from our neighbourhood. Many parents stayed to enjoy the sight of their kids having fun and to chat with other parents and volunteers.

Everyone had a great time and it was nice to give back to the younger community in a way that they really appreciate. The energy of youth is contagious!

Kids came from all across the KW area and as far away as Mississauga. They heard about it from our Blog, Facebook site, posters, flyers, Kijiji and the KW Record.

It was our first dance but hopefully not our last. We have learned a great deal about organizing and advertising and event like this and hope to plan more.

Thanks to the volunteers for sharing their time and thanks to all the kids and parents that came out.

See you next time!

Weber, Wilhelm and our meeting with Regional staff

Background info: 

As many readers will know, the Weber Street widening is posing several challenges in our neighbourhood. One issue is how pedestrian and bike traffic will cross the new 4-lane street and how we can encourage different parts of the neighbourhood to communicate, and keep in touch.

On Wednesday, November 21 members of the MHBPNA executive presented our concerns to Regional Council. We had been passing around flyers that described this issue and many councillors were impressed by the number of emails and letters they received from citizens of the neighbourhood.

The Kitchener Post wrote an excellent article about our presentation. Many councillors supported our position that we needed some kind of light at the intersection and certainly something more than the currently proposed "pedestrian refuge island". In fact, Kitchener councillor Jean Haalboom is quoted as saying "I agree with the residents. I don’t think pedestrians have been given the full thought".

At the November 21 meeting, council directed engineering and planning staff to meet with members of the MHBPNA executive and possibly modify the current plan to respond to residents' concerns.

Meeting with Regional Staff:

On Wednesday, December 12, members of the MHBPNA met with city staff to address the issues that have been raised by neighbourhood residents.

Although we thought this meeting was intended to arrive at some compromise, as suggested by Councils' directive, city staff seemed primarily interested in explaining to us why their original plan for the refuge island is correct, and why our idea of a pedestrian-activated stop light is wrong.

We were told that they have hundreds of requests each year for more pedestrian activated lights and that they had to be "fair" in their process. They said "what if we put a light in and only one person uses it?". We were told that only that morning someone had called to request a pedestrian light be added on Fairway Road because of the increased traffic due to the newly-opened bridge to Cambridge. And we were given the example of the light on Frederick Street next to the courthouse: apparently this light is not used by many "courthouse visitors" as they run across the street to get coffee and food at the Tim Hortons.

Staff told us that they did not believe the Wilhelm Street crossing would have the 200 crossings a day they would require for a light to be implemented. They also admitted they have done no studies of pedestrian traffic in our area (several days after our meeting they wrote to us and claimed that they did have data which indicated 40 crossings per day, but did not reveal how and when this data was collected). Last week, on a cold and rainy day when few people would be out walking, a car from the Region was observed close to the intersection, apparently collecting more data to bolster staff's view that we do not have enough traffic to warrant a light.

Staff also told us they believed a pedestrian refuge island was "safer" than a light and directed our attention to this page on their website. The statement they kept repeating was "Studies suggest a traffic signal generally does not improve pedestrian safety. Most pedestrian collisions in the Region occur at signalized intersections, most often while the pedestrian is in the crosswalk and has the right of way." However, this statement ignores common sense. We all know that accidents do happen. If the majority of pedestrians follow the law, and cross the street at a signal, then where else would pedestrian collisions occur? Of course they will tend to occur where we have the highest concentration of pedestrians!

There are several issues we believe the current plan ignores:

1. If you walk or bike to the "new" Weber Street, with 4 lanes of traffic, would you prefer navigate all those lanes on your own, resting at the "refuge island", or would you like a light that you could press and force traffic to stop? All of our discussions with neighbours have strongly indicated we prefer a light. What about our children walking across Weber to Margaret Avenue School, KCI or King Edward?

2. The traffic will only increase when the spur line trail is finished. It will "end" at Wilhelm and funnel more bikers and pedestrians to this corner. The current plans are for the trail to turn down Weber Street into the downtown. But a crossing light would encourage more west/east traffic to places like CITS, the Library etc.

3. We want to encourage more use of Lippert Park and believe a stop light on Wilhelm will do that. On a related issue, we were surprised that no one seems to have thought about parking at Lippert Park. Currently, there is a boulevard area where cars can pull over if parents with young children want close access. Although Lippert Park will gain a substantial amount of land when Weber Street is straightened, there are no plans to allow any parking. Staff were not prepared to discuss this at our meeting, but we think it is another important consideration.

4. Pedestrian traffic should be encouraged and prioritized in the downtown area. The Regional Planning staff talk about "safety" quite a bit, but all their plans promote moving more cars through our downtown and not having them slowed down by students walking to school, recreational bikers, or residents visiting one another.

NEXT: WHY WE ARE DIFFERENT (Blog entry to follow....stay tuned)

Dance, Dance, Dance!

The Mount Hope Breithaupt Park Neighbourhood Association is very excited to sponsor a Much Video Dance night on December 28 at the Breithaupt Centre!

Admission is only $10. The videos are selected for ages 9 and under at 6:30 pm and 10 and over 8 pm to 11 pm. 

There will be pop, chips etc. for sale as well.

Come out and have a great time with a professionally organized show. 

It's the time of year for .....

It is now December, when work and home-related social events are piling up and everyone is thinking of the holidays.

This is just the time of year to kick back, relax, and consider filling out your application for a storm water rebate. Of course, the deadline is not until March 1, 2013, but you know how crazy things will get very soon. And then in January work will start up again and you will have to get caught up on all that got pushed aside. So mix up a nice glass of egg nog, and get that application started!

You can find the information on the city's website here.

Breithaupt Centre Skating Rink

We are looking for people who are interesting in volunteering to help run the ice skating rink next to the Breithaupt Centre. The city supports this activity and provides funds for running it and even training for flooding it and managing over the increasing shorter winters.

Out neighbourhood association also has a snowblower to help clear the snow off it.

Please email us at mhbpna@gmail.com if you have any interest. The more volunteers the better! This rink has run for several years and is a lot of fun in the winter.