LRT Approved!

This is great news!  Although I gather from the twitterverse that there is some disagreement about whether the vote was 9-2 or 10-1.

A great comment from The Record’s article by NailedVision (yes, a funny and intelligent comment from there!):

 

Coming tax hikes:Prepare yourself now

As this LRT fiasco is un-democratically voted through by our elected officials we will all be facing the burden of massive tax increases. If we look to past eras of economic hardship, the Great Depression and the two World Wars for example, we can glean this bit of wisdom from their experiences of hardship: we need to sacrifice. We need to start thinking of how we can change our daily habits NOW. The daily cost to the average resident is significant: it is estimated at $0.48. It can be overwhelming thinking of how to afford this burden. Here is some advice. Use alternate means of transportation like walking, cycling or transit to reduce fuel costs. Don’t upsize your fast food meal or, for the health conscious fast food gourmand, forgo that $10 salad and make your own at home. Engage in less vice be it fine wine, imported beer, or lotto/proline. Make your venti latte a grande, or if you’re bold, switch to coffee. The future is uncertain, but if you start to make changes today, you will persevere

Waterloo Region Webcams

Did you know that Abbey Road has a webcam?  During the day you can find people recreating the famous Beatles album cover.

After seeing that, it got me thinking about webcams in the Waterloo region.  Do we have any good ones?

The City of Waterloo has one for its green roof

UofW’s Computer Science Club has one in their office

There is this Waterloo Construction Cam; looks like it is a feed from the Quantum-Nano building

Watch some osprey nests on the Birds of Breslau webcams

And of course if you want to look at webcams along the 400 series highways or other roads, the MoT have theirs

Chicopee has one, but since it is closed right now it isn’t on.

David’s Gourmet Opening New Store

I’m glad to hear that David is opening another store at the corner of Erb and Ira Needles!  It would have been great to have his store in the downtown area again, but maybe one can hope for the future?

View Larger Map

Related links:

David’s Gourmet Completes Lease Up

David’s Gourmet

Previously

Follow-up on Tim Jackson’s Keynote

As promised, here is the good stuff from Tim Jackson’s keynote at the MEDA conference:

• The principle of giving to those who are less fortunate had a significant impact on Tim and that is what has led him to be a champion for social responsibility

• The old business model, with 50 year-old leaders who act as mentors, is not applicable to high-tech businesses.  This older model allowed the younger generation to see how the older generation would give back to the community and value volunteerism.  The new business model often has leaders younger than 30 years-old that haven’t had the time to connect with their community.  Also, some of the employees will be children of families that didn’t have the means to model charitable giving. $25 dollars would be a generous amount for the parents but now these children are making 2 or 3 times what their parents earned.  This new wealthy hasn’t translated into a 2 or 3 fold increase in the charitable giving by the children.

• Tim’s work with the MasterCard Foundation in Africa is an example of how the high-tech community can be socially responsible: K-W high-tech businesses providing expertise on improving mobile banking options for rural people.

• MEDA’s Sarona Fund is a good example of how socially responsible investment can provide market returns.  Most people don’t believe this is possible but MEDA is proving them wrong.

• The UK is ahead of Canada and the US in developing socially responsible investments, with one example being a fund that is designed to provide returns based on the reduction of recidivism rates.

What does Barn-raising look like in a technological age?

This is the title of the Waterloo MEDA convention this Saturday.  I think this is a terrific topic and I’m looking forward to seeing what Tim Jackson of the Accelerator Centre will have to say.

MEDA is an organization that provides micro-loans and business support in many areas of the world. Basically they help generate income in communities underserviced by traditional banking institutions.

Barn-raising of course refers to the practice of traditional Mennonite/Amish communities coming together to provide labour, supplies, and food when a family is building a farm.

Back to the topic of Saturday’s convention.  So here we have the juxtaposition of anti-technology communities and leadership in a hyper-technological region!  This has definitely piqued my interest and I’ll report back on some key points after this weekend.

Housing Resources for Waterloo Region

We’re looking at buying a house and, being the analytical type, I’ve tried to collect as much data as possible to make an informed decision. And so I thought: why not share that with others?  Feel free to add other good sources/facts in the comments!

CMHC – Waterloo Region Housing Info

CMHC – 2011 Housing Market Outlook for Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge and Guelph

Waterloo Region Housing Outlook (PDF)  – From June 2010

Blogs/Websites (listing is not a judgment of their value/quality):

Real Estate in Kitchener Waterloo – Scott Miller, real estate agent, blog

Canadian Mortgage Trends – Mortgage News

Rate Supermarket – Shop for best mortgage rates

Walk Score – How walkable is your new neighbourhood?

Kijiji Housing – Real estate page for Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge on Kijiji

“Home sales in 2011 should be stronger than previously thought.” The Record, Feb 8, 2011

Home sales in 2011 should be stronger than previously thoughtH

University Plaza Fire, Ward 9, Barra Castle, and more

Happy New Year!

A lot has happened in the last month or so and it’s time for some updates:

Ward 9, Kitchener Election (previously)

Chapman’s request to have a manual recount was granted.

If any of the over-votes can show a clear intention to cast a single vote for any council candidate, even if it looks like the voter changed their mind, those ballots must be counted, Flynn said. Any ballots where it appears more than one candidate has been voted for will be rejected by the clerk.

University Plaza Fire (previously)

After a lengthy delay of its report, the Fire Marshall declared that the fire at Waterloo’s University Plaza was intentional.  So the police are going to investigate the cause.  This is of little consolation to those people that lost their businesses and those that lost their jobs.  Hopefully the police will provide updates as their investigation ramps up.

Barra Castle (previously)

So the old castle is gone and the land is just sitting there, waiting for some development to happen.  Meanwhile, the Arrow factory development just up the road is going full speed ahead.

French Immersion Glitch

I heard from friends that were affected by this.  So in order for their kids to enter the French immersion program for the next school year parents needed to go to a website and sign their kid up according to school location.  Due to a glitch the sign up started a half hour earlier, which of course made the parents waiting, patiently, until 8am very upset!  I also heard that there were other errors, such as one of the schools being mislabeled so the parents couldn’t find Sheppard but there were two Suddaby schools listed.
I would think that  a better system could be created for entering kids into the French program.   Are budgets or facilities so stretched that demand can’t be met by the closest school?