New City Café Bakery Location Open

City Café Bakery, with a location already on the corner of Victoria and West Avenue in Kitchener and a location in Cambridge, has opened up another café at Ottawa and Charles.  We had a chance to go there last weekend and had an excellent cup of coffee and some croissants.

In addition to having excellent baked goods, City Café Bakery is known for having a unique payment system: you put your money into a cash box.  No cash register, nobody waiting to take your money.

This webpage has two articles about City Café Bakery.

John Bergen, the owner, has a great quote from this article:

“I liked the idea of simplifying things and … the honour system made a whole lot of sense,” Bergen says. “What irritated me about going into Tim Hortons, for example, was waiting in line for something as simple as getting a donut and a coffee. So the thought was, someone can pour his own coffee, grab his own bagel, cut it himself, throw the money in, and walk out. We don’t touch 60 per cent of the transaction.”

Makes good sense, doesn’t it?

Merger Talks

There has been a lot of talk in Waterloo and Kitchener city councils about merging the two cities, with Kitchener’s councilors voting this past Monday to include an amalgamation question in next Fall’s municipal elections.  The question seems to be not about whether they should amalgamate or not, but whether to start discussions about amalgamation:

The question: “Would you support members of council engaging in a dialogue about the merits of merging the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo? Yes or No.”

It seems easier to talk about the benefits and risks of amalgamation than to argue the merits of whether the two cities talking about amalgamation itself.    What terrible harm can come from discussions?  Today’s article in The Record brings up one group’s concern: the discussions would create greater divisions between the two cities.  That seems like a possibility, but I think there are a lot of commonalities between Kitchener and Waterloo that would put any differences in perspective.

As for the financial benefits or risks, The Record’s article focusing on the work of Andrew Sanction puts a definitely positive spin on three things the merger has going for it: K-W already shares some services (e.g. transit), it would be voluntary, and they are both urban areas.

An interesting tangential aspect of all this is what impact a merger would have on other surrounding cities.  K-W would take a dominating role in regional politics and tax dollars.

Being against the proposition of beginning talk about amalgamation just seems wrong-headed.  Talks, reports, and community forums provide us with a chance to view all the sides and hear all the voices.  With smart facilitation, how could that be all bad?

It’s beginning to feel a lot like…well, you know

The lights are up in Victoria Park.  The Christmas market has come and gone.  The snow has finally started falling.  Yup, Christmas is coming.

I finally made it to the Christmas market in Kitchener city hall this year.  My daughter really enjoyed the train room set up in the back.  I’ve got a sweet tooth, so enjoyed the skor fudge they had for sale.  Next year we’ll have to try the gluwine, although my wife said it doesn’t have the same “kick” as the real stuff in Germany.

Some rambling observations:

As you likely know, the David’s Gourmet in downtown Kitchener has been closed for a while.  A visit to the plaza on Northfield that had one of the other David’s Gourmet stores made me realized that it is closed now as well.  This old March/09 Record article has the background on the downtown store closing.  The company’s webpage, www.davidsgourmet.com, confirms that of the former married couple’s empire, the husband, Ehrenworth, has the remaining store open at Victoria and Bruce.  The webpage also announces that a Waterloo store will be opening in 2010.  Looking at all the awards they won for 2009, I don’t see the sense of closing the Northfield store but not having another Waterloo location open until the next year (at least).

I can’t imagine the logistics and emotional weight of having a joint venture (in the sense that they both seem to be keeping the name, David’s Gourmet, if not the physical locations) with an ex-spouse.  And what about the loyal customers that, at least up until the Northfield store closed, would have to choose to do business with  either Quinn or Ehrenworth?  The David’s Gourmet blog seems to give some glimpse into that difficult situation.

Updates about David Street and H1N1 Response

So the David Street apartments could be demolished and rebuilt.
This editorial expresses some well deserved outrage at the prospect of spending money to demolish the building and then rebuild. Whether the damage is due to poor design or poor maintenance, it stinks.

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I’m not sure if this link will show you the same Record article that I’m seeing now, but it isn’t really what you’d call reporting in my books.

“It’s certainly busy this week and we’ll have to wait and see what happens next week,” said regional medical officer of health Dr. Liana Nolan.

Now there’s a quote for you! Is this right after she was chitchatting about the weather and mulling over putting on the snow tires already?
Informative? – Yes, we are told it has been busy.
Inspires confidence in the handling of a pandemic by our region? – Yes, nothing like a good policy of “let’s wait and see.”

Priority groups are getting the vaccine now.
The latest news release has the following dates/locations:

Saturday, November 7^th – St. David Catholic Secondary School
4 High Street, Waterloo,
9-4:00 p.m.

Monday, November 9^th – Southwood Secondary School
30 Southwood Drive, Cambridge
2-8:00 p.m.

H1N1 Immunization Schedule for K-W

You can find the schedule and locations here.

Note these important details:

Individuals are reminded there are two flu vaccines this season — one for seasonal flu and one for the H1N1 flu virus. There will be different clinics for each vaccine. Details (dates, times, locations) of all future seasonal flu and H1N1 flu virus immunization clinics will be released each Thursday. For example, the immunization clinics to be held the week of November 9 will be released on November 5. This information will be posted to Waterloo Region’s pandemic website (www.waterlooregionpandemic.ca) and the Region of Waterloo website (www.region.waterloo.on.ca).

For further information on the rollout of the seasonal and H1N1 flu virus immunization campaigns, please review Public Health’s special information bulletin —http://www.waterlooregionpandemic.ca/en/newsarchives/resources/H1N1SpecialBulletin.pdf

Information and resource materials on the H1N1 flu virus are available at Waterloo Region’s website —www.waterlooregionpandemic.ca. Individuals without internet access are invited to phone 519-883-2289 for more information.

The History behind the Delapidation: Barra Castle

Castle Barra

Because it is in my neighbourhood, I’ve always wondered about the history of Barra Castle by Queen and Courtland in downtown Kitchener.

In an odd coincidence, today’s Record has an article about some of its sad, recent history here.

Googling Barra Castle I also came upon a webpage on the Impulse Development Group website.  The group seem to be involved in the landowner’s dream of fixing up the place.  The three interior photos display some of the character of the rooms, which you would expect from the very unique exterior.

My father spent some of his early years on Peter Street and told me that Barra Castle used to be a monastery.  I can’t find anything on the internets about its history.

Does anybody have some stories or knowledge to share about Barra Castle’s early history?

Waterloo region becoming more of a large, urban centre

Waterloo Region’s Vital Signs released their report today on how the region is doing in 11 areas:

The Gap Between the Rich and Poor, Safety, Health and Wellness, Learning, Housing, Getting Started in Our Community, Arts and Culture, The Environment, Work, Belonging and Leadership, as well as Getting Around.

The report hasn’t been released yet online (as far as I could find), but The Record has an article about some of the findings:

• The number of elderly living in poverty is rising while in most of Canada the rate is decreasing
• We aren’t eating enough fruit and vegetables (did my mother write this survey?)
• We have one of lowest violent crime rates in the country
• 22.2 percent of residents are immigrants
• The gap between the richest and the poorest is increasing
• The unemployment rate in the region jumped from one of the lowest in the country, last year it was 4.8 %, to one of the highest, 9.9%

I wonder if there are any policy discussions to be had from this report.  Certainly the first point, the rising number of elderly living in poverty, would be a worthwhile discussion to have with the local social agencies in the region.

Cory Doctorow coming to town

One of my favourite authors is coming to town and doing a lecture next Saturday at U of W:

Waterloo: Sat, Sept 26, 2:30-4PM, University of Waterloo, Arts Lecture Hall. Free, open to the public. Sponsored by the Independent Studies Programme, where I’m a Scholar in Virtual Residence.

Netizens may know him from his work with Boing Boing and net neutrality.

David Street Apartments

I always wondered what was going on with the apartments facing Victoria Park on David Street.

Now I know:
Repair or demolish—decision looms for housing agency (The Record)

This post at SkyscraperPage Forum has some more background.  It seems like poor maintenance is being blamed for the damage.

Making Market Square Less of a Ghost Town

I saw that the card store in Market Square had closed over the summer. It had one of the few convenient Canada Post locations where we could pick up packages. Hopefully another one will be located close to downtown again soon.

While buying something in the Square I heard that Trios college is moving into there:

TriOS College moving to Market Square

One would think that that having another anchor-type tenant would help boost business for the businesses in the building, but some are more concerned right now with having to negotiate relocating to a different place to make room for TriOS.

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Matter of Taste’s 2nd Annual Latte Art Showdown is on the 19th!  Looking forward to it.

(Sorry for the Facebook link, couldn’t get to their webpage right now)