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

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.

Related links:

David’s Gourmet Completes Lease Up

David’s Gourmet

Previously

• 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.

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.

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

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?

Duty of court

(6) The court shall conduct the recount by,

(a) determining the validity of the disputed ballots or of the counting of votes in any disputed ballots; and

(b) recalculating the result of the election using the determinations made under clause (a) and the certified results referred to in clause (5) (b). 1996, c. 32, Sched., s. 63 (6).

I can’t imagine what Chapman is feeling now, except to think along the lines of: “If only [INSERT NAME HERE] and [INSERT NAME HERE], those lazy !@#$!@#$, had gotten off their !@#$!#@$, and gone to the voting station to put a small !@#$# X on a piece of paper!!! ARRRRGGGHHHHH.”

With a growing population and the rise of federal and provincial party politics (fewer free votes by MPs and MPPs), local politics is increasingly becoming the primary place where we as good citizens can see democracy.¹ But that means we have to vote!  Start looking at the main issues and what your candidates are saying about them.  Start asking your neighbours about their views about the central issues.  And then let’s get engaged in what is happening in our communities so we can speak from knowledge to the winners of these elections about issues that matter.

Here are some helpful links to check out:

City election info: Waterloo Kitchener Cambridge

The good folks at Wonderful Waterloo have done an excellent job of summarizing district candidates and providing forums for election discussions:

Kitchener Election Talk

Waterloo Election Talk

Cambridge Election Talk

And the local media have their coverage as well:

Rogers TV

Rogers/570 News Broadcast schedule from today onward:

Wednesday, Oct. 6
7:00pm – Cambridge Ward 3

Thursday, Oct. 7
7:00pm – Cambridge Mayor

Tuesday, Oct. 12
7:00pm – Cambridge Ward 1

Wednesday, Oct. 13
7:00pm – Kitchener Ward 5

Thursday, Oct. 14
7:00pm – Waterloo Mayor

Monday, Oct. 18
7:00pm – Kitchener Ward 9

Tuesday, Oct. 19
7:00pm – Waterloo Ward 7

Wednesday, Oct. 20
7:00pm – Waterloo Ward 6

CTV’s coverage of candidate LRT positions

The Record’s Election Coverage

Footnote

1. This article has an interesting observation about the lack of party politics and the “abysmal” participation rates of municipal elections: the party machines can pay for advertising, so awareness is at a higher level by virtue of all the tv and radio ads for candidates.  The proposed conclusion is that this drives more people to the polling stations.  This seems kind of like a damned if you do and damned if you don’t situation and I’d love to hear alternative ways to increase participation rates.  Anybody have any ideas to share?

We haven’t made it to Barrie Brothers but we heard good things about it from friends. The Record mentioned them in another article a little while ago.

You might have noticed the big storms we’ve been having?  Well Herrle’s was apparently hit by lightning during one of them:

What a night! 4 debit machines damaged! 1 cash register fried! 2 routers! 2 transfer switches! But no one hurt! Ready for tomorrow! 8:40 PM Sep 2nd via ÜberTwitter