Just dump it on the sidewalks across the street!!!
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Queen’s drops homecoming
after campus violence The Canadian Press
KINGSTON— Queen’s University
has cancelled its traditional
fall homecoming for the next two
years, citing an “unprecedented
number’’ of charges, violent incidents
and injuries at this year’s
event.
The event will be replaced by a
“homecoming-styled’’ reunion in
May 2009 and 2010, said a letter
sent to the university’s alumni.
The problems stem from an informal
street party whose timing
coincides with the fall homecoming
but is not sanctioned by
the university.
During the Saturday of the recent
September homecoming
weekend, about 8,000 mostly
drunken revellers took over Aberdeen
Street in the university’s
student village. An estimated 300
police officers, including four
riot squads,were on hand to
maintain order. The final police
tab was about $300,000.
Tom Williams, the school’s
principal and vice-chancellor,
said in the letter that university
staff, students and police have
been working to contain the
“volatile’’ situation.
“Despite our best efforts, the
situation has worsened,’’Williams
wrote.The most recent gathering
was “the largest yet and resulted
in an unprecedented number of
police charges, arrests, violent incidents
and injuries.”
Police made nearly 140 arrests
this year and laid almost 700
liquor charges.
after campus violence The Canadian Press
KINGSTON— Queen’s University
has cancelled its traditional
fall homecoming for the next two
years, citing an “unprecedented
number’’ of charges, violent incidents
and injuries at this year’s
event.
The event will be replaced by a
“homecoming-styled’’ reunion in
May 2009 and 2010, said a letter
sent to the university’s alumni.
The problems stem from an informal
street party whose timing
coincides with the fall homecoming
but is not sanctioned by
the university.
During the Saturday of the recent
September homecoming
weekend, about 8,000 mostly
drunken revellers took over Aberdeen
Street in the university’s
student village. An estimated 300
police officers, including four
riot squads,were on hand to
maintain order. The final police
tab was about $300,000.
Tom Williams, the school’s
principal and vice-chancellor,
said in the letter that university
staff, students and police have
been working to contain the
“volatile’’ situation.
“Despite our best efforts, the
situation has worsened,’’Williams
wrote.The most recent gathering
was “the largest yet and resulted
in an unprecedented number of
police charges, arrests, violent incidents
and injuries.”
Police made nearly 140 arrests
this year and laid almost 700
liquor charges.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Halloween assault shocks Samaritans
Chronicle Staff
By Greg MacDonald
News
Nov 12, 2008
Halloween turned into a real horror for two university students after they were beaten up on University Avenue.
Jonathan Volpe, who attends the University of Guelph, and his girlfriend, Wilfrid Laurier University student Anna Spehr, were walking home from a party when they got caught in the middle of an altercation.
The two were returning home from a Halloween party and were near McGinnis Frontrow when they found themselves between two groups of people.
“There were a couple of guys in front of us and six behind,” Volpe said. The two groups started yelling at each other and soon the six men attacked one person in the first group.
“They were kicking and punching him,” Volpe said. “They were relentless.”
He and Spehr interjected themselves into the situation and Volpe helped the injured man up.
“Why are you doing this?” Spehr asked the group.
“You want some b---h?” one responded, and then punched her in the face.
That’s when Volpe got involved in the fight.
“I pushed the guy into the street and they started beating me,” he said. “I just put my hand up in front of my face and tried to block it.”
He ended up with a black eye and some bruising, while Spehr left the incident with a sore face.
Volpe was angered by the event and hasn’t been able to shake that feeling since.
“These guys have clearly done this before and may strike again. I was lucky enough to avoid serious injuries but these guys must be punished,” he said.
“Who hits a girl and beats people in small groups like that for absolutely no reason?”
Now Volpe is asking any witnesses to the event to go to the police so that the offenders can be brought to justice.
“There were people around, I’m surprised no one said anything or tried to help,” he said.
Spehr, who lives at Westmount Road and University, has never seen anything like this during her time in Waterloo.
She couldn’t believe it after she got hit.
“I was in shock,” she said. “I was just standing there thinking ‘are you kidding me?’”
The 21-year-old has felt comfortable walking home along University but said she might reconsider it from now on.
“I don’t want to live in fear,” she said. “I guess I’ll just take a taxi next time.”
An incident like this one is fairly uncommon in Waterloo, said Staff Sgt. Warren Haasnoot of the Waterloo regional police.
“Periodically with the high concentration of bars and over-consumption of alcohol, groups get involved in disputes but generally it is not an issue,” he said.
Halloween can see a spike in calls, but they are not necessarily serious ones, he said.
Haasnoot recommends staying back if you come upon a serious altercation.
“It’s best to call the police,” he said. “There’s a risk to getting involved. Call 911.”
Chronicle Staff
By Greg MacDonald
News
Nov 12, 2008
Halloween turned into a real horror for two university students after they were beaten up on University Avenue.
Jonathan Volpe, who attends the University of Guelph, and his girlfriend, Wilfrid Laurier University student Anna Spehr, were walking home from a party when they got caught in the middle of an altercation.
The two were returning home from a Halloween party and were near McGinnis Frontrow when they found themselves between two groups of people.
“There were a couple of guys in front of us and six behind,” Volpe said. The two groups started yelling at each other and soon the six men attacked one person in the first group.
“They were kicking and punching him,” Volpe said. “They were relentless.”
He and Spehr interjected themselves into the situation and Volpe helped the injured man up.
“Why are you doing this?” Spehr asked the group.
“You want some b---h?” one responded, and then punched her in the face.
That’s when Volpe got involved in the fight.
“I pushed the guy into the street and they started beating me,” he said. “I just put my hand up in front of my face and tried to block it.”
He ended up with a black eye and some bruising, while Spehr left the incident with a sore face.
Volpe was angered by the event and hasn’t been able to shake that feeling since.
“These guys have clearly done this before and may strike again. I was lucky enough to avoid serious injuries but these guys must be punished,” he said.
“Who hits a girl and beats people in small groups like that for absolutely no reason?”
Now Volpe is asking any witnesses to the event to go to the police so that the offenders can be brought to justice.
“There were people around, I’m surprised no one said anything or tried to help,” he said.
Spehr, who lives at Westmount Road and University, has never seen anything like this during her time in Waterloo.
She couldn’t believe it after she got hit.
“I was in shock,” she said. “I was just standing there thinking ‘are you kidding me?’”
The 21-year-old has felt comfortable walking home along University but said she might reconsider it from now on.
“I don’t want to live in fear,” she said. “I guess I’ll just take a taxi next time.”
An incident like this one is fairly uncommon in Waterloo, said Staff Sgt. Warren Haasnoot of the Waterloo regional police.
“Periodically with the high concentration of bars and over-consumption of alcohol, groups get involved in disputes but generally it is not an issue,” he said.
Halloween can see a spike in calls, but they are not necessarily serious ones, he said.
Haasnoot recommends staying back if you come upon a serious altercation.
“It’s best to call the police,” he said. “There’s a risk to getting involved. Call 911.”
Article from the Waterlo Chronicle
November 12th 2008
Irresponsible students should be charged for crimes
Letters
Nov 12, 2008
Print This Article Tell a friend
Students have been getting away with too much.
There seems to be a "hands off the students" policy at the City of Waterloo that allows them a free hand to wreck property, break bylaws and commit crimes (which they probably think are only pranks).
For example, every weekend the safety fence on Ezra Avenue, erected to keep safe the site of the new student housing project, is knocked down.
This is not a prank. It is a crime to remove signs or fences or plastic cones that delineate dangerous territory.
Students routinely knock over federal mailboxes which is a crime.
Other offences include:
• building huge fires in driveways and backyards that endanger surrounding houses
• vandalizing cars, houses, signs and other private property
• urinating on people's gardens and property
• breaking noise bylaws by partying and screaming until 3 a. m.
• drinking on public property such as sidewalks and streets
• coming home from Waterloo pubs and parties drunk and kicking everybody's garbage pails and recycling boxes into the middle of the street.
Just walk down Ezra or Seagram Drive any Tuesday morning — it’s a total pig pen.
What is this attitude that they are not subject to the laws of the land? If an engineering student is caught and gets a criminal record, he/she cannot join the profession. Tough luck, if you do the crime, you do the time — and part of "the time" is to have a criminal record and suffer the consequences, like not being able to travel to certain countries or join a profession. Too bad — they should have thought of that before being an idiot.
When questioned recently a student said that he thought this was a "student area."
Hello — there is no such thing as a "student area" where it's OK to flaunt the law.
Owners, residents, tenants and responsible students are sick and tired of being harassed by bunches of drunks doing whatever comes into their small minds.
When complaints are made, the police claim they cannot catch them at their shenanigans. Well, don't come up in a cruiser; instead, patrol on foot.
It doesn't take a detective to catch a gaggle of stupefied drunks stumbling home at 2 a. m., smashing, vandalizing and yelling at the top of their lungs.
Catch them, charge them, process them and give criminal records to those of them who deserve it.
It's what we pay for.
Donald A. Fraser , Waterloo
November 12th 2008
Irresponsible students should be charged for crimes
Letters
Nov 12, 2008
Print This Article Tell a friend
Students have been getting away with too much.
There seems to be a "hands off the students" policy at the City of Waterloo that allows them a free hand to wreck property, break bylaws and commit crimes (which they probably think are only pranks).
For example, every weekend the safety fence on Ezra Avenue, erected to keep safe the site of the new student housing project, is knocked down.
This is not a prank. It is a crime to remove signs or fences or plastic cones that delineate dangerous territory.
Students routinely knock over federal mailboxes which is a crime.
Other offences include:
• building huge fires in driveways and backyards that endanger surrounding houses
• vandalizing cars, houses, signs and other private property
• urinating on people's gardens and property
• breaking noise bylaws by partying and screaming until 3 a. m.
• drinking on public property such as sidewalks and streets
• coming home from Waterloo pubs and parties drunk and kicking everybody's garbage pails and recycling boxes into the middle of the street.
Just walk down Ezra or Seagram Drive any Tuesday morning — it’s a total pig pen.
What is this attitude that they are not subject to the laws of the land? If an engineering student is caught and gets a criminal record, he/she cannot join the profession. Tough luck, if you do the crime, you do the time — and part of "the time" is to have a criminal record and suffer the consequences, like not being able to travel to certain countries or join a profession. Too bad — they should have thought of that before being an idiot.
When questioned recently a student said that he thought this was a "student area."
Hello — there is no such thing as a "student area" where it's OK to flaunt the law.
Owners, residents, tenants and responsible students are sick and tired of being harassed by bunches of drunks doing whatever comes into their small minds.
When complaints are made, the police claim they cannot catch them at their shenanigans. Well, don't come up in a cruiser; instead, patrol on foot.
It doesn't take a detective to catch a gaggle of stupefied drunks stumbling home at 2 a. m., smashing, vandalizing and yelling at the top of their lungs.
Catch them, charge them, process them and give criminal records to those of them who deserve it.
It's what we pay for.
Donald A. Fraser , Waterloo
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Too many university students are hooligans
Queen's Park
Eric Dowd
When will an Ontario politician pluck up the courage to stand in the legislature and say many of today's university students are a bunch of hooligans?
The evidence is clear. Drunkenness, rowdiness, vandalism and fighting involving students (albeit a minority) is common and increasing. People living near some universities have expressed fear for their physical safety and homes.
A doctor in a hospital emergency room, who has treated many students injured in brawls and other antics, has warned that someone will be killed soon unless student violence is curbed.
Ministers and MPPs should be concerned, but none in any party has stood to condemn the students or offer a solution, which would include educating students to behave better and making it clear they will be treated like others and forced to obey the law.
This would help reduce incidents such as one during a homecoming party at Queen's University in Kingston, when more than 8,000 revellers jammed a street, police brought reinforcements from neighboring communities to help their 200-strong force and charged more than 600, mostly with alcohol-related offences, and dozens of injured students were treated in hospital.
After the doctor warned, "each year is worse than the one before and loss of life is inevitable if this continues," the university said it will consider cancelling the annual event.
Police called to a district of mainly student housing near Fanshawe College in London laid 1,118 charges against students in a month, nearly 300 more than in the entire previous school year. Most were for drinking and rowdiness, which included an incident in which 500 students got out of control at a street party, leading to a series of fights, but two students were charged with sexually assaulting a woman.
A college spokesman said this is its worst year for problems with partying and "we're disgusted."
In Waterloo, residents have complained students have turned their area close to the university into a "student slum" by vomiting and urinating on their lawns, and the municipality had to send a fire truck to clean one lawn. Police laid 330 charges against students for public nuisance and vandalism in the area in less than a month.
Business owners in St. Catharines have complained that the downtown area with its 60 bars has become "a university street party" and demanded the city provide late-night buses to get students out of downtown.
In Guelph, where as many as 5,000 drinkers, mostly students, pour from downtown bars weekends at 2 a.m., a newspaper says the area often is "a sea of drunkenness." This writer checked and within a few minutes saw a fight involving a dozen young men and blood on the sidewalk.
In Oshawa, where there is a new university, residents' complaints of late-night partying by students prompted police to station 10 more officers in student neighborhoods, but a 19-year-old was stabbed at a house party. Homeowners also sued neighbors renting to students who drank heavily, held noisy latenight parties and had sex in front of curtainless windows and a court ordered the owners to stop using their homes as lodging houses.
Ryerson University in Toronto last month imposed a "code of conduct" calling on students to refrain from excessive drinking in public, but unfortunately has no way of enforcing it.
Students behave away from home in ways they would never dream of in their own communities, where they are known. Politicians turn a blind eye, first because they like to be seen in tune with youth and the times and not as fuddy-duddies.
They also feel they were young once and grew out of it and the students will grow out of it and move on, which probably will happen, but they will be succeeded by new students who behave similarly offensively to those who live near them.
The politicians also teach the students they are privileged and can break laws and get away with it — this is not the sort of lesson students should be learning in university.
Queen's Park
Eric Dowd
When will an Ontario politician pluck up the courage to stand in the legislature and say many of today's university students are a bunch of hooligans?
The evidence is clear. Drunkenness, rowdiness, vandalism and fighting involving students (albeit a minority) is common and increasing. People living near some universities have expressed fear for their physical safety and homes.
A doctor in a hospital emergency room, who has treated many students injured in brawls and other antics, has warned that someone will be killed soon unless student violence is curbed.
Ministers and MPPs should be concerned, but none in any party has stood to condemn the students or offer a solution, which would include educating students to behave better and making it clear they will be treated like others and forced to obey the law.
This would help reduce incidents such as one during a homecoming party at Queen's University in Kingston, when more than 8,000 revellers jammed a street, police brought reinforcements from neighboring communities to help their 200-strong force and charged more than 600, mostly with alcohol-related offences, and dozens of injured students were treated in hospital.
After the doctor warned, "each year is worse than the one before and loss of life is inevitable if this continues," the university said it will consider cancelling the annual event.
Police called to a district of mainly student housing near Fanshawe College in London laid 1,118 charges against students in a month, nearly 300 more than in the entire previous school year. Most were for drinking and rowdiness, which included an incident in which 500 students got out of control at a street party, leading to a series of fights, but two students were charged with sexually assaulting a woman.
A college spokesman said this is its worst year for problems with partying and "we're disgusted."
In Waterloo, residents have complained students have turned their area close to the university into a "student slum" by vomiting and urinating on their lawns, and the municipality had to send a fire truck to clean one lawn. Police laid 330 charges against students for public nuisance and vandalism in the area in less than a month.
Business owners in St. Catharines have complained that the downtown area with its 60 bars has become "a university street party" and demanded the city provide late-night buses to get students out of downtown.
In Guelph, where as many as 5,000 drinkers, mostly students, pour from downtown bars weekends at 2 a.m., a newspaper says the area often is "a sea of drunkenness." This writer checked and within a few minutes saw a fight involving a dozen young men and blood on the sidewalk.
In Oshawa, where there is a new university, residents' complaints of late-night partying by students prompted police to station 10 more officers in student neighborhoods, but a 19-year-old was stabbed at a house party. Homeowners also sued neighbors renting to students who drank heavily, held noisy latenight parties and had sex in front of curtainless windows and a court ordered the owners to stop using their homes as lodging houses.
Ryerson University in Toronto last month imposed a "code of conduct" calling on students to refrain from excessive drinking in public, but unfortunately has no way of enforcing it.
Students behave away from home in ways they would never dream of in their own communities, where they are known. Politicians turn a blind eye, first because they like to be seen in tune with youth and the times and not as fuddy-duddies.
They also feel they were young once and grew out of it and the students will grow out of it and move on, which probably will happen, but they will be succeeded by new students who behave similarly offensively to those who live near them.
The politicians also teach the students they are privileged and can break laws and get away with it — this is not the sort of lesson students should be learning in university.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
This article from the St. Catharines Standard
Brock students trying to cook up better relations with neighbours
Posted By KARENA WALTER STANDARD STAFF
Posted 3 days ago
Brock students hope more longtime residents attend their next community barbecue after an inaugural meet-the neighbours event Tuesday.
The free community barbecue in Montebello Park brought together students, firefighters, politicians and other invitees, but failed to attract many neighbourhood residents.
"Based on this we'll probably re-evaluate and see how we can get the message out by Thursday," said Rob Lanteigne, referring to a second community barbecue in Thorold.
Hosted by the Brock University Students' Union, the Montebello Park event was the first of three barbecues this year to build positive neighbourhood relationships.
Lanteigne, the students' union vice-president of university affairs, said the new initiative was a success, bringing together students with other sectors of the community.
St. Catharines firefighters helped flip and dish out burgers with students while others mingled in the crowd.
"It's a good initiative to bring students together with their community," Lanteigne said. "Start the year off in a positive light."
The idea is to get university students to meet their neighbours before problems arise.
Last week, for the second year, 15 teams of students paired with community leaders went door to door in student- heavy areas handing out kits on how to be good neighbours and roommates. They also asked longtime residents to go to their student neighbours with concerns before calling the police.
While the community hears reports about student noise and parties, Lanteigne said those complaints are disproportionate to the number of students living off-campus.
The students' union has 16,000 students under its wing and only 2,300 live in on-campus residences, he said.
Third-year student Andrew Natale attended the barbecue and said students causing problems give everyone a bad reputation.
"It's a very small percentage, but that's the percentage you hear about."
There's so much more to students, he said.
Community barbecues send a positive message from students, said city councillor Andrew Gill, who sits on the student housing liaison committee.
Gill said the student and city relationship is two-fold.
The city welcomes students with open arms into the community, he said, but there are problems in the south end of St. Catharines that will not be tolerated.
"Students are a great benefit to our city but I do have longtime residents affected by student housing and we have to find that balance," Gill said.
Students' union president Jody Thomas, who campaigned with the idea to hold the relationship-building events, said the barbecue was also about trying to create a community atmosphere for students.
He hoped students and residents would get to know who's on their own streets.
It's an effort supported by Mayor Brian McMullan, who said students may be more inclined to live in the city after graduation if they put down some roots.
"We also want them to consider St. Catharines-Niagara as a place to stay," McMullan said, adding he hoped the community barbecues would become annual events.
Brock students trying to cook up better relations with neighbours
Posted By KARENA WALTER STANDARD STAFF
Posted 3 days ago
Brock students hope more longtime residents attend their next community barbecue after an inaugural meet-the neighbours event Tuesday.
The free community barbecue in Montebello Park brought together students, firefighters, politicians and other invitees, but failed to attract many neighbourhood residents.
"Based on this we'll probably re-evaluate and see how we can get the message out by Thursday," said Rob Lanteigne, referring to a second community barbecue in Thorold.
Hosted by the Brock University Students' Union, the Montebello Park event was the first of three barbecues this year to build positive neighbourhood relationships.
Lanteigne, the students' union vice-president of university affairs, said the new initiative was a success, bringing together students with other sectors of the community.
St. Catharines firefighters helped flip and dish out burgers with students while others mingled in the crowd.
"It's a good initiative to bring students together with their community," Lanteigne said. "Start the year off in a positive light."
The idea is to get university students to meet their neighbours before problems arise.
Last week, for the second year, 15 teams of students paired with community leaders went door to door in student- heavy areas handing out kits on how to be good neighbours and roommates. They also asked longtime residents to go to their student neighbours with concerns before calling the police.
While the community hears reports about student noise and parties, Lanteigne said those complaints are disproportionate to the number of students living off-campus.
The students' union has 16,000 students under its wing and only 2,300 live in on-campus residences, he said.
Third-year student Andrew Natale attended the barbecue and said students causing problems give everyone a bad reputation.
"It's a very small percentage, but that's the percentage you hear about."
There's so much more to students, he said.
Community barbecues send a positive message from students, said city councillor Andrew Gill, who sits on the student housing liaison committee.
Gill said the student and city relationship is two-fold.
The city welcomes students with open arms into the community, he said, but there are problems in the south end of St. Catharines that will not be tolerated.
"Students are a great benefit to our city but I do have longtime residents affected by student housing and we have to find that balance," Gill said.
Students' union president Jody Thomas, who campaigned with the idea to hold the relationship-building events, said the barbecue was also about trying to create a community atmosphere for students.
He hoped students and residents would get to know who's on their own streets.
It's an effort supported by Mayor Brian McMullan, who said students may be more inclined to live in the city after graduation if they put down some roots.
"We also want them to consider St. Catharines-Niagara as a place to stay," McMullan said, adding he hoped the community barbecues would become annual events.
And the goal would be????
From Saturday's Record:
Waterloo welcomes students with neighbourhood event
September 13, 2008 Record staff
WATERLOO
A free neighbourhood barbecue welcoming university students to the city will be held tomorrow. About 400 people are expected at the Welcome Students Community BBQ at 112 Hickory St. from 4 to 7 p.m. The rain date is Sept. 21.
the bbq started out as a way to have students meet the permanent residents so they created relationships that would help students recognize their neighbours and create responsibility and harmony in the neighbourhood.
Now the city doesn't even pretend that is what it is.
It is merely a bbq to welcome students to the city.
If this bbq is about welcoming students to the city - then they should have it on campus, or at the city hall, or in Uptown Waterloo.
No wonder this neighbourhood is so overwhelmed by students who think they "own" it.
They already feel more than a little welcome in the neighbourhood - it is the permanent residents who feel that the city doesn't care about them.
Waterloo welcomes students with neighbourhood event
September 13, 2008 Record staff
WATERLOO
A free neighbourhood barbecue welcoming university students to the city will be held tomorrow. About 400 people are expected at the Welcome Students Community BBQ at 112 Hickory St. from 4 to 7 p.m. The rain date is Sept. 21.
the bbq started out as a way to have students meet the permanent residents so they created relationships that would help students recognize their neighbours and create responsibility and harmony in the neighbourhood.
Now the city doesn't even pretend that is what it is.
It is merely a bbq to welcome students to the city.
If this bbq is about welcoming students to the city - then they should have it on campus, or at the city hall, or in Uptown Waterloo.
No wonder this neighbourhood is so overwhelmed by students who think they "own" it.
They already feel more than a little welcome in the neighbourhood - it is the permanent residents who feel that the city doesn't care about them.
Another Saturday morning surprise...
There is no more pleasant way to be greeted on your Saturday morning walk...three deposits on your front lawn.
That neighbourhood preservation model is working well.
The city can be truly proud of their initiatives.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Interesting article from the Record
Wednesday September 10th 2008
Street barbecue for Doon residents
KITCHENER—Students and homeowners in the Doon Neighbourhood around Conestoga College are invited to a street barbecue that will be held today from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m.
The barbecue will be held on Orchard Mill Crescent near the college.
The event is organized by the Kitchener Conestoga town and gown committee in a bid to improve relations between the thousands of college students and homeowners living in the suburbs around the college.
Record staff
Wednesday September 10th 2008
Street barbecue for Doon residents
KITCHENER—Students and homeowners in the Doon Neighbourhood around Conestoga College are invited to a street barbecue that will be held today from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m.
The barbecue will be held on Orchard Mill Crescent near the college.
The event is organized by the Kitchener Conestoga town and gown committee in a bid to improve relations between the thousands of college students and homeowners living in the suburbs around the college.
Record staff
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
This evening the Waterloo Police went door to door handing out flyers and asking if there were any questions that we had. The flyers were: Thank you for being a good neighbour, Hello Neighbour and a Letter to student residents. Hopefully this will have some impact on behavioural issues. This was the contents of the letter.
WELCOME TO WATERLOO
September 10, 2008
Letter to student residents
Greetings!
Welcome to the City of Waterloo. As your neighbours and fellow Waterloo residents, we want to wish you the very best as you set out on another year of great experiences at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo. May you take full advantage of all of the educational, athletic, cultural, and social opportunities this community has to offer.
Whether you are a new or returning student, we hope that you will look on this community as your own. We take great pride in the enthusiasm and accomplishments of the students in our community, and hope that you will take the time to get to know some of your neighbours as well as your fellow students.
The Waterloo Regional Police Service, the City of Waterloo By-law Enforcement Staff and the City of Waterloo, Fire Rescue and Prevention Staff are responsible for public safety, law enforcement and for maintaining good order in our community. These officials are available to assist you at any time you are in need.
On very rare occasions, the actions of a few students have adversely affected the reputation of both the universities, and of all students. Both universities support the Police Service and the City of Waterloo in their efforts to maintain order in the community, and in dealing with unlawful conduct or conduct that interferes with anyone's rightful enjoyment of their property. Please be a good neighbour, and encourage others to do the same — especially in group situations where the conduct of others may unfairly reflect on you.
For more information about how the Waterloo Regional Police Service, the City of Waterloo By-Law Enforcement Staff and the City of Waterloo Fire Rescue Staff can assist you, please contact them at 653-7700 or visit City of Waterloo website at http://www.waterloo.ca/.
We wish you every success in the year ahead!
Wilfrid Laurier University Dr. Max Blouw President/ Vice-Chancellor
University of Waterloo David Johnston President / Vice-Chancellor
WELCOME TO WATERLOO
September 10, 2008
Letter to student residents
Greetings!
Welcome to the City of Waterloo. As your neighbours and fellow Waterloo residents, we want to wish you the very best as you set out on another year of great experiences at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo. May you take full advantage of all of the educational, athletic, cultural, and social opportunities this community has to offer.
Whether you are a new or returning student, we hope that you will look on this community as your own. We take great pride in the enthusiasm and accomplishments of the students in our community, and hope that you will take the time to get to know some of your neighbours as well as your fellow students.
The Waterloo Regional Police Service, the City of Waterloo By-law Enforcement Staff and the City of Waterloo, Fire Rescue and Prevention Staff are responsible for public safety, law enforcement and for maintaining good order in our community. These officials are available to assist you at any time you are in need.
On very rare occasions, the actions of a few students have adversely affected the reputation of both the universities, and of all students. Both universities support the Police Service and the City of Waterloo in their efforts to maintain order in the community, and in dealing with unlawful conduct or conduct that interferes with anyone's rightful enjoyment of their property. Please be a good neighbour, and encourage others to do the same — especially in group situations where the conduct of others may unfairly reflect on you.
For more information about how the Waterloo Regional Police Service, the City of Waterloo By-Law Enforcement Staff and the City of Waterloo Fire Rescue Staff can assist you, please contact them at 653-7700 or visit City of Waterloo website at http://www.waterloo.ca/.
We wish you every success in the year ahead!
Wilfrid Laurier University Dr. Max Blouw President/ Vice-Chancellor
University of Waterloo David Johnston President / Vice-Chancellor
City of Waterloo Mayor B. Halloran
Waterloo Regional Police Service
Matthew A Torigian Chief of Police
Waterloo Regional Police Service
Matthew A Torigian Chief of Police
Sunday, September 7, 2008
How you know you are living in a " Waterloo universities neighbourhood"
You've awakened to find people passed out on your lawn.
They were unhappy when you woke them up at 7 a.m. as you left for work.
The ambulance had to take one of them away to hospital at 3 in the morning.
You've seen a couple having sex on a major Waterloo street.
You've seen young people, male and female, urinating in full view, day and/or night..
You've had the neighbours next door come to your property to urinate while having a party at their house, in spite of having two bathrooms inside their own house and a very large backyard of their own.
You saw this happen once, mere steps off the sidewalk at 4 in the afternoon when WCI school buses could have driven by.
You have witnessed a group of 10 men break into 3 smaller groups and urinate simultaneously on 3 successive lawns on Albert St. at 8 p.m. mere steps off the sidewalk.
You know what a UHonk and we'll drink party is.
You've swept up broken glass over and over and over, and so have the 80 year olds living in the neighbourhood.
The mayor doesn't reply to your emails.
You can hear WLU's PA system, word for word, at 1 in the morning.
You can hear UW's PA system from their new football field all afternoon.
Your neighbours sit on upholstered furniture on their front lawns, drinking alcohol, and leave the furniture there in the rain.
You've witnessed a party where students emptied one round of beer, buried the beer bottles in the lawn neckdown, then threw the rest of the bottles they emptied at the buried bottles, trying to break them.
Garbage lies on lawns and boulevards for weeks on end and the bylaw enforcement dept. doesn't do a thing about it.
Bylaw officers have told you they are afraid to approach or charge lawbreakers in your neighbourhood. They refer to it as "taking their lives in their hands."
You have witnessed them being treated this way.
Your neighbours think The City doesn't know what the term "Neighbourhood Preservation Model" means. (see the Student Accommodation Report.)
The schools and churches in your neighbourhood have been rezoned for mult-storey apt. buildings. (WCI - MR4; St. David's - MR6/12; St. Michael's Church - MR6; Pentecostal Assembly - MR25.)
700 charges were laid by the police in your neighbourhood - IN ONE MONTH!!!
You wonder why London students are such underachievers.
You've been told that you have no business living in the neighbourhood by university students, even though you've been there for decades.
You can't use your own driveway because the girls next door find it more convenient to use yours rather than their own - after all you've shovelled and they haven't.
You ask someone to move their car out of your driveway and they refuse and stay there.
Even when the students are warned in a personal visit from the police that they aren't to park in your driveway, they persist.
Your neighbours set off fireworks so close to your property that the fireworks shower over your fence.
You are regularly awakened in the wee hours of the morning by one or two fireworks being set off.
Your neighbours are moving out before they can even sell their homes because their quality of life is so bad.
A single mother raising a 12 year old son moves out, in spite of loving her home, saying the "neighbourhod isn't fit to live in anymore."
The city rezoned the border of your two - block wide neighbourhood for apt. buildings designed to house only university students (5 bedroom units) while saying that they want to encourage famlies and young professionals to move into the houses inside this border.
There was a policy in place of not charging the majority of the residents of your neighbourhood (a very specific demographic) for breaking laws and bylaws, even when police/bylaw were called to the same address repeatedly in the same night.
YOu have watched a house of able-bodied university girls park their cars blocking the sidewalk for 3 years forcing people in wheelchairs out into busy traffic, and nobody did a thing about it no matter how often you advocated for the wheelchair bound residents.
When people were breaking the law in your neighbourhood you were told that it was your fault for not giving them welcome bags, making them muffins, or inviting them to dinner at your house.
When you were begging for help The City called it "bitching".
In 6 years there have been 5 beatings and two people stabbed (known of) within 3 blocks of your house - several of them severe.
Your neighbourhood had a brawl involving 35 people at 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning in the summer.
Several nights a week you are awakened by drunken people going up your street yelling at the top of their lungs.
The majority of people living in your neighbourhood, zoned SR2, are people who arrive for 4 or 8 month terms, then leave, subletting to new people.
People in other parts of the city feel sorry for you, saying it's a shame what has happened to your neighbourhood.
You know from experience that Animal House wasn't fiction.
You regularly see people walking with open beer bottles, and find empty kegger cups all over the streets/lawns.
You have seen young women staggering drunk up your sidewalk alone late at night.
The sidewalk cable boxes on your street are destroyed as if on a schedule.
You have actually lost phone service as a result of this behaviour.
Your neighbours routinely light fires in their backyard, sometimes using neighbouring fences for fuel.
You have had boards removed from your fence so students don't have to walk so far to school and can cut through your property.
You are over 75 years of age and have been threatened with being beaten up by students who wanted to cut through your property.
You and/or your neighbours have had your blue boxes, yard waste, and/or garbaged dumped into the street.
You have watched a whole family of skunks rip open and rummage in the garbage for a week on Albert St. while bylaw did nothing about it. (proactive? hmmm. let me look that up.)
Your fence has been broken down over and over and over.
You have had items stolen off your property.
You have had someone damage your swimming pool by throwing a glass topped table into it, forcing you to replace the liner.
You have witnessed parties with more than a hundred attendees.
You had a party across the street from you with dozens of attendees last for 24 hours, and even though dispatch was called 3 times nobody showed up.
Then you were blamed for not calling soon enough, even though you reported the party before it started when you saw the keg arrive.
You have watched garbage rot in the driveway of a licenced lodging house for weeks with nobody taking it away, and nobody being charged.
You were promised proactive/zero tolerance enforcement and got no enforcement, as a policy.
You were named the Universities Neighbourhood - nice branding, handing ownership off like that, without consulting the residents.
The Town and Gown committee was reorganized so one of your neighbours who sat on it was excluded and no residents were privy to what went on there. (what part of "town" don't they get?)
They rejected your suggestions for how to help the area, only to have the suggestions adopted by other university cities.
You have no fewer than 3 "bottle collectors" who traverse your neighbourhood collecting empties from front lawns, front porches and even going into backyards for empties.
Stores tell you they don't deliver flyers to your neighbourhood because "it's all university students up there."
When you call dispatch for help they ask if you are a landlord. You say no. They say, well, it's all students up there. (You have lived there for 30 years.)
You find a website where people advise other non-students not to live in your neighbourhood when they move to town to take their dream job.
People regularly abandon shopping carts on your street. There are two in the backyard beside your house.
People honk their horns in the middle of the night because they are leaving their friends' house.
People honk their horns in the middle of the night because they are arriving at a friend's house.
People honk their horns in the middle of the night because they are driving past a friend's house.
People honk their horns in the middle of the night because they have a horn.
Feel free to jump in, residents of the "universities neighbourhood."
They were unhappy when you woke them up at 7 a.m. as you left for work.
The ambulance had to take one of them away to hospital at 3 in the morning.
You've seen a couple having sex on a major Waterloo street.
You've seen young people, male and female, urinating in full view, day and/or night..
You've had the neighbours next door come to your property to urinate while having a party at their house, in spite of having two bathrooms inside their own house and a very large backyard of their own.
You saw this happen once, mere steps off the sidewalk at 4 in the afternoon when WCI school buses could have driven by.
You have witnessed a group of 10 men break into 3 smaller groups and urinate simultaneously on 3 successive lawns on Albert St. at 8 p.m. mere steps off the sidewalk.
You know what a UHonk and we'll drink party is.
You've swept up broken glass over and over and over, and so have the 80 year olds living in the neighbourhood.
The mayor doesn't reply to your emails.
You can hear WLU's PA system, word for word, at 1 in the morning.
You can hear UW's PA system from their new football field all afternoon.
Your neighbours sit on upholstered furniture on their front lawns, drinking alcohol, and leave the furniture there in the rain.
You've witnessed a party where students emptied one round of beer, buried the beer bottles in the lawn neckdown, then threw the rest of the bottles they emptied at the buried bottles, trying to break them.
Garbage lies on lawns and boulevards for weeks on end and the bylaw enforcement dept. doesn't do a thing about it.
Bylaw officers have told you they are afraid to approach or charge lawbreakers in your neighbourhood. They refer to it as "taking their lives in their hands."
You have witnessed them being treated this way.
Your neighbours think The City doesn't know what the term "Neighbourhood Preservation Model" means. (see the Student Accommodation Report.)
The schools and churches in your neighbourhood have been rezoned for mult-storey apt. buildings. (WCI - MR4; St. David's - MR6/12; St. Michael's Church - MR6; Pentecostal Assembly - MR25.)
700 charges were laid by the police in your neighbourhood - IN ONE MONTH!!!
You wonder why London students are such underachievers.
You've been told that you have no business living in the neighbourhood by university students, even though you've been there for decades.
You can't use your own driveway because the girls next door find it more convenient to use yours rather than their own - after all you've shovelled and they haven't.
You ask someone to move their car out of your driveway and they refuse and stay there.
Even when the students are warned in a personal visit from the police that they aren't to park in your driveway, they persist.
Your neighbours set off fireworks so close to your property that the fireworks shower over your fence.
You are regularly awakened in the wee hours of the morning by one or two fireworks being set off.
Your neighbours are moving out before they can even sell their homes because their quality of life is so bad.
A single mother raising a 12 year old son moves out, in spite of loving her home, saying the "neighbourhod isn't fit to live in anymore."
The city rezoned the border of your two - block wide neighbourhood for apt. buildings designed to house only university students (5 bedroom units) while saying that they want to encourage famlies and young professionals to move into the houses inside this border.
There was a policy in place of not charging the majority of the residents of your neighbourhood (a very specific demographic) for breaking laws and bylaws, even when police/bylaw were called to the same address repeatedly in the same night.
YOu have watched a house of able-bodied university girls park their cars blocking the sidewalk for 3 years forcing people in wheelchairs out into busy traffic, and nobody did a thing about it no matter how often you advocated for the wheelchair bound residents.
When people were breaking the law in your neighbourhood you were told that it was your fault for not giving them welcome bags, making them muffins, or inviting them to dinner at your house.
When you were begging for help The City called it "bitching".
In 6 years there have been 5 beatings and two people stabbed (known of) within 3 blocks of your house - several of them severe.
Your neighbourhood had a brawl involving 35 people at 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning in the summer.
Several nights a week you are awakened by drunken people going up your street yelling at the top of their lungs.
The majority of people living in your neighbourhood, zoned SR2, are people who arrive for 4 or 8 month terms, then leave, subletting to new people.
People in other parts of the city feel sorry for you, saying it's a shame what has happened to your neighbourhood.
You know from experience that Animal House wasn't fiction.
You regularly see people walking with open beer bottles, and find empty kegger cups all over the streets/lawns.
You have seen young women staggering drunk up your sidewalk alone late at night.
The sidewalk cable boxes on your street are destroyed as if on a schedule.
You have actually lost phone service as a result of this behaviour.
Your neighbours routinely light fires in their backyard, sometimes using neighbouring fences for fuel.
You have had boards removed from your fence so students don't have to walk so far to school and can cut through your property.
You are over 75 years of age and have been threatened with being beaten up by students who wanted to cut through your property.
You and/or your neighbours have had your blue boxes, yard waste, and/or garbaged dumped into the street.
You have watched a whole family of skunks rip open and rummage in the garbage for a week on Albert St. while bylaw did nothing about it. (proactive? hmmm. let me look that up.)
Your fence has been broken down over and over and over.
You have had items stolen off your property.
You have had someone damage your swimming pool by throwing a glass topped table into it, forcing you to replace the liner.
You have witnessed parties with more than a hundred attendees.
You had a party across the street from you with dozens of attendees last for 24 hours, and even though dispatch was called 3 times nobody showed up.
Then you were blamed for not calling soon enough, even though you reported the party before it started when you saw the keg arrive.
You have watched garbage rot in the driveway of a licenced lodging house for weeks with nobody taking it away, and nobody being charged.
You were promised proactive/zero tolerance enforcement and got no enforcement, as a policy.
You were named the Universities Neighbourhood - nice branding, handing ownership off like that, without consulting the residents.
The Town and Gown committee was reorganized so one of your neighbours who sat on it was excluded and no residents were privy to what went on there. (what part of "town" don't they get?)
They rejected your suggestions for how to help the area, only to have the suggestions adopted by other university cities.
You have no fewer than 3 "bottle collectors" who traverse your neighbourhood collecting empties from front lawns, front porches and even going into backyards for empties.
Stores tell you they don't deliver flyers to your neighbourhood because "it's all university students up there."
When you call dispatch for help they ask if you are a landlord. You say no. They say, well, it's all students up there. (You have lived there for 30 years.)
You find a website where people advise other non-students not to live in your neighbourhood when they move to town to take their dream job.
People regularly abandon shopping carts on your street. There are two in the backyard beside your house.
People honk their horns in the middle of the night because they are leaving their friends' house.
People honk their horns in the middle of the night because they are arriving at a friend's house.
People honk their horns in the middle of the night because they are driving past a friend's house.
People honk their horns in the middle of the night because they have a horn.
Feel free to jump in, residents of the "universities neighbourhood."
Hey students. Isn't it enough that you have to hoot
and holler on the way home from the pub at 3am
in the morning without smashing bottles on the way?
Who is going to clean the glass up. If you are lucky
you broke a bottle in front of a permanent residents
place and they will clean it up. You have to be pretty
lucky to do that as there are very few permanent ones
left. Otherwise it just gets shuffeled to the side.
Did you ever go barefoot as a youngster? Ever
step in some glass? That is what you are doing to
anyone that might be walking in bare feet or sandals.
I guess your judgement is clouded by the alcohol.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Will they end up on kijiji?
Another sign you are living in a nice family neighbourhood - NOT!
Stained, vile mattresses lying at the curb - this one was so bad even the guys who picked up the other left it behind. Yuck.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
I hope we get daily pickup in the are bounded by
King, Columbia, Lester and University. It looks
like anyday is a OK time to put your garbage out.
Not sure who is going to pick these items up.
RegularWaste Management is not going to do it.
Landlords that live wherever or the tenants
don't seem to do it.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
We will see how long these couches will sit on
the front lawn before they are cleared away
This is the garbage that was not picked up and is left
to be picked over by the animals. This could happen
in any neighbourhood but this neighbourhood is
predominately student housing. You would think that
these young people would be more enviornmentally
sensitive. They can walk past a dozen time and
not pick anything up.
I wonder how long this pile of earth will stay here.
Probably been here two years now.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Sunday morning rewards...
Sunday mornings bring the inevitable money making opportunities - in multiples of 10 cents.
If you're early enough, you can beat all of the four bottle collectors who frequent the neighbourhood.
This fall the neighbourhood will have exponential money making opportunities when more than 360 students move into the new student-only apartment buildings encircling us.
Maybe bylaw can collect the empties and boost their budget to add more officers so the kids walking down the street drinking beer off premises can be charged, as the city promised us proactive/zero tolernce enforcement in the student accommodation report.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Who needs a driveway when you've got a lawn?
As much parking as you can fit in - no tickets - no consequences - no worries.
Monday - same cart - new view
How many more of these can we expect this fall when more than 300 tenants move into the apartments being built on Columbia???
With too few parking spots, the tenants will find stealing carts a handy way to get their purchases home.
And who will return them?
Jan?
The mayor?
The rest of the councillors who voted to preserve the neighbourhood?
Who shall we call?
Another "neighbourhood enhancement"
This arrived on Albert Street Saturday overnight - and don't think it arrived there quietly.
No, shopping carts are an excellent way to transport your drunken friends home.
Can't walk? - take the cart.
Hope they don't hit it backing out of their driveway.
real estate - close to ill-managed rental properties - any takers?
After a week sitting there full of garbage the cans were finally emptied - and then sat there empty for almost another week waiting for??????
Nice legal rental property in a desirable family neighbourhood.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Here we are after the garbage was picked up today (June 10/08). Look at the pictures from last week. Just about the same thing. The stove was put out around 3pm well after garbage pickup. So it will sit there till next week probably end up on the road after being pushed over. I thought there were rules when things were to be put out and letting the region know that you have a appliance to be picked up. Landlords and people that look after the properties should know the rules. So who is going to say or do anything about this? It always seems to fall on the permanent owner who still takes some pride in the neighbourhood.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Is bylaw on vacation?
The sweet smell of summer in student ghetto - oops sorry Jan - I meant a slum.
This is Albert St. - can someone arrange eye tests for the bylaw officers?
6 days and counting, at 30 degrees plus; maybe the maggots will have taken care of it by Tuesday.
Litter in the Neighbourhood
This garbage has been sitting on the boulevard since June 3rd garbage pickup. Who will pick it up? Not the landlord and not likely the students. This is almost a weekly mess. One only has to go around the streets in this neighbourhood and look at the degradation of this neighbourhood. A couple of weeks ago a permanent resident took a broom and dustpan and went across the street to clean up garbage. For this generation to be so eco conscious it is a shame the litter that never gets picked up.
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