What if Waterloo council supported the vision?
See what the Brentwood design charettes has to offer to Northdale and Waterloo.
Waterloo could solve the problems of Northdale simply by following modern urban design principles and supporting sustainable development.
Intensification is Green!!!!
http://www.peopleandparticipation.net/display/Methods/Design+Charrettes
and
UBC design charette models we could emulate:
http://www.jtc.sala.ubc.ca/projects/Brentwood/HOUSING.html
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Police Report on Student ghetto
Incident # 10-082939 Type : Liquor Offence
ERB ST W, WATERLOO
On Saturday April 24, 2010, Waterloo Regional Police in partnership with the City of Waterloo Bylaw Officers responded to calls for service that were related to Wilfrid Laurier University Student Year End Celebration and the activities that occurred in the surrounding neighbourhoods.
In the interest of community safety and ensuring public order, police were committed to maintaining a highly visible presence in the community.
Most incidents were alcohol related while many were minor in nature. Police responded to numerous house parties, reports of destruction of property and minor disturbances. The student population constituted a significant number of those celebrating and responsible for destruction of property that were minor in nature.
Police laid charges under the Liquor Licence Act including 22 charges for Open Liquor, 2 charges for Public Intoxication, 3 charges for Public Urination. Police further laid 8 charges under the Highway Traffic Act along with 4 charges under the Trespass to Property Act.
Two people were arrested for public intoxication.
The Waterloo Regional Police Service in conjunction with our partnering agencies is committed to an ongoing program of proactive community education as well as strict enforcement to ensure public safety and a high quality to life for all students.
Nice - what about the quality of life for the taxpaying homeowners??? I guess we don't matter anymore.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
One of many...
There is no safe sidewalk in Northdale - broken bottles are everywhere - would you walk a toddler here? A dog? Ride your bike? Hemlock Street is the worst! The sidewalk is littered with broken glass. This bottle is on Albert.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Homeowners reject student housing plan - thestar.com
Homeowners reject student housing plan - thestar.com
Looks like HUG's solution is the only one that makes any sense!!!!!!!
Looks like HUG's solution is the only one that makes any sense!!!!!!!
Oshawa’s town-gown conflict rooted in growing pains - thestar.com
Oshawa’s town-gown conflict rooted in growing pains - thestar.com
Similarities between Oshawa's neighbourhood and Northdale.
Similarities between Oshawa's neighbourhood and Northdale.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
From the Toronto Star
Homeowners sue Oshawa over rowdy student renters
April 02, 2010
Carola Vyhnak
Emil Hanzelka is representing Oshawa homeowners in a lawsuit against the city over ongoing problems with students who rent houses in their neighbourhood.
CAROLA VYHNAK/TORONTO STAR
Cathy Provenzano’s two children can’t ride their bikes or go on their own to the park in their north Oshawa neighbourhood.
The hundreds of university and college students renting houses in their midst make it too risky, she says.
“Every Friday, every Saturday, there are parties. They offered booze to kids in the park once,” Provenzano fumes. “Now I have to tell my kids they’re not allowed to enjoy their neighbourhood.”
She’s one of numerous homeowners who are fed up with ongoing problems of noise, parking, parties, garbage and vandalism. Acting on their behalf, four members of the Cedar Valley Home Owners Association of north Oshawa are suing the city in a bid to reclaim their neighbourhood.
“We’re not asking for money,” says association president Emil Hanzelka. “We want this neighbourhood returned to single family homes, which is what it was built for.”
The city has failed to enforce the zoning bylaw, they contend, allowing absentee landlords to rent out as many as six or eight bedrooms, which is illegal in a single-family area.
The allegations have not been proven in court. City solicitor David Potts can’t comment because the matter is pending.
After years of complaining, suggesting solutions and meeting with officials and council — all to no avail — residents feel Oshawa Mayor John Gray has let them down and their only recourse is to take the city to court.
They cite broken glass, beer bottles and condoms strewn around, front lawns torn up by cars, eggs thrown at houses and garbage piled up. In one case, students retaliated against an older couple who complained about rowdy behaviour by sticking pieces of glass in their backyard to cut their dog’s feet, the homeowners charge.
“Every day I get complaints about bylaw infractions, parking, garbage, parties, you name it,” says councillor John Neal, who’s spent years trying to find a solution.
The homeowners’ fight is with landlords who they say collect between $2,400 and $4,000 by renting out as many as eight bedrooms in one house to students attending nearby Durham College and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT).
When Hanzelka and his wife moved into their retirement home 10 years ago, there were no students renting in the neighbourhood. Now, of 430 homes, close to half are lodging houses, he says. Dalhousie Cres., where the trouble started in 2006, has only about a dozen families left.
While many families have fled the “streets of broken dreams,” Hanzelka says, “it just makes me mad to even think about selling.” Appraisals show his house has dropped at least $100,000 in value, he says.
Two years ago, the city introduced a licensing requirement for landlords, which imposed tougher housing standards and limited the number of bedrooms in a house. But the homeowners argue the move did nothing to eliminate multiple tenants.
Twenty-eight landlords taken to court by a developer in a nearby community were found guilty of running illegal rooming houses and ordered to close them last year, but the city has failed to follow up, the homeowners allege. In a ruling released Friday, Ontario Superior Court Justice P.D. Lauwers found two landlords in contempt for failing to stop operating lodging houses.
More than 13,000 full-time students attend the fast-growing college and university near Simcoe St. and Taunton Rd. About 1,600 residential units are available in on-campus housing with another 550 spaces to come this fall.
A city staff report on student housing will be discussed at a public meeting on April 8, 6:30 p.m. at the Oshawa and District Shrine Hall, 1626 Simcoe St. N.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Mark Rowley in Imprint
Thoughtful and well-written
article by Mark Rowley
from Imprint
(UW campus paper).
ReSHAPEing Waterloo
By now, many of you will have heard about the student group ReSHAPE — Redefining Student Housing Attitudes and Perceptions Everywhere.
Their goal is noble — to get people within the broader Waterloo community to reconceive student residences as something other than “ghettoes” to be avoided or a problem to be fixed.
This question is, to a certain degree, political — the rhetoric of local leaders has a huge effect on these perceptions. However, as I hate politics, I'd like to present an alternative.
Maybe it isn't the perceptions of residents that need to change first; perhaps the university needs to reconsider its approach to student housing before any inroads can be made.Why should students be forced to choose between homogenous, carefully controlled environments on campus, and absentee landlords and unfriendly neighbours off campus?
Perhaps student residences need to be recast as something more. Perhaps the university should recognize that the number of students is not going to decline anytime soon, nor are housing prices in the city. Perhaps they should recognize that keeping students and residents apart will not dissolve tensions, but rather reinforce the idea of “two solitudes.”
Perhaps they should be thinking of new, innovative living spaces that are more integrated into communities.
What is needed is not necessarily a student residence, but a community residence. The demand for social housing in Waterloo is proven, but very few areas are willing to see it built in their backyards. Students, however, may feel differently. Couldn't our school involve planning, social work, and environment students in the creation of a new kind of living space which incorporates housing, public space, and small businesses?
One needn't look far to find a model for this sort of development. In Europe, university campuses have been dealing with space constraints for centuries.
Their solution is to build their residences away from their main faculty buildings, connecting them with dedicated, efficient public transit, and relying on local businesses to provide some of their services.
In Waterloo, we could take this one step further and create housing developments that incorporate space not only for students, but also for recent graduates, new Canadians, and the working poor.
This would provide a critical mass of people needed for effective delivery of mass transit and social services (such as English classes, provision of computers, and internet access).
It would also aid in the sustainable development of small businesses (such as pubs, cafés, school supply stores, etc.) and public spaces (reading rooms, study areas, and desk-shares).
The possibility of this kind of development is not in question; look at any major European city and you will see an agglomeration of these “hubs.” It is desirable not in question either. By mixing people of different socioeconomic backgrounds, and giving them a sense of common identity, strong, sustainable communities can be developed.
The idea that it would be profitable is not doubtful either. One need only plant the seeds of this development and allow other developers to get in on the game.
Buying up land around these sites would be a very shrewd investment, as these new community and cultural hubs would become sought-after places to live. Placing some of the burden of student services on outside companies would drive down prices (as firms compete) and absolve the university of some of its present costs.
These businesses would not just have access to students, as they presently do on campus, but a whole range of people living in the communities. So long as the school commits to keeping rent low, the problem of gentrification displacing residents need not enter into the picture.
The ultimate problem is that the university is applying old models to new problems. The suburban sprawl that has characterized Waterloo's development is beginning to show its weaknesses, but our leaders are reacting by trying to apply the same old models of building more residences and getting bogged down with higher support costs.
These developments isolate students from their communities and build walls between community members.
Perhaps the school's finances are not in the best shape presently, but times of economic uncertainty are often the ones in which it is most expedient to act. What is certain is that UW's present course is unsustainable, and that something needs to happen quickly.
A new kind of residence would provide a window of opportunity for Waterloo to separate itself again from the herd of other institutions, and perhaps provide a model for other communities looking to reshape themselves.
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