Waterloo Student Ghetto Art

Record Editorial Friday February 19th 2010

Cari
Howard
Community
Editorial Board

Visions for Northdale’s future are no answer for residents’ real concerns

Residents of the Northdale neighbourhood
in Waterloo want their community to
be a place where students, families and
urban professionals all live in harmony.
There’s a new vision for the area, proposed
and supported by the group Help
Urbanize the Ghetto, or HUG, where cars
are not needed because there are lots of
trails and public transit, and where fiveand
six-storey condos are built to the highest
efficiency standards, featuring shops
and restaurants at ground level and rooftop
gardens above — a place where every morning,
Al Gore will greet passing cyclists and
pedestrians with a hearty rendition of
Won’t You Be My Neighbour?
The vision is definitely pleasant, and one
any community could be proud of. But the
recent decision by Waterloo city council to
clarify its Vision for Northdale and Help
Urbanize the Ghetto’s Green Solution for
Northdale surprised me. As a former homeowner
in that area (I owned and lived in a
house on Columbia Street for five years), I
never thought the problems in the area
stemmed from a lack of vision for the future,
but from the daily reality of noise,
Rezoning the land won’t make the vision a
reality, and it certainly won’t address the
issues that residents are dealing with today.
City of Waterloo staff have been asked to
report back to council in April to clarify the
vision for the Northdale neighbourhood.
They’ve been asked to provide information
on the planning, development and other
tools available to achieve the vision, and the
options, costs, and timeframes that will be
required. But I don’t see anyone being asked
to report on an ongoing strategy to deal
with the daily challenges still facing the
community.
I can’t help but feel that attention is focused
on the wrong letter in the Help Urbanize
the Ghetto acronym. The focus shouldn’t
be on U for urbanize, but on G for ghetto.
How will homeowners feel the day after
zoning changes are approved for their
neighbourhood, when the run-down, unkempt
rental properties that breed noise
and nuisance are still there? Probably not
much like HUG-ing.
Homeowners in Northdale aren’t
looking to the city for help because people
are driving cars down the streets and using
shingles for roofing instead of plants.
There’s obviously pedestrian traffic
through the neighbourhood; who else is
knocking over garbage cans and urinating
on the bushes? And are rooftop gardens in
an urban setting really better than the
green space of large yards and mature
trees? No, not unless the real issue with
those yards is the space they provide for
outdoor parties and lawn parking.
The residents in this neighbourhood
aren’t upset because their ghetto doesn’t
have a concrete vision for the future.
They’re upset because it’s a ghetto.
I’m not arguing with the goal of a green
Northdale. People living in such a pleasant
urban neighbourhood would not face the
same issues as this community. (They’d be
too busy complaining about the neighbourhood
square that someone is bound to
incorporate into the design.) But we’re not
talking about a wasteland of space just
waiting for the right planning solution to
come along before the shovels hit the dirt.
litter and property damage in an area sporting
overgrown lawns in summer and snowcovered
sidewalks in winter.
A quick glance through the student accommodation
study prepared by city staff
in 2004 shows that the long-term vision for
the Northdale neighbourhood back then
was not much different from the one now
proposed by Help Urbanize the Ghetto. The
words “urban,” “pedestrian,” “cyclist” and
“transit” are all featured in the 68 total
recommendations for this community.
But homeowners also had immediate
concerns about rental property upkeep and
tenant behaviour. These were addressed in
recommendations that included words like
“bylaw,” “police” and “enforcement.” So
why haven’t residents seen results in the
past six years? I can’t believe it’s because
the vision wasn’t clear enough.
Visions for Northdale’s future are no answer for residents’ real concerns
Cari Howard is a project manager with the Region of
Waterloo’s waste management division.
Cari
Howard
Community
Editorial Board

News columnist

Wikipedia - student ghetto

Here's a definition of Northdale

straight off Wikipedia:

A student ghetto is a residential neighbourhood, usually in proximity to a college or university, that houses mostly students. Due to the youth and relative poverty of the students, most of the the housing is rented, with some cooperatives. Landlords have little incentive to properly maintain the housing stock, since they know that they can always find tenants. Non-students tend to leave the area because of the noise and raucous behavior of the students. Most modern student ghettos arose from the rise in post-secondary enrollment after World War II. Many colleges and universities became unable to house all their students, while homeowners in adjacent neighborhoods fled from the influx of students. Such neighbourhoods often took over from faculty and other affluent (permanent) residents, as the housing stock in these areas deteriorated.

Markham plan could contain sprawl

Is this something we should be looking at?

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/748485--markham-plan-could-contain-sprawl-save-farms#article

Karen Eagle says student housing in the Northdale neighbourhood makes her work welcoming newcomers difficult.

Call getting louder for student neighbourhood makeover

Philip Walker, Record staff

Karen Eagle says student housing in the Northdale neighbourhood makes her work welcoming newcomers difficult.

By Terry Pender, Record staff

WATERLOO — As a relocation counsellor, Karen Eagle helps high-tech workers find a place to live. But the student neighbourhood called Northdale makes her job increasingly difficult.

“I am very proud of Kitchener-Waterloo — I love our Uptown, I love Waterloo Park, I show RIM Park and the Kitchener area and invariably I end up relocating them usually in Kitchener,” Eagle says.

Currently, the high-tech sector in this region, which is centred in Waterloo, has about 2,500 job vacancies. Many of the people filling those positions are young and want to live in condominiums within walking distance to work, Eagle says.

“These are people who have lived in other cities in the world, are used to rapid transit and they can’t get over that so close to the university and all these tech companies, there is no housing similar to what they’ve had in large cities around the world,” Eagle says.

Eagle says the problem is the large number of students renting houses and apartments in Northdale, which is roughly bounded by University Avenue, King Street North, Columbia Street and Lester Street.

“It is one of my biggest negatives when I give orientations of Kitchener-Waterloo because it isn’t a nice area and it has a bad reputation,” Eagle says.

There was a stabbing in Northdale on New Year’s Day. A few weeks before that, someone was injured by a stray bullet that pierced the wall of their apartment.

Properties are often not well-maintained. Litter, noisy parties and public urination are common. Several cars may be parked on front lawns.

Eagle has joined the ranks of environmentalists and residents calling for a complete makeover of the neighbourhood.

The group is called HUG Waterloo: for Help Urbanize the Ghetto in Waterloo. It has attracted members from the Northdale Residents Association and Waterloo residents, and most recently was involved in the Save the Moraine campaign.

It wants the neighbourhood given a special designation allowing Waterloo to provide incentives to developers to transform the area into a showcase for sustainable urban living where cars are not needed because there are lots of trails and public transit.

The group wants to see more housing and amenities geared to high-tech workers — five- and six-storey condominium buildings with one- and-two bedroom units. The ground floors should be filled with shops, services, cafes and restaurants.

Students would be welcome, but they would no longer dominate the neighbourhood as non-students move in to be close to the high-tech companies, the universities and the downtown. Pedestrians and cyclists would move among buildings capped with rooftop gardens. The buildings would be designed and built to the highest standards of energy efficiency.

Eagle says there is plenty of suburban housing for families in Waterloo and student housing around the universities. There is not enough housing for singles or couples working in high-tech who want urban living.

“Invariably we can’t find places in Waterloo, which is really sad because these are people who want to walk to work, and they are the up-and-comers with good incomes, they are young and they want new places, preferably condominiums,” Eagle says.

Coun. Jan d’Ailly, who represents the area on city council, is expected to file a motion next Monday that calls for changes to the area.

“It is not just a ward issue, it is a city-wide issue,” he says.

D’Ailly held two public meetings last year with Northdale residents.

D’Ailly wants city staff to prepare a detailed vision for the Northdale neighbourhood based on the input from citizens — more density, mixed uses, better walking and cycling and transit.

In short, more urban.

“I will let staff come up with the recommendations, but I think it’s pretty clear that what’s there now is not working,” d’Ailly says.

“Something has got to change — that’s what we are really looking for,” d’Ailly says.

D’Ailly wants city staff to list the tools they have available now to implement that new vision for the area and to detail how much it would cost.

“I am looking to council to put some resources behind solving the issues,” d’Ailly says.

Last year, provincial legislation was changed, allowing cities to license rental accommodations. Staff are preparing a report on that issue and d’Ailly believes that, too, will help.

Deborah Easson, who lives on Albert Street and is head of the Northdale Residents Association, says the few remaining homeowners in the neighbourhood feel betrayed.

“It is a ghetto, it is really ugly in here,” Easson says.

She can’t walk her dog because of broken glass. Easson and her husband heard a woman screaming one night, so they jumped out of bed and ran to the front window only to see a couple having sex on the sidewalk.

Another night, they watched as five young men urinated on their front lawn. A 78-year-old woman just home from surgery had five beer bottles smashed against her house. Another senior had the covering from a cable box thrown through a window. Large backyards provide the perfect habitat for rowdy outdoor parties.

“We had one young family move after a rock was thrown through the window of their three-year-old daughter’s bedroom,” Easson says. “It is a really dire situation.”

About five years ago, the city completed a study on student accommodation and adopted what was called The Neighbourhood Preservation Model. Under that model, more student housing was allowed while city bylaw officers and the Waterloo Regional Police were supposed to take a zero-tolerance approach to rowdy and illegal behaviour.

Zero tolerance enforcement of property standards and laws never happened, Easson says.

“Prior to 2004, there were about 300 houses in the neighbourhood and 75 were zoned as student-only apartments,” Easson says. “Now we have about 40 houses left that are owner-occupied and the vast majority of those owners are over 70.”

Now Easson is throwing her support behind the group Help Urbanize the Ghetto.

“It is the perfect neighbourhood to intensify,” Easson says.

Attractively designed mixed-use developments can create an urban village where everybody wants to live, Easson says, and the negative impact of students can be reduced if more non-students move in.

“We are really keen on that, too,” says Bud Walker, head of student services at the University of Waterloo.

Walker says the university would like to see better housing stock within walking distance of the campus for young faculty and other employees.

Ken Crowley, spokesperson for Wilfrid Laurier University, says the institution is keen to be a good neighbour and has a code of conduct for students.

“We do require them through the code of conduct to respect their neighbours on and off campus,” Crowley says.

Both universities say they cannot be directly responsible for the off-campus behaviour of students.

tpender@therecord.com

A map put together by Northdale residents and compiled by Deborah Easson shows all the rental houses in red swamping the solely owner-occupied houses in green.



Expropriation an option

Everything is on the table as the city looks at the long-term future of Northdale

By Greg MacDonald, Chronicle Staff

News
Jan 06, 2010

No one knows what the Northdale neighbourhood will look like in 10 years, but everyone agrees it has to look different than it does now.
After three heated, debate-filled meetings in 2009, ward Coun. Jan d’Ailly will be opening council’s New Year seeking a new vision for the neighbourhood.

“I want staff to report back on what options we have in the neighbourhood,” d’Ailly said.

And when d’Ailly means options, he means every option available.

“It could be anything from doing nothing to the city expropriating the land,” he said. “I don’t think either will be acceptable, but it might end up somewhere in between.”

The Northdale neighbourhood, bounded by University Avenue and Columbia Street north to south and King Street and Lester Street east and west, has become a flash-point for the current incarnation of council.

The student-dominated neighbourhood has been dubbed a ghetto-in-the-making as families leave the area and more houses become rentals.

Property standards and housing safety have been issues, and recently a spat of crimes hit the neighbourhood, including a shooting in December and a stabbing on New Year’s Eve.

“We need to take the blinders off,” d’Ailly said. “We need to stop thinking about what we can’t do.

“We have to do something.”

One potential plan for the neighbourhood was presented at a community meeting in late November.

A new community group, called HUG — Help Urbanize the Ghetto in Waterloo — made up of Northdale residents as well as other citizens, presented its vision of an intensified community.

It included low-rise condominiums, shopping mews and more dense housing forms. Not only is the plan environmentally friendly, it will help diversify the neighbourhood, said Karen Earle, chair of HUG.

“We really want to see reurbanization through intensification,” she said. “Right now the neighbourhood does not work.

“It’s a blight on the city and it makes us look bad.”

Earle and her group have refined what residents have been saying for years into a coherent vision — upzone the neighbourhood. That would mean allowing for more dense building forms and removing the current restrictions around lodging house licenses.

Earle, a Waterloo resident, works as a re-locator. She helps high-tech families move into the area and find a place to live.

“I never recommend the Northdale area,” she said. “In fact, I have a hard time finding places in Waterloo. Laurelwood and Eastbridge are good for families, but there are only so many houses there.

“A lot of tech workers want to live in condos or rent. Frankly, a lot of them are in Kitchener.”

That irks Earle, because she believes the city has the potential to bring in more taxpayers with a more dense core.

HUG wants to see a special policy area instituted in Northdale focused solely on intensification.

“Forget the rest of the city in this instance and just focus on Northdale,” Earle said. “It might not be a ghetto yet, but it’s a ghetto in the making.”

HUG’s vision would mean a more diverse neighbourhood, but it would also mean fair property values, said Deborah Easson, chair of the Northdale Neighbourhood Association.

“It’s a huge issue for us,” she said.

Permanent residents in the area have often complained that lodging house licenses make some houses vastly more valuable than others. Those residents without licenses have trouble selling their homes, Easson said.

“You basically have to disclose what kind of neighbourhood this is when you’re trying to sell it,” Easson said.

She believes in the HUG plan and thinks it would quickly cure many of the ills in the neighbourhood.

“It would stop the partying, the random property damage, because it would bring in property managers,” she said. “It would change the climate and start bringing in tech workers.”

Easson wants council to adopt HUG’s vision. But she wants something else, too.

“I would like an admission that the neighbourhood is a failure,” she said. “There has to be a solution and council has to find it.”

D’Ailly agrees a solution is needed and hopes to have a report back in April on options for the neighbourhood.

“I also want to understand what tools we have in our toolbox that can help us,” he said.

Earle wants the situation addressed urgently since it’s an election year.

“We want it done soon,” she said. “We’ve worked hard on this council and if something doesn’t get done soon, we’ll have a whole new council to deal with.”

D’Ailly believes it has taken time for the vision to coalesce and said real progress was made during 2009.

He will bring forward a motion to explore the options on Jan. 11 and expects staff to report back in the spring if he finds support from other councillors.

But the Northdale issue isn’t likely to stay quiet until then. The city is also exploring a rental licensing bylaw that would require all landlords to be licensed.

The issue will come before council later in the winter.

For more information on HUG’s vision for Northdale, visit www.hugwaterloo.com

From the Cord

City councillors to lead planning for 'student ghetto'

Nick Lachance
December 2, 2009 5:36 AM
Linda Givetash

On Nov. 26, a town meeting was hosted in St. Michael’s Church for the Northdale community to discuss the future of the area as the neighbouring universities continue to grow.
“We’re not a permanent resident and student neighborhood anymore, we’re a student neighborhood with a few remaining permanent residents,” said Christine Carmody, area resident and member of Help Urbanize the Ghetto in Waterloo (HUG Waterloo).
The population of Northdale – the area north of Wilfrid Laurier University between the University of Waterloo and King Street – has transformed from primarily long-term residing families to frequently moving students.
Before attendees broke into discussion groups to critique the community vision presented by councilor Jan d’Ailly and city staff, members of HUG Waterloo stepped in to present their alternate proposal.
“We don’t feel that our voice is being heard by our own councilor,” said Jim Flynn, member of HUG Waterloo.
“We’ve had meeting after meeting and we always seem like we’re starting but really ... it’s a failure to launch,” he added.
This town hall acted as a follow-up to the meeting held in April 2009 which addressed the major concerns of both permanent and student residents.
The vision proposed by the city encompassed those concerns and outlined the developments they would like to see in the future.
Having looked over both proposed visions, councilor d’Ailly said, “Actually if you take a close look at it they’re remarkably similar. There’s about 80 per cent overlap.”
This was not a view shared by HUG Waterloo members. “The one with the city, the one that Jan d’Ailly created, I don’t think represents all of the city, it’s completely unrealistic,” said Carmody.
The solution proposed by HUG Waterloo is to rezone the area to allow for higher density housing, such as apartment buildings, that are designed for the student lifestyle.
“Our houses just don’t suit the purpose [of residents] that actually live in our community, so why not build something that’s actually good for students,” said Carmody.
Regardless of the problems with the current measures in place for housing in the area, students should still be informed and engaged in order to help progress community development.
“I think the first step is not to be putting yourself in a bad situation,” said third-year Laurier student Jackie Dobson, who is chair of the Mayor’s Student Advisory Council (MSAC).
“Students [need to] become aware of these issues before they’re in these situations, because once you’re in these situations you’re bounded by a 12-month contract that you cant get out of,” added Dobson.
In addition to the physical faults of the area, the relationship between students and permanent residents, including behavioural concerns, were discussed.
“I regret that we’re constantly labeling the whole student group as a problem when they’re not,” said Mayor Brenda Halloran on the frustrated accusations made by some community members.
“There will be a few students that might act up but there are a thousand, tens of thousands that don’t,” said Halloran.
The next step for the community had originally included the creation of a small committee to develop a more concrete plan for the area. This was scrapped in favour of allowing city council to draw the options.
Laurier student Asif Bacchus was first to raise the idea of allowing city officials to develop a plan rather than place the burden on community members.
“What’s happened at the last few meetings and especially this meeting its been made really, really clear what the people in that area want,” said Bacchus.
“It’s time for city council to … put all those opinions together into a cohesive plan for the future to make what everyone wants a reality.”
According to d’Ailly, proposals should be completed in January of next year with a final vision ready for council in March.

Check out HUG's blog www.hugwaterloo.com