General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - Printable Version +- Waterloo Region Connected (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com) +-- Forum: Land Development and Real Estate (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=4) +--- Forum: Urban Areas (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=5) +--- Thread: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours (/showthread.php?tid=8) Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
|
RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - Lebronj23 - 09-08-2022 (09-08-2022, 01:31 PM)ac3r Wrote: Fret not! :') Is this a hint of something good? RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - panamaniac - 09-08-2022 (09-08-2022, 02:46 PM)ac3r Wrote: FS 201 And that would be? RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - neonjoe - 09-08-2022 Will the office building and the towers all be on the Ziggy's site? Or is the tower just One Vic but bigger looking than it actually is? RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - ac3r - 09-08-2022 Oops, apologies. I didn't mean to post that here! I was drafting a reply regarding something else...no idea how I ended up submitting that segment of what I was writing in this thread. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - Rainrider22 - 09-08-2022 50? Are you crazy. It will cast a shadow across the entire city...Just crazy talk. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - Rainrider22 - 09-08-2022 50? Are you crazy. It will cast a shadow across the entire city...Just cra,y talk. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - neonjoe - 09-08-2022 (09-08-2022, 05:54 PM)Rainrider22 Wrote: 50? Are you crazy. It will cast a shadow across the entire city...Just cra,y talk. I think it would cause a permanent solar eclipse! RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - ac3r - 09-08-2022 Shadows? Pah, the yuppies can go lurk in the hollows once we impliment Neon Genesis Evangelion technology. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - Chris - 09-09-2022 How do you appease everyone? Not enough trees for shade. Too many buildings are causing too many shadows. hrug: RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - danbrotherston - 09-09-2022 (09-09-2022, 09:15 AM)Chris Wrote: How do you appease everyone? Not enough trees for shade. Too many buildings are causing too many shadows. hrug: The problem is not in appeasing everyone but defining "everyone". The existing homeowners are all (mostly) appeased by changing absolutely nothing ever. We live in a dynamic system, people come and go. We shouldn't "appease" anyone...we should just do the right fucking things. Maybe I'm an idealist...but to me, reality is the ultimate decider...if we do the right things, they'll be broadly popular in the long run because the right things lead to broadly good outcomes. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - Chris - 09-09-2022 (09-09-2022, 09:23 AM)danbrotherston Wrote:(09-09-2022, 09:15 AM)Chris Wrote: How do you appease everyone? Not enough trees for shade. Too many buildings are causing too many shadows. hrug: I agree. I get frustrated when you see people in the news that shouldn't be buying green bananas fight against something that is an improvement for more people than the couple people that don't like it. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - ijmorlan - 09-09-2022 (09-09-2022, 10:55 AM)Chris Wrote:(09-09-2022, 09:23 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: The problem is not in appeasing everyone but defining "everyone". I haven’t seen this expression before. Do you mean people who can’t plan ahead well enough to successfully enjoy green bananas, or something else? Just curious… RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - Chris - 09-09-2022 (09-09-2022, 05:53 PM)ijmorlan Wrote:(09-09-2022, 10:55 AM)Chris Wrote: I agree. I get frustrated when you see people in the news that shouldn't be buying green bananas fight against something that is an improvement for more people than the couple people that don't like it. Basically yes, that’s the gist of it. Some people opposing seemingly good projects might not be around to see them finished. RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - ac3r - 09-09-2022 Slightly on topic: I stumbled upon an older Oh the Urbanity! video exploring how successful missing middle housing is in Montréal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYCAVmKzX10 The tl;dr is a point we all know: you don't necessarily need towers and skyscrapers to achieve density, you just need good zoning and a plethora of 3-6 floor buildings. The video does mention that there are of course stark differences between continental European planning (which influenced Montréal, sans the grid layout) versus North American/Anglo-Saxon planning which relies heavily on the rules of civil law - which as a result meant we ended up designing our cities around two polar opposites: low density development (namely single family homes) or towering buildings of dozens of floors. There is little room for ambiguity and diversity. And as a result...cities now going through a renaissance of development are trying to evolve whilst being stuck within these two primary confines. But we need more. More missing middle developments. Sadly...it's election time and not only do people rarely bother to vote at municipal level elections, this time around they'll be more focused on things like economics (as a result of the pandemic as well as a recession that's slowly snowballing) and issues like homelessness as so many people are tired of the bums trashing our downtown. I can't think of any candidates that have attempted to address the issues of housing (in detail) with the exception of trusted politicians like Morrice and newcomers like Dorothy McCabe whose platform does touch on this, but doesn't really go into any details. Either way...a huge reason why we're stuck in this rut is because of our wack zoning laws. Again, as mentioned in the video, people would be less likely to oppose mid density building projects than they would 40-50+ floor skyscrapers. It's a hard thing to change as well because these polar opposites of development - either low or very high density - have been with us for roughly a century now and that means people don't really understand the value in mid density developments, which has benefits from everything from a stronger sense of community, walkability, less tax expenses on upkeep and so on. It'd take a long, gradual and progressive cultural shift to start building cities like Montréal, Paris, Berlin, Madrid etc again. It's definitely frustrating. Stuff like this is one reason why I really despise working in architecture in North America. We're so heavily confined within this profession. We're expected to design great cities and buildings, but the ruleset we're given makes it extremely challenging and then we as architects and planners get vilified despite our breadth of knowledge on these subjects. Edit: Oh the Urbanity! also has a second video on the value of multiplexes in Montréal, particularly touching on the differences between the Anglo world and the rest of Europe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsn0ahdfQ9k RE: General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours - taylortbb - 09-10-2022 (09-09-2022, 06:56 PM)ac3r Wrote: people would be less likely to oppose mid density building projects than they would 40-50+ floor skyscrapers. I agree with your general point on mid-rises and European-style density, but this line stuck out. As far as I can tell, any development of single-detached residential into denser forms faces fierce opposition regardless of density. Even projects to replace two detached houses on large lots with several townhomes get neighbourhoods up in arms, despite no increase in height. I think anything denser than a semi-detached will face fierce opposition unless it's on a major road or in the downtown core, which is a small enough subset of properties that we're left with towers. |