General Urban Waterloo Updates and Rumours

[nms]

The former home of Waterloo Broom and Brush.

A three-storey brick building, now covered with metal siding. Originally the factory of Waterloo Broom and Brush, later home to the Kitchener Spring Company and after that other industries. The building sustained significant damage in a 1982 fire. It is now apartments.

 
The realty listing claims 67 rooms with the option for 8 more.  It's unclear whether that means 67 bachelor apartments or something else.

It would also be interesting to know what restrictions there might be on construction given that the building is likely well within the 100-year floodline for Laurel Creek which is at the rear of the property (eg the chance of being able to building underground parking, or a basement of any kind could be a challenge)

[jamincan]

John McPhee's essay, Atchafalaya, is required reading when trying to understand man's attempt to control water. It's not hopeless, but my money's on the water.

[nms]

John McPhee's essay, Atchafalaya, is required reading when trying to understand man's attempt to control water. It's not hopeless, but my money's on the water.

Thanks for the link! Definitely one to read later.

[CP42]

There tends to be a lot of chatter on this forum about how Waterloo doesn’t approve as much as Kitchener or is behind the times, but this article gives a different perspective:

How Waterloo Replaced 31 Dwellings with 565 Units
http://archive.today/YoQ49

[Rainrider22]

I read that article but with caution because of who wrote it. I do agree with his numbers but my sense is there will be a much bigger spread with Kitchener ahead after the next census. There so many projects going on and coming on line DTK that have yet to be accounted for.. But ultimately it is good for both cities..

[nms]

The article wasn't clear whether the stats were for specific square-mile blocks, or the City footprints as a whole. If it is the latter, no matter how dense Kitchener gets in the downtown core the population density statistic will always be dragged down by the greenfields to the southwest as well as all of the post-war single family housing built (eg 1945~2005) before developers began building more dense suburban projects that included townhouses and low rises.

[ac3r]

I also wonder...does the higher density in Waterloo include the university student buildings? If so, then yeah they'd have more people packed into a square kilometer than the rest of the region but because that population is highly transit in that they come and go, it kind of throws the numbers off compared to permanent residents (who, say, live there for 5+ years). And indeed, the size of the cities greatly differ. Kitchener is 136.81 km2 versus Waterloo at 64.02 km2, so naturally, you'd have more density as a whole even when you take into account that Waterloo barely has 100'000 residents versus Kitchener which has around 250'000 (going by 2016 census numbers, of course - the true population is much, much higher in 2022). Kitchener simply has a lot more space to work with, thus more single family units built.

[tomh009]

There tends to be a lot of chatter on this forum about how Waterloo doesn’t approve as much as Kitchener or is behind the times, but this article gives a different perspective:

How Waterloo Replaced 31 Dwellings with 565 Units
http://archive.today/YoQ49

Waterloo as a whole, yes, increased the density a lot. Bit almost all of that is in the area bound roughly by King, University, Phillip and Columbia. Who lives there? Mostly students. And outside of that area, there has been pretty minimal increase in density in Waterloo.

[robdrimmie]

The article also includes this table. It is not as though Waterloo is markedly more dense than Kitchener.

| **City**  | **Residents per square km in 2021** | **Increase since 2011** |
| :-------- | :---------------------------------: | :---------------------- |
| Waterloo  |                1,896                | 23%23%                  |
| Kitchener |                1,878                | 17%17%                  |
| Cambridge |                1,226                | 9%9%                    |

[jwilliamson]

I was biking through Uptown this morning, and there were some trucks on Willis Way removing all the trees on the north side of the street. Anyone know what's up?

[ac3r]

Six-storey project near Conestoga Mall will add 73 affordable units to Waterloo: https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...erloo.html

[ijmorlan]

I was biking through Uptown this morning, and there were some trucks on Willis Way removing all the trees on the north side of the street. Anyone know what's up?

I don’t know what is happening overall, but I saw them pouring concrete apparently to re-line the tree boxes. This is probably a week ago by now.

[urbd]

I was biking through Uptown this morning, and there were some trucks on Willis Way removing all the trees on the north side of the street. Anyone know what's up?

I don’t know what is happening overall, but I saw them pouring concrete apparently to re-line the tree boxes. This is probably a week ago by now.

Yes, replacing dead/damaged trees with new ones and adding new tree grates designed by a local artist. Sort of an interim project towards the bigger vision for Willis Way that they are working on: https://www.engagewr.ca/reimagining-willis-way

[dtkvictim]

I don’t know what is happening overall, but I saw them pouring concrete apparently to re-line the tree boxes. This is probably a week ago by now.

Yes, replacing dead/damaged trees with new ones and adding new tree grates designed by a local artist. Sort of an interim project towards the bigger vision for Willis Way that they are working on: https://www.engagewr.ca/reimagining-willis-way

All of the trees have been replaced now.

Why do Canadian cities seem to fail across the board to have mature tree canopies in urban areas? We have countless old suburbs with them, but none of our just-as-old urban areas have them. Is it just for a lack of trying, or some other challenge that other countries don't face?

Trees aren't the only factor, but it's hard to call such bleak environments home for very long.

[plam]

Yes, replacing dead/damaged trees with new ones and adding new tree grates designed by a local artist. Sort of an interim project towards the bigger vision for Willis Way that they are working on: https://www.engagewr.ca/reimagining-willis-way

All of the trees have been replaced now.

Why do Canadian cities seem to fail across the board to have mature tree canopies in urban areas? We have countless old suburbs with them, but none of our just-as-old urban areas have them. Is it just for a lack of trying, or some other challenge that other countries don't face?

Trees aren't the only factor, but it's hard to call such bleak environments home for very long.

This is super long ago now but I remember hearing about Dutch Elm Disease in Montreal which was a decade before I was a kid... there are probably multiple factors.