General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[tomh009]

OK so I'm in Wellington NZ for the next few months. Wellington is about the same population as Waterloo Region (Wellington 521k, Waterloo 535k). Yet somehow there is a lot more stuff "downtown" in Wellington vs Waterloo. I think that part of it is that Wellington doesn't have the malls on the edge of town that Waterloo has (and which, to be fair, DTK and all North American municipalities tried to combat in the 70s onwards, with no success). Why? I don't know.

I love Wellington!

NZ is less suburban than almost all of North America (though not as urban as most of Europe) so the city centres are more substantial and alive for a given population. Waterloo Region makes that somewhat worse yet by having five (!) downtowns, so there isn't a critical mass in one location.