09-12-2016, 02:32 PM
It is likely more cost efficient for the City to keep all programming in one location rather than scattered throughout the City piecemeal one room at a time. Interestingly, Kitchener adopted a concept of having community centres well spaced through the city, ideally where they were intended to become neighbourhood focal points. In contrast, Waterloo developed larger, centralized centres which allowed more specialized programming (consider Waterloo's large WMRC pool vs Kitchener's Breithaupt Centre Pool). There are benefits to both models. Most important though, is having community space that is staffed by City staff. Churches might be good at providing rental space in some circumstances, but they likely aren't able to provide consistent staffing or programming beyond what fits within their own needs and priorities.
From what I can tell, Wing 404 was initially opened as a air veteran's meeting hall and later taken under the wing of the City. Whether it was opened with City support from the beginning, I don't know. It was also renovated with the support of the Waterloo Rotary Club. It's location was likely determined by the cheap cost of the land and access to parking. At the time that the veterans would have been choosing the space, most of them would have been in their late-forties to early-sixties. Consider too that the KW Naval Association was built in a similar type of ex-industrial location on Weber St in the vicinity of Glenbriar Home Hardware. Why one veterans' group building ended up under City care while another wasn't, I don't know.
From what I can tell, Wing 404 was initially opened as a air veteran's meeting hall and later taken under the wing of the City. Whether it was opened with City support from the beginning, I don't know. It was also renovated with the support of the Waterloo Rotary Club. It's location was likely determined by the cheap cost of the land and access to parking. At the time that the veterans would have been choosing the space, most of them would have been in their late-forties to early-sixties. Consider too that the KW Naval Association was built in a similar type of ex-industrial location on Weber St in the vicinity of Glenbriar Home Hardware. Why one veterans' group building ended up under City care while another wasn't, I don't know.