02-19-2024, 09:09 PM
Kitchener has always had a larger, walkable commercial footprint than Waterloo. When Waterloo expanded its footprint post-WWII, a lot of the commercial activity ended up outside the Uptown Core which was still dominated by factories (Seagram's, Labatts and others along Caroline St) and only a few major commercial tenants (eg Mutual Life). I'm thinking of the car-centric hubs that were the Towers Plaza, Westmount Plaza and later Conestoga Mall. It took a while, but University Ave has been very commercially active between the railway tracks and Weber St (or Marsland if you want to stretch it). Uptown Waterloo was also hemmed in by the CN railyard to the east at Regina St, the Kitchener border to the South, the floodplain that pretty much limited any kind of development from the edge of Waterloo Park in the west to close to Weber St in the east. This affected what could actually built without reaching into the surrounding neighbourhoods. I wouldn't say that Waterloo dragged its feet so much as the geography wasn't attractive to development. Add to that the University district/Northdale was more attractive for development through City policy and general economics, and Uptown was not as easy pickings for development.
If you were to compare the nightlife of Waterloo with that of Kitchener, Waterloo is generally pretty active while Kitchener has been fairly quiet the few times that I have been down there in the evenings. I would argue that in some ways because Waterloo's housing stock is generally smaller, geared towards students, and intended for temporary living (eg 3-4 years tops), that Waterloo residents are often more inclined to go out on the town than to stay home.
If you were to compare the nightlife of Waterloo with that of Kitchener, Waterloo is generally pretty active while Kitchener has been fairly quiet the few times that I have been down there in the evenings. I would argue that in some ways because Waterloo's housing stock is generally smaller, geared towards students, and intended for temporary living (eg 3-4 years tops), that Waterloo residents are often more inclined to go out on the town than to stay home.