Walking in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

Forced to miss nighttime walks -- because it's too dangerous? Or something else?

I hesitate to say that I think it's too dangerous... I'm aware of the reality that our city, even in the worst parts, are generally safe. But I would say I've been forced to miss out on it due to a combination of feeling unsafe and general lack of quiet, pleasant areas in the immediate core. I think the latter is a feature of North American cities, and I fear our city will stick with the status quo as it grows.

The former is the much larger issue for me though. When I first moved downtown I would go out whenever I pleased. I learned through experience that even when I don't actively fear for my safety, I know I won't be able to enjoy myself because I'll be on edge. I've had a man run through an active intersection and attempt to kick me in the face. I've had things thrown at me. I've been followed after telling a man I don't have cash to give him. I've had a homeless man repeatedly walk into me (twice). The fire department has had to put out 3 fires in 2 years, feet from my back door, in a historic building that would surely go up in no time... Often one of my doors are blocked by people I'd rather not bother, but there's even been an instance where I didn't feel like I could leave as a group of 4 smoked presumably crack at my back door, and a homeless lady had set up camp for the night in my front door (no, I'm not afraid of her, but when I say set up, I meant she was really settled in). I've been shouted at more times than I can count, and the verbal harassment is far worse for my female partner. 90% of the time it's addicts and homeless, but every so often it's drunks spilling out from a bar, which I'm more concerned about. I've heard a women screaming as she was sexually assaulted on my back doorstep. She came into our building to calm down and speak with the police, but the sounds of distress she was making as she tried to calm down isn't something I can forget.

Even in my home I've had enough problems, though this part is unrelated to walking... I've had people climbing on fire escapes, trying to open windows. I've had floodlights from 3 firetrucks, and a ton of other emergency vehicles shine in my window at 2am, and watched as they pulled a body from the roof of my building.

I'm sure I can write down some more of my experiences, but the point is that while 95% of the time things are completely uneventful, I've had enough shocking experiences that I can't go without wondering when the next one will be. I do what I can to avoid them at this point, and nighttime is just another factor that is under my control. Things might be safe, but I can't help but feel differently.

We find many things of interest on our downtown walks. There are lots of houses from different eras, architectural details, renovations, parks, gardens, construction projects, cats, giant tortoises (OK, only one of those). But it of course depends on what you find interesting.

It really depends where you go. We have some great residential neighbourhoods around downtown, and even the more modest houses are usually nice to look at. I also find north of Weber there is a very high concentration of dogs, and south of Charles I often run into 5+ cats on my walks. Always a treat with either.

I'd really like to know where I can find this giant tortoise.

It's funny, I've lived in a few parts of DTK, and I feel like these things are pretty localized. I don't walk at night all that much anymore, when I did I usually just walked in the residential neighbourhood I abutted--at the time I lived about 5 blocks or so from King, it was pretty uneventful, much more so than where we are now--which is only three blocks closer to King. We've had a few experiences...but nothing as bad as you've described. I've called the police for two different verbal altercations (one male-male, one male-woman-male--that was especially concerning), that I felt were turning physical, both of which I stayed to observe from a distance, and in both cases eventually resolved before the police arrived. I called the police twice for a drunk driving collision right at my home--one was a double fatality, the other was just property damage, that certainly has me worried.

The most threatening situation I've been in occurred downtown but did not involve someone from downtown, I was cycling along Water, the car behind me was well behaved, the driver behind them was so offended that at the next light he swerved into the oncoming lane and started screaming at the driver of the van behind me, I turned around and asked him to calm down, he got out of his vehicle and too a swing at me. I dropped my bike and ran for King shouting for police, which...well...was effectiving in getting him to jump pack in his car, turn around and drive up the sidewalk the other way.

We do get homeless people sleeping in our building's vestibule (and occasionally doing other less savoury things), and I'll admit, I will use the back door if I notice them.

When I do go walking I generally just walk out of the downtown core...to be honest, the core is so small it's reasonably easy for me to avoid.

Living downtown definitely puts you face to face with things that folks sequestered in their suburbs and SUVs can fairly easily isolate themselves from, but I wish more people were faced with the realities in our city, perhaps then they'd be more willing to spend time and money solving these problems.

I dunno though, I'm sorry to hear about your experiences...I do hope things improve with the new buildings going up...more people in DTK is a good thing in that regard.

Also...

"North of Weber"...come on...we know better than to use cardinal directions in the CoK...

A few days ago I was walking on Church street and had a stand off with a cat and a squirel...quite the experience.