+- Waterloo Region Connected (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com)
+-- Forum: Urban Issues (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=9)
+--- Forum: Urban Issues (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=11)
+--- Thread: East Downtown Neighbourhood Name Wanted (/showthread.php?tid=746)
RE: East Downtown Neighbourhood Name Wanted - panamaniac - 06-12-2017
(06-12-2017, 11:42 AM)MidTowner Wrote: Those seem to correspond pretty closely to the neighbourhood associations (King East is one).
I like how fluid these things are. Jgsz mentioned "Midtown" in his first post, and as far as I know that is not official anywhere. It's mentioned by the City of Kitchener only for some purposes and only in the last few years. As far as I know, it is a very (last decade?) new term.
Edit: Sorry, kps, I missed your second post. I see now that they're the planning communities. Neighbourhood associations do generally seem to align with those, though not exactly.
I too think that "Midtown" is a fairly recent invention. The Kitchener boundary at the tracks is clear, but I'm never sure to where it supposedly extends - William St? Allan St? Union? Other? I'm guessing that folks in the Bauer Lofts would consider that they paid a premium to live "Uptown" and might reject the "Midtown" label. The singular "town" part of Midtown could even be interpreted to mean Kitchener only, not Waterloo, but that seems too rigid.
RE: East Downtown Neighbourhood Name Wanted - MidTowner - 06-12-2017
I like the descriptor "Midtown" a lot (as you can tell) but don't have any strong ideas about its boundaries. If someone from Allen Street claims to live in Midtown, I certainly won't insist that he's in Mary-Allen, but I expect you're right that, folks in the Bauer Lofts or Mary Allen would by and large prefer "Uptown."
I think of it as "Midtown KW" so as not to imply that it doesn't include both. In my area, the boundary between Kitchener and Waterloo is by and large meaningless- it's pretty clear that it doesn't mean we're not the same neighbourhood.
RE: East Downtown Neighbourhood Name Wanted - jamincan - 06-12-2017
I consider Midtown to be everything south of William to the railroad tracks.
RE: East Downtown Neighbourhood Name Wanted - nms - 06-13-2017
The Uptown BIA boundary stretches down King past William to Union St.
RE: Name Wanted - jgsz - 07-04-2017
(06-10-2017, 03:21 PM)jeffster Wrote:(06-10-2017, 01:18 PM)jgsz Wrote: Name wanted.
In KW we have Uptown Waterloo, Midtown and Downtown Kitchener. However, in Kitchener, we don’t have an “official” East End. Let’s keep it that way.
The east end of most cities is the poorer side of town. It’s where ghettos are located. And there’s a good reason for this. Because of the prevailing westerly winds in the northern hemisphere, the east side of cities have more pollution, are dirtier and less desirable places to live. In other words, the “east end” is almost always used pejoratively.
Since Kitchener doesn’t have an official ‘east end’ and because King Street East actually goes north-west to south-east, not east or west, let’s come up with a name that doesn’t have all the negative connotations of “the east end.”
I suggest that we call the area from Stirling Avenue to the Conestoga Parkway “Stirling-Rockway.” I consider the area from Frederick to Stirling to be Downtown Kitchener.
So, we would have Uptown Waterloo, Midtown, Downtown Kitchener and Stirling-Rockway.
Any thoughts, or name suggestions for the King East area?
East Village
Calling it village softens its image. East is, to locals anyway, geographically correct.
I noticed this on Weber East today:
RE: East Downtown Neighbourhood Name Wanted - urbd - 07-06-2017
(06-13-2017, 01:04 PM)nms Wrote: The Uptown BIA boundary stretches down King past William to Union St.
Definitely, and I consider Midtown anything from Union to Wellinton.
RE: East Downtown Neighbourhood Name Wanted - urbd - 07-06-2017
(06-12-2017, 01:03 PM)panamaniac Wrote: The singular "town" part of Midtown could even be interpreted to mean Kitchener only, not Waterloo, but that seems too rigid.
Way too rigid. It won't be long before Kitchener and Waterloo amalgamate anyway, so the distinction is not even that relevant. As Midtown develops and joins Uptown with Downtown, the idea of amalgamating won't seem so crazy anymore.
RE: East Downtown Neighbourhood Name Wanted - panamaniac - 07-06-2017
(07-06-2017, 10:41 AM)urbd Wrote:(06-13-2017, 01:04 PM)nms Wrote: The Uptown BIA boundary stretches down King past William to Union St.
Definitely, and I consider Midtown anything from Union to Wellinton.
The tracks make a very clear and obvious Downtown/Midtown dividing line, don't you think? Extending "Downtown" past Victoria and "Uptown" all the way to Union seems to torture the traditional definitions of both.
RE: East Downtown Neighbourhood Name Wanted - MidTowner - 07-06-2017
I agree that the tracks make sense. A survey (very informal) in Midtown recently showed a number of people viewing Victoria as the border, and that might make sense, too, but a lot of older residents will refer to this or the other side of the tracks.
These things are almost never clear cut.