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+-- Forum: Waterloo Region Life (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=12)
+--- Forum: Sports and Recreation (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=24)
+--- Thread: General Sports and Recreation News (/showthread.php?tid=22)
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - Viewfromthe42 - 08-29-2016
Ironically, that transit black hole is a black hole by intent. It was because of those residents that the Waterloo band shell got shut down, because it was just too noisy to have occasional fair weather average hours performances. That's the kind of attitude that wants to be in a black hole. I'd agree, it *should* be better to not be in a transit black hole, but certain choices have consequences.
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - rangersfan - 08-29-2016
Oddly enough this article that expands on the potential of building an adult center at the WMRC emphasize's it central location that will be better for transit ( better than King St?).
http://m.therecord.com/news-story/6828062-waterloo-investigating-new-seniors-facility-at-rec-complex
"Vieth said parking and transit have been challenges at the current facilities and that the rec complex site on Father David Bauer Drive is a central location."
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - Viewfromthe42 - 08-30-2016
With proper signage, it's still a good stroll from Erb down Avondale to the Rec center, about 300m, though if a new adult activity wing was added, it could be moved closer to Avondale to make that connection easier.
What no one is mentioning is the move for 404 Wing, from Dutton Drive. That qualifies as poor transit location for a facility.
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - darts - 08-30-2016
(08-29-2016, 01:34 PM)nms Wrote:(08-24-2016, 09:07 AM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: The decision to make the Catalina townhomes looks poorer and poorer every development.
I think that it would be appropriate to advocate for "ground-floor public space", with some floors of commercial on top of that and residential above that. The people in this growing area will still need access to public amenities. Consolidating everything to a transit black hole like the WRMC doesn't help an aging population.
What does the adult recreation centre space get used for? Is it just meeting room space?
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - ijmorlan - 08-30-2016
(08-30-2016, 08:45 AM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: With proper signage, it's still a good stroll from Erb down Avondale to the Rec center, about 300m, though if a new adult activity wing was added, it could be moved closer to Avondale to make that connection easier.
What no one is mentioning is the move for 404 Wing, from Dutton Drive. That qualifies as poor transit location for a facility.
Moving away from Dutton Drive seems like an obviously reasonable choice.
For the centre at Allen and King, I would prefer to see the site redeveloped quite tall (or even part of the Brick Brewery redevelopment) with the existing facilities being accommodated on lower floors of the new development. Moving everything to WMRC seems like over-consolidation, especially given the poor transit access to that location (OK, better than Dutton Drive, ironically, but still not great and certainly compared to King and Allen).
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - Viewfromthe42 - 08-31-2016
There's already huge pushback from out-of-ward council members and nearby residents against the 155 Caroline development, and Alexandra proposals, and Brick proposals, and in all likelihood adding not just the Adult Rec Facility as a development site but making it so much more dense so as to be able to profitably fit in adult rec facilities would be a bridge too far.
Instead, buy up the properties on Erb St's North side, West of Avondale, and expand WMRC south to Erb, with those facilities being in closest transit proximity.
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - DHLawrence - 09-05-2016
So how long will it be before that development is slated for redevelopment?
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - nms - 09-08-2016
(08-30-2016, 10:00 PM)darts Wrote: What does the adult recreation centre space get used for? Is it just meeting room space?
According to their website, primarily seniors drop-in and registered programs. The Waterloo Concert Band rehearses there and stores its equipment there. There is often a church service hosted there on Sunday mornings.
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - darts - 09-10-2016
(09-08-2016, 04:07 PM)nms Wrote:(08-30-2016, 10:00 PM)darts Wrote: What does the adult recreation centre space get used for? Is it just meeting room space?
According to their website, primarily seniors drop-in and registered programs. The Waterloo Concert Band rehearses there and stores its equipment there. There is often a church service hosted there on Sunday mornings.
Yeah I checked the website too, it didn't list a whole lot. The churches in the area have rooms available as well and can fill in for people who find WMRC too far. The 404 is out in the middle of no where and accessibility isn't much of a concern there.
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - nms - 09-12-2016
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.
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - jamincan - 10-23-2016
It was a perfect day for the Fall 5K Classic this year and a really deep field - 60 people ran the race under 20 minutes out of 423 finishers, which is astonishingly good. Although the course for this race is traditionally very fast, last year's race, also with 423 finishers, only had 37 people with a time below 20 minutes. I was chatting with one of the race organizers for Run Waterloo later this afternoon and he mentioned that one of their goals has been to really improve the depth of the field for their marquee races (Waterloo 10K Classic and Fall 5K Classic), and it definitely seems they have been succeeding.
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - Canard - 12-10-2016
Was there something going on running-wise last weekend? I was driving and walking around Waterloo taking photos of ion stuff and there were runners *everywhere*!
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - timio - 12-10-2016
There's a large group that runs weekly on Sunday mornings from the Running Room uptown. I saw them on Westmount around 915. Looks to be the same group as was in your video.
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - jamincan - 12-10-2016
There are quite a few group runs that take place over the weekends, but no races last weekend to the best of my knowledge. The Santa Pursuit was today, however.
RE: General Sports and Recreation News - Canard - 01-08-2017
Thinking of taking my snowboard to O.W. Sports for a sharpen+wax; has anyone here used their services?