Amalgamation

[jeffster]

In regards to the planning departments. We have all three cities plus the region determining where development should occur, where bike lanes should be placed, where parks should be built. We are a region that is seriously lacking in certain amenities that a city of similar sizes have (Olympic size pool, sports stadium, art gallery/event space, convention centre, hospitals that weren't built in 1950's).

I just don't see the reason why we as a region wouldn't want to amalgamate. Endless amounts of city departments would finally have a coordinated effort in terms of providing services to the residents. on that note, personally I would like to see the region kept and the three main cities amalgamate. I would sever off a bit of the townships into the new city, mainly breslau and bloomingdale. The townships would continue to be run as rural areas, but the urban centres would be one cohesive city.

First, I don't see how amalgamation could have much of an effect on us "lacking in certain amenities that a city of similar sizes have (Olympic size pool, sports stadium, art gallery/event space, convention centre, hospitals that weren't built in 1950's).
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Not sure if or why an Olympic size pool is needed. What does it bring to the table? The Waterloo Rec Centre has a huge pool (and I thought it was at Olympic Standards) and has high diving platforms - but it's their only indoor pool as well. Kitchener has 4 indoor pools and Cambridge 2 or 3? But pools are expensive to run, and larger ones have larger requirements that might make pool require 1 or 2 other pools to close, which isn't the direction that we should go in (in this case, Waterloo's way is not very smart).

Not sure what we would use a sports stadium for, it's not like the CFL would come here, or MiLB. If you meant arena, sure, it would be good if we had a larger one. However, Kitchener could, if they wanted to, go at it alone. They already have the property (just stop using Centennial Field) to build a 10,000 seat area. In the case of amalgamation, though, people of Cambridge and Waterloo will be fighting for their right to build it in their cities, despite not being central to each other.

I recall when the Ontario Government built the new courthouse in Kitchener, and all Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig did was complain and threaten legal action because he felt that the new courthouse should be in Galt (Cambridge) -- that somehow everyone driving to south Cambridge was convenient.

As for Art Gallery, I thought we had a good one already at Centre in the Square? Does the region need something much larger? Unsure what you mean by 'event space' -- as in performing arts? Again, Centre in the Square is one of the better ones in all of Ontario. Otherwise, we do have Lot42 and Bingemans.

I agree that we should or could have a better convention centre. We have Bingemans, but I am unsure how it compares to some cities comparable to size with us (namely Hamilton and London). I had hoped that when the Schneider's plant went down, part of the redevelopment would have included a convention centre, and I thought that Bingemans had put some thought into this.

As for hospitals, that is a provincial matter, and always has been. Unless the 3 cities want to get together to someone help finance a new and larger hospitals, I don't think being 1 large city would make a difference.

As others mentioned: as to where these facilities might be located, this will be a source of major contention, even if we were one city. Just look at Cambridge, Hespeler, Preston and Galt all argue still, with the lions share still going to Galt. Wisdom would dictate that any major investment belongs in Kitchener, because it is the logical choice due to its geography, wisdom also tells you that the rest are going to be upset that their area wasn't chosen.

Another thing to consider is that all 3 cities are run very differently and have different agenda's. These agenda's don't change if your merged everything, so you end up with a fractured staff. Go to Hamilton and no one is really happy. Same applies to Cambridge with their merger that happened 26 years ago.