General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[danbrotherston]

First phase of Queen St seems to be about done. Paint is on now.


I can't find the page now where I saw the plans, but I saw the NE corner of Queen/Charles marked as some sort of green space, but it appears to be 90% concrete now. Just a small spot open on it where I assume some bush or flowers are going in.

Also sad to see the distinctive Queen sidewalks gone now. I would have preferred more sidewalks like that, not less.

Hopefully the place-making efforts on the second phase are more interesting, but most of the renders I've seen for Vogelsang Green look like a net loss to me. Not as much "green" anymore.

Not going to disagree that the "quaint charm" has been lost, but the old sidewalks were really quite terrible for anyone not able bodied.

The green space is decidedly not green, but that doesn't mean it can't be successful, it just needs shade and features.

What really ticks me off is how much space we are STILL dedicating to cars in this area. The sidewalks still get unacceptably squeezed to make room for the left turn lane...and we all know how effective sharrows are. I am optimistically thinking that within 10 years King and Queen will be closed to cars, and we will question how we could have been so stupid to prioritize cars in that way in that area. Of course, I'm being...very .... optimistic.