ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[danbrotherston]

Just walked past in Ion station, and heard the message that the train service is suspended between Grand River hospital and fairway mall, seems like a very large disruption, anyone know what's going on.

[danbrotherston]

Very strange, the message is still playing, and we see replacement buses running, but southbound trains are still going past

[trainspotter139]

Just walked past in Ion station, and heard the message that the train service is suspended between Grand River hospital and fairway mall, seems like a very large disruption, anyone know what's going on.

all that's posted on grt.ca is that it's a police emergency

[ijmorlan]

Very strange, the message is still playing, and we see replacement buses running, but southbound trains are still going past

At Grand River Hospital? If so, they could be reversing at KCI.

[jamincan]

Apparently there was a shooting near Charles and Cedar. Apparently service is restored though.

[danbrotherston]

Very strange, the message is still playing, and we see replacement buses running, but southbound trains are still going past

At Grand River Hospital? If so, they could be reversing at KCI.

No, they were running through DTK.

Now the message has changed, to "minor delays" but I've hardly seen any LRVs.

Very strange, it seems related to the shooting last night, but there is no apparent reason that should be causing delays or detours like this. Buses have been detoured (apparently there was a GO bus trying to navigate Eby and Church Sts.) but the tracks are not blocked.

[ijmorlan]

No, they were running through DTK.

Now the message has changed, to "minor delays" but I've hardly seen any LRVs.

Very strange, it seems related to the shooting last night, but there is no apparent reason that should be causing delays or detours like this. Buses have been detoured (apparently there was a GO bus trying to navigate Eby and Church Sts.) but the tracks are not blocked.

Sounds like maybe you caught the end of the disruption. Do you know if the regular traffic lanes of Charles St. were closed? Just speculating, but I can imagine that after shooting they might scan for evidence and wouldn’t want traffic of any kind going through the area where they are looking. If it’s just the LRT then I’m stumped.

[danbrotherston]

No, they were running through DTK.

Now the message has changed, to "minor delays" but I've hardly seen any LRVs.

Very strange, it seems related to the shooting last night, but there is no apparent reason that should be causing delays or detours like this. Buses have been detoured (apparently there was a GO bus trying to navigate Eby and Church Sts.) but the tracks are not blocked.

Sounds like maybe you caught the end of the disruption. Do you know if the regular traffic lanes of Charles St. were closed? Just speculating, but I can imagine that after shooting they might scan for evidence and wouldn’t want traffic of any kind going through the area where they are looking. If it’s just the LRT then I’m stumped.

The regular traffic lanes of Charles were closed when I walked past around 9:45

The confusing part was seeing multiple LRVs traveling south, with passengers, along side the 301R buses. Meanwhile seeing zero northbound trains.  We were out for over an hour from 8:30 - 9:45+, and the shooting was at 2 AM, with sunrise before 6 AM, I understand disruptions having ripple effects, but this really did seem strange.

[Bob_McBob]

Photos show a police SUV blocking the westbound lane of Charles. According to Transsee, there was no ION service in this section today (other than one lone shuttle bus) until 9:00 or 9:20 depending on the direction. 

[Bytor]

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...-line.html

WATERLOO REGION — A coalition of local academics, nonprofits and municipalities are collaborating on a three-year project to study gentrification and displacement along the LRT.

“There is so much change happening along the LRT corridor,” said University of Waterloo planning professor Brian Doucet, who is heading the project. “A lot has been lost. A lot has been built, and there’s also a lot more to come.”

…

[panamaniac]

Is there a list of low-cost housing that has been lost due to LRT-related development?  I don't think WRC has a gentrification thread.   In Kitchener, the losses seem to me to be fairly limited so far, but I haven't been paying a lot of attention.  There have been a few renovations in DTK, which I suppose would be in the category of "gentrification" (perhaps more than I realized?).  There is also the move of One Roof Youth Services, I suppose.  On the other side, I'm not aware of any proposals for new public housing, new co-ops, or rent-geared-to-income projects in the Downtown area.

Thinking about it, I guess the renovation of the Windemere Apartments at 48 Weber St W would be DTK's biggest example of a gentrification project to date.

[tomh009]

Is there a list of low-cost housing that has been lost due to LRT-related development?  I don't think WRC has a gentrification thread.   In Kitchener, the losses seem to me to be fairly limited so far, but I haven't been paying a lot of attention.  There have been a few renovations in DTK, which I suppose would be in the category of "gentrification" (perhaps more than I realized?).  There is also the move of One Roof Youth Services, I suppose.  On the other side, I'm not aware of any proposals for new public housing, new co-ops, or rent-geared-to-income projects in the Downtown area.

Thinking about it, I guess the renovation of the Windemere Apartments at 48 Weber St W would be DTK's biggest example of a gentrification project to date.

270 Spadina and the Cedar St apartments have also both been renovated. Does that automatically make them gentrified?

As for ROOF, they indicated that their preference was to relocate a little bit away from the downtown core (but still transit-accessible).

[panamaniac]

Is there a list of low-cost housing that has been lost due to LRT-related development?  I don't think WRC has a gentrification thread.   In Kitchener, the losses seem to me to be fairly limited so far, but I haven't been paying a lot of attention.  There have been a few renovations in DTK, which I suppose would be in the category of "gentrification" (perhaps more than I realized?).  There is also the move of One Roof Youth Services, I suppose.  On the other side, I'm not aware of any proposals for new public housing, new co-ops, or rent-geared-to-income projects in the Downtown area.

Thinking about it, I guess the renovation of the Windemere Apartments at 48 Weber St W would be DTK's biggest example of a gentrification project to date.

270 Spadina and the Cedar St apartments have also both been renovated. Does that automatically make them gentrified?

As for ROOF, they indicated that their preference was to relocate a little bit away from the downtown core (but still transit-accessible).

Yes, I thought that One Roof’s move was probably a good move.   270 Spadina certainly seemed like an upgrade, but not related to LRT, istm.  I suppose that, any time somebody buys and renovates a home in the core, it could be considered “gentrification”, especially if it had previously been a more modest rental.  I guess all the new towers in DTK are examples of gentrification, even when nobody is diplaced by the project.

[danbrotherston]

270 Spadina and the Cedar St apartments have also both been renovated. Does that automatically make them gentrified?

As for ROOF, they indicated that their preference was to relocate a little bit away from the downtown core (but still transit-accessible).

Yes, I thought that One Roof’s move was probably a good move.   270 Spadina certainly seemed like an upgrade, but not related to LRT, istm.  I suppose that, any time somebody buys and renovates a home in the core, it could be considered “gentrification”, especially if it had previously been a more modest rental.  I guess all the new towers in DTK are examples of gentrification, even when nobody is diplaced by the project.

I mean I'm not an expert on the topic, but I don't think you can really say that any one project, especially a rennovation is "gentrification" in itself, it's all about the trends (and related to, but I think, not the same as displacement).

A part of the city that sees nothing new and no rennovations, isn't staying the same, it's decaying. An area requires some amount of upkeep in order to be maintained.  Whether that is technically gentrification, I'm not sure what the precise definition is.

I am also not sure that gentrification is as big a problem as say displacement, where people are forced to leave. Limiting housing (as we do with zoning) will almost always cause displacement in a desireable area.

[Bytor]

When we talk about gentrification, it's important that we see the complete picture, and that the picture many of us have of it is at best incomplete and at worst significantly wrong.

http://cityobservatory.org/whats-really-...hborhoods/
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015...think.html