General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[jamincan]

Brian Doucet has a really good video of a walking tour of downtown Kitchener. It's targeted toward his planning class, but provides some overviews of some of the successes (which we are all probably quite familiar with) but also some of the challenges that have come with that and some of the opportunities as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IfH9slpWSU

[Rainrider22]

That was really insightful. Thank you for sharing it...

[Spokes]

Great video. Worth watching if you haven't

[ac3r]

Council to decide fate of MEGHQ-FREEPORT, Kitchener's cold war nuclear shelter: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener...-1.5746522

I highly doubt they'd keep it since it is not in the best structural shape, but it's a shame it couldn't be turned into some sort of small history museum. Or, an unusual hotel experience.

[KevinL]

Too much leakage and asbestos for it to be salvaged, I fear.

[tomh009]

39 beds -- 36 male and three female. I expect they planned for the three females for typing and cooking only. This was the 1960s ...

[danbrotherston]

39 beds -- 36 male and three female. I expect they planned for the three females for typing and cooking only. This was the 1960s ...

Otherwise known as...the time Conservatives would like to go back to. They have a really small tent.

Still, this is a neat building, I feel like the cheapest and best option would be to securely fence it off, and put up a plaque describing the history (all of it), and just let it decay naturally.

[ijmorlan]

… cheapest … securely fence ….

I’m not sure those are compatible.

[danbrotherston]

… cheapest … securely fence ….

I’m not sure those are compatible.

I said "cheapest", not "cheap".  The other options are restoration for a million dollars, or demolition for about a quarter million dollars.

Edit: perhaps I should have said “cheaper”, I’m sure there could be cheaper options than a fence with a plaque...for example a fence without a plaque.

A quarter million dollars buys a lot of fencing and plaques.

But maybe I'm wrong, I just don't like either option, both seem unnecessarily expensive for the result.

[tomh009]

I don't think a fence would enough to secure it. You would need to weld (or something similar) the doors closed.

[ijmorlan]

I said "cheapest", not "cheap".  The other options are restoration for a million dollars, or demolition for about a quarter million dollars.

Fair enough. I don’t actually mean to be Mr. Pedantic. The problem is that it is almost impossible to fence off a property really securely. People will break into just about anything. Somebody else suggested welding the door shut; I don’t think that would be enough to deter breakins.

The other issue is that if there is pollution on the site, you don’t really want it to just sit there until the structure decays enough to release it; the materials really should be cleaned up.

[danbrotherston]

I said "cheapest", not "cheap".  The other options are restoration for a million dollars, or demolition for about a quarter million dollars.

Fair enough. I don’t actually mean to be Mr. Pedantic. The problem is that it is almost impossible to fence off a property really securely. People will break into just about anything. Somebody else suggested welding the door shut; I don’t think that would be enough to deter breakins.

The other issue is that if there is pollution on the site, you don’t really want it to just sit there until the structure decays enough to release it; the materials really should be cleaned up.

That's true, I think a plaque will actually help with that, I mean, it can at a minimum explain the contamination that is present.

That being said, I am of the opinion that if a good faith effort is made to seal off the property, that the property owner (us) should not be liable for someone who breaks in and gets injured.

As for the structure decaying away, I'm unsure what contaminants are present and in what quantities, at a certain low level, they could just be returned to nature. But remediation of some or all of those materials would be part of any plan anyway.

[ijmorlan]

That being said, I am of the opinion that if a good faith effort is made to seal off the property, that the property owner (us) should not be liable for someone who breaks in and gets injured.

100% yes. There are way too many lawsuits that should be dismissed as frivolous which end up costing the defendant a lot. At least that is my impression. I understand a lot of the worst stuff gets reversed on appeal, but by that time the defendant has already been mugged for many thousands of dollars in legal fees (not, to be clear, by their lawyer, but by the system).

[clasher]

An environmental assessment has determined that mould, lead, asbestos, silica and mercury are all present at the site. There is also extensive structural damage to the building as water has been seeping through the concrete for many years, Allen said.

LOL the building is leaking and full of nasty stuff and y'all just wanna weld the door shut and put up a few signs. Given its proximity to the river ISTM that demolition and remediation of the site is the responsible thing to do.

[danbrotherston]

An environmental assessment has determined that mould, lead, asbestos, silica and mercury are all present at the site. There is also extensive structural damage to the building as water has been seeping through the concrete for many years, Allen said.

LOL the building is leaking and full of nasty stuff and y'all just wanna weld the door shut and put up a few signs. Given its proximity to the river ISTM that demolition and remediation of the site is the responsible thing to do.

I don't know how much material is on site here, there is certainly no evidence I've seen that the building is "full" of nasty stuff--this isn't a factory which contaminated the surrounding areas over decades. Mercury could easily just mean a tiny amount from fluroescent light bulbs and thermometers. That stuff is easy to clean up. I'm not even sure asbestos counts as environmental contamination...it's a natural mineral found in the ground...it just happens to be unsafe for humans when used in building materials that are being broken down or put up. Nobody here is suggesting that environmental contamination be allowed to enter the environment, but this isn't the same as the hundreds of abandoned factor buildings that are so contaminated the ground itself is unsafe to build on.