Recently in My Community Category

To the Collections Department of Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro.

Thank you for your letter dated June 4, 2010 notifying me that my pre-authorized payment for your services had been returned from the bank due to “account closed”. Thank you for succinctly telling me that I had until 5:00 p.m. on Friday, June 10 to pay the outstanding $132.31 on my account “to avoid further collection activity”. I must say that there is nothing quite like a specific and firm deadline — down to the minute, in fact — to make one understand and worry about the seriousness of the situation and act with alacrity.

I should tell you that the reason the pre-authorized payment was returned from my bank was because my old bank service — an all-in-one account offered by Canadian Tire Financial Services — was bought out by the National Bank of Canada. Unfortunately, despite a promise of a smooth transition between the two institutions, including an offer to transfer the pre-authorized credits and debits from the old account to the new, clearly the ball got dropped. I have had to run around restoring a number of pre-authorized payments that broke down thanks to the change over. Rest assured that the National Bank of Canada will be receiving an even more strongly worded letter of complaint once I finish writing this piece.

I appreciate the fact that, once I came to the Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro office, the matter was resolved quickly. I appreciated that the customer service representative who dealt with my issue was polite and capable. What I did not appreciate, however, was the need to come to the office in the first place, or the fact that the payment I had to make could only be made “by cash, certified cheque or money order.”

I have found that Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro’s payment methods have been far less convenient than those offered by private businesses, or by other departments and agencies operated by the City of Kitchener. I am particularly concerned by the fact that simply paying off my outstanding balance with a cheque from my new bank account wasn’t sufficient; that I’d have to get the cheque certified before you accepted it (this in spite of the fact that you were still willing to set up a new pre-authorized payment plan with my new bank account). While I understand the reasons behind such a policy, I can’t help but feel that the good-will of your customers would be increased if, instead of lumping people like me in with the serial cheque-bouncers that your customer service representative so politely and helpfully suggested might be the reason behind such a policy, you offered a grace period, or a warning system, and perhaps required certified cheques from individuals who had bounced payments at rates more frequent than, say, once every two years.

Finally, I’d like to bring your attention to a new piece of technology that I think will improve the convenience of your customers seeking to pay for your services. Perhaps you have heard of it: it’s called a debit machine; locally, it’s marketed under the brand Interac. It’s an amazing piece of technology where customers swipe a piece of plastic called a “debit card” through a reader and key in a personal identification number, allowing the business in question to charge for their services directly from a customer’s bank account. Authorization and transfer of funds is pretty well immediate, and acceptance of the technology is widespread, so there’s little risk of a payment bouncing. I’d wager that most residents in your service area possess debit cards, and certainly most businesses and government service organizations in the service area accept them. This includes many departments and agencies run by the City of Kitchener. I cannot fathom why Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro hasn’t latched onto this amazing new technology that has been around since all of 1995.

While I appreciated dealing with your courteous and well-informed customer services representatives, and especially appreciated the fact that I did not have to wait in line, the fact that I could not resolve the matter of my outstanding balance without coming into your office, or leaving it to find an ATM to dispense cash (and I would like to thank the Sobeys cashier for not batting an eye when I bought toilet paper and asked for $132.31 in cash back), is an annoying oddity that puts Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro well behind the times in customer service. I would think that an agency charged with delivering power to a region as connected as Kitchener-Waterloo, offering the latest in power-saving and other green technology, would be more up-to-date in the tools that it uses to charge its customers money. Leaving aside some of the facetiousness of my comments, I hope you will take some of my suggestions to heart, and join the twenty-first century when it comes to accepting money from the customers you serve.

Sincerely yours,
James Bow

Here’s what bloggers in Waterloo Region and Wellington County are writing about these days:

• Blogger Curly Blue offers an intriguing [how to post on making a Hugo Boss iPad case).
• I’ve been holding back my reviews of the latest Doctor Who until after the episodes debut in Canada. For those who can’t wait, read Dan Kukwa’s reviews of Time of the Angels and Flesh and Stone
• Gabriel at Live From Waterloo awaits the World Cup and talks about the rivalry between football powers Brazil and Argentina.
• In economic matters, Not Quite Unhinged worries about our household debt.
• Over in Wonderful Waterloo, a discussion is taking place on the proposed extension of River Road from King Street to Manitou Drive.
• Congratulations to Must Win Situation for reaching 100 posts. Not to brag or anything, but I posted my 2,300th post a couple of days ago. I’ll party when I hit 2,500.
• And, of course, a number of blogs do what we like to do, which is to talk politics. You know that’s going to continue unabated.

An Invitation to Write for the WWBA

Do you want to write? Do you want to give your blog posts more exposure? Do you live in the Wellington County or the Region of Waterloo? If so, the Waterloo Wellington Bloggers Association wants to hear from you. We need posts. We need lots of posts. Whether the subject is regional politics, complaints about traffic congestion, the social scene or a great new restaurant you’ve discovered, we’d like to hear from you. Crossposting your posts on your own blog is perfectly allowed. If you would like to join us and add your voice to this page, please contact me by clicking on the e-mail link at the bottom of the right column. Remember, it takes more than one person to build a community.

It has been a couple of years since Waterloo installed its first roundabouts on some major arterial roads. After that time, you’d think I’ve had enough experience in these facilities to have a firm opinion. Strangely, though, the jury is still out.

Waterloo Region has embraced roundabouts in a big way. I can think of no other municipality in the province that has been so gung ho as to make it a policy to place it on what would used to have been major four-way stop intersections on certain major roads. Riding out of the city towards the 401, you encounter two roundabouts in quick succession on Fischer Hallman Boulevard. The new western arterial, Ira Needles Boulevard, has no stoplights from Keats Way all the way down to Trussler Road; drivers navigate six roundabouts instead. A roundabout has replaced a particularly troublesome stoplight at Bridge and Lancaster (demolishing an unpopular strip club in the process), and more are planned in the coming years.

The relationship between the people of Waterloo Region and their roundabouts is an odd one. Clearly, some councillors and planners at the regional level are gung-ho about them, claiming that they’re better traffic managers than stoplights, and move more cars safely through an intersection than four-way stop signs. They claim that they’re safer, and it’s true that while roundabouts have seen more accidents than other intersections in Waterloo Region, mostly due to the drivers’ unfamiliarity with them, those accidents have been far more minor, with far fewer injuries, thanks to the slower speeds involved and the fact that T-bone collisions are now a thing of the past.

But while most people in Waterloo Region seem to accept the presence of roundabouts, they feel a bit leery of them. My father is a case in point. He has never once questioned the wisdom of the region placing a roundabout at the top of the Conestoga Parkway by the village of St. Jacobs, but the first few times he always asked his back-seat driver (me) for advice on how to manage the thing, just as we whipped through on our way to Elmira. Some controversy has erupted with the proposal to put a roundabout at Homer Watson and Block Line, with parents concerned that the new intersection will be less safe for their children walking to St. Mary’s High School, with planners adamant that crossings will be easier, since pedestrians will now only have to contend with one direction of traffic per crossing.

As a younger driver, I’ve grown used to dealing with the roundabouts. A few times through them, and the rules of driving feel like common sense: slow down, yield to cars in the roundabout, accept the inner lane if you’re passing straight through or turning left, accept the right lane if you’re turning right or passing straight through, and signal your intentions all the time. I’ve never been close to having an accident, and my trip down Fischer-Hallman or Ira Needles feels faster for not having to contend with lit intersections or stop signs instead. And, in some ways, they’re actually fun to drive through, making for a roller-coaster touch to an otherwise straightaway drive that the kids in the back seat love.

But I am concerned at the amount of land these installations take up. Already the region has noted that roundabouts aren’t possible in certain places because of the property expropriations required. The middle of the roundabout is essentially dead space, and while some moves have been made towards sprucing these up with plantings or sculptures, it strikes me that too many roundabouts effectively decreases the density of the areas they support.

It doesn’t help that, because of the newness of these installations and the space they take up, roundabouts have become primarily a feature of the suburban landscape. It’s only at Erb and Ira Needles that I see some signs that the new shops and restaurants there actually address the roundabout as a place where people actually want to walk and shop as well as drive through. The smaller scale roundabouts in Williamsburg aren’t addressed by the buildings at all (which are pulled back for parking, and possibly to give the drivers better sight lines), and thus feel as though they are an adjunct of the local parking lots.

If it hasn’t already, I’d like to see the Region take a close look at how its current roundabouts are performing, paying special attention to how much space it has effectively removed from the public use of the surrounding communities. It should consider design guidelines and zoning laws that make these roundabouts places for pedestrians to feel comfortable as well drivers to whip through. It needs to ask itself if a roundabout is just an intersection, or if it’s a streetscape in its own right.

In my opinion, roundabouts have had their benefits, and I’m proud that my region is among the first in the province, if not the country, to embrace them in a big way, but we should continue to look for ways to improve them.

_This post has been crossposted to Bow. James Bow.

Further Reading

• Three lane roundabouts?! I think my eyes just crossed.

Here’s some of what bloggers are talking about in Waterloo Region and Wellington County:

• TriTAG summarizes the agenda the April meeting of the Region of Waterloo’s Planning and Works’ Committee, listing a number of projects that are coming forward this year.
• Curly Blue plugs Smartdrinks.ca and Startup Drinks Waterloo: “Startup Drinks Waterloo stared in Oct of 2009 and is now a monthly event here in Waterloo. It is being held on the first Tuesday of every month. We’ve met some great people and shared a few pints and many more stories. If startups are close to your hear and you enjoy a good pint every once in a while, we’d love you have you come and join us.”
• Also from Curly Blue, a web design and tech meetup.
• 59 Carden Street [talks about Guelph’s unorthodox solution to construction on a one-way street blocking access to a police station and the Armoury.
• Over at Wonderful Waterloo a discussion is taking place about plans to widen the remaining two-lane section of Weber Street, and plans to put apartments and townhouses in Cambridge.
• Far and Wide contrasts the political reaction by the federal NDP to the provincial Liberal plan to implement a Harmonized Sales Tax in Ontario and the provincial NDP plan to raise the Harmonized Sales Tax in Nova Scotia.
• Live From Waterloo tests the macro feature on his new digital camera. Prepare to get up close!
• Jane Mitchell notes long wait times occurring in the privately-insured dental industry. Think long wait times are a characteristic of just government medical insurance plans? Think again. We should also be getting more doctors and lower wait times, now that the Waterloo medical school is open.
• Dan Kukwa reviews the new Doctor Who. I’ll be holding off on my review until the show debuts here in Canada on Saturday, April 17.
• And more interesting links available, plus barn owls, at the Empress of Dirt.

Two months ago I wrote a blog post about the best places one could sit and write — whether it was at a table with a laptop or a notebook and pen, whether it had good coffee, or Tim Horton’s coffee or whathaveyou. The places that I talked about were mostly in Toronto, because I had the practice of going into the city to make a day of my writing, but since I live in Waterloo Region, and since travelling to Toronto is expensive, it only seems fair that I talk about the best places to write here in Waterloo. And, fortunately, there’s no shortage of good candidates.

In my earlier post, I said that a good writing spot needed four things: coffee, free wi-fi, a good ambience and plugs (for your laptop). Starbucks has made considerable inroads into Waterloo Region, so there are plenty of outlets for a writer to sit, grab a coffee and plug your laptop in. If you have a registered Starbucks card, you’re also granted two hours of free wireless Internet. But you don’t need to confine yourself to Starbucks’ offerings. There are other chains and independent shops throughout the region where the coffee is good, the seats are soft, and power is available for your computer.

Here are just some that come to mind. If you have others, please feel free to write up your recommendations in the comments.

• Coffee Culture just opened an outlet at 31 King Street North (the southwest corner of King and Dupont) in Uptown Waterloo. Erin introduced me to this wonderful coffee shop earlier today. The place has large windows which fill the place with light and allow you to watch the pedestrians walking up and down King Street. The coffee is excellent and the treats are delectable and not too expensive. Best of all, the wi-fi is free (and only occasionally flaky) and the booths come with plugs. I’d definitely go again. Parking is an issue, though you can pay to park at the nearby library, but it’s Uptown Waterloo, which means transit connections are among the best in the region. Another outlet can be found in downtown Kitchener at the corner of King and Queen.

• Second Cup — specifically, the Second Cup outlet at 150 University Avenue West, near Phillip Street, just east of the University of Waterloo. Although a chain, Second Cup offers a good cup of coffee, and this particular outlet has plenty of seats and free wireless. The ambiance is good for writing and people-watching, although it can get a little crowded here when the Universities are in session.

• Williams — another chain that’s not Starbucks, although these can be hit and miss. The best outlet is the one at Kitchener City Hall, with plenty of space, Most importantly, it’s not too loud. The same cannot be said with any of the other outlets I’ve seen, which have brick interiors which amplify rather than reduce sound. This is especially annoying at the University Plaza outlet by UW.

• Melville Cafeacute;. Located in the University of Waterloo’s School of Architecture in downtown Galt with an excellent view of the Grand River, this location has all of the others beat in terms of ambiance. Wifi is available, the seats aren’t limited to the students, and the food and drink are great.

• The Bookshelf - Although it’s lost some of its writing-friendliness by going upscale, I still have a soft spot for this independent bookstore/restaurant/theatre combination in downtown Guelph. A cultural institution in its own right, it was also the place where a friend and I collaborated on the first manuscript that I ever submitted to a publisher in a professional capacity. We weren’t published (at least, not professionally), but I still have fond memories of the creative energies J. Keeping and I poured into our story, helped along by a basket of the Bookshelf’s fries.

• The Libraries - These are places which encourage lingering, and many offer free wireless Internet. These may also be the only such outlets available to people living in the rural areas of the region. It’s rather hit or miss whether coffee or snacks are available, but you are surrounded by books, and that can only help to get you into a writing mood. Also the Kitchener Public Library’s main branch has a café in its basement. And let’s not forget the university libraries, if they’re available. I’ve written a number of stories and blog entries in the main level of the Dana Porter library at the University of Waterloo. It’s a quiet place, the tables are huge, and there’s a coffee shop by the main entrance. The architecture is interesting, and the windows are big, and offer plenty of opportunities to people-watch while you’re waiting for writers’ block to clear.

• Tim Hortons - Don’t knock it unless you try it. Yes, the seats are uncomfortable, but the food and drink are cheap and good, and if you want to people watch and listen into a few conversations, there’s few other places where you’ll get a sampling of your average Canadians than here. And some outlets are a bit more interesting than your average donut shacks. Take the outlet at Frederick and Lancaster, for instance, with architecture made to blend into the local neighbourhood. I also like the one at Fairview at Manitou, with its sunroof. There’s no wi-fi, of course, but sometimes you don’t need it, and surfing the Internet can be a distraction to your writing.

So, there’s a random sample of good places to write here in Waterloo Region. It is by no means a comprehensive list. That’s your job. Where’s a good place that you like to write here in Waterloo Region?

Image via Wikipedia

The good folks at TriTAG bring to my attention this letter to the Waterloo Region Record where reader Cheri-ann Chowan expresses frustration at the lack of adequate transit service to Breslau, not to mention the lack of sidewalks along Victoria that could get a resident of Breslau to transit:

I am not the only parent in this predicament in Breslau. I know of one family that bought a house in Breslau and less than a year later sold their house because of the lack of transit for their teens. What happens to families in Breslau that cannot afford a vehicle? How would they potentially get to a job, doctors, and other very vital everyday life events?

(link)

When public transit was moved from the local level to the regional council back in 2000 and Grand River Transit was created, one of the benefits cited was the possibility that the satellite towns and villages might finally get a public transit connection with the main cities. Since then, the GRT has established a successful route to St. Jacobs and Elmira, and is considering services to Baden, New Hamburg and Ayr. It seems strange to me that Breslau, which is just across the Grand River from Kitchener, along one of the busier corridors leading out of the city, should not receive attention. The Route 15 comes so close, with morning rush and late evening service extended out to Centennial Road, right on the banks of the Grand.

Also, looking at the map, a service proposal presents itself that not only gives Breslau residents access to the downtown, but serves other areas in eastern Kitchener that are currently some distance from transit service. If Grand River Transit were to set up a route operating from the Downtown Terminal to King and Victoria and from there to Breslau via Victoria, Lancaster, Wellington, Shirley, Bingeman’s Centre Drive and Victoria again, the new industries setting up shop on Shirley and Bingeman Centre would finally see transit service. And that’s just filling in the gaps. Grand River Transit could conceivably simplify the layout of current services by running a bus along Victoria from King to Breslau, running a bus along Wellington and Bingemans Centre to loop in the Victoria/Lackner area, and a bus up Queen North and Lancaster to loop in Bridgeport, potentially giving passengers at the far end of routes 6 and 15 a faster ride to Kitchener’s downtown.

It may be that Grand River Transit hasn’t implemented the service because nobody has suggested it. Well, consider the suggestion made. The success of the Elmira route shows that demand exists outside of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge for transit service, and the GRT need only continue the bus down Woolwich and Fountain Streets to give the residents of the Region of Waterloo public transit access to the regional airport.

• Brian at At Home at Hespelar reminisces about the last time the Canadian national anthem was changed, notes how some things shift organically, and wonders what all the fuss is about.
• Like many other bloggers, Far and Wide sees the Conservatives’ proposed change to the anthem as a diversionary tactic.
• Yikes! Urbanity posts a Google Map showing marijuana grow-ops in London. No similar map exists for Waterloo Region, yet. Locally, he has better news about a digital hub being set up in the old Tannery in downtown Kitchener.
• Planet June has yarn salamanders climbing the walls.
• Wonderful Waterloo launches a debate on which university library has the clearer windows. What, and let all the light shine in on our… (gasp!)… books?!
• Still with the universities, Psystenance criticizes how the University of Waterloo serves its pedestrians.
• Take the Lane wonders what the best bike route is to get from Mill and Queen to Riverbend and Lancaster. His readers offer suggestions.
• Be sure to check out the many fascinating late winter pictures over at Blog Guelph.
• And, finally, remember that Doctor Who returns to Canadian screens on April 17!

It happened on September 8 2007. It was a beautiful fall day. Anyone that knows me, knows I love to go for bike rides especially in Puslinch Township. So it was that Saturday in September I went for my 30km ride. I missed an event that still makes me wonder what the heck happened.

When I returned home a friend of mine, who came to visit while I was away on my ride, was real excited about what he videotaped on the other side of the Mill Pond in the Hespeler part of Cambridge Ontario. He and two young girls claimed they saw an alien. You see the park where he filmed the video is out back of our house.

Now I thought this was pretty funny, so I watched the short video clip on his camera and had to admit something was up. It was loaded on You Tube and the Hespeler News website and 2 years later over 54,000 people have viewed it and 172 people have commented on the video.

I really don’t know what to think about the whole issue as my friend has moved away and will not talk about that day. What I can say is I absolutely love the comments people have made about the video. I have burst out laughing reading them. Enjoy the video and comments it certainly makes for interesting conversation.

Here is the first edition of the Carnival of Waterloo-Wellington Blogs, a (I hope) monthly event where we trawl some interesting links from interesting bloggers blogging about or from inside the region. Without further ado, here is what we’re talking about:

• Regional Councillor Jane Mitchell loves the new Waterloo museum. I agree that the building is striking, and I would like to pay it a visit.
• Urbanity is talking about Kitchener-Waterloo amalgamation.
• At Home on Hespeler remembers the freedom of music and the vinyl LP.
• Right of Centre Ice considers the supreme court ruling on the constitutional rights of Omar Khadr.
• Record blogger Take the Lane considers the rash of pedestrian deaths in Toronto and how to stand out while crossing the street.
• The blog 59 Carden Street looks into the funding dispute between the City of Guelph and Wellington County.
• More great photography from an Insider’s Guide to Waterloo Region.

As always, to hear the latest from our local bloggers, consult this web page. If you have a local blog and would like to be added to the list, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

When Ellen and I went to Waterloo city council to talk about the whole ghetto thing, we were suprised to find ourselves in the middle of a two-hour debate on amalgamation.

Amalgamation debates are something you get used to in this town. Frankly, I’m amazed we managed to avoid the amalgamation fever of the 90s. Everybody knows about the Toronto megacity, but the fever also led to such strange political entities as The “City” of Kawartha Lakes.

Tim Jackson of Tech Capital Partners and Iain Klugman of Communitech went to city council to propose, not the amalgamation of the whole Region of Waterloo this time, but the amalgamation of the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo.

Except what they proposed wasn’t actually amalgamation, but a plebiscite on the next municipal ballot asking voters whether they were in favour of the two cities talking about amalgamation.

And here’s where it gets a little dicey. Who has a problem with the cities talking about amalgamation?

I remember, however, a referendum in Québec a few years ago, where the question wasn’t “Should Québec be a sovereign nation independent of Canada?” The question was “Do you agree that Québec should become sovereign after having made a formal offer to Canada for a new economic and political partnership?” Which is why we have the Clarity Act.

I missed Tim Jackson’s presentation, but when pressed, Iain Klugman made it clear that he felt that a “Yes” vote on this plebiscite was mandate to amalgamate the cities and no follow-up referendum was needed after the cities were finished “talking”.

Furthermore, the province gets to dictate the question after the city votes to have one on the ballot. Waterloo doesn’t get to make its own Clarity Act. And, except for the general distaste for the idea in the Region, there’s nothing stopping the province from forcing amalgamation at any time. Although I fear I might be drifting into conspiracy theories, a “yes” vote on a wishy-washy “talk about amalgamation” vote might be all the political clout they’d need to just amalgamate, regardless of what comes out of talking.

And finally, as far as I can tell (and I could be wrong here—like I said, I missed Tim Jackson’s presentation), the only reason TCP and Communitech are pushing for amalgamation is they think it makes their job marketing the region to the world a bit easier.

I don’t think I need to say I have some problems with this proposal. There was significant resistance from people at the meeting. And an unfortunately anonymous and confusingly named group called One Waterloo has popped up online to oppose it.

On idea of amalgamating cities, I’m a bit more on the fence. Kitchener and Waterloo are one community in a sense that, say, Kitchener and Cambridge aren’t. But the history of amalgamation in this province has created more losers than winners, and I think in general, smaller, decentralized organizations are easier to manage and therefore more efficient than bigger ones.

I don’t see a problem with the current set-up, except that it would make sense to upload more services (like fire or water) to the Region. I don’t think democracy or neighbourhood concerns would be better served by a huge municipal council in downtown Kitchener. I don’t think Communitech’s marketing problems are a good enough reason to tear down and rebuild a system that seems to be working. And most of all, I would like to see amalgamation come about because it’s clearly what citizens want, and not because some group managed to hoodwink them into giving the province an excuse to go ahead and make it happen.

And I hate that I probably come off as crazy by writing that, but that’s the only way I could interpret Mr Klugman’s statements to council a couple weeks ago.

Waterloo city council will debate and put the ballot question to a vote tonight.