Waterloo Region Connected

Sounds like some Letters to the Editor are in order!

I once had a subscription to The Record, and I too canceled it because of Jeff Outhit, and the kind of reporting I've seen by him and to a lesser extent Paige Desmond. In general, the paper too often reads like a reflection of ignorance, anger, and misunderstanding. It does little to help shape understanding in the region, often fomenting misunderstanding and divisions. (I also switched to the Globe in the end) I similarly ended my Maclean's subscription of a couple decades as they had a similar shift. I can understand that I won't love every piece a publication writes, but eventually the scales are so shifted that I can't keep supporting it.

(02-01-2016, 08:48 AM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: [ -> ]I once had a subscription to The Record, and I too canceled it because of Jeff Outhit...

I wouldn't blame it all on Jeff and his ilk, although that's a huge factor.

Another is the increasing dependence on third-party news sources to fill the paper. Why should I pay for that when I can get it and far more at no cost on the Internet? And then I also don't have to wait for it to arrive in daily doses.

But then they compound that with unprofessional, if not outright sleazy, practices that even their owners, The Star, doesn't dare stoop to. Here's a good example since we're talking about LRT-related matters:

Record: Tech boom fuelling condo buying frenzy in Waterloo "Waterloo Region Record, By Katia Dmitrieva [article] Bloomberg" leaves the false impression that this article was written by a Record reporter. You have to read the entire article and scroll all the way to the end to realize that it just ain't so. [via Google, "Katia Dmitrieva is a reporter for Bloomberg News in Toronto."]

Star: Condo buying frenzy in Waterloo as Google moves in "By: Katia Dmitrieva Bloomberg [article]" makes it clear that the Star is publishing an article that was written by Bloomberg.


P.S. I also stopped subscribing to Macleans after they were bought by Rogers and began promoting a hard-right political slant.

Peter Shawn Taylor is an editor at Macleans and also writes what amounts to troll columns for the record. The only thing I like about the record is the "local news" articles that aren't really syndicated anywhere else but most of them are pretty inconsequential and certainly not worth a subscription. I would be surprised if it's still around in 10 years.

Future Cedar stop:

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Work at the intersection of Charles/Queen:

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Lots of trackwork on Charles.

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(02-01-2016, 07:30 PM)Canard Wrote: [ -> ]Future Cedar stop:

Great pictures, thanks!

I especially like the one close-up looking along the stacked rails.

Meanwhile, the second track is making its way south through UW campus. Last I saw they were laying ties on the ground at the mall next to campus, although I didn’t get a chance to get over there today.

Ermagerhd, my brain just exploded.  Thanks to Scott Stager Piatkowski on facebook for pointing this one out:

http://www.themidtownlofts.com/explore-midtown



...I... I don't even know how they screwed this up.  There are literally dozens of copies of the train in the correct orientation flying around online; there was no need to mirror it.

I just can't.

(02-01-2016, 08:07 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: [ -> ]Meanwhile, the second track is making its way south through UW campus. Last I saw they were laying ties on the ground at the mall next to campus, although I didn’t get a chance to get over there today.

Speaking of which, I noticed that the Laurel Creek trail is still closed south of University, but now it's more clear why it's been closed so long---it basically doesn't exist anymore, and is underneath the railbed.

(02-02-2016, 12:01 AM)plam Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-01-2016, 08:07 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: [ -> ]Meanwhile, the second track is making its way south through UW campus. Last I saw they were laying ties on the ground at the mall next to campus, although I didn’t get a chance to get over there today.

Speaking of which, I noticed that the Laurel Creek trail is still closed south of University, but now it's more clear why it's been closed so long---it basically doesn't exist anymore, and is underneath the railbed.

I don’t believe that is correct. I, um, observed close up, that it is still there running parallel to the track south from University. Right near Seagram the very last little bit was torn up during construction so there is no pavement surface there, but there is nothing about the terrain that prevents walking right through.

Remember the path was far from the tracks before, and the two new tracks surround the location of the original track, so even the southbound track is still some distance from the path. Near Seagram the tracks diverge a little to give space for the platform south of Seagram so the track is closer to the path but there is still plenty of space for the path.

I consider this to be a big fail, and further evidence of non-motorized traffic being treated as a second-class citizen. They wouldn’t close a road needlessly for months. To be clear, I have no problem with the path being closed for a few weeks while they work immediately next to it, but this has gone on way past any sort of reasonable closure given the nature and extent of the work being done in the area.

Even if you are correct that the original path route is underneath the tracks, the replacement path should have been paved and the route re-instated in the Fall.

(02-01-2016, 08:56 PM)Canard Wrote: [ -> ]Ermagerhd, my brain just exploded.  Thanks to Scott Stager Piatkowski on facebook for pointing this one out:

http://www.themidtownlofts.com/explore-midtown

...I... I don't even know how they screwed this up.  There are literally dozens of copies of the train in the correct orientation flying around online; there was no need to mirror it.

I just can't.

LOL look at the map on the "explore midtown" page. I think someone has a poor grasp on the local geography to be mild.

(02-02-2016, 08:28 AM)clasher Wrote: [ -> ]I think someone has a poor grasp on the local geography to be mild.

Au contraire. The map was likely concocted by "professional marketers." Deception, if not outright lying, is in their job description.

(02-02-2016, 08:28 AM)clasher Wrote: [ -> ]LOL look at the map on the "explore midtown" page. I think someone has a poor grasp on the local geography to be mild.

Ugh...look at a real map, why didn't they.

"The New Midtown."

Today on my bike into work I saw the tanker train stopped on its return from Elmira just north of  Erb@Caroline.

Which was weird. I would've expected it to have cleared the city hours before.

I bike down spur line trail (As a counter-example to the nightmarish Laurel trail, it is really quite nice. They've done a good job of maintaining it through the winter as well) and by Len's Mill Store there's a red DERAIL marker clipped to the rail and a middle-of-the-track red rectangle.

Is the train stranded, mayhap?

Sounds like there's a major track issue (washout?) between the derail device and the train.