General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[neonjoe]

I'm afraid that even then it won't be enough, judging from other urban examples. We are going from 0 buildings to 1 (Kaufman) to 3 (Kaufman+One Victoria+City Centre) so while the increase sounds like a lot, density is still extremely low in that area as far as downtown urban districts are concerned. We will need the other City Centre tower as well as the two towers in One Hundred Victoria before we start seeing critical mass. The transit hub will help a lot as the fact that a trip to downtown will be a breeze away when the LRT is in place. Then we'll see a clear pickup.

This brings up my biggest issue with the LRT - "a trip downtown is a breeze away when the LRT is in place"  ... for who??  Maybe a few folks who happen to live around the line, but not for most residents of the city (and by most I mean everyone in Wards 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8).  I understand the planning rationale for creating a corridor that induces development (and a long-term shift in population from the suburbs to condos along that corridor), but I really wish the LRT as more useful for more existing residents - meaning it had lines that extended out into the existing suburbs to the east and west and made it easy for people to come downtown as a destination.  I get it - that was way out of the budget - but presently I have a hard time seeing how the LRT would help me get anywhere I want to go (have you ever found yourself on King street saying "gee, I really wish I could hope on a train and get to uptown waterloo?")  ... most of the city's residents (again, everyone in Ward 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8) live outside walking distance from the LRT, which means they will have to keep driving everywhere they want to go.   

Since the province is now providing 100% funding for this sort of thing we should be lobbying for a Phase II LRT that adds loops from the outer areas into the core to augment the main line!

I manage a small team that is completely remote, our overall objective productivity is marginally better than when we were at the office. Morale is a lot better and we do find flexibility for the members with kids increased their morale and decreased time away or off when they have an appointment/illness. 

You can give people that flexibility even if you are in the office or hybrid, too. Our company never had a problem with people flexing their time to go to appointments. In the post-COVID world, we even encourage people to work from home if they are showing symptoms of flu (or similar illness). I think that flexibility to deal with sick kids, plumber visits or Amazon deliveries makes a big difference to work satisfaction, no matter what model the company is utilizing.

But, I agree that much depends on the team in any case.

Likely more of a factor of our business' location, we are at the very fringe of Waterloo and most of my team lives in Kitchener or Guelph, so the loss of time for appointments is quite a bit greater. That being said with that I do see that the team appreciates not having to deal with the parkway or highway 7. There's trade offs with everything.