Downtown Kitchener Fire Station | 19 fl | Proposed

[Acitta]

CROWNE PLAZA - One would need to earn an extra $3200 a year (pretax) to be able to afford the 9 minute walk each way to the parking lot.  Kinda blows the whole "affordability" aspect of this build.

CITY OWNED LOT - Closest one is on Charles, at Benton.  10-minute walk.  Probably the same price as Crowne Plaza.

COMMUNAUTO - They have 3 cars now, and these cars are usually in use.  The owner of the lot where the cars are may be able to assign another space, but he needs space for tenants of the vacant house/business right between the lot and the build site. 

PERMIT PARKING - Great - let's do it!  There will be a fee (affordability), no overnight parking during the winter, AND the market to contend with on Saturday.  Market patrons would also have to have a paid permit.

MARKET PARKING - If the City could figure out a way to empty out the " firehouse tenant" portion of the underground parking for Saturday market customers (there is an all-day queue to get into the lot) then maybe they could rent spaces there.  There is additional parking for tenants of the market lofts, but those spots are pretty full, and it pisses them off that they can hardly come and go on a Saturday due to market public parking.

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY - Their builds are "a hand up, not a hand out" which is meant to address the affordability issue.  Great.  But have you every seen a Habitat For Humanity build that didn't have at least one vehicle parked in the driveway?  Even people who have "affordable" housing own cars.

KIDS - I guess the tenants of this build will not have kids.  I say this because the City is finishing off an incredible indoor recreation complex out in the Doon area.  Indoor winter sports including soccer, the most popular sport in the world!  But how to get there if you don't have a car and live at the new firehouse build in downtown Kitchener?  You take a bus.  90 minutes each way.

Chaos, I tell you all.  Chaos.  As a 30-year resident of this neighbourhood, I know exactly what's coming.  No entrepreneur, nor the property owner (the City of Kitchener) is going to solve it.

I just turned 73. I have never owned a car in my entire life, having always gotten by with public transit and bicycle. I don't understand this obsession with owning cars, which are expensive to own and operate and which regularly kill people both inside and outside of them. I also don't understand that some people don't comprehend that people regularly take their children to places by public transit and often even by bicycle.