General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[danbrotherston]

I discussed this in my racism thread, but most of these are actually people looking for roommates, and I don't think it's unreasonable and it's probably not even illegal for people to be choosy and biased about who their roommates are.

That being said, I really am tired of the "society seems 100% ok with racism, as long as you're not a white male"...it's such a blatantly false claim. Leaving aside the general imbalance in power, it is the case that white males getting in trouble are notable explicitly because it is rare when they are punished for racism (and sexism). And in fact, people of visible minorities often have to be above perfect in order not to suffer consequences.

Think for example, how many white men in board rooms can get away with making racial jokes...do you think that black men could get away with the same behaviour. If you really think so, you should investigate why you think so, because the reality is the opposite.

I am not referring to people looking for roommates of a certain kind.

I am referring to homes (whole houses), condos, apartment (small buildings) looking for Indian families of certain castes or Chinese families.

This is not something that falls in line of being "reasonable" but indeed is super racist. FaceBook does a decent job of deleting these posts for violating terms of service, but they continue to pop up.

And it's not 'false' that it's OK to be racist if you're not a white male. It happens, and it's sad. My opinion is that everyone can be, and is, racist.

At least I can speak from a 'non-white' point of view, being my heritage in indigenous, on my father's side.

As for boardrooms, I have no idea what you're talking about. At least where I work, any sort of racism isn't tolerated. Doesn't matter what your background is.

I'm not accusing you of anything here. I know what you claim to be referring to. I am saying that most of the examples of FB Marketplace posts where people are angry about an explicit racial preference that I have seen seem to be people looking for roommates.

You can disagree that this is the case--I don't think either of us have a systematic survey of these posts, I'm just speaking of my impression from what I see surfaced most often.

As for whether it is "okay" to be racist if you're not a white male. I am not saying that people of colour cannot or are not racist from time to time (although I would say that the traditional systems of power in our society means that racism by white people is uniquely harmful), all I am saying is that the belief that white people are uniquely and solely punished for being racist is clearly false--they are no more likely to be punished for being racist as anyone else.

I'm glad you work somewhere where racism is not tolerated. It's good more places are getting like that. But not everywhere is like that. I have worked with people who made racist jokes, and expected that to be okay--and it was, they were as white as I am.

Here's question for you, have you seen mechanisms at your workplace actually take effect? Have you seen people suffer consequences for acting in a racist way? Until you see that it's all just lip service. My employer required me to do all the usual diversity training, I worked with many BIPOC colleagues, some of my managers, and my CEO were people of colour. And yet, my colleague still felt comfortable repeatedly making explicitly racist "jokes".

[nms]

I can't find the original post, but the four residential properties on Victoria St in Kitchener, between Strange St and Walnut St are now listed as "Under contract". Given that the four properties sit on the peak of the hill (eg the two in the middle are higher the two on the outside), and the lots are only about 130 ft deep, I'm not sure what kind of development could be placed there that could ignore the topography without weird retaining walls one way or another.

[KevinL]

I can't find the original post, but the four residential properties on Victoria St in Kitchener, between Strange St and Walnut St are now listed as "Under contract".  Given that the four properties sit on the peak of the hill (eg the two in the middle are higher the two on the outside), and the lots are only about 130 ft deep, I'm not sure what kind of development could be placed there that could ignore the topography without weird retaining walls one way or another.

If that's #s 234-244, they all had For Sale signs from the same realtor in August when Street View caught this image...

[nms]

Yes, those are the four houses in question.

[jeffster]

I am not referring to people looking for roommates of a certain kind.

I am referring to homes (whole houses), condos, apartment (small buildings) looking for Indian families of certain castes or Chinese families.

This is not something that falls in line of being "reasonable" but indeed is super racist. FaceBook does a decent job of deleting these posts for violating terms of service, but they continue to pop up.

And it's not 'false' that it's OK to be racist if you're not a white male. It happens, and it's sad. My opinion is that everyone can be, and is, racist.

At least I can speak from a 'non-white' point of view, being my heritage in indigenous, on my father's side.

As for boardrooms, I have no idea what you're talking about. At least where I work, any sort of racism isn't tolerated. Doesn't matter what your background is.

I'm not accusing you of anything here. I know what you claim to be referring to. I am saying that most of the examples of FB Marketplace posts where people are angry about an explicit racial preference that I have seen seem to be people looking for roommates.

You can disagree that this is the case--I don't think either of us have a systematic survey of these posts, I'm just speaking of my impression from what I see surfaced most often.

As for whether it is "okay" to be racist if you're not a white male. I am not saying that people of colour cannot or are not racist from time to time (although I would say that the traditional systems of power in our society means that racism by white people is uniquely harmful), all I am saying is that the belief that white people are uniquely and solely punished for being racist is clearly false--they are no more likely to be punished for being racist as anyone else.

I'm glad you work somewhere where racism is not tolerated. It's good more places are getting like that. But not everywhere is like that. I have worked with people who made racist jokes, and expected that to be okay--and it was, they were as white as I am.

Here's question for you, have you seen mechanisms at your workplace actually take effect? Have you seen people suffer consequences for acting in a racist way? Until you see that it's all just lip service. My employer required me to do all the usual diversity training, I worked with many BIPOC colleagues, some of my managers, and my CEO were people of colour. And yet, my colleague still felt comfortable repeatedly making explicitly racist "jokes".

As to where I work: I have seen (or know of) staff being fired (or at least constructive dismissal) for 'inappropriate' speech. This is especially true of non-unionized management staff - as there is zero tolerance.

Actually, I should say I did hear something very racist (or at least stereotypical), but not from someone I expected. We had an incident involving some children of BIPOC. Her response, "typical blacks". Absolutely no one said anything, as this chick as black as they come. Mind you, she was adopted out of Kenya (I believe) by white folks, and for all we know, perhaps she never looked at herself in the mirror. She was the most openly racist person I met.

I did mention something to the manager, but I was told that 'black people can't be racist' so there was nothing ever said to her.

[tomh009]

I did mention something to the manager, but I was told that 'black people can't be racist' so there was nothing ever said to her.

I think your example is not so much that X people cannot be racist or bigoted, but whether an X person making a stereotyping comment about his or her own group is still racism. If I say that the people from my country of origin are lazy and annoying, is that racist? It's not bias against another ethnic group, it's bias against your own.

[ac3r]

There's some excavation and/or pile driving going on at the little triangular lot beside the old midtown McDonald's. Not sure if there's a thread for whatever is going in there.

[ZEBuilder]

There's some excavation and/or pile driving going on at the little triangular lot beside the old midtown McDonald's. Not sure if there's a thread for whatever is going in there.

There isn't a thread for it, all the discussion has been in the general thread. I mentioned that they brought a shoring drill to the site last week. But all that's approved for that site is a 4 floor building fronting King and 3 floors fronting Wellington. With a total of 34 units.

[Lebronj23]

Seems like a waste of space lol they could probably get 40+ floors here

[ac3r]

Seems like a waste of space lol they could probably get 40+ floors here

If it's only 4ish floors then yeah it actually really perplexes me our council and by extension every midwit out there that can vote supports the approval of projects like this in the first place.

I don't think people realize how seemingly exponential the population growth in this region is going to be over the next at least 50+ years. We need to be maximizing the utilization of our space as best we can while also investing in the various infrastructures and services to support it in the most ideal ways possible. How do you build a world class metropolis? It sure isn't by building low rise buildings and having "rapid transit" that goes at a jogging pace in its core. It is achieved by building dense, well designed human and nature focused spaces and the best long term transit solutions (the LRT will by useless by 2050) and additional infrastructure and services you can accomplish. You can paint all the dumb bike lanes downtown you want for environmental reasons but that's all offset when you are constantly constructing, destructing, constructing etc buildings. You can talk about solving the housing crisis all you want but that isn't remedied by both politicians and voters supporting policies that are the antithesis of a solution or by approving buildings that aren't sensible for their location. Etc.

If you don't optimize your resources in the best way possible while they are available then you've screwed up. The region should change the motto to Peace, Mediocrity!

[taylortbb]

The building was approved several years ago, when expectations for density were much lower. I agree it's dumb now, but it's hard to withdraw approvals after building permits are issued.

The question I have is, is why is that all the builder wants to do? Surely they must know they're sitting on a gold mine if they got re-zoned for 40 floors.

[ZEBuilder]

Seems like a waste of space lol they could probably get 40+ floors here

If it's only 4ish floors then yeah it actually really perplexes me our council and by extension every midwit out there that can vote supports the approval of projects like this in the first place.

This was submitted for SPA in December of 2019 but didn't get approval until late in 2020, in 2019 when this was proposed the explosion in developments in DTK really hadn't happened yet. In December of 2019 Charlie West was at 7 floors, Duke Tower was on the first floor, Garment St was below ground, 100 Vic T2 was just starting the first floor, Drewlo didn't have a single tower crane up yet, Station Park was demolishing the old office building at King/Wellington, Breithaupt Block Phase 3 was starting shoring work. TEK tower, Q Condos, 26 Charles St W, 10 Duke St W, 88 Queen St S, 417 King St W, 50 Borden, Lower Kitchener, Vic and Park, 200 Victoria, 459 Mill, and more hadn't been publicly proposed at that point. So yes it might make sense now to build a 40+ floor building on that property but 4 years ago was a very different time. Now council and staff are okay approving 40+ floor buildings, hell councillor Davey is constantly asking for more height and density for developments (332 Charles, The Metz, 83 Weber and most likely every one at the upcoming meeting) even though councillors like Clancy, and Chapman and sometimes even mayor Vrbanovic dislike the idea.

The question I have is, is why is that all the builder wants to do? Surely they must know they're sitting on a gold mine if they got re-zoned for 40 floors.

It could be a situation where a small developer bought it but doesn't have the finances to go through the ZBA/OPA process and seeing that all the engineering reports had already been completed including site plan all they had to do was find financing to build it which is certainly feasible for a smaller developer.

[CP42]

Anyone else find it funny/sad when realtors from the GTA are posting ads trying to sell KW properties but have no idea what or where the building is?
Saw this ad for an assignment sale at the Bright Building, but the photo was of Circa1877, and claims to be close to “Waterloo University”.

[mastermind]

that's embarrassing

[Chris]

Anyone else find it funny/sad when realtors from the GTA are posting ads trying to sell KW properties but have no idea what or where the building is?
Saw this ad for an assignment sale at the Bright Building, but the photo was of Circa1877, and claims to be close to “Waterloo University”.

On a KW scale it's not close. But if you had someone from TO come here and learn that it's only four stops on the Ion to the UofW, they would think it's close. So ya, locally a little inaccurate but not for the market they are advertising in.