General Urban Cambridge Updates and Rumours

[nms]

I wonder how much of his business is with meal delivery services like Uber Eats or Skip the Dishes? That could explain a desire for easy car access.

[bravado]

https://www.therecord.com/news/council/c...aa3cd.html

Cambridge city council unanimously voted in favour of Coun. Adam Cooper’s motion Tuesday to direct staff to prepare a report for the year-round conversion of Main Street, between Water and Ainslie streets, to a pedestrian-only area.

The report will be brought forward with the 2025 budget process.
“All of you have seen the overwhelming success we’ve had the last few years of the summer street closure. It’s only grown every year,” Cooper said.

“We’re at a stage right now, we’ve got incredible revitalization of downtown, and this has had a significant part in that.”

Here’s going the staff report isn’t watered down and useless - otherwise a big win.

[bravado]

https://www.cambridgetimes.ca/news/waterloo-region/new-bylaw-prevents-demolitions-in-cambridge-without-rebuild-plan-in-place/article_a6466ede-caf5-5445-b5fa-bc73b9d5096e.html

The City of Cambridge has reinstated a demolition control bylaw, officially designating the municipality as a demolition control area.

Approved unanimously by the council, the bylaw aims to prevent residential demolitions without clear redevelopment plans.

“This bylaw bridges the gap between removing residential options from our community and redeveloping the site,” said senior planner Nicole Goodbrand during her presentation to council.

She explained the bylaw requires developers to obtain a permit before demolishing residential properties, with penalties for unauthorized demolitions or delays in redevelopment.

If we just add a few more regulatory burdens to land owners, they’ll start building all that much-needed infill housing any second now!

[ac3r]

Is anyone even building in Cambridge? Aside from a suburban subdivision and tiny townhouse project here and there, not a whole lot seems to happen in that city.

[bravado]

Is anyone even building in Cambridge? Aside from a suburban subdivision and tiny townhouse project here and there, not a whole lot seems to happen in that city.

Just handfuls of small projects on the list, growth is for other people (and the OLT)

[bravado]

The Indwell project on King St in Preston has some more news - I can't find the original post here because the search function just doesn't seem to work for me:

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...7373b.html

https://archive.ph/ReWDR

The original goal was to have tenants move in late 2026, and Willcock said that timetable is still on track.

“We provide on-site health supports and services, which really is the key to helping people who have experienced homelessness and experienced homelessness for quite a while to stay housed. Experiencing homelessness brings with it lots of trauma that needs to be unpacked and experiences that need to be unpacked and behaviours that need to change, just because you do what you need to do to survive on the street.”

He added the rent for the units are truly affordable, costing about $570 to $580 a month.

One of the asks to the committee of adjustment is requesting a variance to allow only eight residential parking spaces and two commercial spaces instead of the city-required 45 residential spaces and two commercial spaces.

It's a fucking embarrassment that they have to go beg to Council to get the 47 (forty seven!!) required parking spaces down to 10. What a disgrace. This is the real meat and bones of the housing crisis. The thousands of cuts given to potential new housing in the name of arbitrary zoning codes.

[cherrypark]

From the council led by Jan "fine and imprison the homeless" Liggett, no surprise over here.

[bravado]

From the council led by Jan "fine and imprison the homeless" Liggett, no surprise over here.

If it helps, her actual plan is "hope the homeless die/disappear in the woods" before they need to be expensively incarcerated. But I suspect it doesn't help...

[Momo26]

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...c3cb9.html


Galt says NO!

[bravado]

Some local cranks say no and local journalism gives them the headline every time

(Thought I’d correct that for you)

[timc]

They really filled the NIMBY bingo card in this story.

[ac3r]

Some local cranks say no and local journalism gives them the headline every time

(Thought I’d correct that for you)

It's not just local cranks. The reason you rarely hear about individuals or groups that proactively advocate for and educate others in favour of change, progress and new development because the vast majority of people in Cambridge don't want it. Likewise, it's not The Record and other local news outlets having a vendetta against development and thus publish more stories amplifying the voices of NIMBYs or anything like that either. They publish these articles because it's what most people in Cambridge think.

Maybe one day the culture will shift, but it doesn't appear that'll happen any time soon. Homes will become scarcer and employment options stagnate. It'll either get to the point people wake up and seek change, or they'll continue to Complainbridge while the rest of the region subsidizes them.

[bravado]

If KW didn’t have the universities to help add a giant amount of money and influence to city priorities, it’d be the exact same proportion of miserable suburbanites there. There’s no reason for Cambridge to change, because it’s just like every single Ontario city without a university - and they definitely won’t change if the cities next door are condescending dicks every day and voter turnout is in the teens.

Meanwhile, people on the ground trying to delegate and influence community change are fighting their suburbanite neighbours and the people in the city next door who think they’re all scum and change is pointless.

[nms]

Cambridge staff to talk to Home Depot about fountains, but council nixes report on revitalization (CBC)

Councilor Scott Hamilton asked staff to look at the possible costs to revitalize the former Knob Hill Farm fountains.  Mayor Jan Liggett responded in part: 

[Ligget] also urged caution about the financial implications that will come with the motion as the city is facing $39 million in unpaid taxes from 2025 and previous years and more than 6,000 overdue accounts.

Is this level of overdue accounts typical?  I have not concept of how many accounts a City like Cambridge might actually have. Does the 6000 overdue accounts just include City taxes, or are there other types of payments too (eg development fees or parking tickets)?