An afternoon in the Twin Cities

[miketoronto]

The other day I had to make a quick little trip to Kitchener-Waterloo, located about two hours west of Toronto. Please don't be made Cambridgeite. :) It was to rushy for me to hang out with you that day, so I will catch you the next time on my trip up to KW.

KW are the centre of Waterloo Region, which is home to about 420,000 people. While mostly suburban, Waterloo Region is a very progressive region, which is has plans in place to increase transit use and decrease car use, protect farmland, limit urban expansion, and support local food production. So it does look like Waterloo Region is trying. Anyway lets start this quick view of the twin cities.

On the Waterloo GO BUS, stopping at Milton Park & Ride, in Milton a north west suburb of Toronto.
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Waterloo Region is planning a light rail line for their central corridor. To prime the area and show that small Canadian cities can attract riders to transit, the IXPRESS rapid bus route was started as an urban transport showcase project. The IXPRESS has been a success and about 20% of riders on the route used to drive.
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A pretty full load on the IXPRESS from downtown Kitchener to Uptown Waterloo.
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Uptown Waterloo. This is the second downtown of the region after downtown Kitchener. Uptown is more higher class and healthy than downtown Kitchener.
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The tallest building in Waterloo Region, the Sun Life Insurance Building.
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Lets go to downtown Kichener. Only a 5 minute bus ride down King Street.
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The 7 Mainline bus corridor along King Street, carries about 14,000 riders a day. More than many light rail lines. You can see why Waterloo Region wants rail here.
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Downtown Kitchener

Suburban malls have hurt downtown Kitchener much worse than Uptown, as you can see from the photos. Downtown Kitchener used to be the big city downtown of the region. Hopefully it will revive. Fairview Park Mall just 5 minutes down the road really sucked life from downtown Kitchener.
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Kitchener City Hall
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Views from the City Hall tower.
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Back down on the street
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Kaufman Lofts
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Victoria Park

In Victoria Park they have these sculptures with people's stories of why they immigrated to Kitchener-Waterloo.
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The clock tower from the old city hall now stands in Victoria Park.
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[DTK2OD]

Great pictures! I'm always surprised at how modern/clean the downtowns of Canadian cities appear (though I'm sure they all have their grittier components). BTW where are you studying Urban Planning? I'm going for my MUP at the University at Buffalo. I figured what better place to study Urban Planning than a city that can act as my classroom.

[boden]

Crispy pics Mike!

[miketoronto]

Great pictures! I'm always surprised at how modern/clean the downtowns of Canadian cities appear (though I'm sure they all have their grittier components). BTW where are you studying Urban Planning? I'm going for my MUP at the University at Buffalo. I figured what better place to study Urban Planning than a city that can act as my classroom.


DTK, downtown Kitchener is anything but modern and clean :) It really is on hard times.

[ue]

I thought this was going to be about MSP! :haha:

[niwell]

Great pics Mike.
And what's up with that awful po-mo TD building? It would be decent if it weren't for those domes. There's something a bit like that on the kingsway section of Bloor in Toronto, just not as egregious.

[ColDayMan]

Neat places!