Margaret Wente recently wrote about a teacher, Lynden Dorval, who was fired for giving students zeros when they didn’t complete assignments. Fellow teachers argued his case: “They told the tribunal that when there are no consequences, a disturbing number of students – quelle surprise! – don’t do the work.” She
Continue readingTag: Waterloo
Yappa Ding Ding: King & University: a traffic problem?
Taxi drivers are saying that they are risking their lives to pick up and drop off passengers outside the new high rises on King Street north of University Ave. The problem is that the buildings have no pull-in area so cabs have to stop on busy King Street. I have
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: King & University: a traffic problem?
Taxi drivers are saying that they are risking their lives to pick up and drop off passengers outside the new high rises on King Street north of University Ave. The problem is that the buildings have no pull-in area so cabs have to stop on busy King Str…
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: King & University: a traffic problem?
Taxi drivers are saying that they are risking their lives to pick up and drop off passengers outside the new high rises on King Street north of University Ave. The problem is that the buildings have no pull-in area so cabs have to stop on busy King Street. I have
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Clara Hughes’ Mental Health Tour
h/t CAAWS Our school had the honour of hosting a visit from Clara Hughes yesterday – six time Olympic winner for cycling and speed skating. She’s biking around Canada – ALL around Canada – talking about mental health. She biked through a snow storm in Woodstock on her way to
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Flag Waving
The twin-cities, Kitchener and Waterloo, have both decided to put a rainbow flag inside city hall for the duration of the Olympics rather than fly one outside the building. From The Record: [Coun. Frank] Etherington [who proposed the motion] was critical of the city’s flag solution. “My argument was (putting the
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Waterloo needs a west-side expressway
Rush hour traffic in uptown Waterloo is a mess. Some of the busiest intersections – William/Caroline, Erb/Caroline – are going to get even worse when the LRT goes through them. What we need to relieve the congestion in uptown is an expressway, or at least a rapid road, on the
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Celebrating History
I’ve got a funny story. A while ago – like months – a colleague asked if I’d do some website or advertising work of some sort for a sesquicentennial event in 2017 crossing Canada and involving high-school history teachers. I’d have to find a way to get high-schools everywhere involved.
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: King & University: Density node? Neighborhood? Mess?
The density at King & University has been a long time coming. When I was a teenager in the 70s, there were already large apartment buildings on Regina Street North. University Avenue in the King-Regina area has been steadily growing with apartments and strip malls. WLU is building more and
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Will/Should John Chen move BlackBerry to California?
I worked at Sybase for eight years under John Chen, the new CEO of BlackBerry. He was an interesting CEO – refreshingly (almost appallingly) frank. I remember he once came to the Waterloo office and told us that our market was shrinking, and that he felt like the captain of
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: If You Build It, They Will Come – Really!
Photo Cred: Harrogate Cycling Group In today’s Record, Jeff Outhit comes very close to suggesting that if we bike in K-W, we should expect to get hit by a car. It’s not safe out there: “…riding a bicycle to work is dangerous and counter to common sense.” Counter to common
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Campaign Diary Volume 9: Sidewalks, snow, public transit & Adlai Stevenson
A sidewalk snow removal machine in Ottawa. Below: Better a hole in the shoe than a hole in the head, as the slogan said. Adlai Stevenson in ’52, campaigning in a bow tie! One of the joys of running for public office in St. Albert, win or lose, is the
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On the On-Going, Never-Ending Regional Bike/Car Conflict
On Friday, I had a conversation in class about cyclists being hit so much in the region because of our culture around cycling here relative to other cities, and then I saw Luisa D’Amato’s article in The Record suggesting cyclists should be licensed to be on the road. First, on
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Let’s rethink the St Jacobs Farmer’s Market
Waterloo woke this morning to the sad news that the main building of the St Jacobs Farmer’s Market had burned to the ground. Already there is an outpouring of sympathy and support to the owner, Mercedes Corp. I am afraid that this post has a somewhat different tone. I think
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: More for Uptown, Part 2: Parks at King and William
At the corner of King and William there are two little parks of identical size and shape. This one, on the east side of King, is called Heritage Green. You can see Knox Presbyterian church in the background. Some years ago the park was partly covered in concrete in an
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Demand more for our uptown
Development in Waterloo is booming. Four large high-rises are going up: 144 Park, 155 Caroline, a condo building in the Barrelyards (Erb and Father David Bauer Drive), and a rental building in the Barrelyards. Many projects are recent or almost finished, like 186/8 King South (The Red). Other large high-rises
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Uptown Waterloo: Where trails go to die
The Iron Horse Trail officially ends at Caroline Street. A few years ago, the Trails committee managed to get the trail unofficially extended along the west side of Caroline as far as William Street: the narrow sidewalk was replaced with a smooth, three meter wide asphalt trail. But even that
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: The Iron Horse Trail in Uptown
There’s a minor uproar in Waterloo over city council’s decision this week to sell a portion of the Iron Horse Trail. I have some concerns about the sale, but I also see some positives. In terms of the usefulness of the trail, this change offers some improvements: The minor route
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: A little respect for downtown residents – please!
I needed to go to Toronto today, and had to cross King Street in Waterloo at the start of my trip. But there was a run of some sort going down King, and cars weren’t allowed to cross. I tried two intersections before I found one that even had a
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: [Not] Solving Traffic Problems in Uptown Waterloo
I attended the Uptown Traffic summit last week. It was a success – over 120 people, lots of careful consideration of the problems that were posed. In the promo for the summit, Ward 1 Councillor Melissa Durrell said, “When I was going door to door campaigning during the election, traffic
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