After Conestoga College announced it’s closing its downtown #Kitchener campus and laying off 150 staff, we’re already starting to see knock-on effects.
I went out for dinner last night, and three different restaurants were closed at 7:30pm on a Wednesday. Two had lights off with no sign on the door, the other said “temporarily closed as of April 27”. These are all independent businesses that opened in the last few years thanks in part to the new downtown college campus. Hard times :(
So proud of Maribel and her neighbours for standing up against bad faith renoviction by real-estate-investor-slug Mike Beer 💥 Tenant unions work!
https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/tenants-fight-back-at-renoviction-attempt-and-win/article_338b9e22-9f38-5f4f-8537-7ff72e96edda.html #WatReg #Housing
☝️yay! I have floated this balloon a few times, and finally got traction.
We've got a bonafide Signal group for anybody in the vaguely Guelph-ish area!
This is region-specific not mastondon-specific, btw. So if you know anyone not on fedi that would still be interested, DM me for a link to share. Open to anyone interested in building local community and connections - very #spoonie friendly, btw.
#Guelph #KWAwesome #WatReg #Waterloo #Kitchener #WaterlooRegion #CambridgeON
@waterlooregion
@preinheimer We’ve found that group in the Living Wage Network and the Better Way Alliance (both of which have a more-than-representative membership from #WatReg)
Made a little update to our online shop at https://shop.fullcirclefoods.ca to show a 🍁 next to our Canadian products. Haven't labelled all the products yet but hopefully that'll be done tomorrow. We've always focused on supporting local producers but now is the time to swap out a few of the remaining American brands. #ShopLocal #CdnPoli #CanPoli #WatReg
#WatReg Open Letter to CAO: Seeking aid for Unsheltered in face of current Extreme Weather Crisis https://www.change.org/p/open-letter-to-cao-seeking-aid-for-unsheltered-in-face-of-current-extreme-weather-crisis
Open call for artists who need space in #WatReg — Meanwhile Spaces is a pilot program to make use of vacant buildings for artists of all kinds! Please boost, tag an artist, and apply by Feb 21: https://www.artsbuildontario.ca/spaces/meanwhilespaces/
Brand new advocacy group in #Wilmot #WatReg comes out swinging with this video. Perfect timing to galvanize public support for the farmers as we head into a year of elections. #OnPoli @kthomason https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ux-heBQXMiM
At 3pm (EST) I'll be interviewing Margaret Walker, organizer of the "Vigil for the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women" on @radiowaterloo.ca Listen to the radio at CKMS-FM 102.7, or online at https://radiowaterloo.ca/listen
The vigil takes place today, 6 December 2024 at 5:30pm (EST) at St. Columba Anglican Church, 250 Lincoln Road, #Waterloo.
#CommunityRadio #WaterlooRegion #WatReg #Montreal #EcolePolytechnique
My letter about the #police budget was published by Cambridge Today 😎#WaterlooRegion #WatReg #Kitchener #Waterloo #CBridge #OnPoli https://www.cambridgetoday.ca/letters-to-the-editor/letter-police-could-be-asked-to-solve-more-than-just-crimes-9907831
My email to #WatReg council ahead of tomorrow's vote to consider reducing the police budget increase from $24M to $20M.
Councillors' email addresses are here if you have something to say: https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/regional-council-members.aspx
Meeting agenda: https://pub-regionofwaterloo.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?Id=aba0a642-b747-4f1e-b2ce-89e827bced36&Agenda=Merged&lang=English
Followed hashtags don't migrate, and weirdly you can't find a hashtag to manually follow it if you haven't federated with enough instances yet for those hashtags to have been used.
So I'm writing a post with some of my hashtags so I can click on them and follow them.
#Kitchener #Waterloo #WatReg #WaterlooRegion #RTZ #WeTheNorth #WNBA #Drupal #PHP #WordPress #Mennonite #Anabaptist #H5P #CarryShitOlympics #Bloomscrolling #WRAwesome #KWAwesome #PowerPlatform #Microsoft365 #SharePoint
@oldladyplays Count me in as a friend to the #WatReg trans community! 🏳️⚧️
@oldladyplays Big love to the trans folks in my life who make this community brighter and better. Also they have the best jokes 🏳️⚧️ #WatReg
Great profile of #WatReg's ambassador of the avant-garde and #diy. Chris is a real one. https://communityedition.ca/the-extremes-of-fashion-the-last-shop-on-earth/
This Sunday, I'll be discussing the pressures of urban sprawl and how we can build better communities, together with Mark Reusser from the Waterloo Federation of Agriculture and prolific council-watcher and community-builder @dtkmelissa ❤️
Some pretty awesome new routes in GRT's 2025-2030 Strategic Plan:
1) Super-express highway route to better connect KW with Cambridge (this would be a game changer with bike + bus)
2) Expanding overnight routes beyond just the #91 late night loop (+ service for industrial shift workers!)
Lots more here: https://www.grt.ca/en/about-grt/grt-business-plan-2025-2030.aspx
My only disappointment is not seeing better connection to Breslau & the new planned GO Train station there.
The mayors' motion asks "provincial and federal governments to take on intervenor status in the case of court decisions that restrict the ability of municipalities to regulate and prohibit encampments".
They're talking about court decisions like this one, where Justice Valente upheld encampment residents' charter rights and said the municipality couldn't clear the encampment while there remains a lack of shelter space in #WatReg. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/encampment-victoria-kitchener-region-waterloo-evict-1.6729433
Canada offered $250m to find shelter for those in encampments. Ontario, Alberta, and Sask are doing nothing and leaving that money on the table. So the feds are now going directly to municipalities to get some action before winter (https://www.canada.ca/en/housing-infrastructure-communities/news/2024/10/statement-by-minister-sean-fraser-on-status-of-negotiations-with-provinces-and-territories-to-address-encampments.html).
Except Ontario's big city mayors seem more interested in asking the feds to help them violate human rights by clearing encampments, and implementing forced treatment for unhoused folk: (https://www.ontariobigcitymayors.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Motion-on-Homelessless-Mental-Health-and-Addictions-Crisis-October-18-2024-FINAL.docx-1.pdf)
