Wow. What an open slate. City planning as it pertains to Kitchener. Hmmm...Where should I start. I will focus on downtown Kitchener, which is the place I know best.
Well, let me begin by saying that at least downtown Kitchener has a great vibe. You may not think it by the large number of (I'll admit it) seemingly frightening youth hanging around the street, but it really has a lot of great things to offer. Let me start by mentioning the Queen Street Commons Cafe. It is a great place to get decent, affordable meal while potentially meeting up, or just plain meeting, some great folks. I say this as a long-time community organizer, who has attended and run many a meeting between its wall. So...if you happen to be the type who is not happy with the status quo (social inequality, environmental degradation, political manipulation etc. etc. etc.) and want to see change, the Commons is a great places for catalyzing change.
Thus is the reason I have started by writing about the Commons. It is too bad that the smaller town (Waterloo - no offence, it happens to be where I'm from) to the north does not have something similar.
Kitchener has a lot of other great things going for it. There is the bus station at its core. Which makes everything so accessible when located downtown.
Stunned I was about a month ago when I discovered that the Kitchener Public Library is a stones throw (i.e. five minute walk) from the station. Which is amazing, given that the KPL also happens to be just down the street from Centre in the Square, a hub for musical and arts performances in the area. Not to mention some great historical buildings like the Church of the Good Shepherd and the Civics Centre District which may be designated as a heritage conservation district. How absolutely marvellous is that! And of course there's Kitchener City Hall, which is just around the corner from the bus station. A great place to visit all year round, with its large rotunda for meetings and events, and its outdoor fountain/ice rink, which is particularly great attraction in the winter. Then there is also Victoria Park, which is a lovely place, although undoubtedly in need of improvements, many of which have perhaps not been officially recognized.
In addition to the Queen Street Commons, which I already mentioned, there are a whole bunch of great little cafes/restaurants that have sprung up in this downtown area. Cafe Pyrus (another of my favourites), Transfers (supposedly much improved), and Nova Era (which really isn't in the downtown, but is close enough that I've made an exception) are some that spring to mind of me and my fellow wiki'ers.
There are some less attractive points about downtown Kitchener, I should mention. The main one is that the train station is BLOCKS away from the bus station. Not a very brilliant decision. Fortunately, this problem may be remedied with the creation of a multi-modal hub at King and Victoria streets to handle train, bus, and rapid-transit services.
Another problem is, well, the lack of gardening space. Supposedly Queens Greens Community Garden is a terrific space, but is sorely lacking on garden plots. Maybe an assessment of downtown flat rooftops is needed, to expand this resource? Nothing like some green space to cool the downtown from the "urban heat island" effect. The downtown has a tonne of such spaces which could be used (i.e. corner of Queen and King, on the side of the Walpur Hotel).
A Mother's Perspective
As a new mother, I can also comment on something I just realized, which is the lack of daycare services. Rumour has it that the City of Kitchener used to have a summer camp, but this was cancelled about six years ago or so. Of the cafes that I have explored in the downtown, so far the Queen Street Commons Cafe stands out as the one I remember with a change table. The others I have explored include Coffee Culture, at the corner of Queen and King, and Misty Mountain Coffee on Queen. Pretty sure neither (well, at least the former) had change tables, and Coffee Culture requires you to descend down a long, steep staircase before you reach their bathrooms. Not the safest for carrying a baby.
