Kitchener, Ontario

Kitchener, Ontario
Kitchener
—  City  —
City of Kitchener

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Motto: Ex industria prosperitas (Latin: Prosperity through industry)
Location of Kitchener in Waterloo Region
Coordinates: 43°27′N 80°29′W / 43.45°N 80.483°W / 43.45; -80.483Coordinates: 43°27′N 80°29′W / 43.45°N 80.483°W / 43.45; -80.483
Country  Canada
Province  Ontario
Region Waterloo
Founded 1833
Incorporated 1853
Incorporated 1912 (city)
Government
 – Mayor Carl Zehr
Area[1][2]
 – City 136.89 km2 (52.9 sq mi)
 – Land 136.89 km2 (52.9 sq mi)
 – Urban 313.85 km2 (121.2 sq mi)
 – Metro 827.07 km2 (319.3 sq mi)
Population (2006)[1][2]
 – City 204,668 (21st)
 – Density 1,495.2/km2 (3,872.6/sq mi)
 – Urban 422,514 (10th)
 – Urban density 1,346.2/km2 (3,486.6/sq mi)
 – Metro 451,235 (11th)
 – Metro density 545.6/km2 (1,413.1/sq mi)
Time zone EST (UTC−5)
 – Summer (DST) EDT (UTC−4)
Forward sortation area N2A to N2R
Area code(s) 519 and 226
Website www.kitchener.ca

The City of Kitchener (play /ˈkɪtʃɨnər/) is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It was the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916. The city had a population of 204,668 in the Canada 2006 Census. The metropolitan area, which includes the neighbouring cities of Waterloo and Cambridge, has 451,235 people, making it the eleventh largest Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) in Canada and the fifth largest CMA in Ontario.[3] It is the seat of the Waterloo Regional Municipality, and is adjacent to the smaller cities of Cambridge to the south, and Waterloo to the north. Kitchener and Waterloo are often referred to jointly as "Kitchener-Waterloo" (K-W), although they have separate municipal governments. Including Cambridge, the three cities are known as "the tri-cities". Kitchener is also the seat of the Waterloo Region.

The City of Kitchener covers an area of 136.86 square kilometres.

Contents

Geography and climate

Geography

Kitchener is located in Southwestern Ontario,in the Saint Lawrence Lowlands.[4] This geological and climatic region has wet-climate soils and deciduous forests. Located in the Grand River Valley, the area is generally above 300m (1000') in elevation.

Kitchener is the largest city situated within the Grand River watershed, and the largest city on the Haldimand Tract. The Haldimand tract was given to the Six Nations (Haudenosaunee) of the Grand River in 1784 and comprises 6 miles on either bank, for the whole length of the Grand River. Just to the west of the city is Baden Hill, in Wilmot Township. This glacial kame remnant formation is the highest elevation for many miles around. The other dominant glacial feature is the Waterloo Moraine, which snakes its way through the region and holds a significant quantity of artesian wells, from which the city derives most of its drinking water. The settlement's first name, Sandhills, is an accurate description of the higher points of the moraine.

Climate

Climate data for Waterloo Regional Airport
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 14.2
(57.6)		 13.7
(56.7)		 24.4
(75.9)		 29.2
(84.6)		 32.0
(89.6)		 36.1
(97.0)		 36.0
(96.8)		 36.5
(97.7)		 33.3
(91.9)		 29.4
(84.9)		 21.1
(70.0)		 18.7
(65.7)		 36.5
(97.7)
Average high °C (°F) −3.1
(26.4)		 −2
(28)		 3.3
(37.9)		 11.1
(52.0)		 18.6
(65.5)		 23.4
(74.1)		 25.9
(78.6)		 24.7
(76.5)		 20.2
(68.4)		 13.4
(56.1)		 6.1
(43.0)		 −0.2
(31.6)		 11.8
Daily mean °C (°F) −7.1
(19.2)		 −6.4
(20.5)		 −1.2
(29.8)		 5.8
(42.4)		 12.5
(54.5)		 17.3
(63.1)		 19.8
(67.6)		 18.7
(65.7)		 14.3
(57.7)		 8.2
(46.8)		 2.3
(36.1)		 −3.8
(25.2)		 6.7
Average low °C (°F) −11
(12)		 −10.7
(12.7)		 −5.8
(21.6)		 0.4
(32.7)		 6.3
(43.3)		 11.2
(52.2)		 13.7
(56.7)		 12.7
(54.9)		 8.4
(47.1)		 2.9
(37.2)		 −1.5
(29.3)		 −7.3
(18.9)		 1.6
Record low °C (°F) −31.9
(−25.4)		 −29.2
(−20.6)		 −25.4
(−13.7)		 −16.1
(3.0)		 −3.9
(25.0)		 −0.6
(30.9)		 5.0
(41.0)		 1.1
(34.0)		 −3.7
(25.3)		 −8.3
(17.1)		 −15.4
(4.3)		 −27.2
(−17.0)		 −31.9
(−25.4)
Precipitation mm (inches) 64.4
(2.535)		 51.5
(2.028)		 69.9
(2.752)		 76.9
(3.028)		 78.3
(3.083)		 81.3
(3.201)		 91.8
(3.614)		 86.3
(3.398)		 85.8
(3.378)		 65.6
(2.583)		 82.7
(3.256)		 73.6
(2.898)		 907.9
(35.744)
Rainfall mm (inches) 27.9
(1.098)		 25.6
(1.008)		 45.1
(1.776)		 69.1
(2.72)		 77.9
(3.067)		 81.3
(3.201)		 91.8
(3.614)		 86.3
(3.398)		 85.8
(3.378)		 64.5
(2.539)		 70.4
(2.772)		 39.5
(1.555)		 765
(30.12)
Snowfall cm (inches) 43.5
(17.13)		 30.6
(12.05)		 24.1
(9.49)		 7.8
(3.07)		 0.3
(0.12)		 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 1.2
(0.47)		 13.7
(5.39)		 38.5
(15.16)		 159.5
(62.8)
Source: Environment Canada[5]

Kitchener has a humid continental climate of the hot summer subtype (Dfa under the Koppen climate classification); this means that there are large seasonal differences, usually very warm to hot (and humid) summers and cold (to very cold) winters. Compared to the rest of Canada, it has moderate weather. Winter temperatures generally last from the middle of December until the middle of March, while summer temperatures generally occur between the middle of May to close to the end of September. Temperatures can exceed 30℃ (86℉) several times a year. Kitchener has about 140 frost-free days a year.

History

Queen Street, an older section of Kitchener located downtown. St. Mary's General Hospital can be seen in the far distance.

Settlement

In 1784, the land that Kitchener was built upon was an area given to the Six Nations by the British as a gift for their allegiance during the American Revolution; 240,000 hectares of land to be exact. From 1796 and 1798, the Six Nations sold 38,000 hectares of this land to a Loyalist by the name of Colonel Richard Beasley. The portion of land that Beasley had purchased was remote but it was of great interest to German Mennonite farming families from Pennsylvania. They wanted to live in an area that would allow them to practice their beliefs without persecution. Eventually, the Mennonites purchased all of Beasley's unsold land creating 160 farm tracts. By 1800, the first buildings were built,[6] and over the next decade several families made the difficult trip north to what was then known as the Sand Hills. One of these Mennonite families, arriving in 1807, was the Schneiders, whose restored 1816 home (the oldest building in the city) is now a museum located in the heart of Kitchener.[7] Other families whose names can still be found in local place names were the Bechtels, the Ebys, the Erbs, the Weavers (better known today as the Webers) the Cressmans and the Brubachers. In 1816 the Government of Upper Canada designated the settlement the Township of Waterloo.

Much of the land, made up of moraines and swampland interspersed with rivers and streams, was converted to farmland and roads. Wild pigeons, which once swarmed by the tens of thousands, were driven from the area. Apple trees were introduced to the region by John Eby in the 1830s, and several grist- and sawmills (most notably Joseph Schneider's 1816 sawmill, John and Abraham Erb's grist- and sawmills and Eby's cider mill) were erected throughout the area. Schneider built the town's first road, from his home to the corner of King Street and Queen Street (then known as Walper corner). $1000 was raised by the settlers to extend the road from Walper corner to Huether corner, where the Huether Brewery was built and the Huether Hotel now stands; a petition to the government for $100 to assist in completing the project was denied.

Immigration to the town increased considerably from 1816 until the 1870s, many of the newcomers being of German (particularly Mennonite) extraction. Some were from Switzerland, like the founder of The Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company. In 1833 the town was renamed Berlin, and in 1853 Berlin became the County Seat of the newly created County of Waterloo, elevating it to the status of Village.

Post 1850

The extension of the Grand Trunk Railway from Sarnia to Toronto (and hence through Berlin) in July 1856 was a major boon to the community, helping to improve industrialization in the area. Immigrants from Germany, mostly Lutheran and Catholic, dominated the city after 1850 and developed their own newer German celebrations, and influences, such as the Turner societies, gymnastics, and band music. During the First World War Anglophone reaction against all things German led to the abandonment of this heritage. For example, churches switched to English language services. In 1916 following much debate and controversy, the name of the city was changed to Kitchener; named after the late British Field Marshal The 1st Earl Kitchener.[8] After the war, local historians and civic groups promoted a new heritage that emphasized the county's Pennsylvania Dutch roots. Illustrated souvenir books, a popular novel, and site markers celebrated this simplified, nationalistic version of the founding.[9]

On June 9, 1912, Berlin was officially designated a city.[8] On September 17, 1981, the first ever "blue box" recycling program was launched in Kitchener. Today, more than 90% of Ontario households have access to recycling programs and annually they divert more than 650,000 tonnes of secondary resource materials. The blue box program has expanded in various forms throughout Canada and to countries around the world such as the United States, United Kingdom, France and Australia, serving more than 40 million households around the world.

Economy

Benton and Frederick Streets (the name changes at the intersection with King Street in the foreground) form one of the most important corridors for traffic and public transit routes entering Downtown Kitchener

While Waterloo has benefited from the presence of two universities and a number of high tech companies, Kitchener has been a more blue-collar town. The auto-parts manufacturer Budd Canada, now known as Kitchener Frame, continued to employ over 1500 workers until its close in December 2008, due to the ongoing economic crisis. The city is home to four municipal business parks: the Bridgeport Business Park, Grand River West Business Park, Huron Business Park and Lancaster Corporate Centre. The largest, the Huron Business Park, is home to a number of industries, from seat manufacturers to furniture components. A number of the old industrial companies of Kitchener have fallen on harder times: the Kaufman shoe manufacturer closed its factory and companies like Electrohome have ceased local production in favour of licensing or supply agreements with overseas makers, however many other manufacturers like Kuntz Electroplating are still successfully operating within the city. Schneider's Foods (a meat producer) has been bought out by Maple Leaf Consumer Foods, but continues operations in Kitchener. According to the 2006 Census, 24.2% of the labour force is employed in the manufacturing sector.

The city's current city hall opened in September 1993.[10] Your Kitchener Market, the modern incarnation of its historic farmers market, opened in 2004.[11] Other projects include an assortment of lofts, utilizing old factories and other buildings. Various plans for 20 floor condo units have been put in place. By 2009, More than 91% of all downtown office space was fully occupied.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the University of Waterloo school of pharmacy and downtown health sciences campus was officially held on March 15, 2006, and the facility opened in spring 2009. The building is located on King Street near Victoria Street, on the site of the old Epton plant, across the street from the former Kaufman shoe factory (now converted to lofts).

Economic and social impacts from the new health sciences campus have already created positive impacts with significant economic benefits associated with related business activities, and spin off business and industry that will diversify the economy and bring additional jobs to the area.

The redevelopment of the 'Centre Block' in downtown Kitchener has its vision set and is planned to start. It will include a 12 story and an 18 story condominium, more retail spaces, the redevelopment of the Mayfair Hotel and a central courtyard.

In spring 2009, work began on a major redevelopment of King Street, which focuses on making the street more pedestrian-friendly with the addition of wide sidewalks and more aesthetically pleasing features such as new planters. Parking on King Street will also be redesigned. The project will extend from Frederick/Benton Streets to Francis Street. Coinciding with the renovation of King Street is the complete overhauling of Speaker's Corner at the corner of King and Benton Streets, and the transformation of a parking lot at the corner of Charles and Benton Streets into a bright, modern, multi-story parking facility to accommodate the influx of vehicles when new businesses open and other parking lots are redeveloped.

The Province of Ontario has committed to building a new provincial courthouse in downtown Kitchener, on the block bordered by Frederick, Duke, Scott and Weber streets. The new courthouse is expected to create new jobs, mainly for the courthouse itself, but also for other businesses, especially law offices. The new courthouse construction began in 2010.

Demographics

Ethnic origin Population Percent
Canadian 55,465 29.48%
German 47,380 25.18%
English 43,030 22.87%
Irish 29,520 15.69%
Scottish 29,320 15.58%
French 17,620 9.36%
Polish 10,515 5.59%
Dutch 7,240 3.85%
Portuguese 5,350 2.84%
Italian 4,670 2.48%
Source: StatCan (includes multiple responses)[12]

At the time of the Canada 2006 Census, the population of Kitchener was 204,668.[1] As of 2011, the population of Kitchener is estimated to be about 230,000.

Census Population
1841 400
1871 2,743
1881 4,054
1891 7,425
1901 9,747
1911 15,186
1921 21,763
1931 30,793
1941 35,456
1951 44,867
1961 74,485
1971 111,804
1981 139,734
1991 168,282
2001 190,399
2006 204,668

By gender, 49.2% of the population was male and 50.8% was female. Children under five accounted for approximately 6.0% of the resident population of Kitchener, compared to 5.5% in Ontario, and 5.3% for Canada overall. Some 11.7% of the resident population in Kitchener was of retirement age, a smaller proportion of the population compared to 13.6% in Ontario, and 13.7% in Canada. The median age was 37 years, younger than the 39 years for Ontario, and 40 years for Canada. In the five years between 2001 and 2006, the population of Kitchener grew by 7.5%, higher than the growth rates for both Ontario (6.6%) and Canada(5.4%). Population density of Kitchener was 1,495 people per square kilometre.

According to the 2006 Census, 15.4 percent of the population claimed to be members of a visible minority. The largest visible minority groups are: Black: 3.2%, South Asian: 3.1%, Latin American: 2.2%, Southeast Asian: 2.0%, Chinese: 1.4%, and Others.[1]

From the 2001 census, 78.85% of the population adhered to various Christian denominations. Due to the higher concentrations of German Canadians, Protestantism has a greater percentage (41.32%), followed by Roman Catholic (32.44%), while the remaining 5.07% follow other Christian groups such as Eastern Orthodox, LDS, Jehovah's Witness.etc.[13] Other religions include Islam: 2.24%, Hindu: 1.00%, plus others including Judaism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, while 15.6% claim no religious affiliation at all.

Government

Kitchener City Hall

Kitchener is governed by a council of six councillors, representing wards (or districts), and a mayor. As of the 2010 Municipal Election, Kitchener Council will be composed of one Mayor and 10 Ward Councillors.[14] Council is responsible for policy and decision making, monitoring the operation and performance of the city, analyzing and approving budgets and determining spending priorities. The residents of each ward vote for one person to be their city councillor; their voice and representative on city council. Kitchener residents also elect four councillors at large to sit with the mayor on the council of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Municipal elections are held every four years in late October.

The current mayor of Kitchener is Carl Zehr, who was re-elected to his fifth term in October 2010, after first being elected in 1997 and then re-elected in 2000, 2003 and 2006. Before that, he sat as a municipal councillor from 1985-1994. See Kitchener City Council for a complete list of councillors.

In 1976, residents of Kitchener voted almost 2:1 in favour of a ward system. The first municipal election held under the ward system occurred in 1978. In 2010, the city underwent a ward boundary review. A consultant proposed boundaries for a 10 ward system for the 2010 municipal election which means that there will be 4 additional councillors/wards.[15]

The current Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Kitchener Centre is John Milloy. Other MPPs include Michael Harris (Kitchener-Conestoga) and Elizabeth Witmer (Kitchener-Waterloo) who both represent small portions of the city in addition to adjacent areas. The federal and provincial electoral boundaries are now aligned and the federal Members of Parliament (MPs) as follows: Stephen Woodworth (Kitchener Centre), Harold Albrecht (Kitchener-Conestoga) and Peter Braid (Kitchener-Waterloo).

Education

Kitchener has several public high schools, with Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School, founded in 1855, being the oldest. It is located in the northern area of the City not far from the boundary of Waterloo. In the 1950s and 1960s several new schools were constructed, including Eastwood Collegiate Institute in what was then the southeastern part of the city in 1956, Forest Heights Collegiate Institute in the western Forest Heights part of the city in 1964, Grand River Collegiate Institute in the northeastern Heritage Park/Grand River Village area in 1966, and Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute in the southern area of the Downtown core in 1967. In 2006, Huron Heights Secondary School opened in southwest Kitchener. It opened with a limited enrollment of only 9th and 10th grade students, and has since expanded to full capacity in the 2008-2009 school year.

The oldest Catholic high school in the city is St. Mary's High School, which opened in 1907. Originally a girls-only Catholic school, it was transformed into a co-ed institution in 1990 after the closure of the neighbouring St. Jerome's High School, which had been a boys-only Catholic school. The same year, a second Catholic high school, Resurrection Catholic Secondary School, opened in the west of the city. In 2002, St. Mary's abandoned its downtown location in favour of a new one in the city's southwest. The former St. Jerome's High School currently houses the Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work from Wilfrid Laurier University. It opened at this location in 2006, bringing 300 faculty, staff and students to downtown Kitchener.[16] The former St. Mary's High School building, meanwhile, has been transformed into both the head office of the Waterloo Catholic District School Board and the Kitchener Downtown Community Centre.

Conestoga College

The Doon neighbourhood, formerly a separate village but now part of Kitchener, is home to the primary campus of Conestoga College, one of the foremost non-university educational institutions in the province. For nine consecutive years, Conestoga has earned top overall ranking among Ontario colleges on the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) surveys, which measures graduate employment rates and satisfaction levels, and employer and student satisfaction. It is one of only seven polytechnical institutes in Canada.[17]

The University of Waterloo is proceeding with opening a School of Pharmacy in the downtown area. The City of Kitchener has contributed $30 million from its $110 million Economic Development Investment Fund, established in 2004, to the establishment of the UW Downtown Kitchener School of Pharmacy. Construction began in 2006, and the pharmacy program was launched in January 2008 with 92 students. It is operating out of a temporary location pending the completion of construction on the downtown campus.[18]

The school is expected to graduate about 120 pharmacists annually and will become the home of the Centre for Family Medicine, where new family physicians will be trained, as well as an optometry clinic and the International Pharmacy Graduate Program. Construction on the $147 million facility was largely finished in spring 2009.

The provincial government has also announced that the University of Waterloo's (UW) Downtown Kitchener Health Sciences Campus will be the site of a new satellite campus of McMaster University's School of Medicine. The Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine is expected to train 15 doctors a year, primarily through distance learning[19]

The training of medical professionals in downtown Kitchener include developments such as:

  • In 2008, the UW School of Pharmacy began admitting 120 students each year.
  • Eventually, the UW School of Pharmacy campus will evolve to become the UW Downtown Kitchener Health Sciences Campus, offering more programs and bringing hundreds of faculty, staff and students to the downtown core
  • There are plans for an Integrated Primary Health Care Centre on the UW site that will provide as many as 12 more family physicians locally, as well as training for many more medical doctors.
  • The Centre for Family Medicine, which is already up and running in the former Victoria School Centre in downtown Kitchener, is slated to move to the UW campus sometime after it opens. Currently, there are six practicing family physicians in the Centre and plans are to boost that number to as many as 14 family physicians.
  • New physicians trained either at the new Integrated Primary Health Care Centre or the Centre for Family Medicine will learn in and create holistic health care models of the future.
  • In September 2006, the Wilfrid Laurier Faculty of Social Work opened in the former St. Jerome's High School building on Duke Street adding yet another dimension to the "health care" theme in downtown Kitchener.

Health care in Kitchener

Kitchener-Waterloo is served by three hospitals, Grand River Hospital (which is a system of two hospitals), St. Mary's General Hospital, and Cambridge Memorial. Grand River treats patients with a wide range of problems and houses the psychiatric unit, trauma centre, women's and children's services, and the Regional Cancer Care Centre. St Mary's houses the Regional Cardiac Care Centre, serving a population of nearly one million from Waterloo Region, east to Guelph, north to Owen Sound/Tobermory, south to Lake Erie, and west to Ingersoll. It also houses a respiratory centre. Both hospitals have emergency departments and intensive care units. Cambridge Memorial is a general hospital, treating primarily patients from Cambridge and south Kitchener.

Long term rehabilitation and physiotherapy is addressed at the Freeport Health Centre, at the south of the city. Built originally as a tuberculosis sanatorium and home for the terminally ill,[20] its last link with that past is the palliative care unit. It nestles along the banks of the Grand River, and is part of Grand River Hospital.

Family doctors are in short supply in K-W, and a source of great concern among residents. The Chamber of Commerce runs a waiting list for people looking for a doctor, but as of 2006 the wait is over two years. Two urgent care centres cater for much of the routine services for thousands of people without a family doctor, from routine immunisations and health screening, to repeat prescriptions and referral on to specialist services. A third urgent care centre is being added to a renovated supermarket development in the desirable Forest Heights area of the city.

Announced January 2006 was the inauguration of a new School of Medicine attached to the University of Waterloo. From 2007, 15 new family doctors will be trained each year in new premises being constructed in the downtown core on rehabilitated industrial lands along the railway.

In 2009, the mental health unit is slated for relocation from the downtown core to an unused floor at the Freeport site. By this, patients needing mental health care shall gain options for local long term care and monitoring. The current site for the unit is in the basement of the downtown hospital in an area in dire need of renovations and the absence of options for local long-term mental care forces the transfer of such patients to neighbouring London, Ontario.

After renovations, the Child and Adolescent Inpatient Program will be moved from a small 9-bed wing to the downstairs in place of the current adult mental health unit. Once moved in 2009, upwards of 26 beds shall be available to this program.

Culture

Kitchener is home to one of the largest Oktoberfest celebrations outside of Germany.

Kitchener's cultural highlights include CAFKA, The Open Ears Festival, IMPACT theatre festival, the Multicultural Festival, the Kitchener Blues Festival and KidsPark, many of which are free to the public. Kitchener is also home to venues such as Homer Watson House & Gallery, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, JM Drama Alumni and Centre In The Square. Live music by popular artists can be heard at venues such as Centre In The Square and The Aud. The Kitchener Public Library is another community stalwart. Kitchener is also home to independent music label, Busted Flat Records which features the music of many Kitchener-Waterloo based musicians.

Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest

Main article: Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest

Kitchener-Waterloo's Oktoberfest celebration is an annual nine-day event. Based on the original German Oktoberfest, it is billed as Canada's Greatest Bavarian Festival. It is held every October, starting on the Friday before Canadian Thanksgiving and running until the Saturday after. It is the largest Bavarian festival in the world outside of Germany.

While its best-known draws are the beer-based celebrations, other family and cultural events also fill the week. The best-known is the Oktoberfest Thanksgiving Day Parade held on Thanksgiving Day; as it is the only major parade on Canadian Thanksgiving, it is televised nationally. Another icon of the festival is Miss Oktoberfest. This position was formerly selected in a televised beauty pageant, with the applicants coming from across North America. The position is now selected by a closed committee of judges from a panel of local applicants; community involvement and personal character form the main criteria under the new system. A ribald spin-off of the Miss Oktoberfest pageant is celebrated in some local high schools, in which all participants are male, but dressed as women. Also the Cities recently had two local and regional museums built in the region, one being the Waterloo Region Children Museum and the Doon Heritage Museum.

Kitchener-Waterloo in film and music

Various locations in both Kitchener and Waterloo were used to portray the fictional Ontario town of Wessex in the filming of Canadian television sitcom, Dan for Mayor,[21] starring Corner Gas star Fred Ewanuick.

A local folk group, Destroy All Robots, wrote a tongue-in-cheek song jibing the town of Kitchener in the song "Battle Hymn of the City of Kitchener, Ontario".[22]

Kitchener Blues Festival

A 4 day festival in downtown Kitchener dedicated to blues music. The festival has expanded to 5 stages throughout the downtown area, with over 60 performances. The festival has grown from a 1 day event with an attendance of 3,000 to a 4 day event with over 65,000 attending. In 2010 the Kitchener Blues Festival celebrated its 10th year.[23]

Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Festival

This is a 2-day event in Victoria Park commencing usually on the first weekend of the summer. The festival features foods, dance and music from around the world. The festival also showcases several vendors that sell artifacts and crafts from around the world. This festival has been ongoing for well over 40 years. Well over 50,000 attend every year.[24]

Recreation

Kitchener's oldest and most important outdoor park is Victoria Park, in the heart of downtown Kitchener. Numerous events and festivities are held in this park.

A cast-bronze statue of Queen Victoria is located in Victoria Park, along with a cannon. The statue was unveiled in May 1911, on Victoria Day (the Queen's birthday) in the tenth year after her death. The Princess of Wales Chapter of the IODE raised the $6,000 needed for the monument.[25]

Victoria Park

The city has announced the construction of a new Gaukel Street entrance to Victoria Park. Gaukel Street is to be used as a corridor linking Victoria Park to City Hall. The new entrance will include a complete streetscape upgrade on Gaukel Street with new lighting, stamped concrete, and other features. The new entrance to the park itself will include stone masonry gates, walkways, new lighting, flower gardens, a pond complete with waterfalls, and a sculpture created by artist Ernest Daetwyler.

Another significant beauty spot in the city is Rockway Gardens. Adjacent to the Rockway golf course, the gardens occupy a long narrow strip of land alongside King Street as it rushes down to meet the Conestoga Parkway and become Highway 8. Here there are many fountains, ponds, waterfalls and rock grottoes. It is a popular site for wedding photos in the summer months.

Kitchener has an extensive and safe community trail system. The trails, which are controlled and run by the city, are hundreds of kilometres in length. Due to Kitchener's close proximity to the Grand River, several community trails and paths border the river's shores. This convenient access to the Grand River has drawn nature-seeking tourists to the city. However, Kitchener's trails and especially natural areas remain underfunded by city council and as a result, many are not adequately maintained.[26]

A newly constructed bike park located at McLennan park[27] in the city's south end has already been hailed as one of the best city run bike parks in Southern Ontario[28] by BMX and mountain biking enthusiasts. The bike park offers a four-cross (4X) section, a pump track section, a jump park, and a free-ride couse.[29]

Chicopee Ski Club is also located inside city limit.

Transport

Highways and expressways

Highway 401 in Kitchener looking east towards the Grand River.
Highway 8 as seen from Franklin Street bridge.

Kitchener was very proactive and visionary about its transportation network in the 1960s, with the province undertaking at that time construction of the Conestoga Parkway from the western boundary (just past Homer Watson Boulevard) across the south side of the city and looping north along the Grand River to Northfield Drive in Waterloo. Subsequent upgrades took the Conestoga west beyond Trussler Road and north towards St Jacobs, with eight lanes through its middle stretch.

The Conestoga Parkway bears the provincial highway designations of Highways 7 and 8. King Street becomes Hwy 8 where it meets the Conestoga in the south and leads down to the 401, but Old King Street survives as the street-route through Freeport to the Preston area of Cambridge. Up until construction of the Conestoga, Highland Road through Baden had been the primary highway to Stratford. Victoria Street was then and remains the primary highway to Guelph but this is slated to be bypassed with an entirely new highway beginning at the Wellington Street exit and running roughly north of and parallel to the old route.

There are two interchanges with Highway 401 on Kitchener's southern border. In addition to the primary link where Hwy 8 merges into the Hwy 401, there is another interchange on the west side with Homer Watson Boulevard.

In order to reduce the congestion on Highway 8, a new interchange has been proposed on Highway 401 at Trussler Road, which would serve the rapidly growing west side of Kitchener. Although this proposal is supported by the Region of Waterloo, the MTO has no plans to date to proceed with an interchange at Trussler Road.

Destinations from Kitchener
Wellesley Waterloo, Woolwich
via Conestoga Parkway		 Woolwich, Elora, Fergus
Wilmot, Stratford
via Conestoga Parkway		 Woolwich, Guelph
via Highway 7
   Kitchener    
Woodstock
via Highway 401		 North Dumfries, Paris Cambridge
via Highway 8

City streets

Unlike most southern Ontario cities whose streets follow a strict British grid survey pattern, Kitchener's streets are laid out in a complex radial pattern on the Continental models most familiar to the German settlers.

There is good historical reason for this. Kitchener was one of the few places in Ontario where the settlers arrived in advance of government surveyors.[citation needed] The Mennonites who had banded together as the German Company to purchase the township from Richard Beasley simply divided their vast parcel of land by the number of shareholder households and then drew random lots to confer title on individual farms.[citation needed] There was no grid survey done—no lines, no concessions, no right-of-way corridors for roads. When it came time to punch roads through the wilderness, the farmers modelled the road network on what was familiar to them, which was the pattern of villages in Switzerland and southern Germany.

This is a Continental Radial pattern and the result was major streets extended through diagonals cutting across the grid of smaller streets and converging at multiple-point intersections which, as the communities became more prosperous and if the automobile had not displaced the horse, might someday have become roundabouts decorated with circular gardens, fountains or statuary in the style of European cities. Five-point intersections created by converging diagonals are legion in the older areas.

In 2004, roundabouts were introduced to the Region of Waterloo.[30] Besides improving traffic flow, they will help the region lower pollution from emissions created by idling vehicles. In 2006, the first two were installed along Ira Needles Boulevard in Kitchener. Some people argue roundabouts are ideal for intersections in this region because of the aforementioned historical growth along Continental radial patterns versus the British grid systems, but all installs have been at T and cross intersections making the point irrelevant.

For forty years, there has been a sharply controversial plan to extend River Road through an area known as Hidden Valley,[31] but the pressure of traffic and the absence of any other full east-west arterials between Fairway Road and the Highway 401 is now forcing this development ahead.

Most streets that cross the municipal boundary between Kitchener and Waterloo retain the same street name in both cities. However, several streets which are divided into east and west sections in Kitchener shift to a north-south division in Waterloo. This primarily affects Weber and King Streets and Westmount Road. Since these roads do not actually change their primary directional alignment significantly, (Weber Street and King Street, supposedly "Parallel" streets, cross 3 times), the shift in labelling can create confusion, since each of the aforementioned thoroughfares bears the labels north, south, west, and east on certain segments. However, it also reduces the potential confusion that would result from having separate west and east segments of the same street existing simultaneously in both cities.

The problem with giving streets in Waterloo Region compass-based labels, and attempting to divide each of the cities into quadrants comes from the radial layout of the roads, and the historical patterns of development. Waterloo's quadrants, created by the intersection of King and Erb Streets, roughly correspond to compass directions, but Kitchener's quadrants, delineated by King and Queen Streets, do not resemble compass directions whatsoever. A notable case is that of Lancaster Street, which runs almost exactly north-south, but is designated as east-west, since it crosses Queen Street, which divides the "east" and "west" halves of the city, yet follows a northeast-southwest orientation itself.

Public transport

GRT bus

Since 2000, public transport throughout the Region of Waterloo has been provided by Grand River Transit, which was created by a merger of the former Cambridge Transit and Kitchener Transit. GRT operate a number of bus routes in Kitchener, with many running into Waterloo and two connecting to Cambridge. In September 2005, GRT added an express bus route called iXpress from downtown Cambridge through Kitchener to north Waterloo.[32]

In 2003, Regional Council unanimously adopted the Regional Growth Management Strategy. As a response, proposals were put forth regarding a rapid transit system serving the downtown cores of all three cities. An Environmental Assessment was completed in 2009 which recommended a light rail transit route starting from Conestoga Mall in north Waterloo and ending at the Ainslie Street bus terminal in Cambridge. In June 2009, Regional Council voted nearly unanimously for the recommendations in the EA. Regional staff are currently negotiating funding agreements with the provincial and federal governments, to cover the estimated $790-million cost for the system.

On October 31, 2009, GO Transit began to provide service to Kitchener with regional bus service from Charles Street Terminal to Mississauga, Ontario (Square One Bus Terminal) on weekdays and weekends.

Railways

Passenger rail service has long been a point of frustration for residents of Kitchener and its neighbouring cities. Two main lines come westward out of Toronto and then meet up again in London. The northern line passes through Guelph, Kitchener and Stratford to London. The southern line goes along the heavily populated lakeshore to Oakville, then Brantford, then Woodstock, and then to London. This southern line is the primary rail corridor for CN, while the northern line through Kitchener is owned by a short-line railway called the Goderich-Exeter Railway (GEXR). The track and signalling conditions on the north and south route are very different which allows trains on the southern route to operate more frequently and more quickly, whereas trains on the northern route take an 1 hour and 40 minutes on average to get from Kitchener to Toronto and with a single track in use often need to pull into sidings to let oncoming trains pass. Consequently, Kitchener, with a regional population base equal to London and situated much closer to metropolitan Toronto, gets less than one third the frequency of passenger rail service.

Passenger service is provided by Via Rail. Three trains in each direction travelling between Sarnia and Toronto stop at the Kitchener railway station daily. The station is slightly to the northeast of the city's downtown on Weber Street near its intersection with Victoria Street.

GO Transit bus service began in Kitchener on October 31, 2009, connecting to the Milton GO Station and Mississuaga City Centre GO Terminal. The nearest GO Train station to Kitchener is Milton station. City councillors and public petitions have called for the extension of GO Train service to the Region of Waterloo. On September 2008, GO Transit announced a feasibility study into extending GO train service on the Georgetown line through Guelph to Kitchener, with service beginning in 2011 contingent on a source of funding.[33]

Freight trains in Kitchener are operated by the Goderich-Exeter Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway. These railways serve several customers (including ThyssenKrupp Budd), many of which are located in industrial parks in southern Kitchener.

Air

The closest airport to Kitchener is the Region of Waterloo International Airport in nearby Breslau, but while it is a thriving general-aviation field, it is not heavily served by scheduled airlines. Most air travellers use Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport or John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport. WestJet has scheduled daily non-stop service to Calgary from Waterloo International Airport using Boeing 737-700 aircraft. They started service out of Waterloo International Airport on May 14, 2007, for the summer season and then decided to fly year-round due to strong passenger demand. As of June 27, 2010, Westjet also flies non-stop daily from Waterloo International Airport to Vancouver. Bearskin Airlines started offering service in the fall of 2007 with three flights daily between Kitchener and Ottawa using a Fairchild Turboprop aircraft. Strong demand has resulted in Bearskin Airlines adding a fourth flight on Fridays. During the winter months Sunwing Airlines offers service to Dominican Republic. Recent upgrades to the runways, approach lighting and terminal building have permitted larger aircraft to use this airport. Air Canada has been in talks with the Region with an eye on starting flights to Montreal and Porter Airlines has been discussing offering flights to Toronto Island.

Media

Main article: Media in Waterloo Region

Neighbourhoods

Districts within Kitchener
Westmount, Cherry Hill Mount Hope, Breithaupt Park, Northward Bridgeport, Bridgeport West, Bridgeport North
Beechwood Forest, Forest Heights, Forest Hill, Victoria Hills, Highland West/Highland Hills Central Frederick, Heritage Park, Rosemount, Grand River Village North
   downtown    
Country Hills West, Huron Park, Laurentian Hills, Laurentian West, Williamsburg Centreville, Sunnyside, Kingsdale, Rockway, Alpine Village, Country Hills, Country Hills East, Doon, Pioneer Park, Pioneer Tower West, Brigadoon, Deer Ridge, Cedar Hill Chicopee, Idlewood, Lackner Woods, Stanley Park, Eastwood, Grand River Village

Officially there are 6 wards, and 53 planning communities or neighbourhoods.[34] There are also 30 neighbourhood associations recognized by the city, which in some cases do not correspond to the names and boundaries of planning communities designated by the City. In some cases the neighbourhood associations cover several neighbourhoods and/or planning communities and the name of one neighbourhood is sometimes used to refer to the entire area. The Stanley Park Neighbourhood Association, for example, covers much of the eastern and southeastern area of the city including the planning communities of Stanley Park, Heritage Park, Idlewood, and Grand River North and South. Further complicating things, is that the first area of development named Stanley Park, which is where Stanley Park school is located and where Stanley Park Conservation Area is located, has been included within the city's planning district of Heritage Park, leaving only later-developed areas of Stanley Park plus an adjacent residential neighbourhood to the south, originally referred to as Sunnyside, in the Stanley Park planning neighbourhood. The Forest Heights Neighbourhood Association includes the Forest Heights neighbourhood/planning district to the east of Forest Heights proper.[35] At the next city council elections, (2010) there will be ten wards, as recently voted at council, in order to better represent the residents of Kitchener. Boundaries were finalized in 2008.[36]

Real estate

Kitchener-Waterloo has an affordable real estate market compared to locations closer to Toronto. Real estate in the Hidden Valley area is the most expensive in Kitchener.

Sports teams and leagues

Notable Kitchener natives and residents

Academia

Athletics and sports

Business

Literature

Music, entertainment, and the arts

Politics

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Kitchener (city) community profile". 2006 Census data. Statistics Canada. http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/prof/92-591/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CSD&Code1=3530013&Geo2=PR&Code2=35&Data=Count&SearchText=Kitchener&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&Custom=. Retrieved 2011-01-28. 
  2. ^ a b "Kitchener (Census metropolitan area) community profile". 2006 Census data. Statistics Canada. http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/prof/92-591/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CMA&Code1=541&Geo2=PR&Code2=35&Data=Count&SearchText=Kitchener&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&Custom=. Retrieved 2011-01-28. 
  3. ^ "Population and dwelling counts, for census metropolitan areas, 2006 and 2001 censuses - 100% data". 2.statcan.ca. 2008-11-05. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/popdwell/Table.cfm?T=205&SR=1&S=3&O=D&RPP=33. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  4. ^ [1][dead link]
  5. ^ Environment Canada—[2]. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
  6. ^ "City of Kitchener". Kitchener.ca. http://www.kitchener.ca/visiting_kitchener/history.html. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  7. ^ [3].
  8. ^ a b [4].
  9. ^ Geoffrey Hayes, "From Berlin to the Trek of the Conestoga: A Revisionist Approach to Waterloo County's German Identity," Ontario History, Nov 1999, Vol. 91 Issue 2, pp 131-149
  10. ^ "City of Kitchener". Kitchener.ca. http://www.kitchener.ca/city_hall/ch_facility/ch_facilities.html. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  11. ^ [5][dead link]
  12. ^ Selected Ethnic Origins, for Census Subdivisions (Municipalities) With 5,000-plus Population - 20% Sample Data on Kitchener, Ontario. StatCan, census year 2001, catalogue no. 97F0024XIE2001006, released January 21, 2003
  13. ^ "2001 Community Profiles". 2.statcan.ca. 2002-03-12. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/profil01/CP01/Details/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CMA&Code1=541__&Geo2=PR&Code2=35&Data=Count&SearchText=Kitchener&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&Custom=. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  14. ^ [6][dead link]
  15. ^ "City of Kitchener". Kitchener.ca. http://www.kitchener.ca/city_hall/ward_boundary_review_background.html. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  16. ^ "Downtown Kitchener, Ontario, Canada - WLU Faculty of Social Work". Downtownkitchener.ca. http://www.downtownkitchener.ca/news/wilfrid_laurier_faculty_social/. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  17. ^ "College Profile / Stats | Among Canada & Ontario's Leading Colleges & Polytechnic Institutes | Conestoga College". Conestogac.on.ca. http://www.conestogac.on.ca/about/profilestats.jsp. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  18. ^ "UW launches pharmacy program with 92 students | News, Media, and Events | University of Waterloo". Newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca. 2008-01-16. http://newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca/news.php?id=4935. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  19. ^ "Satellite Medical School announced for UW's Downtown Kitchener Health Sciences Campus | News, Media, and Events | University of Waterloo". Newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca. 2006-02-10. http://newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca/news.php?id=4681. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  20. ^ Uttley, W.V.: "A History of Kitchener, Ontario", pp.404-406. WLU Press, Waterloo, 1975 (reprint) ISBN 0889200246
  21. ^ http://news.therecord.com/article/431994
  22. ^ [7][dead link]
  23. ^ http://www.kitchenerbluesfestival.com/
  24. ^ http://www.kwmc.on.ca/html/festival.html
  25. ^ Kitchener Public Library Trivia Page
  26. ^ Staff report regarding state of Kitchener's park system
  27. ^ "Take the Lane: Kitchener's new bike park". Therecord.blogs.com. 2007-07-21. http://therecord.blogs.com/take_the_lane/2007/07/kitcheners-new-.html. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  28. ^ http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/565847
  29. ^ "City of Kitchener". Kitchener.ca. http://www.kitchener.ca/pdf/parks_mclennan_bike.pdf. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  30. ^ [8][dead link]
  31. ^ "Strengthening Community". Waterlooians.ca. http://www.waterlooians.ca/index.php?view=41. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  32. ^ "Transit Programs in GRT". Grt.ca. http://www.grt.ca/web/transit.nsf/5f22897663adffc585256e5a005c53df/b719b358a4be8bbb85256f4e005b07c6!OpenDocument. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  33. ^ Swayze, Kevin (2008-09-25). "GO wants trains to Kitchener by 2011". Kitchener Record. http://news.therecord.com/article/419977. Retrieved 2008-10-03. 
  34. ^ "City of Kitchener". Kitchener.ca. http://www.kitchener.ca/maps/maps.html. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  35. ^ "City of Kitchener". Kitchener.ca. http://www.kitchener.ca/city_hall/departments/community_services/community_program/neighbourhood_assoc.htm. Retrieved 2011-03-03. 
  36. ^ [9][dead link]

External links

Waterloo Woolwich
Wilmot Cambridge
   Kitchener    
North Dumfries
v · Regional Municipality of Waterloo
Cities
Cambridge · Kitchener · Waterloo
Townships
Regional services
See also: Communities in Waterloo Region · Census divisions of Ontario

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