Open Blog
OpenFile Waterloo is on hold for now
We launched OpenFile Waterloo Region earlier this year as part of our roll-out of seven collaborative local news sites.
We’ve learned a tremendous amount, and these lessons have informed a new strategy that will take OpenFile to its next stage of evolution. One of the many changes we’re making over the coming months is to put our Waterloo site on hold.
It’s not an ideal situation, but our goal is to come back with something better—something that serves you and will survive and thrive.
I want to be clear that OpenFile is still committed to collaborative online local news. We announced this week that we’re...
Restaurants have fun with beer
In Waterloo Region, there is a growing beer culture that you get a sense is gaining a very real foothold as it climbs away from dank beer halls and student bars and toward craft brew-pubs and specialized artisanal beers. That's a long way away from dad's "union made" Black Horse beer in the stubby.
Where the last half-decade or so has seen the likes of ABInBev and other massive conglomerates buying up distinctive and local beer producers (Sapporo Brewery’s take over of Guelph’s Sleeman Brewery Ltd. is just one example), it's good to remember that Waterloo's Brick Brewing Company is still going strong and...
Why I love local food
It cost me $7, and it was one of the nicest pasta dishes I’ve had in a while.
Dressed with a simple sauce of a just a bit of butter and good olive oil, a few random herbs I had at hand tossed in, a pinch or two of chili flakes. It was a great marriage of simplicity. And it was a frozen product. Yes, frozen.
However, the distinguishing feature was that this frozen pasta was very local: asparagus from Barrie's in Cambridge, stuffed lovingly into ravioli made by a Cambridge family who run the National Pasta company. Twenty good sized ravioli for well under $10: they would have served four nicely as an appetizer (but I ate...
.jpg "Nicholas Rees, The Anvil. Duke Street, behind Kitchener city hall.")
On the trail of public art
Following a recent visit to Chicago where I was impressed with the number and sizes of some works of public art, I decided to explore how Kitchener and Waterloo embrace public art and perhaps rival that of larger cities.
The Anvil, by Nicholas Rees, located behind Kitchener City Hall on Duke Street, is just one such example of public art.
Kitchener's works of art are distributed widely throughout the city. According to their website, "the best forms of public art explore our diversity, tell our stories, and welcome artists to use creativity and imagination to make our public spaces landmarks and...
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LRT barn-raising needed in Waterloo Region
Waterloo Region is a community that was built and has thrived on the principle of barn-raising, in which the community comes together and collaborates to create something greater than its parts.
This is the challenge ahead with the proposal for light rail transit (LRT) in Waterloo Region. The spirit of people investing time, talent and treasure in the future of our community is exactly what has brought Waterloo Region to where it is now, and it is what is needed to pave the way for future generations.
While there is little doubt that Waterloo Region is growing...
The election that was
What started as a mundane affair, which some candidates and voters called a needless election campaign and one too many in a fairly short span of time, turned into a Conservative majority coupled with an NDP surge that has rewritten Canadian elections history.
Conservative blue ruled Waterloo Region: Gary Goodyear in Cambridge, Stephen Woodworth in Kitchener-Centre, Harold Albrecht in Kitchener-Conestoga and Peter Braid in Kitchener-Waterloo have been returned to Ottawa. Incumbent Liberal Gary Schellenberger took Perth-Wellington.
Local voices defined the 2011 election campaign for us here at OpenFile.
During the course of the 36-day campaign, our reporters talked...
Seeing red or déjà "Blue" on May 2?
Editor's note: Paul Stickney is affiliated with Conservative incumbent Harold Albrecht's re-election campaign in Kitchener–Conestoga.
On Monday if you’re expecting change in Waterloo Region you will be in for disappointing results.
What started out as a relatively boring election has turned into a roller-coaster ride that could drastically change the face of Parliament on election night.
The recent surge in support for Jack Layton’s NDP was not expected by any of the leading political pundits. Layton’s strong leaders' debate...
A view from the fringe
During a 2000 campaign rally in Kitchener, Julian Ichim doused then Canadian Alliance Party Leader Stockwell Day with chocolate milk.
A Kitchener resident, Ichim also brought a Kitchener council meeting to a screeching halt in 2005 and was arrested at the Toronto G20 Summit in June 2010, although the charges were eventually dropped.
Like him or hate him, Ichim is a long-time Waterloo Region political activist who works with society’s disenfranchised, striving to get to the heart of their social issues – from poverty, and illiteracy to unemployment. He is running in the Kitchener-Waterloo riding as the Marxist-Leninist candidate.
At a Kitchener-Waterloo riding all-...
Waterloo Region cheering for PlayBook's success
Last week, the Research in Motion (RIM) tablet hit the market. The long anticipated PlayBook, released by the creators of the BlackBerry to challenge Apple’s popular iPad, was called one of RIM’s “most important product launches in (its) 27-year history” by The Waterloo Region Record.
RIM is Waterloo’s baby, and people in the Region are paying close attention to the PlayBook’s reviews and forecasts. That is bound to put some pressure on the community where about 8,000 RIM workers are employed (and 12,000 around the world).
The Financial Post...
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Are roundabouts pedestrian crapshoots?
Do you feel safe walking across a roundabout? Does anyone?
All around the Region of Waterloo, traditional intersections are giving way to roundabouts. Consider Ira Needles Boulevard, which runs north/south along the west side of Waterloo and Kitchener and is completely lacking in stop lights and four-cornered intersections. It’s roundabouts from top to bottom.
While there’s evidence that roundabouts are safer and more efficient for drivers, the same does not necessarily hold for pedestrians. Many people feel vulnerable and unsafe walking across roundabouts. There’s good reason for this unease.
Now your regional government has a...
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