[WaterlooInvestor]

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[Cambridgite]

Awesome pics. I like how you included some of the prewar housing stock in there. IMO, the quality and condition of KW's prewar housing is a big strength. I've taken an even more extensive set of photos from around the region and I'd like to post them in a thread similar to the one's Flar does for Hamilton, but I'm having problems using link for my pictures in Photobucket.

[rousseau]

Awesome pics. I like how you included some of the prewar housing stock in there. IMO, the quality and condition of KW's prewar housing is a big strength.
Whoa, hello...pardon me? Prewar housing stock in KW a strength? Are we talking about the same region? The older housing stock in the area is extremely paltry. In terms of KW, only the western part of Galt has neighbourhoods that can match even a town of 30,000 like Stratford in terms of intact streets of century homes. KW most certainly is not an area full of charming older homes and streets.

One of the confounding things that prevented my wife and I from moving to Waterloo instead of Stratford a few years ago was that there was absolutely nothing to choose from in terms of older real estate compared with St. Ratford. And of course, it goes without saying that KW is far, far inferior to a place like Guelph in this aspect. It's a shame, because we'd actually quite hoped to live in Waterloo for various reasons, but you can count the number of older houses in desirable neighbourhoods there on one hand.

[HAMRetrofit]

That housing stock doesn't look very intriguing to be honest. The loft conversion projects look promising and the UW campus downtown is a novel idea.

[DC83]

wow... such a hot City Hall!
Was it designed by Bruce Kuwabara?

So many loft conversions, too.
Can't wait to pay a visit for OKTOBERFEST!!

[WaterlooInvestor]

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[Cambridgite]

Whoa, hello...pardon me? Prewar housing stock in KW a strength? Are we talking about the same region? The older housing stock in the area is extremely paltry. In terms of KW, only the western part of Galt has neighbourhoods that can match even a town of 30,000 like Stratford in terms of intact streets of century homes. KW most certainly is not an area full of charming older homes and streets.

One of the confounding things that prevented my wife and I from moving to Waterloo instead of Stratford a few years ago was that there was absolutely nothing to choose from in terms of older real estate compared with St. Ratford. And of course, it goes without saying that KW is far, far inferior to a place like Guelph in this aspect. It's a shame, because we'd actually quite hoped to live in Waterloo for various reasons, but you can count the number of older houses in desirable neighbourhoods there on one hand.

I know West Galt is nice, especially around Blair Road or Landsdowne. But does the neighborhood have to be super-wealthy if its going to be nice?

"you can count the number of older houses in desirable neighbourhoods there on one hand"

I respectfully disagree. If you're JUST talking about the city of Waterloo, its uptown area housing stock isn't that great. That's mostly because the houses are rented by students, who have no motivation to keep them in good shape. It's at is worst behind Wilfred Laurier. The only really nice area for Waterloo is the area south-west of Uptown (old Westmount) and a little bit east of Sunlife as well. For downtown Kitchener, there are numerous areas, although they're largely hidden. My personal favourite is Victoria Park. Another nice area is north of the Civic district with its gas lamps, mature trees, and well-manicured properties. The neighborhoods off Frederick are nice as well. The homes around the KW Hospital are more modest and middle-income, but certainly look intact IMO. The only "bad" area I know of is around King and Cedar. Even that is pretty tame. So I'm not familiar with all these "bad neighborhoods" you speak of. What really bad neighborhoods are you talking about?

If you're talking about downtown itself, Guelph is nicer, hands down. But I disagree that Guelph blows Kitchener out of the water if you're talking about the adjacent neighborhoods. I think they're pretty comparable.

[Cambridgite]

What's the problem? Can you take a print screen and maybe we can help?

Here's an example of me trying to show the image.

http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb210/Cambridgite/?action=view&current=Picture116.jpg

For some reason, it's not allowing me to paste the print screen. For reference, I followed the link format (without spaces) and it's a ".jpg", so I have no idea why it wouldn't work.

Here's what my photo looks like, but it has to go into photobucket to access it.

http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb210/Cambridgite/?action=view&current=Picture116.jpg

[Cambridgite]

Hmm, hang on, maybe using capital letters will do it. (crosses fingers)

http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb210/Cambridgite/?action=view&current=Picture116.jpg

[jeremy_haak]

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb210/Cambridgite/Picture116.jpg?t=1191432675

I suspect the problem is that you were copying the URL (which was confusingly finished with .jpg) rather than the actual image link.

[Cambridgite]

Hmm, let's see if this works.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb210/Cambridgite/Picture114.jpg

[Cambridgite]

:previous: Sweet! Thanks Jeremy_Haak. :)

[rousseau]

I know West Galt is nice, especially around Blair Road or Landsdowne. But does the neighborhood have to be super-wealthy if its going to be nice?
Didn't say that.

For downtown Kitchener, there are numerous areas, although they're largely hidden. My personal favourite is Victoria Park. Another nice area is north of the Civic district with its gas lamps, mature trees, and well-manicured properties. The neighborhoods off Frederick are nice as well.
Still paltry, though, and not even close to the plethora of great streets that surround Guelph's downtown around the park and north of the river. It's no contest.

It's the old cliche writ large: population-wise K-W is an up-and-comer, but the problem is the growth has mostly been in the form of suburban postwar development. This is why places like London blow K-W out of the water in terms of charming streets and neighbourhoods full of older housing.

I wasn't specifically talking about "bad" neighbourhoods in my post.

[Cambridgite]

Didn't say that.


Still paltry, though, and not even close to the plethora of great streets that surround Guelph's downtown around the park and north of the river. It's no contest.

It's the old cliche writ large: population-wise K-W is an up-and-comer, but the problem is the growth has mostly been in the form of suburban postwar development. This is why places like London blow K-W out of the water in terms of charming streets and neighbourhoods full of older housing.

I wasn't specifically talking about "bad" neighbourhoods in my post.

Alright, think I see what you're saying now. Do you mean that pre-war housing takes up a rediculously low portion of KW's footprint? If so, I agree wholeheartedly. It would also help if main roads like Victoria, Queen, and the non-downtown parts of King were mixed-use streets, rather than parking lots, gas stations, autobody shops, and the odd old house.

While it's not that Guelph and London don't have their fair share of burbs, I think KW's portion is way higher. KW does also lack a riverfront location. There's Victoria Park and Waterloo Park, but not many other natural features to spruce things up. It's a little mundane in that sense, but I don't think there's anything wrong with the housing stock, or the streetscapes that do exist.