Published in The Record on Thurs, April 26, 2018
The Record's even-handed portrayal of the values at play in the region's development onslaught - change versus the joys of home - masks the actual interests at stake. These are political and economic. They amount to the clash between plutocracy - the rule of the rich - and democracy - the rule of the common people.
I know a developer. He's a nice guy. But a developer is a corporation and its interests are necessarily the increase in the quarterly rate of return on its owners' investment. Their interests cannot be those of the common people, we who inhabit the homes and streets and locales that their "developments" intrude upon. Our interests are in livable communities, diverse neighbourhoods, lively and accessible city centres, above all, places where what we say goes.
We've seen the devastation highrise towers have caused in the area of Waterloo bounded by King, University, Albert and Columbia. To not have that in Kitchener - it's already underway - we need to get behind the people of midtown as they fight to get the city to obey its own laws and limit the height of the proposed tower in the Breithaupt Block to six storeys, a modest change to the developer's design. It's a potentially precedent-setting decision, portentous for the rest of Kitchener's “development."
This is not about NIMBYism or the joys of home. It's about who's going to determine the material and living fabric of our lives together - the corporate rich and their particular councillors, or the common people of Kitchener's communities. As always, the quality of our lives is in our hands. It's up to us.
Peter Eglin, Kitchener
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