Our 2nd annual Jane’s Walk is shaping up. Some of us have been planning a route and asking your neighbours to be speakers. Things are still in flux, but the walk will start at 10 am at Lippert Park (on Weber St. across from Louisa). 

Stay tuned! Plans are afoot for another Jane’s Walk in the Mount Hope Neighbourhood. We will post on this BLOG when and where it will start when we have more details.

For a report on last year’s successful walk click here and for part two click here.

See you on the street.

Weber street is the vital artery that bisects our community. It is also the street which has the most divergent pronunciations between locals and visitors. Its name is (of course) German in origin and is derived from a noun meaning “weaver” which is appropriate considering how it “weaves” its crooked route through our two cities. And while it is usually a fast drive throughout its long and varied length, everyone knows there is a big bottleneck between Victoria and Guelph.

The Record has published a good story on plans for its widening. If you are interested in getting more detailed information, or providing some feedback on this process, public consultation is planned April 15 from 5:15 to 8:30 p.m. at St. Teresa Catholic School, 270 Edwin St. in Kitchener. I’m putting this on the BLOG’s calendar for reference.

As Mark Twain once wrote, ‘Everyone complains about the traffic, but no one does anything about it!’. OK, he wrote that about the weather, but if he had lived in Kitchener-Waterloo, he could have written it about the traffic.

Now you can have some feedback into the way our streets are designed and the way they are landscaped, where we put bike lanes, etc. Three public houses will solicit feedback on ideas about planning traffic in different areas of the city. They are being held in Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo.

The Kitchener Open House is being held on April 13, from 6 to 9 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 54 Queen St. N. in Kitchener. Drop by and give the city your input.

This Saturday, a six-foot, three-inch guard for the Harlem Globetrotters will be making his way around town. Catch him at the Kitchener Market from 10 to 11 a.m. — and enjoy an Easter egg hunt while you’re there!

The winter newsletter has been delivered in December (2009) and January (2010). For the past 2 years we have written, published and delivered four newsletters a year with articles of interest for the neighbourhood. We have also advertised programs occurring at the Breithaupt Centre.

This summer we decided not to publish the newsletter. We have had no volunteers to write articles and it has been harder to find people willing to deliver it, even to their own block.

We are still planning to publish a newsletter for the fall, but only if there is interest. If you would like to write an article please email us at mhbpna@gmail.com. In fact, even if you have only a small flickering of an idea for an article it would be a good start. Even if you know someone who might have an idea about an article……you get the idea.

When we started the newsletter a couple of years ago the City of Kitchener printed approx. 5000 copies for us, and we distributed most of them. By this recent winter we were down to about 3000.

We have received much positive feedback for the past issues and articles featuring people in the neighbourhood. But we all have full time jobs and cannot write the content, research all the events that need listing, set up the desktop publishing and then manage the distribution.

If you would like to help in any way with a fall newsletter then please email us. The alternatives would be:
1) produce a smaller amount and make them available at specific places like the Breithaupt Centre or
2) post everything to this BLOG and hope those who are interested follow it and have internet access.

Who are you, Kitchener? It’s an important question. And your answers will help to shape the future of our city!
We welcome and encourage members of your community group to participate in Compass Kitchener’s second Who-are-you-Kitchener? community consultation.

Running from March 5 through May 5, 2010, we’re looking to engage as many Kitchener residents and community stakeholders as possible in this important community conversation about our city’s future. 



There are lots of simple ways that you can be part of the discussion – as a group or as individuals:
Attend a World-Café Style Workshop:

Forest Heights Community Centre, Room 1

Wednesday, March 17, 7-9 pm

Country Hills Community Centre, Room 2

Wednesday, March 31, 7-9 pm

City Hall Rotunda

Thursday, April 15, 4-6 pm

We just found this great site that lists events in our Waterloo Region. There are many things that happen downtown which is very close to our neighbourhood. Of course it is March break right now and families are keen to know what is open, what concerts, displays etc. are available for our amusement and enlightenment.

You can click the title of this article, or click here.

ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST ANGLICAN CHURCH AND AREA SINGERS JOIN FORCES FOR HAITI RELIEF CONCERT

“I Heard A Voice” (Requiem for a Small Country)

Volunteer singers from four area choirs will join forces at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church, Kitchener, to present a concert in aid of Haiti relief.

On Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 7:30 pm, members of Sine Nomine, Da Capo, Grand Philharmonic of Kitchener, and the Oakville Chamber Ensemble present a concert of Spanish, English and Flemish Renaissance choral music at St. John the Evangelist, 23 Water Street North (at Duke), Kitchener, Ontario.

Admission is by donation and tax credit envelopes for The Primate’s World Relief Fund and the Mennonite Central Committee will be available for anyone donating $20.00 or more.

The focus on sacred Renaissance choral music was chosen specifically because of its consistent references to Jerusalem, symbolically indicating a beloved homeland, as well as multiple references in the texts to light and rest — images and ideas which resonate profoundly with the current situation in Haiti.

All of the musicians involved have a long history with unaccompanied singing and a passion for the Renaissance style of choral music. The combined 18-voice choir also includes a visitor from Chicago who, upon learning of the program, decided to make the 10 hour drive up to Kitchener, just to be able to participate.

The public is warmly invited to come and hear exquisite and rarely performed music, presented by singers from some of the area’s finest choral ensembles, all for an excellent cause.