Crime in our neighbourhood

Over the past couple of months residents have reported to the neighbourhood association house break-ins and also cars rummaged through during the night. When two or three houses are broken into, even across a large neighbourhood, it can seem like a crime wave has started. We have talked with our Community Resource Officer (Const Andrew Sharen, North Division, Waterloo Regional Police Service) and he has provided several suggestions for us.

Here is a link to a web page which has many ideas for improving home safety. This page includes a home security "self audit" you can download as a PDF. We should not kid ourselves that crime "seldom happens" around us. We live in a downtown neighbourhood which is extremely vibrant and very conveniently located next to transit and a variety of entertainment. Our location also makes it easy for people to get in and out quickly and we tend not to notice folks who are just walking through because there are so many of them.

Here is a link to the police Neighbourhood Watch. They have a great deal of information about staying safe and you can subscribe to their twitter feed. Our household gets occasional calls from Neighbourhood Watch about break-ins across the city because we have subscribed to that service. The Waterloo Regional Neighbourhood watch page is here.

Finally, if you would like to know the types of calls the police get every day, grouped by category like robbery, assault etc., try these two websites. Major incidents are listed here and the daily logs are here.

It is nice to have a sense of what is happening around us, but probably the best link above is to the home security "self audit". The simplest way to avoid theft is to make your property more secure and harder for any potential thief to enter. Our own house was broken into many years ago partially because we had a wooden door we thought was secure. It looked like something like this:

It was a good door, but the panels were its weakness and thieves broke through them. Our contractor said "oh yeah, you need a solid wood school door" which we acquired from a used building supply store. This door is very tough and would require a great deal of time, energy and noise to break through. Oh yeah, it's bolted shut as well so our security is much better than it was in the past. But I guess we learned the hard way.

Ted P

Cycling, Biking, Bicycling, this weekend!

Come bike with us this weekend! We are going on a tour of our MHBP neighbourhood. 

Sunday, June 2, 1pm – 2pm (or later)

Meet at the Breithaupt Block parking lot near King and Breithaupt.

All bikes and ages welcome. 

Saturday Seedling Sale -- Little City Farm

This Saturday morning, from 9 - 12, come out to the 11th annual seedling sale at Little City Farm on Duke Street West. It is the place to be and you can relax with your kids at the Duke Street Playground afterwards. 

Click here for more details.

NMA meeting tomorow

Tomorrow (Wed May 15, 7:00) is the regular meeting of our Neighbourhood Mobilization Alliance at City Hall in the Conestogo Room. 

Come by if you want to talk with ByLaw, Fire, Police and concerned citizens about our neighbourhood.

Gardens and Bikes are good for everyone

Despite persistant rumours of snow, spring marches onward in Kitchener!

Do you like to garden, but do not have enough room, or sun in your yard to accomplish the proper cultivation of food? Here is a great link for you to discover a location in our city. Many people are sharing their own yards:

http://www.sharingbackyards.com/browse?jump=kitchener,+on

You can garden in someone else's space, or even donate part of your yard to promote the adventure of the garden.

Would you like to know more about biking in Kitchener? Here is a link on the City of Kitchener website:

www.bikekitchener.ca

And don't forget, as mentioned in our Spring Newsletter, our neighbourhood association is hosting a neighbourhood bike tour on Sunday, June 2. We will be meeting in the parking lot at Breithaupt Block at 1 pm.

In fact, you can go to Kitchener's "Bike Fest" on May 26 to get your bike tuned up and then come out the next week to our bicycle tour.

Thank you for walking with us

Thanks to everyone who came out to our walks on Saturday. In the morning we met at Lippert Park and walked through the changes in our neighbourhood and in the afternoon Wayne led everyone through the Mount Hope Cemetery. The weather was fantastic and everyone enjoyed themselves. 

Top question of the morning would have to be "Is naugahyde still manufactured anywhere"? Apparently it is still made by Uniroyal in Stoughton, Wisconsin!

Pictures will be posted soon.

Here is a great article in the Record about the afternoon walk: click here.

Jane's Walk is Happening this Saturday, May 4, 2013

This Saturday is going to be a great time to meet your neighbours and learn something about the history of our neighbourhood. Please come out to one or both of our walks, and catch some other walks in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge as well.

The weather is going to be GREAT!

Here is an article in the record about the walks this year.

Here is a poster for our first walk starting in Lippert Park at 10:00 AM (click on poster for larger view)

And here is a poster for our second walk in Mount Hope Cemetery starting at 2 pm (click on poster for larger view):

Who is Jane Jacobs you ask? The most important thing is that you experience a great day in our neighbourhood and learn more about what surrounds us all. But last year our Blog posted a short explanation of Jane that you can find here.

Please come out and join our conversation about the past, present and future within the context of change. You will learn about: 

• The 'mysterious plot of land' 
• Why do the bells ring when they do?
• How you can "fight" city hall (or the region)
• How a piano factory transformed into _____??
• How the future is staring us in the face (and we can see much more clearly because there are no houses in the way!).

Here is a link to other walks in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge. Have a great weekend.