Waterfront Agenda Items
As posted on K7waterfront.org, there are three notable waterfront-related agenda items for the next City Council meeting scheduled on the 6th of October 2009. Highlights are as follows:
1. Waterfront-related items listed in the Recreation & Leisure Services Department 2009-2010 Priorities are either stalled, or token. They include:
- Design of the Breakwater beach area (2010). The Mass Swim held on 22 July 2008 was the culmination of public disgust over how our waterfront is marginalized.
- Window repairs at the Richardson Beach Bath House (2010). This is routine, deferred maintenance. The long overdue work is masquerading as a viable project, lending to the illusion that our waterfront is being taken seriously.
- Approval of the Lake Ontario Park Plan (November 2009). The proximity of which signals that public outcry pertaining to the way overblown concept plan will be mostly ignored.
- Marina’s Business Plan (February 2010). Given all the evident shenanigans, this promises to be an eyeball-roller.
- Waterfront Plan (2010). This is bundled with, and listed after items including: “new outdoor rinks construction policy (2010)”, “healthy food options (2010), “community gardens policy (November 2010)”, and “sustainable food strategy (2010)”.
2. The City will receive, gratis, a narrow-strip of adjacent land to allow widening the waterfront pathway between the West Street launch ramp and Simcoe Street. This freebie is courtesy of Homestead Land Holdings which, who will likely make that back in spades at a later date.
3. The 2006 agreement with the Kingston Brewing Company to operate 6 Clarence Street as a service centre for Confederation Basin Marina boaters is renewed and sweetened through 2012.
Ok, that K7 site has lots of content, and great for learning about the waterfront, but is everything the City does that stupid? I checked out the site after reading the above, and it was (I think) way over the top negative, and put me off. Just saying…
@That Guy Hopefully the author will engage here to offer his thoughts on your interpretation of K7, but in the meantime I will provide mine. Generally speaking, I find that City Council takes forever and a day to make the simplest of rulings, and with issues such as the waterfront, I’ve also been enraged at the lack of public consultation, glad handing, and general mistreatment of this essential element of the City. As negative as some of K7’s criticism may be, the site offers a sober, second opinion of how we should be managing waterfront-related issues. For example, I for one was all for the LOP development as I thought it would be a great way to improve the space. That said, after reading the reviews, the needs of the community seem to be considerably different than what they’ve proposed.
@ThatGuy, do you have any good news to share about the City of Kingston and waterfront?
Do tell.
For the most part, I’m not seeing it. I’d be happy if we stopped moving backwards. That’s what K7 is primarily about. Document it so people stop ruining it. Document it so people stop taking it away. Document it so some people awake from the laughable reverie that we’ve got a great waterfront-thing going-on here.
The average Kingstonian has no meaningful relationship with the waterfront at all. Even if you count an occasional glimpse as a “relationship”.
We don’t have to all agree. We’ll never all agree. But we should all know what’s going on. What’s going-on is: we’re STILL moving backwards.
We have to save what remains which, if you’ve traveled, you know ain’t much.
Our waterfront is ruined. Think otherwise? Show me. Think it’s not getting worse, fast? Don’t get me started…
http://k7waterfront.org/Topic/DisappearingWaterfront