| Update from Councillor Freeman |
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| Wednesday, 14 October 2009 | |
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As the warmer weather gives way to fall rains and cooler air, the activity in the green spaces in Eastbridge starts to wane. This brings much relief to many of the neighbours who continue to have significant struggles with misuse of the spaces by teens and young adults. Over the past months I have received many emails and participated in a variety of meetings associated with two primary issues in the Eastbridge neighbourhood. These issues can be summarized as follows:
The second traffic concern relates to families continuing to illegally park on neighbourhood streets surrounding St. Lukes and Lester B. Pearson school. In some cases vehicles are parked in private driveways blocking residents in their own garages.
In an effort to continue to work on the issues discussed above, I arranged a meeting with Waterloo Regional Police, City of Waterloo By-Law, Eastbridge citizens, the General Manager of Public Works, the Director of Parks as well as myself. As well, I met with the chairperson of the Eastbridge neighbourhood Association. Sorting through the above issues will not be easy, but it is agreed that pro active steps will be initiated by all to start the process towards improving situation. Traffic concerns remain a challenge within the neighbourhood. The traffic calming recommendations were implemented at the time the subdivision was developed, but people continue to speed even with the measures in place. As recommended by Waterloo Regional Police Services (WRPS) I placed a call to request that Chesepeake, New Hampshire and Eastbridge be included in the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program. As well, By-Law officers have been requested to add the streets surrounding the elementary schools to their rotating schedule of parking enforcement in and around school zones. I understand the thoughts of driving to the school, dropping off children and immediately heading to work in the same vehicle. I further recognize the added time required to walk children to school at the beginning of very busy days and mornings. The difficulty is that vehicles are preventing families from leaving their homes, safely exiting their driveways and overall increases stress and anxiety for everyone. If you currently drive your children to school as opposed to walking, please consider ways in which you could eliminate the drive by sharing the walk with a neighbour every other day or through a “walking school bus” from your street. As the colder weather approaches please remember that the City has passed an anti-idling bylaw requiring vehicles to be turned off when waiting longer than three minutes. With regard to the issues in the public green spaces the following next steps are underway:
Clearly undertaking all of the work above will take time and a willingness on behalf of Eastbridge residents to assist with resolving some of the items. Eastbridge is a gem of a community and has the strongest neighbourhood association in my ward. I continue to be impressed by the Eastbridge Neighbourhood board of directors. I thank them for their commitment to work with the City and WRPS to try to improve the community. I certainly value your comments on this article. I can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 14 October 2009 ) |
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