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E WATERLOO CHRONICLE l lhr “alvrluu l 1trtmtrlts Is I published m rn SSedntssdah In rhe rairsx in (-mup. a nlnlslun ol Soul“ rm Unlunu (Iummunny Newspapers Inc ' .1 division at Suutham Publirw llllllh. a k ZanWesl company “H5 2830 Fax: 886, 5353 editorialtwwaterloochroniclexa satestrvwaterlouchrtmicle.ca composutgewaterlottchronicleca The views of our columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper Thvaene Wetdendort (mm. Mann r Group Sales [Mn-nor In." Sales Meter, Fat. 230 - Leniiwswld oehorahCraruia0 Assad-Kc Publish" Editor. Ext. 2Is 75 King St. South, Suite 20t Waterloo, Ontario N21 IP2 IRI, trumeld Karen 011w" t>xuatiort CIrcuI-(Ion Man-get. Ext. 225 Aaabtagtt The Waterloo Chronicle welcomes letters la Ihr FAittor They should he signed Witt, name. address and plume number and Will he verined rm accuracy No unsigned letters will he mahrrshed Sohttttssiorts may he edned for length. m please he brief , 11le m lawn and other manL nah mhmlI ted m the- Puhlishrr and m reptrd Int pub": anon Rum-M wnh the author. hm the palhlishtr and us krrnsees may freely "par dm rthrm m punt Mlmnk at other farms our maihyt address " 73 King? K _ Suite-ated-ro N2] IP2. our e mail addNss is editori-eMoorh mniderm and our tas mrrnher is Mia-91111 Imrmauonal Slandam Sunni Number ISSN 0832 3410 t artadiar, Puhllraxmns Mad Sales Pmdurl Agreement Numtyes 400504 73 samurai: “lanai: Associate Publisher: Ken Bosveld 905-523-5800. Ext.239 Norma Csra Letters Policy I vun Banal MW SIMIZIHEI? Audued circulation: 26.056 Melissa Hounslow _ Minor. City planning guidelines help preserve the character of neighbourhoods n the Nov. 20 issue of the Waterloo Chronicle. Iguest columnist Chislopher Edey argues against an existing City of Waterloo bylaw (the so-called "MDS" bylaw) that limits the density of licensed lodging houses in neighbourhoods around Waterloo's universities. I live in the MacGregor-Albert neighbourhood, which is one of the neighbourhoods covered by that by-law. It is a mixed neighbourhood: roughly half of the housing is rental housing, and almost all of that is occupied by student renters. The rest is single-family homes, like mine. It is a delicate bal- ance. Mr. Edey is right about one thing. Without zon- ing bylaws like the one he attacks, the supply of rental housing near the universities will indeed increase. However, he neglects to mention the other effect that the removal of the bylaw will have: the balance in my neighbourhood will tip as the remaining single family homes are converted to rental units, One of Waterloo's unique core neigh- bourhoods, already threatened, will be destroyed. Mr, Edey argues that the bylaw "contributes to the rise in the amount of sub-standard, and in some cases, flagrantly illegal rental housing in the city." I don't know whether the amount of sub- standard housing is increasing, but I do agree that there is sub-standard rental housing out there. A look at the exteriors of some of the rental proper- ties in my neighbourhood is enough to suggest that living conditions inside are less than ideal. However, the idea that removal of the MDS by- law will address this problem is fanciful, at best. If Mr. Edey is really concerned about this problem. I would suggest a more direct approach. Let's license and regulate all rental properties, and not just those that are considered to be "lodging hous- es" under the current bylaws (In my neighbour- hood. many rental properties are not considered to be lodging houses, and are not licensed or regu- lated as such.) And let's step up enforcement of the property standards regulations and increase licensing fees to cover the cost of doing so. That is how to improve the condition of rental housing. Finally, Mr. Edey claims that the "most galling" thing about the WWWYS that it is bad for homeowners like me. Why? Because it depresses property values. If it weren't for those pesky bylaws. I might be able to sell my house for a lot of money to a prospective landlord. I'm not quite sure where to begin with this one. Perhaps I will just suggest that there is more to life than property values. I can't speak for all of my neighbours, but some of us actually value the unique quality of life that is to be found in mixed, older, core neighbourhoods like MacGregor- Albert. Mr. Edey suggests that students face a choice between "a shoddy home and no home". This, though. it not the real choice. Students who wish to live off-campus, or who are forced to live off- campus, will find decent rental accommodations. The question is how close to campus those accom- modations will be. In deciding whether or not to keep the MDS bylaw, and similar bylaws, city council must ask itself whether it is more important to reduce com- mute times for students, or to follow its own plan- ning guidelines and preserve the character of neighbourhoods like MacGregor-Albert. That is the real choice, and I hope that council will make it wisely DTHECHR VIEWPOINT But, given the much-larger hooks Waterloo has been on, the $337,000 hardly seems like much of a goof at all. Perhaps you could file it under Trivial Foul-Ups, I It Hum! Waterloo is on the well-known ook for more than $337,000 because a licence for a lodging hops; was Issued in enqr. It's lucky, you know. that Waterloo, as mod- esdy claimed, is run as a business. If it weren't, you'd find such errors could be commonplace and, good gosh, the city could be making goofs on the cost of interest . Something like that could cost you millions if the project were big enough. But, the Water- loo bigwigs would take it philosophically. while the future sinlfs slowing in the east, em. .. More of the Same: On the yacketryack so fur, if you had to nominate someone who was doing his or her job during the RIM fiasco, you'd have to pick city solicitorWllliam White. He stuck doggedly to a point of view that would have kept the municipality out of a fair bit of hot water. He looked at it all with a lawyer's eye and a nose that pronounced some of it as odiferous And, say, another difference of opinion has emerged. Councillors had or didn't have questions and concerns at a closed-door meeting that represented the last chance to review financing for RIM Park. The view that councillors didnt have questions came with the very brief council minutes which include no mention of the park financing Yet earlier former mayor Joan McKinnon had testified city politi- cians had questions for the city staff about the park financing at that closed-door meeting and at a previous one. 7 Or, to quote the ancient proverb. "A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton Pfgxplamtion." Going to Pot: Some recent disclosures about marijuana are really stanling, including that some teenagers are shelling out $250 a week to keep themsehes in grass I think that we've taken the proliferation of pol-grow houses as something mildly amusing instead of considering it as what it is: a key step in an ever-growing business operation. The judges, too, must view the pot growing as semi-comical, judging by the penalties they imposeStmsIberteveintmatingthesmokers with a gentle hand, but I would whomp the people in the business Yeah, the kids smoking pot say they do it because it helps them find themselves. The problem is they get so spaced out that when they find themselves. File it under Trivial Foul-Ups L sAlltllfll'llhr, SANDY they're not gvenjure it's them. Ptomaine Traps: Waterloo Region folks are soon going to be able to check out eating places before going out to dine. That way they'll be able to son out the greasy spoons from the good spots. The wait is only for the outcome of court challenges in Toronto where some owners are disputing the city's right to publicize a 'estau- rant's history of food-safety violations Regionai officials stress that of the region's 2.500 eating establishments only five per cent ignore warnings aryl get cltaIge11. "m _ Brian Hanan. the region's director of envi- ronmental health, hopes the public gets easy access to food-safety information because it has a right to know what eateries to patronize. That's keerect. As a matter of fact, I had a bad experience at a Chinese cafe just the other day: The fortune cookie contradicted my horo- scope Man in Motion: The community (K-W, that is) must wonder what it might have done if Mlke lamridis hadn't arrived here. It would be a lesser community by far, and -- now he's been appointed as the Mn I ‘ lUniversity of Waterloo's chancel- ' or. U k Vow I Guld explain what those two institutes will study, but It would only confuse you. But here's a hot tip: One of these days, scientists are going to discover why a kid can't walk around a pud- dle Crash Course: Waterloo has the safest streets in the region with a collision rate of 12.2 collisions per 100,000 persons. 12 per cent below the regional average. Waterloo gets only one rating among the ID worst streets It gets No. 5 for University Avenue between Regina and Weber Streets. And every- one knows how busy that strip is Cambridge has the -higgest traffic headaches. It has four of the I0 most danger- ous intersections Say, apropos of nothing traffic policemen always look imposing. It's the boots, the uni- form. and the dark sham that do it. Of course, the fact that most of them are 6/3 and weigh 240 pounds helps a bit. too. In case you're just back from an extended trip to Antarctica, lazaridis. founder and now presi- dent of RIM, is best known as a philanthropist and the father of He give $100 million to estab- lish the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Besides that, his gifts to UW have helped (man lish the Institute for Quantum Computing. ihe BlaNBerry.