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8 • WATERLOO CHRONICLE • THURSDAY, MAY 18, 2017 WATERLOO CHRONICLE 630 Riverbend Drive, Unit 104 Kitchener, Ontario N2K 3S2 519-579-7166 Fax: 519-579-2029 www.waterloochronicle.ca Donna LUELO PUBLISHER EDITORIAL Bob VRBANAC EDITOR ext. 2305 editorial@waterloochronicle.ca bvrbanac@waterloochronicle.ca Adam JACKSON REPORTER ext. 2308 Twitter: @KWAdamJ ajackson@waterloochronicle.ca Samantha BEATTIE REPORTER ext. 2229 Twitter: @Samantha_KB sambeattie@waterloochronicle.ca ADVERTISING 519-579-7166 Ted ANDERSON, 579-7166 REGIONAL AD MANAGER tanderson@waterloochronicle.ca SALES LEAD Michelle STEVENS, ext. 2232 mstevens@waterloochronicle.ca SALES REPRESENTATIVE Cassandra DELLOW, ext. 2306 cdellow@waterloochronicle.ca SALES REPRESENTATIVE Aaron MURRAY, ext. 2304 amurray@waterloochronicle.ca CLASSIFIED 1-800-263-6480 CIRCULATION 519-894-3000 Canadian Publications Mail Sales Publication Agreement Number 40050478 International Standard Serial Number ASSN 0832-3410 Audited Circulation: 31,292 The Waterloo Chronicle is published each Thursday by Metroland Media Group Ltd. ONTARIO PRESS COUNCIL The Waterloo Chronicle is a member of The Ontario Press Council, which considers complaints against mem- ber newspapers. Any complaint about news, opinions advertising or conduct should first be taken to the newspaper. Unresolved complaints can be brought to: Ontario Press Council, 2 Carlton Street, Suite 1706, Toronto, ON., M5B 1J3. COPYRIGHT The contents of this newspaper are protected by copyright and may be used only for personal non-com- mercial purposes. All other rights are reserved and commercial use is pro- hibited. To make any use of this mate- rial you must first obtain the permis- sion of the owner of the copyright. For further information contact Bob Vrbanac, Managing Editor, Waterloo Chronicle, 630 Riverbend Drive, Suite 104, Kitchener, Ontario N2J 3H8. LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor must contain the writer's full name, address and tele- phone number. Addresses and tele- phone numbers are used only for veri- fication purposes. Names will not be withheld. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject any contribution for brevity or legal purposes. Letters may be submitted by email to editorial@water- loochronicle.ca. Suburban Newspapers of America VIEWPOINT WATERLOO CHRONICLE CHRONICLE EDITORIAL It's seems like our feather and furry friends are push-ing back on our encroach- ment of their natural habitats by doing a little encroaching of their own. Last week, a black bear decided the food was better in Scarborough that it was in her neck of the woods and went on a walkabout. Unfortunately for her, the response from the public and the police was less than friendly and she got shot for her trou- bles. People are rightly upset that her trespassing into the city ended up in death. Police had to react but some won- dered whether some less lethal options were available. And apparently officials from Ontario's Ministry of Nat- ural Resources balked at help- ing because of the presumed danger. It has tranquilizer guns but didn't want to put natural resource o� cers in harm's way. So in other words, there were only lethal options left on the table. We'd had our own escapade with a wandering bear a few years ago, and luckily it ended with no casualties. But one has to wonder if these animal/human interac- tions aren't going to become more common and if we shouldn't develop some proper strategies in dealing with them. While the black bear in Scar- borough got all the attention last week, down in St. Mary's, home of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, the town is on the hunt for a cougar. � e big cat was spotted near some of Stonetown's famous quarries just sitting in a tree. � e town has since enlisted trained trappers and put other measures in to tame the cat. Hopefully, it will experience a better outcome. In our office, we've had some other close encounters with the animal kind that were a little less serious. My co-worker, Michelle, found that one of the planters on her front porch was being used as a nesting bed for a duck they've come to name Daisy Duck Morrison. Michelle and her husband have become enamoured with the mama bird, who has laid a total of seven eggs. Michelle is waiting for them to hatch before they send out the birth announce- ments. I had a similar experience as a nest showed up in one of the wreaths we left out on our front porch. My family and I would hear knocks at the door as the birds returned home. We'd go out to investigate thinking it was someone playing a prank. It got really spooky when in the dead of night the same thumping would happen. But it seems all our inves- tigating eventually convinced them to � nd higher ground. � e other day I was about to chase a rabbit from my garden until I noticed it was eating all the dandelions. Maybe wildlife in the city isn't such a bad thing. Learning to co-habitat with nature Spending $1.5 million on expanding Alexandra parkette seems to be a lot of money for little return. � e City of Waterloo is acquiring the properties abutting the parkette that formerly made up Beam's Bedding and a property at 46 William St. W. to expand the park from Alexandra Avenue to William Street West. Acquiring more green space in urban areas that are quickly being intensi� ed is a noble goal. It will add to the liveability of the area as it gets developed and give local residents options for recreation. Th e fact the city got a deal on the land in the uptown, where some areas of the core are going for as much as $5 million an acre, was also important as this land will only get more precious as Waterloo continues to grow up instead of out. But the purchase does seem a little premature with the city undergoing an uptown public realm strategy to improve and connect uptown's public spaces. � at would require a thor- ough land inventory and look at natural connectivity. Some might be surprised to learn how much land inventory the city already has in the core, and that it might even have a surplus in what is a hot development market. For the city to be holding on to so much land begs for them to have a strategy in place before it goes ahead and purchases more property. Plus there are other city park priorities, as Coun. Bob Mavin pointed, out with some of Waterloo Park's master plan still unfunded and more of a public priority considering the use this jewel of Waterloo's park system gets from the public. The argument is this will improve Alexandra parkette's safety, but there was no real information presented to suggest it was a concern. � is smells like a pet project instead of one that will bene� t the vast majority of citizens, and as such is way too much to pay when the city has other park priorities. Other park priorities BOBBY'S WORLD BOB VRBANAC