Plan with us! Kitchener's Strategic Plan 2023-2026

Improve Public Transportation

Improving public transportation will improve the cities carbon footprint. Right now as I see the city, you almost need a car to get anywhere. Meaning everyone needs a car and due to the weak transportation system.

Sustainability importance

Sustainability is important to me as I hope to live in the City of Kitchener my entire life. I have lived here my whole life so far and looking to raise my family here. I understand that to grow a city it takes improvements to all of the services you need in life. With that in mind sustainability means to me is improving our city’s carbon footprint every year. With Kitchener growing larger and larger ever year it would be nice to see improvement to transportation emotions to the environment. This meaning more group transportation and easier access to those transportations.

Greener Downtown

Victoria park is a great green space for the city but let’s not just stop there let’s add green spaces all over downtown. Over the next 20 years I would like to see green spaces on major streets. Especially where special events (like Blues Fest) are held to have green spaces for resting and getting away from the concrete areas. Green spaces bring a spark of joy to everyone’s day as we mostly see buildings and concrete normally.

More Hybrid/Green Cars

The city should plan on encouraging and more purchases of green cars. They could do this by placing more charging stations around the city and let the residents know that the can charge up in morphs to locations.

Beautify city, address fresh fruit shortage and combat global warming at the same time

I know we're invested in improving our canopy. I'd like to plant fruit trees (specifically tree guilds) rather than non-fruit bearing trees. Tree guilds improve soil health and help with carbon recapture (i.e. solve global warming). In addition, we could partner with a volunteer organization to collect the fruit and donate the majority to the food bank. As a home owner, I'd happily replace my front lawn with a tree guild. 0 maintenance as guilds are self-regulating. 0 chemicals. No mowing. Better soil. Better air. More food. What's not to like?

Why?

Because I live here, my kids will live here. If I didn’t speak what I want I will have to adjust with what it is. So I speak

Anonymous is key for public engagement

I really appreciate the anonymous of this project (street interviews) as it keeps topics of interest with little to no influence on who it is coming from. The street team project is a great step in getting the ideas of the residents and really appreciated the team putting themselves out their to get input for the city!

Advertising and Educating

There should be proper advertisements of city programs and events. Publish city jobs and volunteering opportunities.Not everyone watches city news but younger people are using social media like instagram and Facebook. Old people uses television and telephone and seniors mostly hear from radio and news. When time changes we need to upgrade too. In the next 20 years I can see people with technology.

Participation is my role

Instead of blaming govt and city, residents should take part of city planning and take-care of public property- Ahmed

Public engagement platforms

There should be multiple ways for councillors and mayor to interact with the people to know how better or worse they are doing once in a year. It need to be advertised in medias so no one missed to participate. And the team should take the same effort when the participated in election campaigns. In this way, we get a productive govt.

Family oriented programs

My little kids are really into baseball and hockey and I am personally into art. Hockey and baseball are more kids play and parents watch oriented and it is hard to form a connection with your kids through these sports/types of programs. So what I am suggesting the city work to plan for is programs that are ‘family’ oriented. Meaning, we have programs parents and kids can participate in together. I see a lot of art programs around that are just for the kids but I feel like we need programs where the parents can join it. Especially on evenings. With all that being said, what I see changing for the better with this idea is the connections between parents and their kids. Kids love to see their parents jointing in on their programs and it builds stronger bonds between the 2 parties. If this is successful and planned for correctly, I see the City of Kitchener having a great well-being in the next 20 years. This is because different generations and ages will have had better connections towards each other.

Huron Park

The garbage removal at Huron Park is bad. There are only 2 to 3 garbage bins in the park and they are both at the front of the park. Need more spread out around the park.

Eligibility for leisure access

I am an immigrant with work visa here . I wish my kids take program here but leisure access is only available for per me and resident or for citizen. What are my other options to participate in programs with less cost.?

More activities for kids and youth.

We would like to see a trampoline park , ping ball, more skate park in the city. Some thing to help the kids after school like life skill trainings and entertainments. Need community garden in spring, more sports and cooking lessons at the community centre

McLennan Park

McLennan Park needs better maintenance. It is used by many residents and most notably for me is that the SkatePark and Basketball courts need maintenance the most. My kids love playing there.

Road construction taking so long

I find it’s difficult to commute in some parts of the city like Fisherhallman/ Bleams to Fisherhallman/Zebra. Also I at Huron causing inconvenience as it’s the busiest area in Kitchener

Kids missing

I am proud that my City is growing but at the same time I concerns are towards the kids. I know cases where kids got missed around Doon area

Maintain growth

My family and I have recently lived in Toronto and moved here 2 months ago. Over the past 2 months we have come to love the city of Kitchener over Toronto. This is because it is not as busy and more livable as a family. We would love the city of Kitchener to maintain growth but not reach the level of busyness as Toronto is.

Good possibility of urban growth

This city is efficient to occupy more people if we have a good infrastructure which is affordable. Which need a good planning and the authorities need to think by calculating the pros and cons. So in 20years we can be one of the best city to live in Ontario.

Potholes and accidents a concern at Highland / Ira needles

Winter maintenance ,

We need more winter maintenance to areas that have the ability of winter maintenance. This meaning paths, trials, parks, etc. I I would like to see more winter maintenance from the city as we are only available to access these places for a few months of the year when it is nice out. Winter maintenance is huge to growing a safer city. These paths can be used to have residents that live farther from work short routes to work and not having to use the main roads as much during slippery weather. Over the next 20 years if the city plans towards better winter maintenance I would see less automotive traffic and more foot traffic as it would be safer. Also more people living in places not demanded by their work as they have easier access all year round. As well as more friendly communities as people will interact with others they may not see in the winter months as much. Overall a friendly and welcoming city.

Garbage pick up on trails and parks

There are a lot of back field trials that people love to walk on around the city and I love that but there needs to be more city patrol on garbage pick up and garbage bin placement. I have noticed that some garbage bins are placed near residents backyard fences and when people are walking their dogs they throw their poop bags at the garbage bin and it then lays there beside the residents fences. It’s starts to smell bad and shouldn’t have to be an issue the residents of the houses have to deal with. So we need to plan on more garbage bins and removal in the coming years.

Places to sit down with shade

Parks in the city need more places to sit down and relax with shade. Here at Southwest Optimist park there are 2 small picnic shelters within the whole huge park. 1 of those shelters are located far from the playground and close to the parking lot. More around the playgrounds would be nice.

More frequent Garbage Removal

The city need more frequent garbage removal. We need to go back to being able to put our garbage out every week instead of every other week. It stinks up our house and attracts flys.

Add more colours to parks

Add vibrant colours and more fun activities like trampoline , vending machines at southwest optimist park.Aisha (8)

Living wages

Adopting living wages to get rid of housing affordability seems to be a good thing like in other cities.

Housing is no longer affordable and I see a real state issue

This is a complex issue to talk about but I see that housing is no longer affordable. I was looking to being a property owner but when I was liking for a house I asked for just under the asking price and the real-estate agent said it would be an insult to the property owner and the real-estate company. That was when pricing was low and no the pricing in insane. I almost see working full time as a waist of time as I don’t see making enough money to afford the insane pricing. Working full time should not be just about affording a house.

Less spending on Housing Affordability

We need to spend less money on housing and more to pearls parks and recreation. The city is growing to fast and we are forgetting about the need for recreation services to support this growth.

Rising cost of houses

The most important issue for me right now is housing. I live in a rented apartment and almost all of my income goes toward rent, which is why I have to take a 40-minute bus ride to Stanley Park Community Centre for the Waterloo Food Bank. If the city addresses rising housing costs, I believe our children and grandchildren will have a better life than we did, and they will be able to pursue their interests rather than working multiple jobs to make ends meet.

Climate change

When it comes to climate change, Kitchener should be setting the pace for other cities. As a city and as a region, we are actually not doing a good job addressing climate change. To protect the environment where we live and where our children will grow up, we need to have a well-defined plan.