Let’s build smarter

Re: Is Waterloo falling behind or is it back on track? — Oct. 12

Bigger doesn’t always mean better. Before we all get on board with Waterloo competing with Kitchener’s recent developments, let’s slow down and ask: what is best for Waterloo?

There is nothing wrong with Waterloo developing. But let’s ask why it is developing. To prove to Kitchener that it is better, smarter? Because Waterloo had Black-Berry and CIGI first? To state Waterloo’s superiority by inserting towers into the sky? If so, then it is developing for the wrong reasons.

Let’s look at some gems in Waterloo: Loop Clothing, an uptown, independent boutique offering local and Canadian streetwear. It offers quality clothes that you can’t get outside of Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver. Or Seven Shores, a community-owned and operated café offering fresh, local food. It also puts on workshops around Indigenous rights and holistic health.

These businesses offer quality services, unique products and community threads. That’s what people are drawn to, big or not.

Kitchener and Waterloo can complement each other; we both have tech, we both have condos. But Kitchener gentrified for its own reasons. Let’s focus on Waterloo and its needs. We were voted the world’s smartest city in 2008, after all. Let’s build smart.

Jesse McQuay

Kitchener