The Community Edition: November 2015

VOLUME 4, ISSUE 2 • NOVEMBER 2015

A TALE OF TWO CHURCHES

PAGES 8-10

BEST BURGER IN TOWN? PAGE 11

IF STREETS COULD TALK

PAGES 6-7

FIXATING ON GENTRIFICATION PAGE 4

NOVEMBER 2015 // @THECOMMUNITYED

2

A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Volume 4, Issue 2 Next issue: December 2, 2015 75 University Ave. W Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5 519-884-0710 x3564 Advertising All advertising inquiries should be directed to Care Schummer at 519-884-0710 x3560 care.schummer@wlusp.com

THE COMMUNITY EDITION TEAM Editor in Chief Jesse Bauman jesse.bauman@wlusp.com Publisher Lakyn Barton lakyn.barton@wlusp.com

Distribution Manager & Senior Briefs Editor Alistair MacLellan Social Media Manager Megan Nourse

Photo Editor Matt Smith CONTRIBUTORS Natalee Blagden Elizabeth DiCesare Will Huang Stacey Jacobs Jon Johnson Cathy MacLellan WLUSP ADMINISTRATION President Executive Director Advertising Manager Treasurer Vice-Chair Director Director Director Director Director Corporate Secretary

Luke Moyer Erika Preece Christina Proctor Dave Thomas Kurtis Thomas

Bryan Stephens Lakyn Barton Care Schummer John Pehar Abdiasis Issa Thomas Lillo Rafey Sattar Fred Kuntz Angela Foster Gary Doyle Emily Crump

The Community Edition is an alternative monthly intended to engage and inform the community.

Started in 2012, the Community Edition is an editorially independent newspaper published by Wilfrid Laurier University Student Publications, Waterloo, a corporation without share capital. WLUSP is governed by its board of directors.

Opinions expressed within the Community Edition are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial board, The Cord, WLUSP, WLU or Canweb Printing. All content appearing in the Community Edition bears the copyright expressly of their creator(s) and may not be used without written consent.

The Community Edition is created using Macintosh computers running Mac OS X Yosemite using Adobe Creative Cloud. Canon cameras are used for principal photography.

The Community Edition’s flag font is Lobster, an open source font created by HVD Fonts. We also use Brandon Grotesque and Petrona.

The Community Edition is a member of the Ontario Press Council, which is an independent ethical organization established to deal with editorial concerns. For additional information or to file a complaint, contact info@ontpress.com or call 416-340-1981.

The Community Edition circulates monthly. Normal circulation is 6,000. The Community Edition subscription rates are $20.00 per term for addresses within Canada.

Preamble to the Community Edition Constitution The Community Edition will keep faith with its readers by presenting news and expressions of opinions comprehensively, accurately and fairly. The Community Edition believes in a balanced and impartial presentation of all relevant facts in a news report, and of all substantial opinions in a matter of controversy.

The staff of the Community Edition shall uphold all commonly held ethical conventions of journalism. When an error of omission or of commission has occurred, that error shall be acknowledged promptly. When statements are made that are critical of an individual, or an organization, we shall give those affected the opportunity to reply at the earliest time possible. Ethical journalism requires impartiality, and consequently conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts of interest will be avoided by all staff. The only limits of any newspaper are those of the world around it, and so the Community Edition will attempt to cover its world with a special focus on the community of Waterloo Region. Ultimately, the Community Edition will be bound by neither philosophy nor geography in its mandate.

The Community Edition has an obligation to foster freedom of the press and freedom of speech. This obligation is best fulfilled when debate and dissent are encouraged, both in the internal workings of the paper, and through the Community Edition’s contact with the community. The Community Edition will always attempt to do what is right, with fear of neither repercussions, nor retaliation. The purpose of community press is to act as an agent of social awareness, and so shall conduct the affairs of our magazine.

“They tell us Autumn’s a comin’ and soon everything around us will die” - The Flaming Lips. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

FEATURE

8-10 TAKE ME TO CHURCH

TCE EXPLORES BRICKS AND MORTAR AT TWO OF WR’S GREAT RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS, AND THE COMMUNITIES THAT GIVE THEM MEANING

3 4 4 5 5 5 6 11 11 12 12 13 13 14 15 15 16

IN BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF SOCIAL ENTERPRISE GENTRIFICATION AND POVERTY TO KEGEL OR NOT TO KEGEL? INEFFICIENT WR MUSIC EVERYWHERE IF STREETS COULD TALK: LAKESHORE & SUNNYDALE STRATEGIC VOTING THE BEST BURGER IN TOWN? UNBUILT WATERLOO REGION START UP WATCH SELLING OUT TO SELL MORE BEER ME AND THE MILLENIALS ORGY AT THE GRAND RIVER FILM FESTIVAL THE BERLIN COMES TO KITCHENER LISTINGS NIGHT\SHIFT IN THE RAIN

It is now quite cliché to complain about Canada’s awful electoral system, and about electoral politics in general.

The first-past-the-post system is deeply unrepresentative, and forces many people to vote other than according to whom they like best, or whose policies most closely align with their values, or who would best represent their community’s interests.

For many Canadians, the first-past-the-post system made strategic voting feel necessary or inevitable this election. And so I have also regularly heard that strategic voting is worse than unrepresentative, that it has a corrosive effect on democracy, and on our democratic imagination. Strategic voting on this account makes us the worst, most cynical kind of citizens, slaves to the polls, unable to conceive of political agency beyond the ballot box.

Taken together, it seems that we are in a very bad way, and depending on the day, I agree with much of the above.

Of course strategic voting sucks.

But, and I know this is obvious, to see that it sucks requires some reflection, and that process is political—it politicizes us, by forcing us to recognize that this shared project of living together is profoundly imperfect. When we say it sucks, we are also saying, whether we enact this idea or not, that citizenship is more than voting, because it has to be, because we are not getting the representatives we want.

In other words, it forces us to recognize another political cliché: voting is not the most important thing you can do in a democracy.

Whether or not you are voting strategically, you are voting for someone else—a stranger, more or less. And so we need to share our hopes and fears with those strangers, and if they don’t listen, share them again, and if they still don’t listen, sit on their desk until they do. Our work starts after the election.

I’ve heard this idea, my last cliché for now, expressed in many different ways in the last few weeks. It seems, then, that the strategic voting campaign did politicize many of us.

Following the polls and then voting does not a social movement make. But it says we care, at least a bit. The poet June Jordan famously wrote that “we are the people we’ve been waiting for.”

It’s up to us, now.

Jesse Bauman Editor in Chief

THIS ISSUE WAS POWERED BY: LEAH SIMONE PETE SEEGER WILL HUANG CHERRY TOMATOES

THANKS FOR MAKING COMMUNITY MEDIA POSSIBLE!

NOVEMBER 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

3

IN BRIEF

Night\Shift participants braved the rain at the Make Your Mark DIY Graffiti Alley installation on October 31. Read more about this year’s Night\Shift on Page 16. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

Cuban Ambassador to Canada, Julio Garmendia Pena spoke at the opening of The Havana Dialogues at THEMUSEUM on November 1.

PHOTO COURTESTY WILL HUANG

NEWS

ARTS

URBAN

FENDING OFF THE FLU THIS SEASON

FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

HISTORICAL HOTEL GETS A FACELIFT

The free flu shot is now available.

For the first time, the Region of Waterloo Public Health is offering a nasal spray vaccine for children aged two to 17 instead of a needle. You can get your free shot or spray at walk-in clinics, your health care provider, some pharmacies, and flu clinics across the Region.

Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights, will be celebrated with fireworks on November 11 in Cambridge. The Hindu festival, celebrated across India, is also marked with fireworks in Waterloo and Guelph. This year Cambridge changed its bylaw to reflect similar celebrations like Victoria and Canada Day.

The American Hotel is not a romantic comedy. It’s an old building in downtown Kitchener designed by Louis Breithaupt, and built in 1862. The building’s last resident, Caper’s Sportsbar, will be moving out as developers look to redevelop the historic structure into condos and a commercial space.

NO PROGRESS IN SCHOOL DISPUTE

ZONTA ZOOMS TO THE SCREEN

BATTLING THE BORER BEETLES

Parents waiting to hear how their children are faring in school will probably have to wait for report cards. Waterloo Region’s District School Board has suspended elementary school progress reports due to an ongoing labour dispute with the Province. The progress reports provide a glimpse of student’s progress but offer no letter grades or marks.

The Zonta Film Festival is back.

Started in 2011 to showcase women documentary filmmakers, the Festival takes place November 17 to 19 at Princess Cinema in Waterloo. Proceeds from the Festival go to the Zonta Club of Kitchener-Waterloo, a global organization of professionals empowering women through service and advocacy.

Northwest Kitchener will be looking a little bare this holiday season. To curb the invasion of the tree-killing ash borer beetle, the City will cut down 1,100 ash trees, starting this month. The borer is expected to kill almost 5,000 trees across the city, but 1,400 of the healthiest trees in the Region will be protected with an injected insecticide.

MORE WR LIVING WAGE EMPLOYERS

TIME TRAVELLING TINY TRAINS

LEAVES LEAVE LAWNS

On November 5, Living Wage Waterloo Region recognizes 18 employers from WR who have voluntarily agreed to pay their employees a living wage. The wage rate is based on the cost of living in WR, and should be enough for a worker to meet their basic needs and meaningfully participate in community life. There are over 1,600 registered living wage employers in the United Kingdom.

Choo-choo! Tiny trains are rolling into St. Jacobs, showcasing what life was like in Southern Ontario during the 1950s. The 3,000 square foot, 1:48 scale display opened this month, and includes hand built models of Canadian National and Canadian Pacific trains. Check out late-model steam locomotives and first generation diesels at 1440 King St. North.

Leaves are a symbol of summer’s end, and a photogenic backdrop for seasonal selfies. For home owners wanting to dispose of nature’s glitter, the City of Kitchener has opened nine yard waste drop-off sites that will stay open seven days a week until the end of November. Check out Kitchener’s leaf collection program to see if your neighbourhood has curb pickup.

BACK TO BUSINESS IN OTTAWA

TALKING ABOUT CUBA THIS WINTER

GETTING RID OF THE GUNS

After the longest election in Canadian history, Waterloo Region will be represented by four first-time Liberal MPs. Waterloo elected Bardish Chagger. Kitchener-Centre elected Raj Saini, Kitchener South Hespeler elected Marwan Tabbara and Cambridge elected Bryan May. The first timers will start cutting their political teeth when parliament resumes this month.

It’s November, which means it is starting to get cold and you’re probably wearing the wrong jacket. You could warm up at THEMEUSEM’s month-long Havana Dialogues. Join artists, dignitaries and performances inspired by the Caribbean’s largest, most recently communist island.

For a full listing of events check out the THEMEUSEM’s website before America’s capitalist pigs ruin that too.

Not sure how to safely dispose of that AK-47? The Waterloo Regional Police Service can help. For the second straight year police are running a weapons amnesty program during the month of November. Simply call the normal police line and ask them to picked up your weapon. You won’t get in any trouble. Last year the WRPS collected nearly 350 weapons and 12,600 rounds of ammunition.

NOVEMBER 2015 // @THECOMMUNITYED

4

SPENDING JUSTLY WEAR OUT THERE

CHRISTINA PROCTOR COLUMNIST

CAROLYN GRAY CONTRIBUTOR

Caper’s Sports Bar is unlikely to survive redevelopment of the “American Block,” but owner Dominic Tortola has been left in the dark by the building’s new owners, so far “only going by what I see in the paper.” MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

I’m often asked whether our individual purchases really make a difference, and my answer is always yes. Consumers have more influence over the products that are produced, and future products that are being developed, than we may realize.

With every business striving to make a profit, they look to consumer behaviour to drive their innovation, product development, and marketing decisions to increase the likelihood that us consumers will choose their products over a competitor’s.

A 2013 Business Development Bank of Canada study called “Five Game-Changing Consumer Trends” identified a “Made in Canada” advantage for businesses, as social and environmental concerns have become increasingly influential in consumer purchasing decisions.

The commercial landscape has changed for retailers and they must adapt to meet new consumer standards. Canadians do their research before making a purchase and a majority are now trying to buy local, with many willing to pay a premium for goods that boast a Made in Canada label.

As a result of these shifting attitudes, new businesses are popping up that place doing good at the centre of their business model. These are called social enterprises. From Tom’s Shoes, which give shoes to children in need, to tentree, which plants 10 trees for every purchase, shopping

for a cause has gone mainstream.

It’s true that it can be challenging to see how our individual purchases make a difference, but Carmen Clubiné, a local jewelry designer, makes it clear that they can. She created her jewelry line, Alfaro Clubiné, in partnership with Joel, a 23-yearold hearing impaired man living in Paraguay who had few options for employment in his community.

“When our friend in Paraguay met Joel, he had a temper because he really couldn’t communicate with anyone,” explained Carmen. “He was frustrated, and it got to the point where his own community didn’t want him around.”

When Joel was young, he attended school for a while, but it wasn’t set up to meet his needs. As a result, he had a lot of time on his hands, and his older brothers taught him how to work with filigree silver. When they moved away to make a living elsewhere, things changed for the entire family.

“Joel wasn’t in a good place when our friend met him, but when he started working, he became a different person,” said Carmen. “For me, that was the wow moment. Alfaro Clubiné is making a big difference in the life of a man, his family, and his community.”

This is one example of a local social enterprise that, with your support, can continue to positively influence another person’s life. Many more exist in Waterloo Region, and with style and impact combined in a business, it is now easier than ever to engage in socially-conscious purchasing.

Our consumption decisions add up, and big businesses pay attention.

Our purchases make a difference, and isn’t that a beautiful thing?

WATERLOO REGION’S GENTRIFICATION FIXATION

CONCENTRATED POVERTY, NOT ECONOMIC DISPLACMENT, MIGHT BE OUR GREATEST URBAN CHALLENGE

JESSE BAUMAN EDITOR IN CHIEF Joseph Fung is Vice President of HCM Products for NetSuite in downtown Kitchener, and business is booming. NetSuite already occupies the entire ninth floor of an apartment building at King and Francis Streets, and the company is about to begin renovating the main floor, which will eventually be a glassy, “visually open space.” “It’s a wonderful office, and will engage the streetscape,” says Fung, but it also means closing up the building’s atrium, which used to house ATMs, and when it was cold, people who needed a place to sleep.

“That gave me pause,” says Fung, and was the impetus for a blog he wrote last month, called “One Person’s Revitalization is Another’s Gentrification.” The post “definitely hit a chord,” and while gentrification is on the radar of many in the tech world, it’s easy, he said, to see it as “an arm’s length thing, not necessarily our thing.”

In his piece Fung asks the agents of KW’s urban “revitalization” to pause, and to consider that “amidst all the excitement and celebration we still need to accept some responsibility” for the consequences of growth, including pricing out the people who used to live here.

This is not an abstract concern.

The price of land has risen in Uptown from $3 million an acre in 2010 to $5 million today. Using data from the 2011 National Household Survey, researchers created a Canadian Rental Housing Index (CRHI), which examines rental housing affordability and overcrowding across the country. Out of Canada’s 523 municipalities, the Region of Waterloo currently ranks 475th on the CRHI, and there are roughly 3,500 families on the regional waiting list for affordable housing.

Gentrification, like Kanye West and crop-tops, is a deeply divisive topic. On the one hand, it seems to represent the upper-middle class’ fetishization of authenticity: people from somewhere else descend upon a community with some historical cachet, and in so doing, push low-income people, usually also people of colour, out of their communities of origin. On the other hand, gentrification is just revitalization: food deserts get grocery stores, and schools improve. Boarded-up, derelict buildings become something other than derelict, boarded-up buildings.

The problem, of course, is that gentrification is both things, and also much more complicated.

Different studies show that when American big-city neighbourhoods get wealthier, there is no appreciable difference, on the whole, of what researchers call “out-migration.”

People move all the time, and for different reasons. On this reading, what is actually changing the ethnic and

income demographics in gentrifying communities is not the folks leaving, which is inevitable, but the people who replace them. It does, however, become increasingly difficult for new low-income people to take the place of the low-income folks on the way out of gentrifying neighbourhoods.

A 2014 study from New York University reports that public housing residents in wealthy or “increasing income” New York neighbourhoods out-earned public housing residents in other, lower-income neighbourhoods. By several metrics, the poor kids growing up in the wealthier neighbourhood turned out “better” than their poor peers in poorer neighbourhoods. In short, an increasing body of research suggests that the “the persistence and spread of concentrated poverty–not gentrification–is our biggest urban challenge.”

So what, then, is the role for conscientious business leaders, who want to develop finite urban spaces without displacing the most vulnerable members of our community?

Everyone interviewed for this article agreed that we need more affordable housing. “It comes back to supply and demand,” says Dave Jaworsky, Mayor of Waterloo. When urban living becomes more desirable, and more people want to move into the same number of units, prices inevitably go up.

Waterloo is working on a Community Improvement Plan (CIP), which would include financial incentives for developers to include or add

affordable housing to residential projects. However, in a 2014 working paper, City staff wrote that, based on other municipalities’ experiences and the cost of land Uptown, the CIP is unlikely to be effective on its own.

Jaworsky is also quick to point out that affordable housing is often not enough to keep certain residents stably housed, because in many cases those people need other community supports—or supportive housing, which includes supports to meet tenants’ physical and mental health needs, and is rarer still in this Region.

Ron Flaming, House of Friendship’s Residential Services Program Director, manages a number of supportive and affordable housing units in Kitchener-Waterloo. In his words, “the vision should be to build inclusive communities where we recognize that all people belong, and create a spectrum of opportunities for all people to experience a true sense of inclusion.”

This means attractive and free public spaces, developed in inclusive ways, an idea that Councillor Elizabeth Clarke agrees with. Conscientious companies can try to “create attractive, welcoming public spaces, where street-involved people can sit and enjoy their surroundings without worrying that the police are going to move them along.”

Jaworsky and Flaming also suggest that the private sector could play a part in softening gentrification by trying to create “good jobs for everyone, not just in technology and

insurance.” Thinking creatively about work opportunities for the underemployed is one way that the private sector can be part of a more inclusive urban development, and make it possible to maintain mixed-income neighbourhoods.

Other cities mandate the inclusion of affordable housing in all new developments. This is true, with some qualification, in parts of Toronto and Vancouver. Copenhagen and Amsterdam are doing even more, but according to Dr. John Lewis, associate professor in the University of Waterloo’s School of Planning, that’s because of substantive cultural differences, and a history of civic dialogue around these issues.

“The first logical step,” then, is to get this on the policy agenda of Regional and Provincial governments, who hold most decision making authority, says Lewis. Councillor Clarke also encouraged tech companies to “make it clear to elected officials that the downtown they want is a downtown that belongs to everybody.” Fung agrees, and “ultimately,” he says, “we are trying to think about what kind of community we want to be a part of,” and “this means having an open conversation with government about the things we value, things like affordable housing, and public arts and culture, things that make a community vibrant, and inclusive.”

If inclusivity is the goal, such conversations must also focus on creating decent work opportunities and increasing social assistance rates.

NOVEMBER 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

5

REGION BEHIND ON ENERGY EFFICIENCY

SEXPLANATIONS

STACEY JACOBS COLUMNIST

And they all got put in boxes, little boxes all the same. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

LUKE MOYER CONTRIBUTOR According to various experts, and many of my friends on social media, 2015 is going to be the hottest year ever.

Many of us are concerned about environmental issues like climate change, but don’t know what, personally, to do. I am often overwhelmed by the severity and complexity of the issues, which causes me to question whether all my composting, biking and farmer’s market shopping are really helping to create a greener human population that this planet can sustain.

Environmental problems are systemic problems, and so my individual actions can feel useless. They do not contribute obviously to any systemic change.

What’s more, changing our consumption patterns can be expensive, and it’s tough to know who should pay for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

With these doom and gloom filled apprehensions I approached Kitchener-Waterloo’s Residential Energy Efficiency Program (REEP), to gain their perspective on the dilemma between our individual choices and the system within which these choices are made.

REEP is a charity and social enterprise that gives people the resources to make energy and water more sustainable, and they work primarily with homeowners to support their energy efficiency goals. Assuming that the real polluters are industry and agriculture and that tackling residential energy use was missing the forest for the proverbial trees, I wanted to know if residential efficiency was a worthwhile cause in the first place.

According to REEP’s Executive Director, Mary Jane Patterson, 22 per cent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Waterloo Region come from residential

energy use. This is five per cent higher than the Canadian average, and so our region in particular could reduce its energy use by improving energy outputs at the residential level.

The challenge, then, becomes how to make these changes possible. Financial incentives play an obvious role in determining whether or not people will actually put a plan in motion to make their homes more efficient. Up until 2011, the federal government provided a financial incentive for homeowners to not only get an evaluation but also to take actions that would make their homes more energy efficient. That financial incentive program has now ended, and Patterson says that the demand for making changes to energy efficiency in homes in Waterloo region has decreased. REEP has had to seek alternative ways to convince people to make home energy efficiency a priority, but without that financial incentive, fewer people have gotten their homes evaluated or taken actions to reduce their energy consumption.

Patterson expressed hope that the

incoming Liberal government will re-institute some financial incentives.

One problem with the current focus on residential energy efficiency is that it is specifically geared towards homeowners. About one in three Canadians rent their home, and the same is true in the Region of Waterloo, where there are nearly 200,000 renter households.

For many of us renters, residential energy efficiency means investing in some extra layers of clothing and keeping the heat at a low temperature. Unless landlords pay for utilities, they have few financial incentives to make their rental properties more efficient. Patterson acknowledges that there may be opportunities within this demographic to pursue some improvements. Renters tend to be lower income, so potential efficiency savings should be more attractive, given the right incentives.

While government figures out, with our input and pressure, how to respond to the big issues, I am going to keep biking, composting, and buying my carrots at the farmer’s market.

MUSIC TO OUR EARS, MUSIC FOR OUR SOULS DAVE THOMAS CONTRIBUTOR Waterloo Region is alive with the sounds of music. Whether you’re taking in a concert, streaming hits on your smartphone, singing in the shower or learning to make music, rhythm, harmony and melody are everywhere.

Sarah Pearson is a musician and music therapist who works with oncology patients at Grand River Hospital. She says that music is an integral part of one’s humanity. “Everyone is musical,” she says. “Music is something that is universally human.

It’s a language that is different from our cognitive, verbal language. It speaks to the emotions, to the spirit, to the body.”

Our kids are exposed to music during elementary school. For many

families that’s not enough for learners to fully develop their musicality.

Fortunately, there are a lot of options for both adults and youth to explore.

The Suzuki Method, is “very process-oriented at first,” says violin instructor Anita Buttemer, who is also executive director of Suzuki Talent Education of Waterloo. “We emphasize oral learning first, while you establish your basic skills on the instrument, followed by music reading. You work towards performances such as music festival and orchestral showcases. That shift happens gradually,” she says.

There’s also the long-established Conservatory Method. It focuses on measured levels of study to build a systematic progression of learning, while encompassing a comprehensive foundation, says Donna Mak, a piano teacher.

The main goal, both agree, is about developing a love of music. “We try to make the expectations clear. It’s not that we are trying to produce a whole stock of professional musicians,” says Buttemer. “We want students to have

fun.”

Mak concurs. “I think especially in today’s busy world where things are always on the go and society is saturated with noise, that the reflection exercised in studying music is more important than ever to each person’s well-being,” she says. “It teaches beauty and appreciation, encourages individual personality and creativity within a framework, and can build a child’s self-esteem when nurtured carefully.”

Rachel French of Kitchener has enrolled her two kids in piano for several years. “One major benefit to taking music lessons is that both kids have gained confidence from being able to piece together some beautiful music little by little,” she says. It can “add up to a major accomplishment that they can be proud of.”

French’s daughter, Kyla Reinsoo, 16, has completed her grade eight in the Royal Conservatory system: “My favourite part about taking lessons is the success you feel after completing a piece,” she says. “I like playing songs that I spent time working on

so that I can hear how it sounds all together.”

It can be difficult for some families to pursue private music lessons because of their financial situation.

The Community Music School of Waterloo Region is one avenue for low-income families. “One of our main goals is to ensure that music lessons are accessible to all, says director Caroline Hissa.

Families are referred to the school by community agencies, and teachers volunteer their time to provide lessons. Now in its fourth year, the school has students aged five to 18.

It’s worked out so well that there’s a waiting list. Hissa and the advisory board are working on building the capacity of the organization to respond to the demand in the community.

She is not surprised at the level of interest in music, because it’s not elitist, but universal. “Music is for everyone,” she says.

Whether you tap a simple rhythm, learn to cover your favourite top 40 hit or master a Beethoven sonata, you can add some music to your day.

Most people have heard about the magical Kegel exercises, believed to strengthen and tighten the vaginal muscles, allowing them to do mischievous and marvellous things.

People with vaginas are told to Kegel when they are young, Kegel when they are old, Kegel before they have a baby, Kegel after they have a baby, Kegel to make sex magnificent, Kegel if you want to shoot a ping pong ball from your vagina.

I was on board, and so I did Kegel exercises. And then I went to see a pelvic health physiotherapist. Why have you not heard about this person before? Because people do not talk openly about their pelvic health concerns. They are embarrassed or uncomfortable or have been taught not to talk about “down there.”

People see pelvic health physiotherapists for many reasons including incontinence, bowel issues, pain during or following intercourse or orgasm, ejaculation problems, organ prolapse, and pre- and post-pregnancy issues. I was there because of pain associated with endometriosis, and when my appointment started I proudly told my physiotherapist I was doing Kegels.

But, instead of being told to continue my Kegel exercises as I expected, I was taught reverse Kegel exercises.

According to pelvic health physiotherapist and clinic owner of A Body in Motion Rehabilitation, Keri Martin Vrbanac, “Kegel exercises are not for everyone and while they are useful, they are often done incorrectly.” She continued, explaining that “pelvic floor dysfunctions can be caused by weak pelvic floor muscles or tight pelvic floor muscles.”

With already existing tight pelvic floor muscles, Kegels, which are used to tighten, may potentially do more harm than good. Your pelvic floor muscles need to contract to maintain control of your bladder and relax to allow for urination, bowel movements and sexual function.”

I was taught reverse Kegels to relax my pelvic floor muscles, because you must relax before you strengthen. Reverse Kegels can be good for everyone unless you have a prolapse. If you have a prolapse you can still do the reverse Kegels but you must be sitting or lying down.

Pelvic health physiotherapy has been successful in European countries for decades and is becoming increasingly common elsewhere. It has the ability to improve a person’s life significantly, especially if the stigma of talking about our pelvic health concerns is decreased.

So talk about peeing when you cough, talk about pain during sex, talk about the number of stitches you had to get after giving birth. Awareness of these issues, and how common they are, is the first step in alleviating them.

Don’t be embarrassed, be proud of your body and all its unique workings.

And in case you are wondering, I have been told my pelvic floor muscles are fabulous.

NOVEMBER 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

6

Mamaye Yimegnuhal, outside of her home in Sunnydale, and other homes in Sunnydale and the Lakeshore neighbourhoods. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

IF STREETS COULD TALK: SUNNYDALE & THE LAKESHORES

NATALEE BLAGDEN CONTRIBUTOR In north Waterloo, a couple of blocks from mock Tudor two-storey homes, with timber-framed facades and pools visible on Google Maps, Mamaye Yimegnuhal lives with her two children and her husband, who is blind. They have lived together, in subsidized housing in the Sunnydale neighbourhood, since 1991.

“It’s feeling like being in my own country again,” she says, describing the joy of making friends in computer classes, cooking lessons, sewing circles and other group events at the Sunnydale Community Centre.

In a way, much of her life revolves around it.

Initially, the move to north Waterloo was a shock for Mamaye. Her husband arrived first. Mamaye and their young daughter soon followed.

“It was hard to believe, being apart from your family and your country.

We arrived here at nighttime, and in the morning when I got up to open the door my husband said ‘don’t open the door. It’s not like Ethiopia, here.’”

Uncertain about more than the cold weather, Mamaye did not join group activities right away, but eventually sought nutritional aid at the Centre during a pregnancy.

Leaning across the kitchen table in the front room at the Centre, she now speaks of the area with warmth and fondness. Among the core group of rent-subsidized townhouses near the community centre, she says,

“Every door is open, everyone knows each other, and families are growing up together.”

Mamaye volunteers to help other families, too. She spends many mornings at nearby Cedarbrae Public School, assisting with their breakfast program for students who come to school with empty bellies. She signed up when her own kids were at Cedarbrae, and just stayed on. For nine years, Mamaye has been making sure other young students receive nourishment from three of the four food groups before the first bell rings for class.

One of the supports Mamaye is most grateful for is funding for summer camps. When asked how her children like Sunnydale and the surrounding area, she mentions camp as a prime example of what works so well in this community.

“Otherwise [they couldn’t go]. I

couldn’t afford to spend that much money.” Not only is it a fun way to fill the days with activities, but it provides a much-cherished sense of belonging, she says. “They want to go with other students, with playmates from school.”

Laurie Strome agrees that the sense of belonging is what makes this community so solid and comfortable. Even when initial meetings are awkward.

“If you don’t speak English, how do you speak to your neighbours?” says Strome, Chair of the Sunnydale Community Association. ESL helps.

Shared food is often the bridge that brings people together.

House of Friendship’s Thursday food distribution program is set up like a market, when weather allows.

“Neighbours all come together.

Seeing each other week after week— they’re not a stranger anymore,”

Strome says, raising her hands in a triumphant “ta-da!”

Strome also talks of swapping holiday treats. She enjoys samosas from a neighbour at Eid and bakes cookies to share in return, at Christmas. Simple gestures in small packages, but when the crumbs are gone, the friendly acknowledgement and acceptance linger.

Creating space for those moments of welcome and exchange are what the Community Association and House of Friendship—partners in the Centre—are all about.

Strome recalls travelling all over, to Kitchener and to Cambridge, to learn how to land a dedicated space for community activities.

The Sunnydale Community Association partnered with House of Friendship and gained City permission to use a three-bedroom townhouse, which they quickly outgrew.

NOVEMBER 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

7

Sunnydale and the Lakeshore neighbourhoods. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR Today the Centre operates in a five bedroom townhouse, converted to suit their needs. The layout now includes, for example, a large meeting and classroom space, a play room, a computer lab, staff offices, and a cozy downstairs, styled like a rec room with couches and storage and games.

On the walls are endearing vintage posters like you might find in a guidance counsellor’s office. A DIVERSITY acrostic poem: Different Individuals Valuing Everyone Regardless of Skin (colour), Intellect, Talent, or Years. Sweet poems about good parenting appear near the play room.

The double-sized bulletin board wall is overflowing with events, and more handbills than a punk show.

However, the volume of assistance still doesn’t always match the needs of the community.

Sunnydale is one of only three Waterloo Region outreach service locations in the city. They have the highest number of “contacts,” the number of people who ask for assistance from a Family Outreach Worker. Kitchener, by contrast, has 14 locations.

Like layers of an onion, Lakeshore North and Lakeshore East wrap around Sunnydale. Primary schools in the three neighbourhoods report having students of more than 30 nationalities. Families in this part of Waterloo have emigrated from Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Iran, Syria, Laos, China, Vietnam and Lebanon.

Many of these new Canadians are young mothers without partners.

Like Sunnydale, the Lakeshore neighbourhoods are home to a number of partner charities, churches, and non-profit organizations.

Life Change Adventures (LCA) is one such organization, and does local and international work. Jeremy Horne is the founder, and expresses hope that LCA can help families with programs such as “Running & Reading.”

The weekly after-school program emphasizes the fun of athletic recreation, which “helps kids develop a greater sense of fitness, self-worth, and success. That confidence translates into other areas,” he says, including academic performance.

Mamaye is glad to have something after school for her adolescent son.

As much as she loves her neighbourhood, she concedes to sometimes worrying about boredom and wandering. “You never know who else is around.”

Word spreads quickly in an interconnected community like this.

When I stood to read the double-wide

bulletin boards covered in flyers for local programs and support services, Mamaye reached behind her to tap a blue paper that says “WINTER COATS” at the top.

“I’m telling everyone, especially parents” she says. “I’ll go and get free coats for my children. This way I can invest in better boots for them.”

The most difficult decisions and limitations get easier with people like Mamaye taking an interest in those around her.

When these advertised services aren’t enough, community members create ad hoc solutions, and often pretty damn progressive ones.

In early November, the Community Centre welcomes The Coalition for Muslim Women. Together they will delve into Ontario’s new sexual education curriculum, to foster an open, comfortable discussion of

exactly what is, and is not included in the curriculum. One hoped-for outcome is that parents with religious accommodation concerns won’t feel obligated to pull young students from their classrooms for days at a time when reproductive health and sexual relationships are in the lesson plans.

Residents and partner organizations in Sunnydale and the Lakeshores have also cobbled together ad-hoc workshops on substance abuse. They’ve fundraised together to build a new park on Albert Street.

They sew reusable feminine hygiene pads for low-income women who would otherwise be unable to attend school. Now, they’re on to gathering winter pyjamas for more than 150 local children.

“Together. We do everything together. We care about each other,” says Mamaye.

TAKE ME TO

CHURCH VISITING ST. PAUL’S LUTHERAN AND KNOX PRESBYTERIAN FOR A CLOSE LOOK AT TWO PLACES OF WORSHIP IN WATERLOO REGION

ALISTAIR MACLELLAN CONTRIBUTOR It took three days for workers to break down the front steps of Historic St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, in downtown Kitchener. The old steps, far too steep, gave way to a more accessible set. The task, as with many associated with the 125-year-old church, is a small example of its staying power and the changes around it.

Across town, at the intersection of Erb and Caroline Streets in Uptown Waterloo, new light rail tracks are being laid to move passengers across and through the city. Overlooking the intersection stands the modern structure that is Knox Presbyterian Church, its large glass windows both of-the-moment and a harbinger of urban change.

Everything changes. Nothing changes. As we live, work, grow and eventually die, the bricks and mortar of the buildings around us can seem like empty vessels that witness our lives as we walk through their doors.

But these buildings can tell us more about ourselves than we realize by reflecting where we came from and where we are going.

Located on the corner of Church and Queen Streets, a short walk from the downtown Kitchener transit terminal, St. Paul’s Lutheran was originally constructed in 1889. The architect, Jonas Knechtel, also designed the nearby Walper Hotel, which is in the midst of a large restoration project, and the American Hotel, now set to become luxury condos and an “urban grocery store.” Built on the top of a small sandy mound, the faded brick structure stands firm behind its LED sign indicating service times and short messages to the community.

“This was once the high point of the city and now it’s kind of hidden by bigger buildings,” says Reverend Dr. Roger Winger, who was Pastor at St. Paul’s until he retired in 1989.

Standing among the wooden pews, which face the altar at the front of the room, the sanctuary seems bigger than it looks from the outside.

“It’s important that the church is visible, it ought to convey some sort of message about the historic nature of the church, about the permanence of the church,” says Winger.

That visibility seems to be waning.

As churches fade out of modern societies’ collective conscience, their physical presence can also become less noticeable. Buildings that once inspired awe and grandeur are diminished next to towering apartment complexes. St. Paul’s sort of sneaks up on you as you turn up Queen Street towards King, and in the midst of rush hour, you may just miss it.

Reverend Brooke Ashfield helped Inside Knox Presbyterian Church and Historic St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

to guide the conception, construction and transition for Knox’s most recent renovation, and noticed the same phenomenon once their new building was completed in June 2012.

“One of the frequent comments we’ve had is, ‘Oh, this is a church? I didn’t know there was a church here, how long have you been here?’ Well, we’ve been on this corner for well over 80 years,” says Ashfield.

That other church, now replaced by the new Knox parking lot, hailed from Waterloo’s infancy. In 1864, Scottish Presbyterians who worked in the Seagram Distillery created the first congregation. They built a church in 1888 on George Street, moving to the present location in 1927. They have had two major additions since, in 1957 and 1975, to accommodate the growing church congregation. As that congregation aged so did their needs.

The fractured layout of rooms and hallways became obstacles for those facing greater barriers to accessibility.

St. Paul’s went through this transition in the mid-eighties, building a new entrance to the church and an accessibility ramp. The original addition reflected a need for expansion, as at one point the church had about 1,000 members, with over 350 children. The latest addition reflects the needs of an aging population. The congregation is now much smaller, with a regular Sunday attendance of around 100.

“It’s a traditional building, the sanctuary here is a traditional building, and we are a traditional conservative church. We believe that which the church has always believed; we haven’t changed our teachings over the years.

One can say very definitely that this type of worship area expresses that very well,” says Winger.

Those traditions trace their roots back to the time when Kitchener was known as Berlin. The first St. Paul’s congregation formed in 1835, and has included many notable citizens including William Schmalz, who was the mayor of Berlin when it was officially designated a city in 1912. His son, also a member at St. Paul’s, was the original architect of Kitchener’s first city hall.

“Churches used to be the only thing in town. Churches were the centre for sports, were the centre for social life, were the centre for all charity, were the centre for religious life, and were the centre for educational life.” says Ashfield. “All those five things except for the spiritual life, are now taken over by the state and non-profit corporations and generally they do a very good job.”

Ashfield believes that churches still should pick up the slack when other institutions have difficulty providing for those in need.

CONTINUED ON PAGE TEN

NOVEMBER 2015 // @THECOMMUNITYED

10

Knox Presbyterian Church and Historic St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

CONTINUED FROM PAGE NINE “Who started the food banks? Who started the Out of the Cold program?

Who started the shelters? The churches, [and] these churches haven’t gone anywhere,” says Ashfield.

Beyond cultural trends towards secularism, in our modern “always on” world, the church must simply compete for our time and attention.

Ashfield understands that his sermons may have trouble beating a Sunday morning spent binge watching Netflix.

The realities of competing demands for our attention was an important consideration in the design of Knox’s new building. For example, its concave roof creates very sophisticated acous-

tics, making musical performances and events exceptional experiences.

Ashfield recognizes that the Knox property brings many privileges.

“We had multiple offers, all of them unsolicited, for lots and lots of money, which would have allowed us to buy new property way out of town. It would have been much cheaper and much more cost effective for the church to do that but there was a universal feeling that we were an urban church,” says Ashfield.

Knox is within strides of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery and the Perimeter Institute, all Governor General award winning buildings.

“Every single architect in Canada

knew this intersection. Every single architect in Canada wanted to do a building on this corner,” says Ashfield.

Leaders at Knox began their newest building project by choosing from the best architects in Canada, to create a building that would not look underdressed among its prestigious neighbours.

They consulted the community and realized that this space could be more than just a place of worship but a venue for community events, a concert hall and a fixture for outreach within Uptown Waterloo.

“I would say that the church adapts to needs without changing its fundamental faith and beliefs,” says Winger.

St. Paul’s still manages to continue its mission of outreach in downtown

Kitchener despite its shrinking size.

“Downtown churches are finding it increasingly difficult to continue to exist but we are very happy about operating something called Community Cupboard,” says Winger.

Open from November to April, St. Paul’s providing, food, clothing and counselling services for about 300 to 400 people every week. This is no small feat for a congregation one quarter of that size.

Buildings change as the people and communities change around them, for it is those people and their communities that give them shape and meaning beyond their bricks and mortar.

As everything changes, some things stay the same.

NOVEMBER 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

11

A PLACE FOR PLJESKAICA

DOES THE ‘BEST BURGER IN TOWN’ LIVE UP TO THE HYPE?

ALISTAIR MACLELLAN DISTRIBUTION MANAGER “Best burger in town.”

Amidst advertisements for a variety of meats, cheeses and other delicacies on the windows at Jasna’s European Meat & Deli, this bold claim caught my attention.

When I think hamburger, I think America. I think excess. I think cheddar cheese melting over ground beef, the way Uncle Sam intended.

So, when the little European grocery store on the corner of Benton and Courtland Streets lays claim to the best burger in town, consider me skeptical. Didn’t hamburger win the Second World War? As if I had any other choice, I saddled up with two associates and

we stormed the small café in the back for lunch. I ordered the hamburger, which, as the menu explains, is actually a pljeskaica. Those less-than-fluent in Serbian will probably have as much difficulty pronouncing pljeskaica as I did. Our waiter generously and politely smiled as I struggled through the word, probably saying something embarrassing or offensive instead of hamburger.

So, the ‘burger’ is awesome. Is it the best hamburger in town? I can’t say, because I haven’t tried them all, yet–please send me to try them all Jesse!–but this one is delicious.

“It’s an old recipe”, says owner Miodrag Maslenjak. “When you prepare it you use the shoulder,” referring to the cut of the animal, which is actually a few animals: the patty is a mixture of beef and lamb.

This pljeskaica is not an American style burger. It’s richer, and the spices are closer to what you might find in a shawarma or kabob. You can buy the

patties at Jasna’s grocery store and cook them at home, but what really makes this burger great is the bun, made in house, called lepina.

If a panini had sex with a pita and made a delicious, beautiful, light yet doughy baby, you would call that dough-baby lepina.

So maybe you don’t need the wine making supplies that Jasna’s sells. You might not be able to read the food labels on the specialty fare imported from different eastern European countries. Maybe you will find something that reminds you of dinner at grandma’s.

You should still peruse the store’s offerings–you never know what might appeal to you. I took home some canned cod livers, which are delicious when spread on toast, much to the dismay of whomever I am eating with.

And yes, you should try the pljeskaica, and you should buy some lepinas, and get to know the fine folks who run the place.

Inside Jasna’s, and the infamous pljeskaica. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

THE MORNING AFTER VOTING STRATEGICALLY JESSE BAUMAN EDITOR IN CHIEF It’s November now, which means Stephen Harper is about to pack up his keyboard and turtlenecks and look for a new place to call home. The Conservative Party of Canada’s defeat was in part the result of a dedicated national strategic voting campaign.

The so-called Anyone But Conservative campaign also attracted a great deal of criticism. Now that we are on the other side of the election, TCE checked in with voters, to see how the process made them feel. Here are select responses, edited for clarity, along with each person’s riding.

Marc, Waterloo: I’m somewhat torn about it all, really, because I get why

people wanted to make absolute sure Harper didn’t get back in. I’m one of them! But I think my biggest sadness this time around was that the NDP had a real chance, and if they couldn’t beat the stupid strategic voting campaign this time, then when?

Misha, Waterloo: This guy voted strategically, #noregrets.

Margaret, Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte: I did and I am going to fight pretty hard over the next four years to avoid doing it again!

Rachel, Kitchener-Centre: I did, and am looking forward to Trudeau holding up his promise of electoral reform.

Emma, Parkdale–High Park: [Voting NDP in a conservative community, when I was a kid] was about proving that people like you existed, that you were real. It was an act of taking up space to create slow deliberate change. Trudeau said that campaigns and elections don’t have to be run on fear. Such irony. Fear is how strategic

voting works. Fear is the two party system. [But voting] should be simple.

You read the platforms and vote for who you respect the most. For who you want to vote for. [With all the strategic voting communications, I wonder] how many youth didn’t vote because they were worried they would do it wrong and how many more voted for who a website told them to vote for instead of learning about the system?

Brian, Eglington Lawrence: I almost always vote strategically. A sports better who only wagers on their favourite or the home team is bound to lose money.

Andrea, Kitchener-Centre: I voted strategically, but waited until 8:30 p.m. because I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I think the experience gave me the push I needed to fight for electoral reform so hopefully in years to come I won’t need to vote strategically.

Khadija, Kitchener-Centre: My neighborhood is teeming with old

white folks and youth who are not of age to vote, a recipe for a Conservative win in my riding, so I decided to vote liberal [despite my love of the NDP].

Do I feel guilty about my undemocratic vote? Not really, because I chose the best of the worst.

Lee, Waterloo: I’m happy to see change, but frustrated that this seemed like the only way to get there, fast. This country needs a better electoral system, ASAP. I might begrudgingly vote strategically again if it means protecting the rights of the most vulnerable Canadians.

Seth, Kitchener-Centre: You should vote for who you think would best represent your community in Ottawa, regardless of party lines. Unfortunately, this time I was more intent on getting Harper out than actually voting for the best candidate in my riding.

Carolyn, Kitchener Centre: Strategic voting makes me feel like I have less freedom to choose someone who I really felt represented my values, but

I already often feel that way during elections, torn between voting for a regional representative and a federal leader or party with the same vote. On the other hand, there was something about the collectivity and purpose of this election that made me feel empowered in a communal sense. I felt the energy was more wide spread, and there was drive sweeping across the country for change. If we could keep that fire burning to continue to push for positive change, perhaps next election we’d have a fairer opportunity to vote for who and what we care about.

Marcella, Niagara Falls: I considered it very seriously, but in the end [strategic voting] just didn’t feel right to me, so I opted not to.

Sarah, Kitchener-Centre: I voted strategically, and it sucked.

This is obviously not a complete survey of (strategic) voters. What do you think? Tweet your thoughts @theCommunityEdition or share online.

NOVEMBER 2015 // @THECOMMUNITYED

12

UNBUILT WR

Picture an old City maintenance yard with deteriorating buildings and sheds, overgrown vegetation, all surrounded by box retailers, aging apartment blocks, and a former landfill turned park. Now, drop five highrises with rooftop terraces, pools, and gardens, and a new urban street filled with boutiques, restaurants, and cafés. Top it all off with the Tri-Cities’ tallest tower. Such was the original plan for the former City of Kitchener site at 83 Elmsdale Drive, which would have brought thousands of new residents to Chandler Mowat, already one of the most densely populated areas outside of the city centres. The development would have also created a stark divide in income levels between luxury condo dwellers and the existing working class families. New plans for the site are far less ambitious, replacing the urban vibe with a suburban cocktail of retail, residential, office and retirement-home buildings connected by a charming network of parking lots. ALISTAIR MACLELLAN ILLUSTRATION, MATT SMITH PHOTO AND WORDS

ALVVAYS AND FOREVER

START UP WATCH KURTIS THOMAS CONTRIBUTOR

The self-proclaimed “jangle pop” group Alvvays recently played back to back nights at the Starlight Social Club. From “out east” and formed in Toronto, the band has clearly established a fan base west of the GTA. The Converse-clad audience shouted along with front-woman Molly Rankin, and by the end of the night formed a good-natured mosh pit. Their set was short and sweet, with hits from their first self-titled record, and a few new, promising songs. Judging by the high-energy turnout at Starlight, their sophmore album is already highly anticipated. ERIKA PREECE CONTRIBUTOR, WILL HUANG PHOTO

MEDELLA HEALTH Diabetes affects one in 10 people over the age of 20, and many more develop the disease later in life. Previous methods designed to monitor diabetes have faced limitations in accessibility and providing accurate data. Diabetes management can also be quite expensive, costing the average Canadian with diabetes between $3500 and $5000 annually. Enter Medella Health, who aim to drastically reduce all three of these limitations with an innovative solution. They are developing a contact lens containing a micro machine that monitors blood-glucose levels which then pushes that information to a mobile device. This gives the patient the knowledge they need to immediately act on dangerous glucose levels, which previously only came in intervals. It also tracks and stores the data it collects, giving physicians the ability to make informed decisions on their patients’ health.

PALETTE GEAR Most creative types swear by the power and importance of a tactile relationship in keeping up with their work. While digital technology makes most creative work, from illustration to photography, easier, ideas still start in the physical world on pen and paper. Palette Gear aims to bridge that gap by giving creatives a physical way to interact with their digital work. They have designed a series of

magnetically interlocking modules containing buttons, switches, dials and sliders, which can be configured in an infinite number of combinations as their user deems easiest for their workflow. This configuration is then plugged into the computer via USB and the combination of modules can be assigned to correspond with different editing tools. Want to change the opacity of something? Pull down that slider. Or maybe you choose to rotate an object by turning a dial.

More than a novelty, Palette can speed up workflows and give artists a better connection to their work.

PLUM The job market is a daunting place.

Job seekers contend with hundreds of other applicants, and employers have to differentiate through hundreds of resumes to determine who is the right fit for their workplace. Qualifications are important, but so is an applicant’s alignment with the company culture and its values. Plum’s human resources software makes these determinations easy. Every employer fills out a short, eight-minute survey, which assesses the characteristics and qualities they’re looking for in a potential employee. Applicants then complete a different survey highlighting their personal preferences and cognitive ability, and Plum compares the results and ranks them based on a compatibility score. This greatly accelerates the resume review process, with some current customers reporting an 80 per cent decline in the time they spend reading resumes. Plum could also increase employee retention and reduce time training new employees.

NOVEMBER 2015 // @THECOMMUNITYED

13

A FULL HOUSE BORING BEER PAYS OFF BUILDING RESILIENCE

CATHY MACLELLAN COLUMNIST My three millennial children are presently living at home. This has not always been the case, as they have come and gone for various periods of time, for school or work in other cities.

While I left home when I finished high school and only ever returned as a guest, my family now is transitioning from the form and function of parents and kids to a group of related adults living in community.

In so doing, we share many of life’s responsibilities, chores and costs—or at least are working towards that end.

According to Statistics Canada, about 25 per cent of young adults aged 25 to 29 live at home, which is more than double the 1981 rate.

Some wish to portray this situation as a kind of personal deficit, either on the part of parents or their boomerang children, or both. I disagree with this judgement.

Other cultures and our own histories indicate that multigenerational living has been the norm for a very long time, and that our current situation is anomalous.

My husband had nothing negative to say about the situation, although when I mentioned that having others around makes it harder to walk around the house naked, he nodded solemnly in agreement. He also failed to mention his irritation at finding, yet again, an empty beer case, where beer once lived.

Food plays a central role in our lives.

We cook and eat together almost daily.

A couple of us do most of the cooking because we love it, and ideally others share the clean up and set up. Savings are achieved in multiple ways because we buy in bulk. Leftovers are rarely left over. Making sure that everyone contributes fairly and equally is an ongoing challenge, which means negotiation is a daily activity, and can be exhausting at times.

The early loss of both of my parents has probably influenced my embracing this opportunity to share our lives as fully as we do.

All of us have come to know each other very well. We are a boisterous and opinionated bunch and as such, have had rousing arguments about rather unimportant things which may or may not be heard by our neighbours on a quiet summer evening.

We don’t know how long we will be living this way, but for now we are choosing to create a home life that is rich in memory making and is leaving us deeply connected to each other.

BRFC ON BEER

JON JOHNSON COLUMNIST You may have heard that Labatt Breweries of Canada (owned by AB-Inbev, not a Canadian company) recently purchased the Toronto craft brewery Mill Street. You also may have heard people yelling “sellout!” and vowing to never buy Mill Street again. By most definitions, the “sellout” label fits, but is it really such a big deal?

While the numbers are growing again, there was a time when there were only a few Ontario breweries.

Following prohibition many were forced to close, consolidate, or were bought up, resulting in near monopo-

lies for Molson and Labatt. Right now, the companies AB-Inbev and SABMiller control about 30 per cent of the global beer market and are planning to merge.

Craft beer is theoretically the antithesis of these macro-brewing corporations. They’re the little guys, brewing interesting beers with heart.

When one of them starts to get bigger, it’s like when Rudy finally gets on the football field. They’re still not getting major percentage point shares of the industry, but they’re doing well. And that’s happening more and more often.

As craft beer sales grow, the big companies panic and try to fight back.

One way they do that is by purchasing craft breweries. Another, arguably shadier tactic, is to create “craft” branches of their own breweries, and try to keep that fact quiet, as AB-Inbev has done with Shock Top, and MillerCoors has done with Blue Moon. It can

be easy to understand why craft beer fans don’t like the macro breweries.

So why, then, am I not bothered that Mill Street was bought out?

Mill Street has never been the antithesis to the big corporate giants, never the folks brewing interesting beers with heart. They generally brew for a mainstream market. Even Mill Street’s more experimental brews, while well made, are bland.

Their populist strategy has already gotten them far, often making them one of the better choices in places with limited choice, and given their trajectory, you have to wonder if this is what they were aiming for all along. Labatt will be putting more money into their existing operation, so it doesn’t sound like things will change much, except that Mill Street might become the best boring option in more locations. Maybe I’ll have a Tankhouse the next time I’m at Swiss Chalet?

Is it selling out, if that was always the goal? MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

DISCO NEXT FEATURING:

PENDERECKI STRING QUARTET PERIMETER CHAMBER PLAYERS DJ CYCLIST GLENN BUHR ERIC PAETKAU SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2015, 8PM

PERIMETER INSTITUTE WATERLOO, ONTARIO

TICKETS:

$35 general $20 senior/arts worker $15 student $5 eyego*

PART OF THE “PUSHING THE PERIMETER” SERIES ORDER TICKETS AT: perimeterinstitute.ca/tickets OR 519-883-4480

*eyego tickets can only be purchased by phone

an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario

NOVEMBER 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

14

A GRAND ORGY FILM REVIEW

ELISE MARION CONTRIBUTOR

㄀㄀ 圀椀氀氀漀眀 匀琀爀攀攀琀Ⰰ 圀愀琀攀爀氀漀漀 一㈀䨀 ㄀嘀㘀

How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town is more than a provocative title, and viewers will be drawn, delightfully, into Jeremy LaLonde’s latest indie film. The story delves deep into what happens behind closed doors in a close-minded town, and questions society’s treatment of sexual empowerment.

Director LaLonde disagrees with the cliché that everyone knows everyone in small towns. “I don’t think that’s really true. What ends up happening is that people hide more.”

This idea becomes a central premise in How to Plan an Orgy, which satirizes the distinct personality of a small town through the portrayal of Beaver’s Ridge. After being “slut-shamed” as a teenager, Cassie Cranston returns to her hometown years later to attend her mother’s funeral, interrupting former friends’ lives with her big-city, sex-columnist ideas.

Early into the film, one of the main characters, Adam, asks his wife if they are “orgy people.” The characters all struggle with exploring and experimenting with their sexuality, and many of them experience moments of awakening. The story is about individuality, realizing who you are and the moments that define you. Cassie is the instigator for these revelations, stirring up the carefully constructed lives of her frenemies that already seem to be falling apart.

Sex in general, and orgies in particular, becomes a gateway for the characters’ personal growth. With Cassie’s help, they overcome their predispositions about sex, with their spouses and with each other, through the planning of their own “small town orgy.”

At first glance LaLonde’s film sets out as a comedy, but it evolves into a bittersweet second-phase coming of age story that preserves its comic intrigue, proving that personal development can happen at any point in your life. It shows the layers of marriage and relationships, how they can be peeled and exposed, but also stitched back together. The characters are complex and charming, offering

a fresh perspective on life after high school and how we, as individuals, can learn from our past mistakes.

Small towns have a depth and history that is different and more intimate than large ones. You see people you went to school with, and you know their parents, and they know yours. The characters in LaLonde’s film grew up together, and they carry their past with them.

“I like telling stories about relationships that have a history as opposed to people meeting for the first time. There’s something more rich about that,” says LaLonde.

The protagonist Cassie should be relatable for anyone who has moved away from home. Trying to find your place in the world is often uncomfortable, causing that familiar feeling of displacement. When Cassie returns to Beaver’s Ridge after living in Toronto, she finds that her big-city ideas don’t fit in. As the characters see each other through Cassie’s fresh eyes, they start to understand that they are each maintaining their own sort of façade.

LaLonde was raised in a small town, and sees some of himself in Cassie. When your people know my people, “there is a pressure to be a certain thing.” In the city, you’re surrounded by people but you don’t get to know all of your neighbours. “But that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” he admits.

Sometimes, a little anonymity can be good.

How to Plan an Orgy breaks down the walls of its small town characters, allowing them to come to terms with themselves. It truly is a second-stage coming of age story. The 30-year-old characters are coming out of their quarter-life crises, and are just beginning to accept who they are, not who people think they are.

“That’s what the movie is about for me,” says LaLonde. “People finally getting closer to who they are and being comfortable with that.”

How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town plays at the Grand River Film Festival, at Cambridge Community Players, on November 7.

Four used condoms out of five.

Cambridge Community Players is one of seven Grand River Fim Festival venues, and will screen How to Plan an Orgy. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

NOVEMBER 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

The Berlin is scheduled to open in late November. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

EATING SUSTAINABLY AT THE NEW BERLIN ELIZABETH DICESARE COLUMNIST Downtown Kitchener will soon be home to a new restaurant at 45 King Street West. The Berlin, slated to open late November, is co-owned by Head Chef Jonathan Gushue and General Manager Ryan Lloyd-Craig. The two are currently hard at work transforming the space, which formerly housed Peter Martin’s The 41 Gastropub. Their vision is for a simple, laid-back restaurant that focuses on sustainability and the basics of cooking.

Though renovations are still underway, it’s evident the interior will have some character, the walls a combination of wood and exposed brick. The open staircase in the middle of the restaurant gives patrons an unobstructed view of the entire building. The back of the restaurant features an open kitchen, complete with counter-side seating, so patrons can watch their meals be prepared before their eyes.

“We wanted to make this a Kitchener restaurant,” said Gushue. “The first thing we both agreed on was no tablecloths, just a nice big candle on the table, we want flowers, that’s really it, and then keeping everything else natural.”

After exploring the offerings of some of the other downtown restaurants, both Gushue and Lloyd-Craig decided that they wanted to “offer something a little different.”

Patrons can expect simple, locally-sourced dishes that will change with the seasons. Sustainability is a

hot topic within Waterloo Region, and both Gushue and Lloyd-Craig agree that it is an important value for restaurants to put into practice.

They have already lined up multiple local suppliers. Their pork, for example, will be supplied by a farm near Listowel. They are excited to support producers from this area that, ultimately, will help to drive their business.

“There’s just so much to offer around here,” said Gushue. “We don’t want to limit ourselves, but we certainly want to be recycling money back into our own community.”

Lloyd-Craig echoed these sentiments and explained why local community partners are important to The Berlin. Ultimately, they want to help benefit the people who live and work here. Farmers need restaurants to buy their products, and restaurants need farms to supply the product. One cannot exist without the other, so the creation and sustainability of those relationships is key.

The Berlin’s menu will also feature a range of dishes influenced by the Region’s German history.

“We will certainly be inspired by what you see in the region, for example, a great deal of buckwheat.” And so, Gushue explained, “we have a section called noodles and dumplings.” Spaetzle, presumably, and not jiaozi.

The food will be a mix of Canadian and European, and will try to connect some of the area’s cultural and historical traditions with food production throughout the region.

And the name? As many will recall, Kitchener was called Berlin until 1916, and, as Gushue explains, “we want to be a restaurant that is a part of the community, entrenched in the Waterloo Region.”

15

NOVEMBER 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

16

Amateur art enthusiasts plus a dozen cans of spray paint plus a a steady cold rain equals Night\Shift graffiti magic in downtown Kitchener. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

NIGHT\MOVES

MEGAN NOURSE CONTRIBUTOR Weather was not on the side of Night\Shift this Halloween weekend.

Like the frigid cold temperatures that festivalgoers faced during last year’s event, the weather dampened outdoor attendance, but not our spirits. Along with hundreds of other community members I dashed from THEMUSEUM to Centre in the Square to 44 Gaukel to venue-formerly-known-as The Marisol to avoid the rain. However, staying inside would mean missing some of Night\Shift’s best installations.

We spray painted the outside of Café Pyrus, wandered through a light maze, went to a silent drive-in and watched a City in Motion in Goudies Lane—all outside.

“We wanted people to make their mark,” said Tyson Reiser, the owner of Pyrus. The café team wanted their installation to be interactive, which was well-achieved. The building’s landlord offered a section of the wall for the activity and will leave the resulting art until at least the spring. Reiser said he hopes the wall demonstrates our need for public art funding. As a lifelong rule follower, I felt pretty badass spray-painting “TCE” on a wall I walk by daily.

“A lot of people were really happy to get into spaces they don’t normally get access to,” said festival director Eric Rumble.

We mingled in a Gatsby lounge at the Marisol and at KWAG danced to 70s jams in a rec room that looked like basements across the nation.

The latter seriously delivered, with

shag carpets, retro sofas, a glitter cat sculpture and flowing white russians.

My time-travel dreams were realized under the light of a disco ball, surrounded by bell-bottoms and Tom Selleck mustaches.

Immigrants’ stories told through lanterns, a crash course in coding, a tour of sad graffiti and a lot of live music brought us from one side of downtown to the other, to experience the darkened streets of Kitchener in a new way.

This year, Night\Shift organizer Eric Rumble launched a FundRazr crowdsourcing campaign to support the artists and contributors. Just over 30 per cent of the goal was reached, but Rumble was unfazed, saying that “$2,000 in support from anonymous individuals is awesome, I’m really proud of that. It allows me to make sure that everyone who contributed at least gets something.”

If the unsuccessful crowdsourcing hurt the festival at all, it was not felt by attendees. Each installation was fueled by love of art and community, bringing creators and consumers together to experience all that downtown Kitchener’s streets and structures have to offer.

My night ended in the basement lounge of Centre in the Square—normally reserved for members—where I sipped Block 3 beer and listed to the “deep dance music” of Machines of Loving Grace. The scene perfectly summarized Night\Shift’s jam: community, art, experimentation, and a little weirdness.

With our clocks turning back, downtown Kitchener gained an extra hour of animation at a time that, most days of the week, would be relatively quiet. Night\Shift makes it clear that no amount of cold, rain or costume parties to attend will stop our community from keeping downtown vibrant.