Kitchener

A medium sized city with a population of 190,399 in the city itself, with a total of 444,094 in the metro/suburban areas. The city contains one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Highly educated people, high-tech jobs. The city suffers a few problems, the degrading downtown for one. In the late 90's several buildings in and around downtown suffered arson problems. Store owners were setting fire to buildings to collect insurance money. After that, in around 2000 the downtown started to get really bad. No more fires, but lots and lots of drug-dealing, prostitution, robberies, car-thefts etc. The bus-terminal is also a heaven for young teenage kids who like to act like they're from Brooklyn, talking shit to anybody. Living in Kitchener is nice, if you have the money. High cost housing is leaving alot more people to move into ghetto neighbourhoods in the South Ward District of the city, and near Chicopee-Bridgeport. Ugly slab apartments, small houses, and crime are turning many areas into high-crime ghettos. If one can afford it though, the city is building pleanty of new, middle-class suburban areas. Tearing down forests and burying streams, developers are constantly building row upon row of identitcle houses on the outskirts of the city. The lack of managed health care is showing. The recent lack of general-physicians is starting to show. Despite putting millions into the hospital, they're still struggling. Despite the problems the city faces as it gets bigger and bigger, Kitchener is a fine place. One thing they need to do though, is build up, not out.