Longtime residents, university students gather for welcome party in Waterloo

Longtime residents in a part of Waterloo, Ont., known for large, unsanctioned street parties held an event Thursday evening and usedice cream to tempt university students to get to know their neighbours.

"These connections that you make at this kind of an event end up helping us solve problems as a group later," said Kae Elgie,a member of the board for the MacGregor-Albert Community Association, which helped organize the event.

The area the community association coversincludes Ezra Avenue, whichbecame known for large, unsanctioned street parties in the fall at the start of school, during university homecoming events and St. Patrick's Day.

About a hundred students, residents and community leaders attended Thursday's event.Elgie said it'll help build a more understanding relationship with students who live in the area during the school year.

For instance, she said, a while back, neighbours had complainedabout a lack of parking spaces in front of a frat house, but community members were able to relatively quickly come to an agreement with the students.

"They did come to the meeting and theysaid, 'Yeah, we don't want to be part of the problem,'" Elgie said. "At the meeting, some other neighbours said, 'Well, I actually have a couple of extra spots that I'm not using in my driveway'and the problem definitely lessened."

Shane Symington, president of the Wilfrid LaurierUniversity Students' Union, said it's beneficial for students to build relationships with neighbours.

"It helps everyone if everyone else sees that the different parties involved are willing to communicate and talk to one another when it comes to addressing each other's concerns and being a part of each other's solutions," he said.

The residents of the MacGregor-Albert neighbourhood have been organizing welcome parties for students since 2014, but stopped during the pandemic.

Long-time residents hope students 'respect the neighbourhood'

John and Cindy McMenemy have lived along Fountain Street since the 1970s. Over the years, they've watchedthe makeup of their neighbourhood drastically change.

John said they attended to show students "there are people like us in the neighbourhood as well as people like them."

"I hope that they'll respect the neighbourhood," he said.

"It's important for the universityboth universities, but particularly nearby Wilfrid Laurier, to appreciate that we are doing our best to maintain what you see."

Studentsexcited for free ice cream

Clearnce Snoyer, a first-year Laurier student, learned about the event through a flyer in the mail, and he and his friends stopped by.

"We live on Spring Street, so we decided to come by and get some ice cream and seewho our neighbours were," he said.

"We'reuniversity students. So we're kind of enclosing our own world over there. So it's time to meet some, you know, actual people that live around here."

Another new Laurier student, Darren Thomas, said he attended "to have a good time with our neighbours."

"We just moved in so it's pretty cool to just get out and enjoy the neighbourhood,I guess.And there's also free ice cream."

Angela Chang, a University of Waterloo student, called the event a "pretty pleasant experience."

"It shows there's a meld between the two: there's students here, but there's also residents here who are living long term who are wanting for it to be a place where people can still feel at home, even if you're away from home."