Thursday, April 08, 2010

deposition at city hall, re: location of new ivor wynne stadium

Good morning,
As council prepares to vote on the location of the Pan Am Stadium, I feel the necessity to add my own voice to the debate. What began as a relatively benign process has since divided many of Hamilton's residents. Community activists and grassroots organizations have united to support the West Harbour location as they believe the revitalization of the downtown to be of principal importance for Hamilton. Supporters of East Mountain state that the Hamilton Tiger-Cats cannot play in a downtown location, but require parking spaces and a concept called 'highway visibility'. Before I come to my own conclusions about the matter, namelay that downtown visibility is of paramount concern to the city of Hamilton, I wish to state where I came from and to where I plan on going.
Despite my relatively youthful appearance, I have lived and worked in Hamilton for twenty years. After having taught at Mohawk, Columbia International, and Sheridan colleges for several years, I have chosen to pursue doctoral study at York University. When i mention this last fact to people, their common reaction is to inquire as to why I do not live in Toronto. My response is always the same -- I am involved in the local arts and music communities, most of my friends live here, apartment rentals in Hamilton are very reasonable, and I can commute to Toronto using the GO bus and train service. In fact, it is cheaper for me to rent here in Hamilton and pay for a monthly GO bus pass than it is to rent an apartment in Toronto.  I do not drive in Hamilton, but prefer to ride my bicycle for leisure and business transportation, and log roughly 5,000 kilometres each year on the streets of Hamilton. As a side note, it would have been nice for the City Hall renovation to have included a bike rack somewhere, as right now riders have to lock their vehicles to the front stairs. While I commute on the bus, I am able to read, write, and do much of the work for my profession. Downtown, I attend world-class independent music and art shows, shop at the Farmer's market, and eat at the local restaurants.
I say this not to place myself on any kind of pedastal, but rather to indicate how it is possible to live in a sustainable manner in Hamilton right now, without LRT or the GO train expansion, without a decent or even functional network of bike lanes, and without a "marquee" attraction in the core. Right now, I will admit that I am an exception, but I can only imagine how many people will work and live as I do when Hamilton realizes the development plans indicated in Hamilton’s development vision as contingent with the West Harbour Stadium project. A revitalised downtown will serve as a billboard for the city, increasing the visibility of the city as a whole and not just the corporation who names the stadium.
In the media, I am continually told that my living and working habits represent a sustainable future. I do not want to live in the suburbs, but rather find solace within bustling urban centres where diversity and human interaction are encouraged. The reason that I like downtowns of cities is that they are multifunction and polyvalent spaces which support a diverse array of human cultures. In development terms, they act as cultural and economic multipliers. Hamilton is a plucky little city. Despite our poor national reputation, culturally we punch above our weight. Time and again we hear from outsiders and media pundits that this is a dirty industrial town which presents little more than blight and hoardings to the potential visitor. I, and others like me, are determined in our efforts to ameliorate life in this city, and we do so not because we see potential, but rather because we see results. We see this city as a centre for film and television production. We see this city as a musical hotbed not because of a Canadial Idol win, but because of decades of influential work by Hamilton's independent music scene. We see a city which has large residential areas containing some of the most beautiful houses in the province. We see a city immersed in the natural beauty of the escarpment and the harbour.
However, I am deeply saddened by the manner in which the TiCats organization is bullying the city over the new stadium. As a football player and fan, I know what a blitz is. I also understand that some metaphors need to remain on the field, as they do not translate to enlightened development plans. I have lived for most of my life in this city, and have worked diligently in the arts and education communities to help the city to succeed. The East Mountain stadium is a step in the wrong direction, for numerous reasons having to do with the quality of life in the city, the continuation of the revitalisation of businesses downtown, and the need for our social infrastructure and development plans to move away from the 'sprawl' mentality which is completely unsustainable.
As a city, we need to mature into a community with confidence. As such, we cannot allow the history of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to dominate the present. As Bob Young’s recent letter to the the Mayor indicates, the TiCats are a business interest. They exist to make money for their owners, and not to add to the cultural legacy of the city of Hamilton. Perhaps if like the Green Bay Packers the TiCats were publically-owned, then we could consider their interests as more important than they are. Too long we have bent to corporate and business forces. After being abandoned by US Steel, Labatt, Siemens, Camco it is time to understand that businesses are not beholden to the community in which they operate, despite their claims to the contrary. Never was there talk to confer $100 million in public funding to such companies, but here we are debating that exact subsidy for the Tiger-Cats. It is true that the Cats have a storied history, and grew along with the city. We should not blind ourselves to the fact that it is fully possible for the TiCats to leave Hamilton at any point, including after the stadium is built and operational.
We have a bit of a history of hurrying our development decisions without allowing for the occurrence of a proper civil debate. As the most recent example, we have a Red Hill Expressway which has come to serve the dual function of being both a highway and a water theme park. On a much lesser note, we redeveloped City Hall without adding bike racks, and so people like me are forced to use the front railings. The East Mountain plan was pushed through at the last minute to sideswipe City Council and avoid a debate about the severe shortcomings of the proposal relative to the City's interests. Furthermore, the TiCats have not provided empirical figures demonstrating that West Harbour will fail, beyond simply stating that they will lose money. Consequently, the only conclusion a reasonable person can reach is that the TiCats are scared of allowing the benefits of East Mountain to speak for themselves.
Instead, they use bully tactics to get their way in the face of concerted grassroots opposition. Contrary to what some of our provincial representatives have recently stated, East Mountain is not a Place to Grow. Communities do not grow beside highways; parking lots, strip malls, and big box stores do. Such companies and corporations serve to siphon money out of communities as company and shareholder profits. The only legacy of East Mountain outside of the benefits which will be monopolised by the TiCats will be a number of minimum-wage retail and service jobs. Any other outcome is disingenuous to the citizens of Hamilton.Their way IS the highway in this instance. Personally, while I would love to see the Future Fund money spent on other more important projects, I would rather that we remediate brownfield sites in the heart of the city rather than pave over a farmer’s field and commit to a mistake for the 21st century.

Thank you for your time.