The "tipping point". Has Hamilton passed through this imaginary wall and as the Hamilton Spectator suggests are we driving full speed ahead?
I've wrestled with this question before. We Hamiltonians have seen if we've been on the planet for 50 plus years the best of times, those times when we were Canada's heavy industrial and manufacturing engine, and the worst of times certainly from 1995 to 2005 when we hit rock bottom. Now how would you describe these times?
We certainly are well beyond rock bottom with new industries arriving almost every day, new young and bright entrepreneurs buying up homes where we least expected them to be bought and with building permits continuing their massive roll, but!
The definition of "tipping point" is this; the "tipping point" is the critical point in an evolving situation that leads to a new and irreversible development.
Do cranes on our skyline suggest an irreversible development? Not really since you couldn't find one in the city for thirty years.
Do plans for development suggest an irreversible development in Hamilton? Call me cynical but until I see actual shovels in the ground we haven't passed nor even approached this city's "tipping point".
Here are four huge "tipping point" issues we face.
- US Steel and the final resolution for that massive property. Will it once again make steel, join the agri-business or be returned to the people?
- LRT
- West Harbour
- Piers 7 and 8 redevelopment.
When this city has resolutions to these issues we'll be on our way to that "tipping point" line.
Here are 19 more properties and projects that will help tip me over the line to an irreversible development.
First, we have a plethora of useless pavement in this city. Think about the useless pavement that was a gas station but now sits empty on the south-west corner of Lime Ridge Mall facing the Royal Canadian Legion. Imagine how a medical/health clinic might look sitting just off the Linc servicing the under serviced and rapidly growing mountain population. Heck I'd take a victory/community garden over pavement.
Secondly, the next time you drive along Mohawk at Upper Sherman check out the useless pavement that begins at the North West corner and runs along the entire frontage of the Walmart/Beer store combo. Talk about useless urban sprawl.
Thirdly let us make our way to 100 Cumberland, yep the former Life Savers building. There is some life there right now but there could be a lot more. You see when I see that structure totally utilised again, now we're talkin' irreversible.
Fourthly do you remember how jammed the parking lot was north of our old bus terminal when GO Service used to run from there. Now it's virtually abandoned except for ragged cement barriers and weeds. Across the way to the west of John off Rebecca more pavement. This parking lot at least gets some use but folks this is prime downtown land and until I see plans for redevelopment of deserted pavement I can't push myself into believing we have reached the "tipping point".
More to the parking lot point, we were told when McMaster took over the former Board of Education property that the parking lot at King and Bay was slated for future development. All I hear is crickets.
Let's cross the street to the south west corner of King and Bay. Once upon a time it was developed, now more parking featuring the grade 12 biology work book on weeds.
To the corner of Queen and Main we go, the south west corner again. Once a gas station it now features a sign suggesting Frisina will do something some day. Hello we need to know when someday is.
To another critical corner in our downtown we go, King and Hughson. The former thriving Kresges building which also played host to a Delta Bingo until two Januaries ago sits empty. Surely with significant restoration work going on kitty corner to the King William and Hughson door someone one of these days will wake up and see the possibilities of density or restoration or both.
You see for me to believe in an irreversible trend or a "tipping point" event happening in my city I need to see the holes we've created plugged with what I would hope would be imaginative uses. The block bounded by James, Main, King and Hughson has huge gaps and there are tentative plans to plug those gaps but how far off might they be?
Lets cross James and stand where Robinson's once stood. It's actually a very sad feeling.
Further north the corner that was Keneskey's is gone, surrounded by huge cement blocks. Now that's progress.
Let's look from the downtown to the god awful hole along the Claremont. How many years now since the slide? When will the rest of this cladding come sliding down? We are told another consultants report is coming this fall. Big deal. When the price tag is revealed to be in the millions this council will likely say driver beware!
One could go on and on. Please do add to my list, like the corner of John and Main or the Cotton Mill building on Cannon at Mary or how about the former City Motor Hotel property, and Sir John A. MacDonald high school. What will happen to Hill Park and Delta. My head is starting to hurt.
Folks the "tipping point" can and will be reached because we are on a roll but as the kids used to say from the rear seat "are we there yet", nope.
Tuesday 16 August 2016
Thursday 14 July 2016
He's back!
It's kind of funny that my last blog post had to deal with a presentation from the Good Shepherd in 2012 seeking a bit of loan relief from the city. Not quite ironic but my very next job was in the not for profit sector as Director of Development at Neighbour to Neighbour. In that position which I held for three years you don't write opinions about events in your city. Your job is to reach out to all sectors of this great city of ours seeking to raise funds for a variety of programming that helps those who are less fortunate than others have a better daily living experience, and so Farraway's Hamilton went into limbo.
Forget limbo, we're back.
Now why are we back?
As some of you know (those who care to follow Hamilton politics) I was one of 22 candidates in the recent Ward 7 by-election. In fact while walking along the bay front this morning with the grand doggy Yogi, I met a chap I hadn't conversed with in over 20 years. The first question out of his month wasn't how's the wife and family, his first words were "why in god's name would you want to get elected to join that nest of vipers?". Hmmm.
I wanted to serve.
I wanted to have an impact.
I wanted to lend my expertise to the significant issues of the day, from transit and LRT, to affordable housing, ward boundary review and the development of Piers 7 and 8 just to name a few.
Even thought it didn't happen (and I have no regrets) I did immerse myself in issues and questions I had never concerned myself with before like Inclusionary Housing and health care provision in this city.
I was reminded about health care provision while driving on Main West past the HHS West end clinic this very day. It reminded me of broken promises from Hamilton Health Sciences 8 years ago for a South Mountain health clinic. It reminded me of the far sighted (not) decision to shut down Chedoke some 20 years ago. Now that HHS and it's highly transparent board (not) have decided to pull out of McMaster and St. Peter's over the next decade (and trust me it will happen sooner than later) I am reminded of the lack of health provision for the fastest growing areas of our city. With all due respect to Waterdown and lower Stoney Creek, the most serious growth continues to be found in Wards 6,7,8, 9 and 11. For some of those folks it's a pretty easy hop, skip and a jump to get to Centennial and King for some basic health care. But for the vast majority there is only the emergency at Juravinski servicing a mountain population that is conservatively estimated to be in those five wards, at well over 200,000 people (subtract small chunks of wards 9 and 11 below the escarpment while adding a small chunk of ward 12 which would be better serviced by a south mountain clinic, and remember these are 2011 numbers it's safe to say the real number is closer to 210,000 people).
Think about some of the decisions made by the HHS over the last 20 years.
They closed the emergency at Chedoke because it was under utilized (they said). They took out operating rooms and slowly but surely began to shut it down acre by acre, building by building and now service by service, indeed recently having the audacity to ask the city to help subsidize the final removal of staff to the under utilized Stelco tower downtown. Did anyone at HHS consult city planners about the expected explosion of growth that took place on Upper Hornung, in the Meadowlands all the way to Redeemer and on the South side of Rymal in gated communities like Garth Trails? Apparently not.
Eight years ago while announcing the closure of adult emergency at McMaster (which we were told would take care of the under utilized patrons of Chedoke) a South Mountain Health clinic was promised. Six months after said promise the West End Clinic was born. The South Mountain which hasn't grown a tad in those 8 years (insert sarcasm here) remains a health provision desert. And how did that promise get broken? The west end, Ancaster and Dundas jumped up and down screaming bloody murder. HHS caved.
Now HHS is pulling out of Mac and building an entirely new building/division near Hamilton General to take care of children's and women's health issues while closing St. Peter's and telling Hamilton residents that if they need day surgery they'll be able to travel to Grimsby to get it.
Really?
The opaque and out of touch HHS board is going to get away with this boondoggle because not one Councillor in this city has raised any argument with not only the announcement but the HHS decision making process. I don't want to sound like a whining mountain resident but when the population of the south mountain wards is virtually tied with the population of the old lower city don't you think we deserve better than 12 over crowded emergency beds jammed into a building as far away from the current growth hot spots as they possibly could be? Don't you think based on the taxes paid on the mountain that consideration should be given to a south mountain medical facility to take care of the daily breaks and hurts that don't need to clog an emergency? I don't think this is whining. I think the facts speak for themselves. The mountain and outlying communities like Mount Hope and Binbrook are under serviced and frankly ambulance response times are only going to grow if something isn't done. The lower city currently has a children's hospital, the General, St. Joe's and two clinics serving the west and east ends plus a new facility to built near the General. The mountain?
Forget limbo, we're back.
Now why are we back?
As some of you know (those who care to follow Hamilton politics) I was one of 22 candidates in the recent Ward 7 by-election. In fact while walking along the bay front this morning with the grand doggy Yogi, I met a chap I hadn't conversed with in over 20 years. The first question out of his month wasn't how's the wife and family, his first words were "why in god's name would you want to get elected to join that nest of vipers?". Hmmm.
I wanted to serve.
I wanted to have an impact.
I wanted to lend my expertise to the significant issues of the day, from transit and LRT, to affordable housing, ward boundary review and the development of Piers 7 and 8 just to name a few.
Even thought it didn't happen (and I have no regrets) I did immerse myself in issues and questions I had never concerned myself with before like Inclusionary Housing and health care provision in this city.
I was reminded about health care provision while driving on Main West past the HHS West end clinic this very day. It reminded me of broken promises from Hamilton Health Sciences 8 years ago for a South Mountain health clinic. It reminded me of the far sighted (not) decision to shut down Chedoke some 20 years ago. Now that HHS and it's highly transparent board (not) have decided to pull out of McMaster and St. Peter's over the next decade (and trust me it will happen sooner than later) I am reminded of the lack of health provision for the fastest growing areas of our city. With all due respect to Waterdown and lower Stoney Creek, the most serious growth continues to be found in Wards 6,7,8, 9 and 11. For some of those folks it's a pretty easy hop, skip and a jump to get to Centennial and King for some basic health care. But for the vast majority there is only the emergency at Juravinski servicing a mountain population that is conservatively estimated to be in those five wards, at well over 200,000 people (subtract small chunks of wards 9 and 11 below the escarpment while adding a small chunk of ward 12 which would be better serviced by a south mountain clinic, and remember these are 2011 numbers it's safe to say the real number is closer to 210,000 people).
Think about some of the decisions made by the HHS over the last 20 years.
They closed the emergency at Chedoke because it was under utilized (they said). They took out operating rooms and slowly but surely began to shut it down acre by acre, building by building and now service by service, indeed recently having the audacity to ask the city to help subsidize the final removal of staff to the under utilized Stelco tower downtown. Did anyone at HHS consult city planners about the expected explosion of growth that took place on Upper Hornung, in the Meadowlands all the way to Redeemer and on the South side of Rymal in gated communities like Garth Trails? Apparently not.
Eight years ago while announcing the closure of adult emergency at McMaster (which we were told would take care of the under utilized patrons of Chedoke) a South Mountain Health clinic was promised. Six months after said promise the West End Clinic was born. The South Mountain which hasn't grown a tad in those 8 years (insert sarcasm here) remains a health provision desert. And how did that promise get broken? The west end, Ancaster and Dundas jumped up and down screaming bloody murder. HHS caved.
Now HHS is pulling out of Mac and building an entirely new building/division near Hamilton General to take care of children's and women's health issues while closing St. Peter's and telling Hamilton residents that if they need day surgery they'll be able to travel to Grimsby to get it.
Really?
The opaque and out of touch HHS board is going to get away with this boondoggle because not one Councillor in this city has raised any argument with not only the announcement but the HHS decision making process. I don't want to sound like a whining mountain resident but when the population of the south mountain wards is virtually tied with the population of the old lower city don't you think we deserve better than 12 over crowded emergency beds jammed into a building as far away from the current growth hot spots as they possibly could be? Don't you think based on the taxes paid on the mountain that consideration should be given to a south mountain medical facility to take care of the daily breaks and hurts that don't need to clog an emergency? I don't think this is whining. I think the facts speak for themselves. The mountain and outlying communities like Mount Hope and Binbrook are under serviced and frankly ambulance response times are only going to grow if something isn't done. The lower city currently has a children's hospital, the General, St. Joe's and two clinics serving the west and east ends plus a new facility to built near the General. The mountain?
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