The Clock is Ticking...the Great Stadium Debate and Councilor McHattie!

Donna Bacher, Broker — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:26:00 GMT

There are very few things that come close to the entertainment value provided by the "City of Hamilton Knights of the Round Table"....as they try to come to a consensus on anything...let alone something of the size of the Pan Am stadium. After all, we have known about the need for a Stadium location for a long time. They also knew that the TiCats were not interested in the West Harbour...and wouldn't be part of the equation there.

Now...a couple days after the last deadline, it would appear that the Stadium is going to be built in the Longwood/Aberdeen McMaster Innovation Park area. THIS IS A GREAT LOCATION! It's out of the way...walking distance for all of the students from McMaster University...fantastic highway access and doesn't require expropriation of homes.

Councilor McHattie...who happened to support the West Harbour stadium...a proposal that could have had a very negative impact on the property owners in the Bay area because of narrow streets, small lot frontages and limited parking, is now opposing the Longwood/Aberdeen area, a place right off of a 400 series highway...where no one lives.

This is the problem with our current City Councilors. The Not In My Backyard attitude. Ward 1 is huge. It encompasses McMaster University up to the escarpment, over to Queen Street and down to the Bay. It is home to thriving commercial areas. Westdale proper, Locke Street and Dundurn Street to name a few. How can we have any forward movement in this City when we have Councilors not willing to view things in a balanced, logical and caring fashion? Councilor McHattie would rather see a hundred or so homes be devalued in another Ward, putting them under seige everytime there's a stadium event, rather than support a Stadium built on Industrial land with 4 lane roads all around it and great highway access in his Ward? I don't believe that his reaction and resulting vote would truly represent his constituents.

McHattie doesn't have to worry about his job too much...as of right now there's no one running against him in Ward 1, but perhaps he may have thought that his vote was a way to gain support in the upcoming election just in case he found himself in a race. I think that many of his constituents wouldn't agree with his vote and will view it as being very weak. There's a good chance he will be acclaimed in Ward 1...the stadium will go in...and by the next election...he'll look like a saint! That's Hamilton politics!!!!

"As the Councilor turns"....the continuing saga of Hamilton City Hall!

Donna Bacher, Broker — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:43:00 GMT

I know that if I was a Councilor...and it was only two months away from my performance review...and I knew that I had voted for something that wasn't going to meet up to millions of dollars worth of funding guidelines...I may be flip flopping around on my desk as well. Yes...just like Councillor McHattie did today...I may be tempted to grab a microphone and start a little micro campaign against the stadium location that I had supported less than a couple of weeks ago. McHattie also used the well known slight of hand trick by trying to get the focus away from his flip flopping and get the focus on some true evil...some other mystery Councilor who really wanted to sabotage the Mayor but wasn't gutsy enough to have his name in the ring yet. I love this City!!!

First of all...in my humble opinion...the West Harbour stadium was a good idea...just half baked, and I wonder how many of the Councilors actually drove up and down the streets within a block or two of the proposed site. It could have worked if the City would have set out to expropriate a couple of extra city blocks, allowing for a larger area for parking, access and transitional commerce...but they didn't. Then with the assistance of a mediator a chunk of land on the East Mountain is pulled out of a hat. Now, I don't want to mess up things here, but hasn't anyone, including all the brilliant engineers the City has working for them, ever thought that perhaps the flooding problems we're having in the lower City, and our new water ride aka "The Red Hill Creek Expressway", could...just maybe could, be a result of us building in, around, and all over the Stoney Creek Mountain...home of the expansive Eromosa Karst? So lets build a Stadium right next door to Leon's. I seem to remember that when Leon's was built...a good portion of the building dropped due to some nasty unstable land. No one seems to remember that.

Kudo's to the Pan Am organizers. They appear to be extremely patient and compassionate, but exactly how long can they torture themselves by watching the brainiacs running our City try to figure this all out. Or do you think that we look so pathetic that they just can't pull the plug? I somehow imagine a Pan Am meeting with rep's from all the participating municipalities sitting around the table...and then in comes the Hamilton crew, continuing the food fight they started on the Go Bus.

When the City looses out on Government Funding of any kind, we actually take a double hit. Not only do we not benefit from increased commercial tax base, but we loose out on getting some benefit from all of the Income Tax, HST, Land Transfer Tax...and any other Provincial or Federal tax we pay. Our Provincial and Federal tax dollars end up going to other Municipalities, and we're left with escalating residential Property Taxes. That seems to be the way it is in Hamilton, so let the saga continue!

Hamilton Real Estate Today! : West harbour: Stadium

The Clock is Ticking...the Great Stadium Debate and Councilor McHattie!

"As the Councilor turns"....the continuing saga of Hamilton City Hall!