Fred Eisenberger and Opportunity - They don't mix!

Emma Reilly at the Spec has an interesting report from this morning's paper.  Obviously, the Chamber of Commerce is unhappy, especially when a big decision as planning a center of economic activity is being deferred.  Not a big surprise there on both fronts.  Typical council move, followed by typical outrage on the part of the Chamber.

"So Ren," you ask.  "What's the kicker?"

Well here it is.  Here are a couple of passages in the story.

Hamilton businessperson Ron Foxcroft said the delays are rooted in a council full of career politicians.

"That's their only job. That is maybe not always a healthy thing," he said.

"When it's your livelihood, sometimes the vote doesn't go for the betterment of the city."

So what did Fred say about this?

Eisenberger also doesn't believe the city has a pattern of waffling on controversial decisions.

"Council is pretty decisive on most issues," he said. "I haven't seen anything that suggests that there's been dithering."

Well ain't that a knee-slapper?  When I did 10 tough questions with Cal DiFalco, he asked me what made me upset about Hamilton and here's a couple of excerpts.

When great things happen, they take too long and great visionaries are dead before they’ve realized their visions coming to fruition. Victor Copps may not have seen the NHL come to Hamilton, but he wasn’t around to see the cool new facility with his name on it. Jack McDonald was lucky. It took almost a half a century to once and for all finish the Red Hill Valley Parkway.

...

The city has a history of deferring major challenges, including the downtown core, to future councils. It frustrates people like me who care about the direction this city is taking, because either it seems that they don’t care or they don’t want to be the one who makes the decision to see it end up in failure. They just don’t seem to want to try to do something. And the problem will not take care of itself.

So Fred is not just boring. He's clueless. Oh but when money comes to their table to pork-barrel, they waste no time!

I have another idea of why this was deferred. The Aerotropolis plan by the nature of it, is controversial. Just like Copps Coliseum, they are planning on making land available for commercial use around the airport, little knowing whether or not a major player would take on the opportunity.

And there have been plenty of arguments for and against it. One group is concerned with the loss of farming land. Understandable, but tell that to the developers who have already started building homes around the airport.

Another is concerned with who will even come to the table if the opportunity showed itself. It's a point I made and I have said on other blogs that the plan should be looked at for what it is - a plan to manage growth should the need arise. The little understood thing about plans like these are that this is what is done at City Hall on a daily basis. They plan growth and zoning to facilitate growth in certain areas and the area around the airport is no different. A lot of this is psychological really.

And of course the other point that we have to ponder is how much longer will air travel be around? As oil sources are getting more difficult to find to the point we're taking dumb risks, à la BP, we have to wonder if there will be some sort of fuel to do what jet fuel is doing right now.  A lot can happen over a while.  There are other forms of fuel out there and we just need to find it, but for the time being jets are the way to go and they are doing everything they can to prevent this multi-billion dollar industry from going down the tubes.

The Aerotropolis if used correctly will manage the growth, should a need arise, but let's at least ensure that the horse is in front of the cart.

But here's my point altogether.  The city has squandered five years on this and the fact that this is being deferred yet again is not a good indication.  It's more than a sign that it won't happen, to the delight of some.  It's a sign that the city hasn't changed a bit.