Time to Move On and Learn

We could all lament for as long as we want to over the inevitable endorsement from city council to make a newly renovated and rebuilt Ivor Wynne Stadium.  We could complain about the fact that the choice of site may not be the one that fits the bill for everyone.  We could bemoan the process taken and the inevitable confrontations that took place.  We could even whine about the stadium not being where we want it to be.  We could do all these things, but does it make any sense?

As the hangover sets in, the lamenting has begun over at a certain website that advocated its preference for the West Harbour, an inland harbour location with just as much visibility and accessibility from the major highways as Ivor Wynne Stadium.  So as our friends at RTH whine and moan about how it was their city and their future that was at stake in their choice, they can at least take solace in the fact that it will not be at the expense of "valuable farm land," and there will be no "urban sprawl" to be concerned with.  They can finally put to bed the desperately ridiculous notion of building a scalable stadium at their preferred site.  Sorry folks, but the idea of building a smaller, scalable stadium was one of desperation, similar to the act of recycling an idea that was originally used to sell the centerpiece of Hamilton's bid as the venue city of the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

In retrospect, there are so many questions that remain:

• How many sites were truly studied with the same intensity as the CPR, East Mountain, West Harbour and Ivor Wynne Stadium locations before they came to the original conclusion?
• Why did the Tiger-Cats at the "11th hour" decide to go public with their concerns about the intended location of the stadium?
• Why did city council feel that it was necessary to initiate a confrontation with the Tiger-Cats, rather than make a deal that both parties could live with? (Do you know how many times that idea was shot down over at RTH?  Let's just say the idea slowly "faded" away many times.)
• What made the city think that Bob Young would sell the team, dumping his problem onto someone else and what made the city think that the CFL would sympathize with their position?
• What made ex-Mayor Fred think that the Tiger-Cats were bluffing?
• And how many conceptual designs were there of a possible stadium at that any of the possible locations?  (White Star Group FTW!)

And many more questions will materialize as time marches on, but I doubt we will have some good answers to these questions.  We do need answers to be able to move on and learn from the mistakes made.  After all, those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it and to become the city Hamilton wants and needs to be, things have to change, starting with the way decisions are made.

Update:  City council has selected the Ivor Wynne Stadium II plan.  The most significant part?  The vote was unanimous.  Now about that velodrome...  (here we go again!)

Ivor Wynne Stadium: The Final Conflict

So here we are, back at where we started.  As soon as the band starts playing and the victory celebration began, some asshole throws a skunk into the middle of the crowd and pandemonium breaks out.  Could there possibly be a better way to describe what has happened this week?

There we were last week celebrating another deal that the city and the Tiger-Cats agree on, to find out as usual that things weren't what they cracked up to be.  We were under the impression that a renovation of Ivor Wynne Stadium, with Brian Timmis sacrificed for parking, would actually save money, especially when there's no purchase of land required, no remediation required and all we'd need is a temporary facility for the Tiger-Cats to play while the stadium would be rebuilt.  Then we find out that there's a shortfall of almost $40 million.

Now this shortfall is very confusing, especially when the land is already bought and paid for and no land remediation is required.  So the question is how did this become the most expensive option?  Councillor Lloyd Ferguson opined that the numbers coming from Infrastructure Ontario estimating the job are intentionally overinflated as a precaution.  Either way, there are red flags flying all over the place and everyone is panicking, except for those sitting in city council, having passed a resolution that makes Ivor Wynne Stadium the preferred site, the city's contribution capped at $45 million and removes the West Harbour as a plan B site.

That and a list of requests made by the Tiger-Cats, including the building of a office facility to move the club offices to the new stadium site, has raised a few eyebrows and has everyone left wondering what the hell happened.  The answers will come, but slowly.

So now the city has gone all in for the Ivor Wynne location, having run out of time.  But will they be able to get the money they're looking for?  Perhaps our political superstar (AKA Sophia Aggelontis) could step in and save the day, since the Feds are busy playing reindeer games of their own.  Either way, this could be our last chance to make something happen.

One thing is for sure.  It didn't have to be this way.  Eisenberger ran a gambit assuming that he could gain the upper hand and failed, leaving us with an uneasy legacy, thanks to his leadership.

The Last Gasp for West Harbour

You have to admire their passion, those folks at Raise the Hammer.  They brought out yet another plea for the city to consider the West Harbour.  As it has been said before, the Tiger-Cats will not play there, neither will any other team, unless Brian Timmis is torn down with Ivor Wynne.  But these pleas will continue until the city and HostCo finally agree upon Ivor Wynne Stadium as the site.  But until then, the West Harbour site remains the city's choice until full ratification and our friends over at RTH will continue their assault on our sanity.

And a lot of this wouldn't have happened if council did identify and fully investigate all the possible sites the first time around.  The most maddening thing about it is the fact that it's been one year ago next month when the Tiger-Cats told the city that the West Harbour site won't work for them.  Since then, only two other sites were studied, but only in the eleventh hour.  And of those two other sites, one was the most expensive and the other was suspect, due to allegations that the study's numbers were slightly exaggerated.  Those allegations are indeed plausible too.

The fact is we ended up back at Ivor Wynne Stadium, because city council ran a gambit believing that Bob Young would sell the team before he'd let the team play at a West Harbour stadium.  The city underestimated Bob Young's determination to get the best deal for the Tiger-Cats.  And because of all the eleventh hour activities, we found ourselves in a rush to come up with a site that both parties could agree on and now we need to figure out what gets sacrificed.

What do I mean by "sacrificed," you ask?  The biggest reason why the Tiger-Cats wanted a new stadium in a new location is to get some more parking for people going to the stadium and to end the parking roulette game.  So either Brian Timmis stadium or Scott Park could end up sacrificed for a parkcade to create some more parking for people going to the games.  Brian Timmis is most likely, because the new stadium is supposed to be a soccer field and they will want to put some more space in between the sidelines, thereby reducing injuries.  There are many options to consider and lots of other planning to do.

So here we are, back to where we started, now pondering what we can do to make the stadium better and the team sustainable.  And yes, not everyone is happy about it, but isn't that the beauty of democracy?

SHOUT OUT!  - to blogger "Mystoneycreek"  E-mail me sometime, will ya?

Meet the new boss....

...same as the old boss!  (But did we get fooled again?)

What a fitting title, eh?  I sometimes wonder what inspires someone to write something as prophetic as that.  What was Pete Townshend thinking and could I have some of what he had when he wrote the lyrics to "Won't Get Fooled Again," the greatest song ever written and performed by The Who. And they certainly have a lot of creative songs, especially from "Who's Next," the album this song appeared on.

So I suppose if you're a Raise the Hammer kind of guy, you're probably shaking your head in disbelief wondering what just happened.  You're probably wondering what will happen to the downtown core, while failing to grasp the fact that you can't build the downtown core around a stadium on the waterfront, especially in Hamilton for a lot of reasons, including the lack of a Perimeter Road.  And even at that, I have said before and I'll say it again, you can't showcase a stadium on the waterfront, especially when nobody can see it from Toronto or the Skyway Bridge for that matter.  My biggest issue with the West Harbour has always been the lack of visibility, be it the Skyway or the 403 and even if they built it, nobody's coming.  The Tiger-Cats as a tenant mentality has always bothered me too.  They are more than just a tenant.  They are a stakeholder with the interest in promoting our city, which people would never know existed if they never heard about the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.  Fortunately, they have created enough curiosity to warrant some interest in the city and that's what a sports team does.

And the mentality to create a smaller stadium made me shake my head, because it has trivialized the entire debate. And yes, this isn't just about the Tiger Cats.  I get that.  We had a debate about where to place a stadium that wouldn't just host a soccer tournament and track and field events, but have a future purpose like bringing in an NASL or (need we say) an MLS franchise.  We debated on whether to try for a stadium with a roof and even some condos around it to help bolster the construction costs.  We fought and fought and fought our neighbours to bring a point across.

It doesn't matter who gambled and lost.  We all lost.  We lost an opportunity to have a brand new stadium so nobody won.  So obviously, everybody, even the city and the Tiger-Cats, are disappointed with the outcome.  In the end nothing really good came out of it and now our arguments have become invalid.  Call it desperate if you want, but who were the desperate ones?  DOES IT REALLY MATTER???

Nobody is happy about it, not the city and not the Tiger-Cats.  But who's fault was this?  There were several factors, the most prominent being the removal of Confederation Park from the short list.  That came courtesy of Chad Collins, who suggested the preservation of green space.  I'm just not sure that keeping an already decrepit campground riddled with traffic noise worse than camping at Fifty Point is really my idea of preserving green space and what exactly was it being saved for?  So some deep pocketed developer could come to the rescue of the Hamilton Conservation Authority and give them millions of dollars to build some new houses?  Please.

All things considered, Confederation Park was the perfect site, footprint issues aside.  GO was planning on building a train station in that area and a pedestrian bridge was built in that area too.  It would have been an outdoor Skywalk.  Unfortunately there were those screaming for downtown renewal, but they put the cart before the horse.  Then they didn't consider the Tiger-Cats concerns and basically said to "shut up, because this is our choice to make, and not yours."  Wrongly, they never considered the Tiger-Cats to be part of the process.  The Tiger-Cats then had no choice but to look for greener pastures. 

But then the Tiger-Cats had a really crazy idea, and shared with Mayor Bob Bratina and the rest is history.  Yes, for several reasons, Ivor Wynne Stadium has been sacred ground for 80 years.  There was too much history there.

So now here we are, back to the original site.  Are you feeling dejected right now?  Hollow?  Disappointed?  As much I am, I understand why they took that route.

Nobody realized the elephant in the room, which was what would be built in the place of Ivor Wynne Stadium if they were to build the new stadium and tear this one down?  Considering the part of town the stadium is in right now, the options were limited.  They could build a smaller stadium beside Brian Timmis, but it still costs money.  Rebuilding Ivor Wynne Stadium had to be the only choice, because for all the costs incurred to build a new stadium, the city would get no return on the property itself if they were to sell it.  And either way, there would be residual costs incurred no matter what direction would be taken so better to spend the money on the same site than anywhere else, because no matter what happens, the city would never stop putting money into what would have been the former site.

We expected a Hail Mary, but never expected the onside punt.  So congratulations to all in our spectacular loss, especially to ex-Mayor Fred Eisenberger, Scott Duvall, Brian McHattie, Terry Whitehead, Brad Clark (what the hell, man?), Robert Pasuta, Russ Powers and especially Chad Collins!  You have done our past city councils proud and showed us that our city council still has what it takes to really screw up when given the opportunity.

But they cannot have done this all alone.  So all of us Hamiltonians now have to stand up and take a bow for having been given the council we all deserve.  In the end, we all lost and above all, it was a team effort.

Now go get drunk...   and remember!  DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!

By the way:  we didn't all lose.  Larry Pattison and his small group of Ivor Wynne Stadium supporters actually won the day.  Congrats to Larry and his rogue band for keeping the faith.

Talking Football

A few things to go over as the NFL playoffs continue...

Congrats to Auburn, but...
First of all, congratulations go to Auburn in their national championship victory over Oregon, who have shown themselves as a force to be reckoned with for years to come.  I say this because while it was Cam Newton that won the national title for Auburn, it was a high tempo system devised by Chip Kelly that almost brought Auburn to their knees. 

So what have we learned from this?  While USC is still sulking from having been stripped of any win which had Reggie Bush on the field, including a national title over Ohio State, the SEC circled the wagons to ensure that Auburn could field their Heisman winning quarterback, Cam Newton.  USC, now in the good hands of former Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin, is on probation, and was banned from any bowl game, while the NCAA found a gray area that gave Cam Newton a clean slate.  To me the whole thing still stinks and the NCAA still haven't concluded their investigation.  The other thing that stinks are the over-recruiting practices of the SEC universities, a system that tends to chew players up and spit them into lower echelon college transfers.  The recruiting practices of these colleges and their conference needs to be reformed to allow the TCU's, the Nevadas and even the Boise States a fool's chance to compete.

Rematches Baby!
The NFL playoffs are heating up, especially in the AFC as division rivals are pitted in both divisional rounds.  The Steelers-Ravens match-ups have been the stuff of legends lately and this one is sure not to disappoint.  Bring your raincoats, kids, because the mud will be flying in this one!  And then there's a war brewing in Foxboro, where the Patriots are to host the Jets, the NFL's enigma.  One week the Jets are great and the next week, they suck.  So which Jets team is to show up?  I'm hoping for the one that wipes the smug look off of Tom Brady's face.  The Falcons will host the Packers and whatever version of the Chicago Bears that shows up will host the Seahawks.  The AFC match-ups are definitely the ones to watch. 

Ivor Wynne Stadium version 2.0
It looks like a new version is to be built over the old one.  After they tear the original down, they will begin building the new one.  Questions still remain, such as parking!!!  Will they plan a parking lot underneath the stadium, or build a parkade at Scott Park or build it over Brian Timmis?  Either way, the city should consider getting David Braley's temporary stadium to tide us over.

So there we have it.  Three stories of football all of them far from over!

City Council's Last Stand

The city council actually now has some new options, but one of those options is flawed and probably will not follow through with its intended purpose.  So let's recap the options:

1. Endorse West Harbour
• This option is the one that says "so long and thanks for all the fish" to the Tiger-Cats.  This is not the correct option because it says beyond a doubt that Hamilton will not help the sports franchise that has represented our city for almost a century and a half be a sustainable one.  It is the death knell for the Tiger-Cats and the chance that any other sports franchise could come to Hamilton.  It could also hasten the death of the CFL.
2. Revisit Confederation Park and get the study done fast!
• Time is running out for council to come to their senses and endorse a site that will have a possible GO train station just a walk away from Confederation Park. Centennial Parkway is currently on the list of possible LRT routes, which would follow the current Rymal route.  This is already a summer gathering area, which could bring some needed energy back to the beach strip.
3. Revisit the East Mountain Site
• Paul Cripps brought back the idea.  I'm not sure if it will have legs, but it has actually been studied, but the numbers have not been scrutinized and a proper comparison may not have been made, an allegation made by Brad Clark.
4. Endorse the Aldershot location
• This is the wild card choice which could turn a negative into a positive.  Both cities could head up an ownership consortium to put their resources together to build something remarkable, something that the two cities can share.  This option could have some potential as a group of private interests are considering making the stadium area into an entertainment compound featuring a possible 9000 seat arena, and even condos.  I'm smelling the White Star Group's model here.

City council needs to come to its senses and show that it is serious about not just building a new stadium or aiding in the building of a new stadium in the outskirts of the city.  Either city council shows that they indeed represent an ambitious city or they could begin Hamilton's new future as nothing more than a bedroom community.

Reap What You Sow

So the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords really has the shit hitting the fan and it has certain people ducking for cover, the more prominent being former vice presidential candidate and half-term governor Sarah Palin.  The MSM is doing everything they can to make sure that her name is not mentioned at all, even though she is the face behind the eliminationist movement against those who do not measure to some idiotic purity test established by the Tea Party movement. 

So now the media is in on trying to suppress Sarah Palin's name from this, despite the fact that she it was her own poorly chosen words that inspired these actions. Perhaps putting this tragedy on her lap will not prevent the repetition of these acts, but if she wants to make herself out to be this great leader of a puritanical movement, she has to own this or she will be wearing it.

We don't need our own words to bring her down.  She doing a terrific job of doing herself in.  And her cognitive dissonance is going to bring her further down since she has shown herself to be incapable of taking responsibility for her actions.  She will deny it.

Sarah Palin used words to incite violence against those who are in opposition to her ideology.  She used these words not only to put herself over and show that she could be president someday, but to energize her base.  The sad reality is that it seems to take words of violence to energize their base, knowing full well that words of violence can also incite (are you ready for this?) VIOLENCE.  Big surprise, eh?

So this is simply a case of the conservatives reaping what they have sown.  While I do not condone the elimination of diversity among ideologies, those that use words of violence be it metaphorically or otherwise should have no place in the discourse of any country seeking to maintain a healthy democracy.  They do not stimulate democracy, but they sure hurt it.

So once again, Sarah Palin, acknowledge your part in this, repudiate it and disassociate yourself from the Tea Party movement.  If you do not own this, you will have to wear it.  Reap what you have sown, Ms. Palin.

The Best and Worst of 2010

As we approach the end of the year, we take the time to reflect on what was, what wasn't and what could have been.  So here goes!

What was good:

• Vancouver 2010 - the folks in Vancouver put on a great show to the world and they should be proud of what they accomplished.
• First gold on home turf!  Where were you when Alexandre Bilodeau won gold on the moguls?  Didn't happen in Montreal in 1976 and Calgary in 1988!
• Sidney Crosby and the OT goal heard around the world!
• Who Dat?  The Saints win the Super Bowl!
• BCS Buster!  TCU goes to Pasadena, but will they be smelling like Roses on New Year's Day?
• Mayor Bob Bratina - not the best possible outcome in the 14 candidate mayoral race, but in a race that became one between Eisenberger and DiIanni, he was probably the right choice.

What was bad:

• The Stadium Debate - it pitted neighbour against neighbour, urban renewal against urban sprawl, and lower city again upper city.  It also had ex-Mayor Fred Eisenberger punished for deciding to gamble and losing for it.  And even worse, Chad Collins got away with removing Confederation Park from the short list, the only thing that could have brought Eisenberger's mayoralty back from the dead.  Get ready for a long four years, Chad.
• Raise the Hammer - They say that the road to hell was paved with good intentions.  Ryan McGreal's website is the epitome of these noble intentions gone wrong.  Dissenting comments are suppressed, not because of the tone of the argument, but the direction the argument goes.  Sorry, but if you want a proper debate, you need proper facts even if they go against your ideology.  Urban renewal is something people should buy into, but at the same time, a stadium is not a catalyst for such renewal.  You can't make the downtown core a great place to live until you can make it a great place to work.  With insane office vacancy levels in the downtown core, combined with the continuing neglect of buildings, and a prevailing lack of imagination on the part of city hall, downtown will not be a great place to live unless the city can bring more businesses into the downtown core and be a more active player in its development.  I don't hear them saying anything about that.
• Prorogation - No matter what my brother in law says, the prorogation of parliament by Prime Minister Stephen Harper was an evasive and diversionary tactic to avoid being in contempt of parliament.  Using the Olympics as an excuse, he thought he could get some gains in the polls from it.  No dice.  People still see through him and he will continue to maintain his minority government into the new year, but for how much longer?
• Stacking the senate - While we're discussing Mr. Harper, he has begun using his appointments to the Senate as his latest tools of obstruction.  So any bill that makes its way into Senate, against the Prime Minister's wishes, will be stopped.  Let the outrage begin.
• Tim Hudak - While he's busy complaining about the cost of electricity, a problem that his predecessor's have created and one that the hypocrite would not dare touch, he is also complaining about the HST, a problem created by his federal counterparts.  But he's still getting free passes from the media, something that Dalton McGuinty would never have got if the roles were ever reversed.  If there really is such a thing as a journalist, why aren't there any challenging him on this and if there has been such a challenge, why the lack of reporting on this?
• The rise of corporatism/fascism - Obama was right.  Allowing corporations, who have more responsibilities than individuals, the same rights as individual citizens is a dangerous precedent and allowing their money to muddy the waters of discourse is even more dangerous.  With Pax Americana on the way out, combined with multinational corporations transcending international boundaries and regulations, a return to the age of the robber baron has begun.  Democracy and with it the national discourse are drowning in corporate money.

As for what should have been:

• Confederation Park Stadium - Confederation Park could have been a great site for a stadium.  It has a great position and is one of a few options for GO Transit.
• The Media - Facts have some level of bias, but since when do we need to hear spin from talking heads about current events?  The news media needs to stop putting spin to facts and just start reporting them.
• An End to Tax Cuts for the Rich - I don't mind people making money, but they make it on the backs of others and for that reason should be taking some responsibility for that.  They can afford it and should stop bitching and moaning about it.  How much is it worth to you to have the police ready to serve, the fire department ready to assist and the ambulance to stabilize your condition if you need the help?  Taxes are the charges paid for civilization.  And the governments should not be giving them money either.
• A Democratic House Majority - The Republicans have not been punished enough for their sins, having plunged our countries into a deep recession.  But we know how they took the power and democracy will be further damaged should these authoritarians be allowed to run roughshod over their country.  And speaking of that lost Democratic majority...
• The Death of the Tea Party - a inappropriately named movement, under the guise of  bigotry, stoked by affluent interests and corporate money, their disgustingly overexposed display of ignorance is the embodiment of the religious right's vision of austerity and their apparent need to set mankind back centuries.  The world is moving forward, yet they'd rather go backwards.  Didn't anybody ever tell these neo-conservatives that you can't turn back the clock?

All in all, 2010 was a step back, although it began positively, the so-called recovery stalled and unless something is done, we're on the way back down.  Our economy and national discourse is hopelessly mired in muck and the Conservatives are the last people on Earth that we should count on to resuscitate democracy, let alone the economy, because they are incapable of saving both.