LRT is the future, but let's also respect the past

We don't need to know the significance of September 11.  It has become the stuff of legends and folklore.  And September 11th, 2010 will remembered by some to be the ninth anniversary of that great event which has become a modern-day metaphor for Pearl Harbor.  That's to some, but not to me.

That's because my family excitedly agreed on this being the day that we went to the Halton County Radial Railway Museum, on the other side of Milton, in the Guelph/Ermosa township community of Rockwood.  My boys, being railfans, love the place.  For those who are not familiar with it, it is a museum of restored and fully working streetcars from the many eras of the TTC.  They also feature subway cars from the TTC's past, along with one set of metrorail cars from Chicago.  Then there are the working interurban passenger railcars from the Montreal and Southern Counties line, as well as the London and Port Stanley line.  In a nutshell, it's the Warplane Heritage Museum of streetcars and if you really want to see the entire collection list and photos, click the link above and go to the website now!

Unlike the metal monsters maintained at the Warplane Heritage Museum, the majority of these cars are made of wood and are subjected to the natural processes of decomposition that comes with it.  But when they are fully restored, they are beautiful things.  And the trip up and down their rail line makes one think back to the days when such services were quite common.  It's rather sad to know that a lot of these railway lines are gone, probably to never come back.



Unless otherwise stated, all photos by Rene Gauthier


We really picked the right day to visit the place, as the Sir Adam Beck Centre, barn #4, opened its doors to the public for the first time.  This was their new indoor facility, a vision realized after a decade and a half.  This building will allow the facility to get more exhibits, especially one of the soon to be retiring streetcars from the TTC.  But that's not really what got my attention.

First when you come into the parking lot, you see four of Hamilton's trolleybuses, 7801, 7802, 765, and 732.  These in themselves were a part of our daily fabric when taking the bus along the King, Barton and Cannon routes.  And I know that I've taken many a ride on at least three of these vehicles.  Living around Reid and Dunsmure, I would pass the Cannon trolleybuses as I was walked to my school, Sir Winston Churchill.  At one point we were relieved to see that the HSR were continuing the trolleybus service as they set up the original Eastgate Square terminal with the double wires.  That was until I started seeing that the Cannon buses were no longer trolleybuses, but diesel buses. 

And so began the end...

At one point, we were encouraged by the testing of an articulated bus that used both trolley wires and a diesel engine, but that was short-lived.  The King and Barton routes eventually followed the Cannon's fate and those double wires we were so accustomed to seeing above the streets just disappeared.  Then there was the ill-fated project to install diesel engines in the trolleybuses.  By that time, the writing was on the wall.

So why did they do away with them?  I got some perspective from my father-in-law who used to work in the maintenance department before retiring in 1996.  He told me that the problem with the trolleybuses was in having to replace the poles when they came off the wires, which was quite inconvenient, especially to the drivers.  There are several ways the poles could lose contact with the wires, and that's largely because the buses were not on a fixed track so even sudden movements could move the poles off if the driver didn't know what he was doing.  They finally came to the conclusion that they were too much of an inconvenience to the drivers and maintenance personnel alike so they decided to remove them altogether.  And the rest is history.




Courtesy:  Halton County Radial Railway Museum

 So my journey to barn #4 began and I started looking for it.  It wasn't there so I went into barn #3 and I found it.  Before, one would have to struggle with finding it, but now that barn #4 is open, it's stands there in plain sight.  I am talking about HSR #521.  It is the only known streetcar in the HSR fleet still standing and it's story is a tragic one.  After deciding to do away with streetcars, they sold of their fleet and #521 ended up on a farm in Beamsville, used as a shed.

We gave up streetcars for buses and trolleybuses.  The city buried those tracks along Main Street, to remove them once and for all in the 90's.   Other than #521, we are not sure where the other streetcars are.  As I'm sure that the Warplane Heritage folks can concur with their planes, this is the typical fate of old buses and streetcars everywhere.  They end up on some sort of farm for storage or accomodations.  Yes folks, that's our heritage wasting away at some obsure place in the country, because the city would rather get rid of them rather than preserve a piece of history.

And now here we are, considering the installation of an LRT system.  And now I'm wondering why after all this time, we want to bring this back.  Isn't that what this idea is?  Sure it may not necessarily share its tracks with the cars.  We don't know that plan yet.  But consider the fact that we are actually bringing an old idea back no matter what part of the road it sits on.

Such things make me ask why in the world did the city remove it in the first place and wouldn't it have saved us trouble if we just kept it in the first place?  I mean this is a very expensive lesson that has just been passed onto us.  And it is indicative of the short-sightedness that we have come to know and despise about living in Hamilton.

I look at this wonderfully restored Peter Witt, that the city of Toronto chipped in and helped rebuild, to find the last relic of our transit system past, languishing in the neglect of its original owner and I have to wonder why would we want to go back to this.

I say this because we made a commitment to this system for about four decades before finally doing away with it, so what's to stop the city from doing the same 40 years later?  If we are headed in this direction, it should be a permanent, longer-term commitment, beginning with the city immediately funding the restoration of this wonderful machine.

We have spent the last year arguing about a legacy of another kind.  We currently have a series of places that maintain a legacy in sports.  How about bringing back one that travelled along our streets before a lot of us were born?  That's the challenge I make to the next mayor of Hamilton.

So what's wrong with the West Harbour?

We've heard so much about what's wrong with whatever location the Ti-Cats want that we really don't talk about what's wrong with the West Harbour location.  And don't get me wrong here.  In the right hands it could be a beautiful thing, but there are still disadvantages to the location.

Here's what I think is wrong with the West Harbour as a location for the new stadium:

• Visibility - The stadium would not be visible at all from any major highway because it's too far away from the QEW and it is completely hidden from view on the 403 because it's on the wrong side of the Burlington Heights.  The contention of visibility is naive at best.
• No Direct Highway Access - Burlington Street in that area is no highway, Bay Street doesn't have enough lanes and since the Parimeter Road project is dead in the water, there won't be any direct highway access any time soon.  The location is tucked away.
• Parking  - Yes, parking is everywhere but where it needs to be.  So there's parking a walk away from site.  And will the Tiger-Cats get the money for that?  Didn't think so.  But the city will apparently bend over backwards for the NHL.  So bend over backwards for something that may never come and screw the guys who are here already.  Not a good idea.
• Nice Spot but... - We see visions of stadia on a lakeshore or by a major river.  What's wrong with the West Harbour?  What's the major feature of the harbour?  It's an inland harbour.  Nobody's going to see from the lake.  All the other waterfront stadiums can be seen on a river, at the bayshore of San Francisco, or even at the shore of the lake, but an inland harbour is a different story.  It is only visible from Burlington and nowhere else.  What's the point in having a nice jewel if you don't have something to show it off with?
• RESIDENTIAL LANDS! - People's home are getting torn down over this.  Is it worth it?  Furthermore, why are we building a stadium in a residential area anyway???  Do we need another Ivor Wynne Stadium?  The problems with Ivor Wynne Stadium are not just with its age, but with its location.  A stadium in a residential area will not enhance their property value.

We have been left with a few choices here.  Build close to a residential area, to find out that Paradise is lost and that the Tiger-Cats will not be there, build in a growing commercial area, to end up promoting sprawl or build in an newly established commercial district where employment growth is apparently happening to seemingly trade a stadium for jobs that may or may not be there.  These are the choices we have right now.  They are not easy ones, fraught with ifs, whens, withertos and wherefores.  But these options should also have an endorsement by the Tiger-Cats who will have a soccer team in place as well once the deal is done. 

We look to the wisdom of those in charge to do what needs to be done to get all the parties to agree on a deal that works for the stakeholders.

Shut Up and Let's Get a Deal Done!

Now that the city will study and determine how a stadium could be built at the Longwood location and they will try in earnest, having learned from city manager Glen Murray what we all should have known all along:  no Ti-Cats, no stadium. 

Fred Eisenberger didn't listen the first time around so he was told again just in case he forgot.  The urban planning/city building fetishists didn't listen, claiming that they were "standing up to a bully."  I am still trying to figure out this logic, because what we all know is that Bob Young was basically told that the west harbour was where the stadium would be and for that reason the Ti-Cats just walked away from the talks, because there was nothing to talk about.  That's not where they wanted to be and with no alternative offered, why bother talking?  After all, there's lost revenue in parking and other incidentals that the Ti-Cats could use to get more money from people who drive.  And those who were gasping about this "cash grab" probably never drove to the games, to play that famous game of parking roulette which has been such a pain for the regional goers that they finally decided that enough was enough.  But once again, I digress.

So the Ti-Cats and the city are talking again about building a stadium at the McMaster Innovation Park.  While there is some merit to it, there's some concerns. 

One of them is noise, which is silly.  There is a freeway beside the site and no residential property within a half a kilometre, including the newly developed homes around the Chedoke golf course.  Perhaps they should try living on Balsam, Melrose, Beechwood or the other roads around there to get a taste of what the neighbours have been putting up with for decades.  The stadium won't be that close to them so they should just quit while they still have some credibility.

Traffic is another issue and one which has always been an issue no matter what site it is.  West Harbour claims to have better access, but the roads are hardly multi-lane so you could beat that dead horse for a while, but nothing changes the facts.  And of course there's parking to contend with as well.

It just seems that when there is a spot, somebody is always whining in some way.  But it's not because it's promoting sprawl and it's not because it isn't in a downtown location.  It's not because houses will get torn down to make way for it.  It's not because it isn't directly accessible from a major freeway.  It's not because it's a greenfield.  Now it's because it's supposedly prime employment land.  But haven't we figured this out already?  If you build it, they may not come at all.  While there is a plan to build an automotive innovation laboratory, they are still waiting for the grant to come so it may not get built at all.

Then comes an explosive allegation from Bob Bratina that a lot of the businesses that are at MIP actually moved from downtown.  So rather than bring new businesses into town as MIP was expected to do, they actually had businesses move in from the downtown core, increasing the vacancy rate there.  So as Coucillor Bratina has said, MIP hasn't really fulfilled its mandate so by that token, there is an opportunity to relieve the group of some land so they can avoid the pressure in having to get more empty buildings over there. 

Councillor Ferguson brought this initiative forward and is to be commended for bringing the Ti-Cats back to the table.  He did this because he got word that MIP was willing to help the city keep the Ti-Cats in Hamilton so I am not sure what the West Harbour crowd is screaming about, because the MIP people are willing to discuss this.

It's as if they are trying to ensure that the MIP are not being taken for a ride by "Big Bad Bob Young" who is really incapable of hurting a fly, but apparently can really hurt your feelings.  Yes, the whole thing is pathetic, but what were we expecting?

Honestly, I am expecting people to shut up for the next couple of weeks and let the big boys sort it out.  That's why they get our big bucks.  And I expect Fred Eisenberger to be an honest player in this because it is through his doing that the stadium project was at the edge of the cliff.  And I also expect people to quit whining about Mark Cohon approaching the feds about the stadium matter.  You had to know that he was going to approach someone in a matter regarding a member team.  The CFL is a cultural organization and anything matter than involves federal funding and the CFL becomes a national matter.  Deal with it people.

There's enough sour grapes in this matter to drive us all off a cliff, so let's just take a step back and let things settle for all our sakes.

At Last, There is Hope!

The city has finally come to their senses and decided to start pursuing other sites.  In a 13-2 vote, the city has moved forward in looking at the possibility of the McMaster Innovation Park as a possible location for the new stadium.  It is the best news we've heard in months. 

Should they continue development and remediation at the West Harbour site?  Of course they should and perhaps the Ti-Cats can provide a little help in that way, although I kind of like the idea of putting in a 5000 seat soccer stadium in place of the ones lost in Burlington.  It could fit in alongside the velodrome.  And it could be the solution that everyone goes home happy with. 

But no so fast there Jack!  We have another problem.  It's the issue with "prime employment" lands at MIP.  Some believe that putting a stadium over there will ruin that area.  I'm not so sure because, with the right structure, it could really be something special.  Then comes the revelation from Bob Bratina that the MIP site is currently underused and in some cases, it's not being used as it was meant to be.  In fact businesses have moved from their downtown offices over to the MIP.  If the stadium will have a retractible roof, it could even be used all year round, especially for trade shows and other great events.  The potential is there.  We just have to use it.

There is hope, allbeit a faint one, but there is hope.

The Unravelling Continues...

To be honest, it's not really a surprise that Mayor Fred decided not to divulge his discussion with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.  Mayor Fred's modus operandi of late, until it can be proven otherwise, has been to pull all the stops to ensure that the West Harbour is the only site selected for the Pan-Am Stadium.  How that works out for better or worse is anybody's guess. 

But why has he gone full bore into this?  It's tough to say why, but I have a good idea of why.  In June, Cal DiFalco featured me in a segment called "10 Tough Questions".  And one of those questions was "How would you size up Mayor Eisenberger's performance?"  And this was my answer:

Compared with Larry Di Ianni’s term, it has been a quiet one. However, I think Eisenberger has been too quiet. He leaves the impression that he has done little to attract new businesses to the city. He leaves an impression that he is content to leave things as they are. Simply put, he has done nothing. So now he is offering Hamiltonians another 4 years of nothing. And unless we have a good candidate to challenge him, that’s what we will get.

The city needs someone with great creative energy ready to take the city into the future. Our city needs a visible leader who can challenge the next generation to initiate a brand new process of growth. Our city needs a face who can sell the city, not just run it. Above all our city needs someone who can commit the next 10 years to realizing a great vision for the future of our city. Fred doesn’t do radical. He’s hardly inspiring. He just doesn’t excite anyone at all. If he is re-elected, I am concerned that this city could be more rudderless than ever.

That was what I said.  Co-incidence?  Yeah, I know better, but sometimes things happen for a reason.  But I digress...

So as the Tiger-Cats continue to stay off the train, the light at the end of the tunnel fades and seems more distant than ever.  And the WH proponents continue to savage Bob Young's character, the man who invested millions of dollars in upgrades at IWS and its facilities, almost as if the man hasn't paid his "debt to society". 

Perhaps he could spend his money in better places.  In light of this lunacy, I'm going to suggest that Mr. Young make a substantial donation to the St. Joseph's Healthcare Foundation and they could then change the Mental Health Centre on West 5th to the "Bob Young Mental Health Centre".  Dedicated to a man who may have lost his mind in trying to do the one thing no other previous owner of the Tiger-Cats could do - get the city to build a new stadium for the team.

That being said, the ship has hit an iceberg, but not because they didn't see it coming.  They didn't think that the ship could sink.  Sound familiar?  Now they have to do something to ensure that cooler heads can prevail and a stubborn mayor can't understand that if he builds it, nobody's coming.

And all the urbanists and city building/planning fetishists will probably be up in arms about it, while continously making Bob Young eat his own words taken out of context.  You can't even put in a lucid factual argument to the contrary over at Raise the Hammer without someone trying to suppress it.  I don't know if that was really how you envisioned it, Ryan, but don't expect me to make any more contributions if that's the kind of reception I'm going to get.

The city needs to stop imposing their decisions on their tenant, especially one made to its detriment, and start doing what they should have done in the first place.  They should have allowed the Tiger-Cats to do their due diligence on the site and when they found out what they knew, they should have said, "okay, let's figure out the best location that will address both our concerns and maybe you can help us with the Rheem site."  Was that so tough?  When you bring a partner in on a deal you do what works for both partners otherwise it's not a partnership at all.

Why do the Tiger-Cats Matter?

Mayoral candidate Edward Graydon made some interesting remarks to me to the tone that he really doesn't care for football.  Fair enough.  This is a democracy and just as we stand with the people who support us, we also need to look to the people who didn't.  After all, they vote too and conciliatory gestures go a long way for voters in general.  It shows that you stand for everyone and not just those who support you.

That being said, Mr. Graydon does question the need to support the Tiger-Cats and is wondering why it is that Hamilton hasn't gone full bore into building the stadium now, concerned that the lingering of this issue is only making things worse.  And yes, it's true.  The lingering of this issue is really making things worse, people are more tense than ever and there is a lot of despair when faced with the prospect of losing the Tiger-Cats. 

So why does this 141 year old institution matter?  It is a good question and I will answer it for one of my regular readers.

• Identity - Our city has embraced the Tiger as its symbol, because it is a part of our military and sporting history.  We had the Hamilton Tigers of the NHL in the 20's, which we lost in 1925 due to a labour dispute just before the playoffs began.  The irony of this one?  The team of that season had the best record in the NHL and was a major Stanley Cup contender.  Of course we had the Hamilton Tigers of football, which merged with the Hamilton Flying Wildcats to form, you guessed it, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.  (if your NFL buddies want an equivalent, talk about the Steagles, a temporary merger between the Steelers and Eagles during WW II)   And speaking of World War II, our training squadron at Mount Hope was called the Hamilton Tiger Squadron, whose name has been carried to an Air Cadet corps 150, based at the James Street Armoury. 
• Community Services - Our players often go to hospitals to see children, sign autographs and encourage them to hang in there.  They participate in athletic events and fundraisers for charities.  They also make it possible to raise funds for other community groups through 50/50 draws at the stadiums.
• Jobs - The Tiger-Cats mean almost 300 jobs in the community.  From hawkers in the stands to the president, there are jobs for these people who may not have another job for a while.
• Diversion - The time you spend in the stands cheering our team to victory is time spent away from your own troubles.  Sometimes we need to forget about our troubles for a few hours so we can refresh, recalibrate and hopefully overcome that problem.
• Entertainment - A game isn't all gratification from a big touchdown or what not.  There's dancing, singing and sometimes a band playing.  The halftime show is a chance to watch our children in sport or even a moment to see something amazing like a magic show or concert.
• The Grey Cup - Hosting a Grey Cup game is big money.  Everybody from everywhere in the country comes to town to celebrate the sport and all other things Canadian.  It's our own Super Bowl and the one single annual event more people in Canada watch.  And above all, it means money for local businesses and tourism.
• Argos (Suck!) - Yes the Argos, who do suck (did I just mention that?), come to town every Labour Day.  It's the one great day in which Toronto bashing becomes a great pastime.  Our football season is never complete without a win over the Argos on labour day.
• Tradition - We have been doing this over the last 140 years.  Why not make it more special and see if we will have bicentennial to celebrate, after our sesquicentennial celebration, of course.  It's been a part of our city since early in its mutual establishment.

We all have our own reasons to enjoy the Tiger-Cats, but let's not delude ourselves from the fact that as much as some of us love the Tiger Cats and Tiger Cats football, there are people in Hamilton who don't and we have to understand that not everyone will be happy.  Live and let live.  We have our differences, but we can't dispute that despite the mixed feelings about football, the Tiger-Cats provide something just as tangible - civic pride and encouragement.

That takes care of one question and the other question is why the delay in breaking the ground?  The city hasn't received funding from the games hosting committee to begin the build and without that money, nothing's going to be built.  The city is still required to partner with an anchor tenant to get the mandate for a new stadium and the city was hoping that the Ti-Cats would get involved.  Because of their concerns, the Tiger-Cats have decided that they will not invest in a stadium that doesn't address their economic concerns and puts them in position that would make them dependent on the city to survive.

Mayor Fred is hoping Bob Young would sell the team before he officially moves.  But I don't think Bob Young is interested in selling a business that has the same problems it had before he bought them.  And that's where we are now.  If Mayor Fred wants Young back to the table, he will need to give him the means to break-even and it could mean the city and the Ti-Cats would have to share parking revenues.  It could mean Bob would get management rights to host events. 

Either way, he needs to get another revenue stream so he is not completely dependent on ticket sales and television royalties.  That's his economic concern.  And that's why the West Harbour doesn't work for him.  He wants to leave the franchise in better shape than when he got it in the first place.  Is that wrong?

And now do you understand why the Tiger-Cats are important to this city?

Nothing to See Here!

Mayor Fred says that talk about the Aberdeen/Longwood site possibly being an alternative is unfounded and such discussion is not helpful.

You know what also isn't helpful?  Deciding to build a stadium at a site which makes no economical sense to your anchor tenant and needlessly driving him out of your town just because you're too pigheaded to understand the need for a compromise, because for some idiotic reason you think somehow that you are right and everyone else is wrong.

But the way, Fred, time's running out on you.  I suppose you don't want to have the legacy as the guy who ran the Tiger-Cats out of town, right?