Lost opportunities can tell us much

By Ryan McGreal
Published February 20, 2010

Light Rail

Shameless Self-Promotion Dept.

I took my essay on LRT and survivorship bias, boiled it down to its essence (editorial oversight is a Good Thing) and submitted it to the Spectator. Thanks to the rash of seasonal illnesses that have ravaged our home lately, I didn't actually get out of bed yesterday, but I'm told my essay was published.

One note of clarification - when I listed the three Metrolinx options for rapid transit on the east-west corridor, I wrote the following about Option 3:

Phased LRT from McMaster to Ottawa Street, with BRT from Ottawa to Eastgate until LRT is built in 2030.

The BRT from Ottawa Street to Eastgate would be the current BRT-like rapid bus service à la the B-Line, not the Metrolinx definition of BRT running on dedicated lanes with signal priority. Sorry for any misunderstanding this might have caused.

Ryan McGreal, the editor of Raise the Hammer, lives in Hamilton with his family and works as a programmer, writer and consultant. Ryan volunteers with Hamilton Light Rail, a citizen group dedicated to bringing light rail transit to Hamilton. Several of his essays have been published in the Hamilton Spectator, and he occasionally blogged for OpenFile Hamilton. Ryan also maintains a personal website and has been known to post passing thoughts on twitter.

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By lukev (anonymous)
Posted February 21, 2010 at 12:30:58

Ryan, the Spectator credits you as one of their staff. Is there something you forgot to tell us? (or am I just out of the loop?)

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By jason (registered)
Posted February 21, 2010 at 18:06:24

the end of the article lists him as editor of RTH and nothing more. At least on the online version.

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By Ryan (registered) - website
Posted February 21, 2010 at 21:07:53

FTA:

Ryan McGreal is the editor of Raise the Hammer (raisethehammer.org), a web magazine dedicated to urban revitalization in Hamilton.

Is the print version different? Our copy was recycled before I had a chance to read it.

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Common sense is that which tells us the world is flat.
-- Stuart Chase

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By jonathan dalton (registered)
Posted February 21, 2010 at 21:54:48

I'm really glad that got printed. The quality of these 'survivor' businesses has been somewhat of an elephant in the room in the whole debate. Fact is some of them are not worth saving.

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By lukev (anonymous)
Posted February 21, 2010 at 22:43:54

False alarm then?

I always thought when they write THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR under your name, it means you are staff, and if they write SPECIAL TO THE SPECTATOR it means you are not?

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By Ryan (registered) - website
Posted February 22, 2010 at 08:15:22

^Not sure about that, but I can tell you I don't work for the Spec. I just submitted the op-ed because I think this discussion needs to happen as widely as possible.

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Common sense is that which tells us the world is flat.
-- Stuart Chase

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By TreyS (registered)
Posted February 23, 2010 at 12:11:56

The Spec wishes you wrote for the them Ryan

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By D (anonymous)
Posted March 18, 2010 at 22:12:36

Excellent article Ryan, glad there is some movement towards positive change!
I have emailed my MP and the mayor already about support towards the LRT. Being a Hamilton house owner what other actions can the rest of us take?

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