Raise the Hammer

Well, well...well.

What an eye-opening day. (I'm referring to the 9:30-3 day I spent at City Hall at the GIC Meeting)

As I'll put up a more rambling post at my site later, allow me to share some impressions:

-Many people there giving presentations, answering questions comported themselves very, very well. Ian Troop, Rob MacIsaac, Chris Murray, and a special representative from the cycling community. (I'm sorry I didn't catch his name.)

-I was aghast that some of the material being covered was presented/brought up at such a late date. This stuff wasn't even relevant. It might have been at the beginning of the process, when Hamilton was deciding whether or not to get involved, but at this point? So close to the deadline? Nope.

-The Mohawk deal... Man, I'll tell ya; it smells. Actually, it smells in the same way the Stadium deal smells...and in the same way the Mac-Downtown-BOE deal smells. The '17 million' the students of Mohawk are contributing to the combined cause of a rec centre and a velodrome is broken down something like this:

-15 million towards their rec centre -2 million towards the velodrome.

Understanding that the City picks up a potential 3 million dollar 'relocation' fee for effectively 'moving' the 600 parking spots that will be lost by putting the velodrome on the south side of Fennell, to the north side.

Oh, and we don't have any figure as of yet for the 'Land Acquisition (Lease)' amount.

-The projected shortfall is the hurdle...and it could be somewhere between 8 and 13 million...IF the City antes up another 5 million. (They're looking at 'Fundraising' and 'Naming Rights' as potentially bringing in another 4-8 million.)

-I was shocked- Nay, mortified at the low level of comprehension that so many Councillors displayed. Seriously.

-I was dismayed by the lack of homework that had been done by Councillors; the fundamentals of what a velodrome is, what goes on there, what the limitations are were entire mysteries to some. (Here's a factoid for all: a high-level velodrome is for high-level training and competition. It's not for the general public. Period.) The standout exception to this was Councillor Clark. (But he shouldn't have to be schooling colleagues or acting as the voice of reason all the time.)

-Council has some more time in which to either go ahead with this Mohawk proposition (and believe me, the fact that they weren't really kept in the loop about the advisory committee's recommendation...or that the decision to go ahead with a new stadium as opposed to what had been agreed to...are elements you can bet are the cause of some hurled invectives post-GIC meeting.) or kill the entire endeavour. (I'll hold back on my opinion on this. For now.)

All-in-all, I think that WWII saying is most apropos: SNAFU.

sigh

Comment edited by mystoneycreek on 2011-08-29 16:41:13