Raise the Hammer Newsfeed - Articles Blogs

Best Picture Nominees I Haven't Seen Yet Part 2 of 2: An Education And Precious

2010-03-15T12:00:00Z

So the last two best picture nominees I had to see were An Education and Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (geez, that's a hell of a long title). An Education is a sad but fairly witty and ultimately uplifting. Kinda. Precious could easily be described as the feel-bad story of the year. Kinda.

An Education

An Education is a hard movie to pin down, but that's what makes it so intriguing. It's a May-December romantic story, but the romance is odd. It's a coming of age story yet the heroine doesn't quite come of age as much as she tries on being mature then goes back.

It shows the origins of the sixties' free thinking era yet those same down-with-the-system ideals turn out to be shallow and false. It's a dramatic movie, but there are a few solid laughs.

Set in England in the early '60s, the story follows Jenny (Carrie Mulligan) a schoolgirl who is getting ready to go to university. She begins a romance with an older man, David (Peter Sarsgaard, who, if you count Orphan, is in his second movie in a row in a strange relationship). David hangs out with his high-class friends, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Helen (Rosamond Pike) which seems very glamorous to the younger Jenny.

With her parents (Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour) concerned about her decreasing grades, Jenny is becoming disillusioned with education and the looming responsibilities of adulthood. Instead she may chuck it away for a man who may not be revealing everything about his life.

'Red car.' 'Green car.' 'Red car.' 'Green car.' (note, they don't play that game in the movie)

Mulligan shows a lot of layers: vulnerability, stubbornness, disillusionment with the educational system and growing up, and she's also witty. Sarsgaard has the more difficult role, skirting the line between charming and icky but you can almost buy this guy as sincere.

Even though his role is limited, Molina is a hoot as the angst-filled worrier of a father. In an even smaller role is Olivia Williams as Jenny's teacher, a sad figure who is concerned about her student, yet to Jenny she represents everything that's wrong about growing old.

Williams is quite good at showing an emotionally wounded character underneath a facade of stoicism. An Education is a laid-back character piece which is quite different from the spectacle of something like Avatar, but it does show the amount of variety in this year's best picture nominees.

Williams, who also who had a stint in 'Dollhouse', is a very underrated actress.

Precious

Precious is about an inner city teenage girl named Clarieece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) who has been impregnated by her absentee father, twice, and is stuck under the tyrannical rule of her abusive mother (Mo'Nique).

Eventually Precious is moved to a special school and she begins to extricate herself from her mother's grasp. There is a similarity to The Blind Side, wherein an inner-city youth comes out of their shell through school, but this movie doesn't have the condescending answer of "find a rich white family and everything will be better".

Sidibe is gripping as the girl who has to shut herself out from life just so she can survive it, and in some of the movie's best scenes it shows how she escapes into fantasy in the middle of horrible things. The flights-of-fancy are luscious and glamorous, which makes her crashing back into reality all the more jarring.

The fantasy sequences are pretty, which contrasts nicely with the grittiness of the film.

Precious is not a terrible movie by any stretch of the imagination, and it certainly is effective and sticks with you. But there's an extremely overblown performance by newly minted supporting actress winner Mo'Nique, and altogether the film straddles realism and cliche, sometimes dipping too far into each.

Mo'Nique is pretty much the same horrible human being every scene. She hits the same notes most of the time, repeating to her daughter that school is unimportant and she should "get down to the welfare." However, Mo'Nique's final scene is actually decent because while she's trying to be sympathetic she's just even more awful.

Variations upon this angry mom scene happen about a dozen times. Maybe slightly less.

There's a scene when the mother brutally mishandles Precious' new baby and puts them in mortal peril and the entire scene is distasteful. Yes, that's the point, but it seems a bit cheap and easy. There is a lot of griping about violence in movies and horror exploitation, etc. etc., but when there's a three-day old baby in mortal peril in Precious, it's suddenly supposed to be brave, and daring? I don't get it.

The ten best picture nominees was an interesting format that allowed more movies to get exposure, both blockbuster and non-mainstream. Most of them are pretty good to excellent. The winner, The Hurt Locker, wasn't my particular favourite movie of 2009 but it was one of the best.

I'd rank them as District 9, Up, The Hurt Locker, and A Serious Man as all great movies. Avatar, Inlgorious Basterds, Up in the Air, and An Education were all very worthwhile. Precious is so-so, and The Blind Side was not all that hot but sprung to life once in awhile. So there's a lot of diversity if you take a look.

Rolled Over

2010-03-15T12:00:00Z

Roll up the Rim is ending. The festive red and yellow cups have been everywhere for the past few weeks; Tim Hortons letting us know it's okay to take the spring colours out of your wardrobe.

I've been traveling a lot lately and have made it to Tims in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and across Ontario. Not surprisingly, the experience is the same everywhere, which is the point.

I haven't won once in maybe fifteen tries, which is frustrating, since with 31 million prizes they're clearly advertising a prize for each Canadian.

Ten cups of coffee and you get a free coffee at almost any coffee shop; yet there must be some appeal of digging my fingers into the coffee-stained waxy rim over carrying around a tattered coffee card.

I've seen people bring reusable mugs and walk away with a clean cup just to be able to play. The strangely mangled, spotless cup looks like a violation, somehow - of basic principles of conservation but also of the integrity of the poor cup.

Check in or arrive by plane at any airport in Canada and there it is. The airport promises both escape and welcome, which is an advertiser's dream.

Welcome to Canada, and also: go and be yourself somewhere else for a while.

At Terminal 1 at Pearson the line usually stretches to the end of the long escalator coming down from security, and moves nearly as quickly. Pilots, businesspeople, tourists, security officers, and baggage handlers stand patiently together.

You can buy your coffee and carry it towards the gates, passing a Starbucks on the way, judging its patrons for their ridiculously priced coffees.

In Saskatoon I watched a worker take a short break with her two adult children, bringing them sandwiches. Her manager kindly tells her she can take a few extra minutes.

I think, here's an ad Tim Hortons won't touch. This ad involves underpaid workers making whatever efforts they can to personalize their lives while every moment and aspect of their work is automated and regulated.

A Pakistani engineer working the cash thinks of a formula for the flow of water through a dam as Gordie Howe orders a double double. A robot moose ambles through.

Here in Hamilton, despite being home to the original Tim Hortons on Ottawa street, no museum graces the city. I came to Hamilton with an idea of a Tims on every corner, yet since the closing of the Dundurn and Aberdeen location I would have to get in my car if I wanted it that badly, which I don't.

Tim Hortons employs 50 people at a roasting plant in Ancaster, but we are not to Tims what Seattle is to Starbucks. This absence is no oversight I'm sure. Ron Joyce himself has given piles of money away, to commerce departments and the stadium at McMaster.

Self-aggrandizement aside, there's probably a reason it's not called the Tim Hortons stadium. That would draw too much attention. After all, what is Tim Hortons but a very, very hot cup of coffee and kids going to camp? Smiling soldiers and snowplow drivers? Winter, spring, summer, and fall?

Wedding yourself to a nationalistic iconography and inserting yourself into the seasonal and celebratory calendars sound like pleasant fantasies, but honestly? That works?

No doubt a hundred proposals for cartoon spokesbeavers have been rejected by management, while professors of marketing specializing in uniforms try to explain the success of beige and brown.

What is going on here is in part something that is not happening - same coffee, same slogans, same message - even as the store design and menus change frequently.

Someone has figured out that when you are selling a ridiculously average product, the trick is to not try to make it into too big of a deal. We're just Canadians. We started in Hamilton but don't bother with that. Aw heck, even the soldiers are blushing.

Here's a transcript of Tim Horton being interviewed by Ward Cornell on Hockey Night in Canada:

TH: "I suppose the only thing that could influence my retiring or giving up hockey is, things are quite hectic these days trying to combine business with hockey, and, if the business that I am involved in continues as it is, I may have to consider retirement before I would like to."

WC: "That's the Tim Horton doughnut emporium?"

TH: "Yes, Tim Horton Doughnuts, Ward, and it's very nice of you to let me get a word in about it, and if I may take the opportunity I'd like to."

WC: "No."

TH: (laughs) "Aw, heck, I'm gonna anyway, I'd like to say thank you to all you nice people in the Hamilton and Burlington districts."

WC: "Oh, come on now."

TH: "And Galt and Brantford and Kitchener-Waterloo, uh, for enjoying my doughnuts."

WC: "We'd like to thank you for playing for Hockey Night in Canada too"

The ties Canadians have to hockey and Tim Hortons are sad, in that devoted but underloved dog sort of way, when you consider that both, confident in their base, have devoted much of their energies recently to the U.S., where the reception has been lacklustre, which makes sense. Without the Canadiana, Tim Hortons is merely cheap but effective coffee, bland but filling food, and a weird boy scout aesthetic.

I imagine the real story of an immigrant family trying to come to terms with Canada would have to involve a tentative index finger testing the glistening surface of a dutchie, a hesitant sniff of the coffee, and a shared glance, what have we got ourselves into?

280 million coffee cups over the tenure of this context demonstrates the scale of the business and makes even the 31 million prizes seem paltry, and my losing streak not so special. But we are a small country and Hamilton is a neglected city, so I will hope for better. And obey the smiley face and try again.

Best Picture Nominees I Haven't Seen Yet, Part 1 Of 2: A Serious Man and The Blind Side

2010-03-15T12:00:00Z

I always try to watch all of the Academy Awards Best Picture nominees every year because...well, just because. Anyway, I've either really liked/flat-out loved the ones that I've seen so far: District 9, Up, The Hurt Locker, Avatar, Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air (if there's any justice, District 9 would win Best Picture but that has a snowball's chance in hell).

So that leaves Precious, based on the novel Push by Sapphire, An Education, and the two I just watched: A Serious Man and The Blind Side. One is very dark and very weird, but also unique. The other has Sandra Bullock in it. Take your pick which one is better.

A Serious Man

A Serious Man opens with a flashback to a turn-of-the-century (not this last one, the one before that) elderly Jewish couple who get an unexpected visitor, a visitor who the wife thinks is an undead spirit and who she promptly stabs.

I don't think I'm smart enough to understand exactly why this scene was included in the film, and it's never mentioned again, aside from the fact that it could be the reason why the main character, Larry (Michael Stuhlbarg) is apparently cursed throughout his film - maybe these are his grandparents casting an unlucky pal over his existence.

Stuhlbarg is a great tragic hero who has life kick the crap out of him. Repeatedly.

The rest of the movie is set in the 1960s. Larry, a university professor, has his marriage fall apart when his wife (Sari Lennick) reveals she is in love with another man and wants a divorce.

There isn't much of a plot; it's basically a series of scenes of Larry's life crumbling as he deals his berating wife, her creepily close and awkward hug-giving lover Sal (Fred Melamed), his kids, his students who may or may not want to bribe him, a record company that wants to shake him down for cash, lawyers, distant and unhelpful Rabbis, and his possibly dim/possibly brilliant brother (Richard Kind).

Getting hugged by the guy who's screwing around with your wife? Awk-ward!

A Serious Man may be shelved in the comedy section of your local video store but it should really be in the drama. This is a bit of a downbeat movie, a 1960s version of the Book of Job with some great performances. Both Lennick and Melamed should have gotten Oscar nominations. Yet the movie is very funny, especially in the dialogue exchanges, which are full of awkward pauses and verbal runarounds.

As always, writer/director pair the Cohen Brothers have a perfect eye for the frame, even through a few inventively strange dream sequences and just random oddities - like when Larry's son goes to his bar mitzvah baked out of his skull and it happens really sloowwwwwwly.

The ending is open-ended and not much is resolved, but it does have a sense of menace and doom to it that kind of fits.

The Blind Side

The other Best Picture nominee was The Blind Side, which turns out to be formulaic pabulum that's hard to hate completely but also really hard to like. It's the story of a rich mom, Leigh Anne (Sandra Bullock), who adopts a quiet, academically struggling, isolated inner-city youth, Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) and gets him to play high-school football.

Bullock basically plays an overbearing helicopter mom but she has an infectiously endearing southern accent. There isn't anything in her performance that makes her stand out as a best actress nominee.

See Sandra folding her arms and looking uppity? That happens a lot in this movie.

There are a few bright spots. Aaron is actually decently understated and has some soulful, sad eyes that make this gentle giant easy to root for, and it's pleasing to see him come out of his shell.

The interplay between Oher and Leigh Anne's son is actually surprisingly funny (the kid makes all these excessive demands to the colleges that try to get Oher to sign up with him) even if it falls under the textbook cliche screenwriter's book of "cute kid says cute things".

The one scene when Leigh Anne drags around kids on the football field to demonstrate the importance of blocking to Oher is pretty amusing. And what few football scenes there are actually bring some momentum.

Aaron is excellent as the emotionally closed-off football-star-to-be

But the good is greatly outnumbered by the bad, the lame, and the downright regressive. There's a scene in which Leigh Anne has a chat with her friends about her new adopted son and they insinuate vaguely racist things and the well-off ladies are such broad caricatures it's like watching that "Simpsons" episode when Marge joins the country club.

All the movie's characters are fairly shallow. There's the well-meaning teacher (played by Kim Dickens, who has a recurring role on "Lost" as Sawyer's baby mamma) who finds potential in the mute giant ala every after school special ever made.

However, the gangbangers who live in Oher's former neighborhood really take the cake because they're just stereotypes.

There's nothing wrong with cliche villains, but it depends on the style of film. Deadly bangers in a Stephen Segal movie? Sure, fine, whatever. Deadly bangers in a race relations parable about how we're all the same beautiful people? Completely undercuts any sense of realism. Since it's based on a true story, that's practically deadly.

So to compare both, A Serious Man is sad but full of cinematic skill and definitely unpredictable. It's dark and strange and funny. The Blind Side is fairly simplistic - let's give an underprovided kid some well-off rich people and everything will turn out okay - but it's so simplistic it's hard to get all that bothered by it.

One of these pictures is worth a Best Picture nomination. The other one isn't.

End of the Century

2010-03-15T12:00:00Z

I was saddened to see this lovely old building recently met Hamilton's growing popular trademark, the wrecking ball.

RIP, Century Theatre

I moved to Hamilton in 2008 and had the pleasure to live in your town for a year. I was blown away by so many amazing things: people who said hello on every street in every neighbourhood; store clerks who knew practically every customer by name; that crazy rail line bike trail up the "mountain" - loved it.

I loved so much of it. All the newcomer faces ready to make a start in an affordable livable city; the Market; 5440 at Gage Park; the mansions in the Durand area; the faded heart of Barton Street; the core's feral teens; Locke Street Bagels; and on and on.

But somehow, I don't get it. I must have heard of a dozen promised projects that were to happen - the medical centre downtown, LRT, Connaught Hotel renos, Stinson (hah) and on and on - and nothing happened.

I know the economy soured, but so did your leadership - gasp, choke and fade to indifference.

The City Hall reno seems to sum it all up. Soak 'em for all it's worth, they won't question you one bit.

How does a renovation of a mid-size 50 year old building cost as much as three new buildings? It smells funny.

Anyway, you certainly don't need another negative contribution. My hope is you persevere and I think you will. Your beauty is strong and it rests mainly within your citizens.

As for me, I am back in Toronto, back in my love-hate relationship with the Machine. My wallet feels so vunerable.

One idea I thought your city may pursue is to see if RBG would build a spectacular arboretum at the Main and Bay vacant lot.

Tourists come for miles to visit botanical gardens and you already have the reputation of having one of the most recognized horticultural facilities in North America. Use it, babes - make it grow.

Funding, heh, I confess I don't know...

Thanks Hamilton, for a special year in my life - I may return!

Sincerely,
Brian

Siemens Factory to Shut Down

2010-03-11T12:00:00Z

Westinghouse/Siemens ends its long relationship with Hamilton. The Siemens factory on Sanford Ave will be shut down and over 500 well-paying jobs will disappear with it.

Sadly, this will end a long term presence in Hamilton. Siemens purchased Westinghouse Electric in 1997. Subsequently, the Hamilton facility was modernized to manufacture 60 Hz gas turbines next to Westinghouse's former Canadian corporate head office on Sanford Ave.

Former Westinghouse Canadian Head Office

Westinghouse originally manufactured air brakes for the booming rail industry, but over the years it evolved to make household appliances and in 1955 employed 11,000 people, second only to Stelco.

The 60 Hz turbine production will move to an existing manufacturing facility in Charlotte, NC. The company will invest $135 million in a new facility. Production of the 60 Hz turbines will start in the fall of 2011.

What does Charlotte have that Hamilton doesn't?

Charlotte is an expanding city with a healthy, diverse economy, including a hub of financial services. It represents a typical sunbelt sprawling automobile dependent city, but In 2007 it cut the ribbon on its light rail line, "The Lynx".

Charlotte Blue Line LRT: 'The Lynx'

In 1994 Charlotte opened its football stadium in the city center, choosing that site over a suburb in Mecklen County, another option at the highway intersection of I-85 and US-74 in Gaston County, and another possible site near the NASCAR Lowes Motor Speedway.

Charlotte located its foodball stadium downtown

Not all business decisions are made for purely financial reasons.

Searching for Signs of Inspiration

2010-03-11T12:00:00Z

I recently read in the Hamilton Spectator that something like eight out of the top ten employers in this city are public entities (amazingly, Tim Horton's was not on the list). For any professional navigating Hamilton's job market, that is certainly not a surprising figure.

As I've written before, the job market in Hamilton is not particularly inspiring if you are looking to inspire. Where there is an occasional, blessed opportunity, Hamilton's top "employers" are the types of entities bloated with sclerotic human resource bureaucracies that use computer programs to somehow find the most suitable employee from a vast number of desperate submissions.

From the exposure I've had to these "employers," I envision a scene out of Brazil in which HR robots look for other robots by feeding thousands of resumes like punch-cards into vacuum tubes.

And being public entities, the largest employers in this town are faced with budget cuts well into the future. Top-flight medical and educational systems are all well and good (and in fact necessary), but before regional elites try to take a page out of Pittsburgh's playbook by relying heavily on these two pillars, we must remember that in this country they are completely handcuffed by government appropriators.

Thus, if there ever is an economic recovery in the offing, the concern should be that it would skip over Hamilton.

'City of Entrepreneurs'

However, according to the Chamber of Commerce this is the City of Entrepreneurs. So, Hamilton is where you come to create your own job, not apply for one. Fair enough - the type of deregulated environment, progressive municipal policies and bold, inspirational thinking embraced by local leaders required to stimulate entrepreneurial economic activity are invigorating and sure to generate growth in the creative economy.

Except that this does not describe Hamilton at all.

With time and investigation, I now have a fairly good idea of how this city works. With municipal facilitation, private investment in this city swallows up its greenfields, while projects that are designed to help transform downtown rely primarily on government largesse (such as it is).

Despite elites' constant incantation of "Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh," a tremendously disproportionate amount of energy is devoted to paving paradise while, in the core, parking lots stretch as far as the eye can see and buildings crumble due to neglect with nary an implication to their "investors".

In this city, downtown councillors decry the presence of "hoodlums" walking around Jackson Square while doing nothing to actually develop or champion a transformative downtown strategy; "investors" sit on downtown land for no apparent reason with the tacit approval of our politicians; and speculators look to turn arable land into gold by clinging to outmoded notions of growth and feeding the re-election war chests of career politicians.

Standing in the Way of Progress

Though there are many people devoted to reviving the downtown core, too many politicians, entrenched interests and structural obstacles are standing in the way of progress.

With few exceptions, unless you are bulldozing farm fields to build tracts of subdivisions or using government grants to make a living off of Hamilton's vast poverty industry, you are not going to amass enough resistance to Hamilton's jurassic, tone-deaf and myopic political and institutional elite (even if the Mayor might be the best of the bunch).

When I first discovered that Hamilton has an undeserved image and reputation, I was inspired by the opportunities and potential that exists in this community. The more time I spend in this city, the more I learn that "potential" and "opportunity" exist mainly in the minds of the terrific people that press on with a change agenda despite the obstacles.

In this town, inspiration starts with citizen initiatives and then passes through consultant reports, where it gets watered down by bureaucrats and presented to councillors that are threatened by change.

A Bold and Inspirational Agenda

Will the Creative Catalyst ever emerge as a reality, even if it is a proven method to create a significant, long-term return on investment? Same with LRT. Will the Connaught eventually need to be torn down because it represents a hazard?

After reading the Spec today, because a few wealthy people lack any imagination, what are now the odds that the Pan Am Games will bring any appreciable benefit to the core?

When eight out of the top ten employers in this city rely on government caprice, a bold and inspirational agenda is required of our local leaders to attract private investment to transform and revive Hamilton's downtown, not expand its periphery.

The problem is that too many decision-makers in this city profit from the status quo. Unless their job security is at stake, Hamilton's job market and urban development will continue to rely on the whims (and health) of government entities.

Don't Let Narrow Interests Hijack Stadium Plan

2010-03-11T12:00:00Z

Today's Spectator carries a disturbing piece outlining a plan by some local businessmen to look at having Hamilton's Pan Am stadium built somewhere other than the West Harbour/downtown location currently proposed.

The thinking behind this "stadium coup" (as the Spec puts it) is so typical of Hamilton that it makes you wonder how we'll ever get ahead in the high tech, sustainable, urban world that we now live in.

There are several issues I have with this loosely outlined plan as presented in the article.

First, none of us will be surprised that a small group of Hamilton's elite are circling like vultures at the sight of public money.

I don't know who is involved in these talks, but I'm willing to bet that the names will be familiar when they are finally revealed. It seems that Hamilton's newest industry is filling the pockets of a few well-off developers with our tax dollars.

Even more disturbing is the continued notion that public money should be used to fill private pockets, even if it means sacrificing what's best for the city.

Go look at the disgusting exterior of city hall for one of many examples of this. Instead of spending the extra $2 million on decent limestone siding, we decided to save it as a kickback to the contractor upon the job being completed.

The seat of government in Hamilton and our most iconic public building ends up looking like crap so a few folks can jam their bank accounts with our money.

Location, Location, Location

My second beef is with the three alternative locations. Let me say this right off the bat: if a group of private builders wants to build a stadium on the LaFarge Canada property, do it on your own dime!

Think Hamilton has an image problem now? Wait until the folks from TO visit for a concert or Labour Day game and find themselves surrounded by smokestacks, polluted air, transport trucks and absolutely nothing else nearby to do in terms of entertainment.

Only in Hamilton could we find a way to spend tens of millions of dollars and end up further harming the city's image, instead of helping it.

Oh wait, I forgot. That doesn't matter. The trucks and cars flying by on the QEW will supposedly help fill the pockets of someone (not you, or I, or city hall coffers) who gets to slap their name on the side of the stadium.

I hope they use carbon resistant letters or power-wash their sign three times a day.

I have absolutely no interest in putting our prized stadium in a location that will leave visitors gasping at their surroundings ... and gasping on the soot they just swallowed with their hot dog.

If public money is going to be spent on this project, we need to look at the location that best serves the public interest. In this case that means looking at accessibility, spinoff effects, image building, legacy building - you know, all the reasons the site study recommended the West Harbour.

What kind of legacy are we building by putting our stadium in the middle of the spot that everyone else in the country wants to avoid like the plague?

I love our steel heritage and the jobs that the industry produces, but I don't really feel like sitting in between blast furnaces and highways on game day.

Cars, Cars, Cars

Another proposed location is a piece of land at Centennial and the QEW. Again, there is only one reason why such a location would be considered - cars, cars and more cars. Maybe out-of-towners could walk up Centennial to McDonald's after the game for a night on the town.

Oh wait, there are no sidewalks on portions of Centennial.

Again, I have no interest in spending a lot of public money on a project that will benefit exactly one person - the CEO of whichever company wants their name on the side of the stadium.

We know there is a small group of Hamilton elites who have no interest in city building and helping to turn this into a sustainable city with electric light rail, walkable neighbours and downtown redevelopment as priorities.

Thankfully much of our business community, including the Chamber of Commerce and other heavyweights, slowly seem to be coming around to the fact that quality of life draws new companies, jobs and residents.

Car Reigns Supreme

Finally, the Burlington St and Victoria site is most baffling. It's too far from downtown to have any spinoff effects. There is nothing nearby to walk to unless folks want tours of Bunge Canada after a game. Yet it's also too far from the QEW or 403 to offer any car-centric visibility.

This suggestion might be the most disturbing out of them all because it still involves the massive cleanup of a large Brownfield and yet offers absolutely nothing in terms of spinoff effects or city building.

Is someone really going to build a condo building with shops and cafes next to Bunge?

This location would seem to be on the list for one reason and one reason only - one-way highway access via Victoria and Wellington and Burlington Street. Again, the car reigns supreme.

Long Term, Public Interest Perspective

If we're going to build a stadium in Hamilton that might be around for another ninety years like Ivor Wynne, we'd better make sure that we have a long term perspective in mind.

When public money is largely going to pay for this project, there is also a moral obligation to all taxpayers to do what is best for our city.

Properly designed urban stadiums have become the rage in North America in recent years. Look at the incredible district that now surrounds Fenway, Camden Yards or PNC Park in San Fran.

I want a stadium district that is a short walk to the wonderful cafes on James North, the beautiful trails of the West Harbour and gives visitors a myriad of options for dining and entertaining from simple sunset strolls to a night in Hess Village.

Hamilton's downtown core and adjacent brownfields have been ignored for far too long and it's up to the residents and politicians to make the right decision based on the positive effects to be gained by our downtown neighbourhoods and businesses.

Twenty-First Century Thinking

A recent letter to city council from a local businessman suggested that the Pan Am Stadium be built in conjunction with the A-Line light rail system. This is proper thinking for a city in the twenty-first century.

Perhaps the one saving grace staring us in the face is the fact that the Pan Am Games committee wants to welcome the world and put on our best face while they are here.

It would be nice for Hamilton to make the right decision, but I'm hopeful that the larger committee responsible for the games and for securing the public money will wield some power and save us from the utter humiliation of welcoming our guests to the front gate of Columbia Chemicals for the games.

Cities stopped building stadiums out in the middle of nowhere, far removed from their urban cores many years ago. That alone scares me, due to the fact that Hamilton seems intent on remaining decades behind everyone else.

We can't let a small interest group hijack this process. Some decisions are huge and can only be made once. We either get it right, or we continue with our botched legacy of failed projects and misused tax dollars.

Make your voice heard and urge our council to make the right decision - for Hamilton.

Hamilton: A Love-Hate Story

2010-03-10T12:00:00Z

Ah, love-hate relationships. We city-dwellers know about those.

I shook the dust off of my feet when our family left Toronto - couldn't wait to leave it. We were living in a spot that was supposed to be up and coming, on the cusp.

It was a place where movie shoots took place pretty regularly (nothing flatters us Canadians more than being discommoded by an American movie shoot in which garbage is scattered around the faded main street of a neighbourhood to make it look like some kind of slum), and real estate agents called us Beaches West.

But the neighbourhood pretty much went nowhere for the eight years we were there, and was getting pretty rough in some pockets. Besides, we couldn't afford a house the size we needed, so we went to another apparently up and coming location: one where there were art galleries and theatres that we could actually afford to visit, as well as an affordable house which, similarly appointed, would have cost us over half a million dollars in Hogtown.

Having had occasion to visit Toronto a couple of times in the last few weeks, once not far from our old house, I found myself longing to return to that little bungalow where we could see the lake from our driveway, around the corner from the Polish bakery that made such delicious rye bread that it could hardly keep up with the demand of the out-of-towners who drove into the city to buy it.

The old neighbourhood is looking a little shinier, a little busier. There are signs of a burgeoning arts scene, or at least a group of people who are committed to establishing one. Do I regret that we left it? Perhaps I do.

Am I tired of Hamilton? Of inadequate transit, and a downtown that looks like one crazy jumble of well-intentioned and then ultimately aborted projects? Of trying to find someplace in our neck of the woods that's not called Tim Horton's but is open for a coffee after ten p.m.? Of the Lister block? Of no decent shopping except at the bloody power centres that bookend the Linc?

If I left it, would I regret leaving? Nope.

Well, maybe. I would come back to visit and remember summer nights on the front porch sharing a glass of wine with Stephen while the kids hollered to us about petty disagreements through the front window and we laughed and hollered back at them to get the heck up to bed, but not so loudly as to detract from the mellow pleasure we took in the bands playing the Festival of Friends, heard quite clearly from our house.

I'd remember the view from the top of the Kenilworth stairs, and the checkout ladies at the Delta No-Frills who knew us well enough to chat at the end of the weekly grocery run. The place would be crawling with art aficionados, and even by-law aficionados.

What do you know? I'd see that Gage Park was finally getting a facelift.

I might even ponder that no place where a person lives is going to meet every need all the time, and that even Paris is tiresome to Parisians, as much as they love it.

Much better to embrace the adventure of the inconvenient, and learn to love our less-than-perfect neighbourhoods.

Finies les balades le long du canal
les escaliers des cartes postales
c'est fini, Paris
c'est décidé, je me barre
finis le ciel gris, les matins moroses,
on dit qu'à Toulouse les briques sont rose
oh là-bas, Paris, les briques sont roses

-- Camille, "Paris", 2002

Retool Siemens Plant to Build LRT

2010-03-17T12:00:00Z

On reading this article in the Spectator about the announced closure of the Siemens plant in Hamilton, I realized that this could be an excellent opportunity to retool the Siemens plant to manufacture light rail transit systems in Hamilton for the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton.

Consider that:

Siemens builds LRT systems;
Siemens has announced that its business plan involves locating its manufacturing closer to its markets; and
Metrolinx is planning to spend billions of dollars building new LRT systems across the GTA+H over the next two decades.

Even more interesting is the potential for the Ontario government to combine electric-powered LRT systems with clean, sustainable electricity generation, for example using wind turbines as Calgary currently does.

By the way, Calgary's LRT system was built by Siemens.

RTH Online Poetry Crawl

2010-03-14T12:00:00Z

A comment from Mahesh Butani after my last article has inspired me to propose an RTH online poetry crawl.

I've read enough of the comments here to know that RTH readers have a way with language.

Please post your poems about Hamilton or city life in general - free verse, or one of the more traditional kinds; for example, a haiku or a sonnet.

You can make it as highfalutin or comical (here are instructions for limericks) as you choose, but keep it G-rated, please, so we can feel free to show the kids we know or even to get them to try their hand at it, too.

If you don't write, maybe you know someone who does. I might even write something myself.

Get your poet on!

Foxcroft's Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

2010-03-12T12:00:00Z

Today's Spectator has a column by Andrew Dreschel in which he quotes Ron Foxcroft expressing concern about the West Harbour location for the Pan Am / Ti-Cats Stadium:

We can talk all we want about public transit but, in North America, we drive cars.

Of course, the principal reason we North Americans drive cars is that we talk about building public transit but spend our money building all-you-can-drive roads, highways and parking lots.

Foxcroft's transit defeatism merely advocates continuing to do what we've always done because it's what we've always done.

The Greenest Building

2010-03-10T12:00:00Z

Congratulations, Brantford: your urban renewal idiocy has now attracted international attention.

Many small towns are experiencing a comeback these days; a combination of aging boomers and the green movement, combined with technology that lets people work just about anywhere make them a viable alternative to urban and suburban life. [...] Smaller cities also have character, walkable main streets, apartments above shops that could be attractive to relocating urbanites.

Then there are towns like Brantford, Ontario, that think old buildings are impediments to progress, and are planning to tear down 41 of them, city blocks worth of them, to make way for...nothing.

Sigh.

Google Maps Adds Bike Routes

2010-03-10T12:00:00Z

Great news: Google is adding bike route information to Google Maps. For now it's rolling out to 150 American cities, but we can expect that they will eventually extend it beyond the US border.

Now all a city like Hamilton needs is a viable bike network in place so cyclists can actually have their choice of safe routes.

Toyota's Troubles and Media Vultures

2010-03-01T12:00:00Z

I've been amused by the newsmedia's recent attempted dismantling of Toyota's reputation. Has Tiger Woods traded his dented Cadillac for a Toyota?

Toyota has had an awful lot of recalls lately, and has done a poor job of post-marketing quality control. But recalls are generally relegated to the fine print on page 17 of the automotive section. Would all the media attention then mean that Toyota has lost its edge on quality or is it unwarranted criticism?

Reliability is one of the most important factors people cite for buying a car. I argue brand reputation should be based on something more solid than marketing hype or media spin.

Consumer Reports tracks problem data from millions of owners in 17 categories over the previous six model years. From this they come up with a single metric of predicted reliability for the new model year, not including discontinued and completely new models.

There are five categories, which I've assigned a number so we can analyze them.

Reliability Categories
CR Reliability Description	Numeric Score
Much worse than average	1
Worse than average	2
Average	3
Better than average	4
Much better than average	5

Every model has a unique score, and these have been grouped according to manufacturer. Let's look at the results, ranked by mean reliability score:

Automobile Models by Mean Reliability Score
Manufacturer	1	2	3	4	5	Total models	Mean Reliability Score
	<< Av	< Av	Av	> Av	>> Av
Scion	0	0	0	0	3	3	5.0
Infiniti	0	0	0	0	2	2	5.0
Honda	0	0	0	6	5	11	4.5
Toyota	0	0	4	5	9	18	4.3
Lexus	0	0	1	5	1	7	4.0
Acura	0	0	0	5	0	5	4.0
Mitsubishi	0	0	0	1	0	1	4.0
Hyundai	0	0	2	5	1	8	3.9
Kia	0	1	1	2	1	5	3.6
Lincoln	0	0	2	2	0	4	3.5
Mazda	0	0	5	2	1	8	3.5
Mini	0	0	1	1	0	2	3.5
Nissan	0	1	7	4	2	14	3.5
Saab	0	0	1	1	0	2	3.5
Subaru	0	0	2	2	0	4	3.5
Suzuki	0	1	0	0	1	2	3.5
Ford	0	0	11	3	1	15	3.3
Mercury	0	1	3	1	1	6	3.3
Volvo	0	1	2	2	0	5	3.2
BMW	0	2	1	2	0	5	3.0
Buick	0	1	1	1	0	3	3.0
Hummer	0	0	1	0	0	1	3.0
Pontiac	1	1	3	0	1	6	2.8
Porsche	1	0	1	1	0	3	2.7
GMC	0	3	3	0	0	6	2.5
Mercedes	2	0	6	0	0	8	2.5
VW	1	3	2	1	0	7	2.4
Chevrolet	3	2	8	0	0	13	2.4
Audi	1	1	2	0	0	4	2.3
Dodge	4	0	2	1	0	7	2.0
Chrysler	3	0	2	0	0	5	1.8
Jeep	3	1	0	1	0	5	1.8
Cadillac	2	1	1	0	0	4	1.8
Saturn	2	1	1	0	0	4	1.8
Land Rover	1	0	0	0	0	1	1.0

Toyota products are shown in green, along with Honda nearly sweeping the top of the chart. Also mentionable is the lone 'much better than average' score for Pontiac might be because it belongs to the sister model of a Toyota.

These data are based on the 2003-2008 model years, and therefore don't account for recent recalls. I will revisit this in a year or two to see if Toyota has a precipitous fall from the top. Don't hold your breath.

Now What, Canada?

2010-03-01T12:00:00Z

Dear Canadian friends and colleagues,

Last evening just before midnight here in Paris, when that third Canadian goal came rocketing into the US cage - and once I stopped sobbing and gnashing my teeth - it occurred to me that it was just about the greatest way in which this year's Olympic Games could have come to an end: with a bang and certainly not a whimper.

Vancouver 2010. Who would have ever guessed what this might mean for so many? What a splendid and truly international event, how important for a needful world at a time in which the Olympic ideal has just about been entirely lost, and what a wonderful present that you Canadians have given yourselves and your country.

There are times when those of us who care and keep our eye on you feel uncertain about whether Canada is in fact there at all. I guess now we know.

As I reflect on all that has taken place over these last several years to bring this about, what strikes me as possibly the main lesson for the rest of the world to glean from your experience, is the extent to which all those involved combined high ambition and real modesty (a great Canadian attribute from which we just to your south have much to learn).

You accomplished this through hard work day after day and more than once in the face of adversity, and a capacity for quiet teamwork in the face of these unanticipated twists and turns that turned out to be exactly what was needed to face all of those unexpected challenges - including perhaps most famously our second goal, the one I believed was the beginning of the end for your hockey team. (So much for my self-proclaimed ability to foresee future events.)

I share these words with you on this morning after, because I feel very strongly that the qualities you have shown in this event are the same ones that are so much needed in the face of the enormous challenges of climate, sustainable development and social justice that face us all.

If I had one thing to ask as far as your performance before these challenges is concerned, it would be that you Canadians might perhaps do us the favor of being just a tad less modest when you are doing important things to show the way for others, eh?

Now, what is your next act?

History Only Repeats When it is Allowed

2010-02-26T12:00:00Z

Two cities in Ontario - Hamilton and Brantford - are presently witnessing lots of dirt being shoveled around in the name of progress.

Both cities, quite distinct and yet similar in their obtuse public ways, are on a development trajectory that has left their citizens gasping for breath from incomprehensible political actions.

One is hell-bent on destroying its past in the name of progress. The other is hell-bent on building an unsustainable future upon the toxic remains of its past.

For societies that are already thriving in many parts of the world on social enterprises that achieve public good while making a profit, understanding the current development approach of Hamilton and Brantford can be confusing.

They rightfully ask: Aren't such things supposed to happen only in the Third World?

Both these stories are unfolding in the First World in slow motion, under the hesitant glare of public scrutiny - both under the assumption that their brittle claims of transparent governance are good enough to continue governing.

Watching these two unguided projectiles hurtling through space, fueled by arrogance and ignorance, can be very sad and scary for those who already know better.

Sitting back and cynically watching these projectiles implode is now entertainment, for the many Ontarians who have been numbed out of their senses.

With the Canadian parliament prorogued, the province in deep debt, and municipal governance on a self-destructive trajectory, never before has a more clear path to self-organizing behavior been posed to the people of Hamilton and Brantford, than this moment.

I once again draw the attention to The Facelift and the Wrecking Ball: Urban Renewal and Hamilton's King Street West, 1957-1971 (PDF link) by Margaret T. Rockwell. Political futures and legacies depend on a successful reading of this document.

Before calls for heritage conservation and fiscal prudence turn into indignant international calls to protect the very ideals that Canada has projected to the world, we hope sanity will prevail in Hamilton and Brantford.

History only repeats itself when it is allowed to.

Ontarians can do better than this. Canadian politicians can do better than this. Canadian educational institutions can do better than this.

Let them look to the past, but let them also look to the future; let them look to the land of their ancestors, but let them look also to the land of their children.
-- Sir Wilfrid Laurier