Raise the Hammer

>>> At first the Monster had one head: >>> The core was all boarded up - a run down ghetto; with bums ravaging through garbage; hookers, pimps and drug dealers and addicts feeding on cadavers of rich folks they mugged in broad day light; shattered glass strewn on sidewalks and sewage running in the middle of the streets; and the underclass and the "indigent" elderly pillaging abandoned properties for food and strewn newspapers to stay warm; with cynical bartenders turned storytellers, blog maestros and post-secondary educated types feeding the frenzy of hundred bonfires lit every night. ~ Multi-headed Hydra, (Unregistered).

This head was called "Perception" - born out of deep prejudices, cynicism, bad judgment, infantile research, half-cooked agendas and occasionally fanned by the anger of a young man who once had sparkle in his eyes and a spring in his feet that carried him through many jaunts across the core with good cheer. But in his so wanting the city to start smelling like Seattle, with a touch of Portland and a dash of Pittsburgh, with that Vancouver LRT Christmas decoration he yearned for so much since he was little boy - he allowed himself to get "brutalized" by a preliminary report of an event. In a rush to save the core - he quickly tried chopping the head of what he perceived to be a monster, little knowing that it was the Hydra.

>>> Out popped the second dubious head: >>>..."But …he did bring an unprecedented amount of attention to this gorgeous landmark!!" ~ Really? (Registered)

This head was called the 'Opportunistas' - raring to jump into a gaping hole blindly - that was mutely and patiently waiting to be healed. All that the gaping hole in the core ever asked for was to listen to 'A Bridge over Troubled Waters'. Instead it was forced to listen to 'Fly Robin Fly' repeatedly until it withered away, leaving behind artificially inflated expectations. Really? was that unprecedented amount of attention necessary...at all?

Now look at the chain of event that it has left in its wake. The echoes of 'Your time has come to shine' are now tainted with a raging class war. That was never the intent of the young man who once had sparkles in his eyes - and had since lost faith on discovering that God was really Santa Claus dressed in Black who had left for the coast and was last seen in Portland sipping a latte.

>>> And then reared the third ugly head: >>> "...it really just sounds like NIMBYism has finally infected what I figured was the last refuge of progressive Hamilton urbanists." ~ Borrelli (Registered)

This head was called "Discoursus in Free Fall". A predictable outcome of getting giddy with the expanding -circulation figures- while not keeping an eye on the content by "....attempting to not come 'on strong' or make other opinions feel unwelcome" - when the situation demanded exactly that.

>>> And then the fourth and the fifth… until finally the most ugly and horrific head of all arose: >>> "...Don't get me wrong, it said in a refined -learned- manner cultivated at the Bar. It said - But, to put it simply, the downtown denizens are not --of a type-- that I would feel comfortable raising a family around. Nor, to be honest, are they --of a type-- that I want to be around myself. I spent eight years in "post-secondary education" to get to where I am today. When I think about it "honestly", I have to confess that I want to live amongst people who have similar education levels, similar incomes, similar tastes, interests, and life experiences." ~ Tammany (anonymous)

This head was called "Obscenetus" - the final nail in the search for hope among our post-secondary educated types. With this, the battle to revitalize the soul of the city appeared almost lost for a moment! There is no way our secondary education system could have gone so wrong. Sadly in many ways then one, it now appeared that it had indeed.

This head was the most compelling reason why the earth really needs to switch its polarity fast and start afresh. But then maybe it already has, and the Monster just exists in the heads of our privileged post-secondary educated types just yearning to be free to catch up with Santa in Portland.


FYI: Jason,

You do need to cauterize the open stumps fast after you start slaying. Those were the rules of engagement for the alternative media which were given to you at the time of your investiture.

The reputation and possibly the future of the alternate media, not to mention alternate religion in Hamilton - now rests in your hands. For it is not about the spike in the number of "posts" without Adam Smith - it is about the content - just like it has always been, with the traditional media.

I did re-read all the fabulous Downtown Beat's filed by the once young man over the years, and I know he is still perfectly capable of slaying the vile demon he has unleashed - if he chooses to.


FYI: Tammany,

I have post-graduate degree from an ivy league university in nyc, with a professional graduate degree in architecture and over 25 years of "real" life experience in architectural design, urban design and real estate development. I am in the "real" downtown core of Hamilton - in a restored building which has gone thru three iterations from an International Museum of Urban History, to an arts building to the present live/work lofts -- and since the last three years, has housed more then a dozen renters who are highly qualified, intelligent and employed professionals in medicine, video & graphic design and film/arts/music -- from as far as Ohio, Calgary, Toronto and Burlington and some from Hamilton too -- and which now has an ongoing waiting list of highly-educated, employed, professional renters numbering over twenty from as far as BC to as close as Toronto.

"So please, please don't get me wrong...but to put it simply", the future of any community across Canada is unsafe including that of Burlington - until educated people such as you - outgrow your naive, simplistic and deeply disturbing prejudicial attitudes of class, housing types and economic growth

The 'ghettos' through history and across countries, have never been created by the urban poor or the marginalized. They have been developed by the perverted attitudes of yuppies and wannabe, who continue to grossly misread urban malaises and prescribe an overdose of unmitigated urban re-growth BS to counter their lack of research, class and social empathy.

But enough of this melodrama -- now if you do care to outgrow your condition before it spread into a full blown disease, I prescribe that you indulge you adventures side to venture into the decrepit dungeons of the downtown core - inside the cool safety of your 8 cylinder SUV, with your tinted windows rolled up for safety, to gawk at the many, many windows of apartments that magically light up on King and James Street in the core after dusk.

And if you start to feel safe and care to pull up and knock on any of the doors - You may be pleasantly surprised to even be invited in for a cup of coffee and a tour of the many self-respecting homes to see how wonderfully well they are living, and if you are courteous to them, you possibly may even get to meet the many fun loving children that are being raised there.

On your way out, please do remember to curb you instinct to say "you people", when you are attempting to quickly patch together a compliment for their hospitality.

I do know that recovery will be a slow and painful process for you. But I assure you that this visit will help you overcome your condition, and even possibly heal your debilitating socio-pathological condition for good.


FYI: Reg
You are a very talented photographer who has misapplied his gifts consistently. The power of seeing through the minds eye is definitely yours to keep as long as you choose.

"Don't get me wrong...but to put it simply" - as you are aware, I have always questioned your power of seeing with your eyes.

You exactly know the conditions of the failure of 316 - It was not the low-life's or the marginalized that made you shut down. It was your supreme potty-mouth spewing racial gaffes and poor customer service that aided your bad management in accelerating the demise of 316. Your foolish cavorting of the --oh so good lookin, wine sipping, black duds wearing crowd-- aided your downfall, with their in-built limits to sustaining a small start-up business between dusk to mid-night three days a week. In the process you visibly alienated the very "commoners" of various colours, that bent backwards to send you financially stable customers who were willing to just come there to support the core with their business.

You dare not whine back with an half-parsed rebuttal - as the many people on to whom you have heaped your "classy" behavior over the last years will not hesitate in getting together to sign a petition airing their view publicly -- as to why 316 was truly ailing !

You live in the very building that has given you a roof over your head in times of your deepest self-made troubles, yet you choose to publicly cast your sarcastic selective aspersions on it - just to score some cheap points, as you have with the very neighborhood that warmly welcomed you with open arms to set up your business.

Downtown revitalization is an activity that is stretched in time and space, and needs deep understanding, patience, commitment and strength of character - and not just some slick graphic designs, yuppie signage, glib talk, bad research or even soft focus black and white photographs romancing 'screen memories'.

If educated people like you, Jason and Tammany can in such a cavalier manner reduce complex events like the Connaught redevelopment to a caricature of your pet peeves and deep seated prejudices - with your selective observations, name calling, fear mongering and petty blame games - is there really any hope for reform, activism and the alternate media in Hamilton?

"It all comes down to the simple irrefutable truth" - Reg, you will be the one that Tammany and Jason will be throwing rocks at, if god forbid, you slip onto the wrong side of the tracks in your spiral. They have between them a law career and an upcoming medical practice, besides an economically flourishing family religious enterprise which lifts the downtrodden - all of which will finance them through old age while powering their version of what they call Activism.

You Reg, I fear for, my friend - as old age does creep up much faster, when your mind is shut tight and your butt clenched in fear and shame of being "overwhelmingly outnumbered by downtown denizens that are not of --a type-- you feel comfortable to be around."