Raise the Hammer

Let me clear up a couple of things here. By-Law Crawl isn't a "march" or a "protest" against the lack of by-law enforcement- it's an event designed to inform and equip citizens with the tools necessary to tackle the problem of inadequate enforcement through already existing channels. This isn't another rally where we spend an afternoon yelling and carrying signs to make ourselves feel better. We're going to do something about the problem directly.

Property standards by-laws are complaint based, so we'll be giving people all the information they need to identify and forward their concerns to the City's By-Law enforcement staff, and to see that those complaints are processed and acted upon. We're not protesting policy, we're doing our part to ensure policy is implemented. There's a process in place, and it will only work with input from the public- we can't just blame this problem on the City if we don't give them this input in the form of reporting by-law infractions. If we do our part, the City then has no excuse not to do their part. I'll be following up with the City with a report, and ensure that the complaints generated by this event are acted on.

Flustered- you make it sound like I am some Johnny-come-lately moving into the downtown and making selfish demands of the core and it's constituents. I've lived in and around Downtown Hamilton for my entire life- as did my parents and grandparents. Over the course of decades, many great old buildings in the Downtown core have been demolished as a result of neglect and absenteeism. In my efforts over the last few years to combat this problem, it's become more and more obvious to me that proactive by-law enforcement is the most effective tool we have to prevent the destruction of our built heritage. A stitch in time saves nine.

I assure you I'm doing nothing to "inhibit diversity" or "frustrate initiative." with this effort. I believe keeping buildings vacant and poorly maintained keeps the downtown itself vacant and poorly maintained. As I've already stated, buildings with active tenants aren't the focus of the crawl- we're going after the worst offenders- buildings left vacant and open to the elements- which I'll add, do not "encourage development and growth". I bet if you owned a house, busted all the windows and just let the weeds grow over, it would in some ways discourage the development and growth of all the properties around you.

The same exact principle is at the heart of the By-Law Crawl- the businesses and people that surround vacant and derelict properties suffer in measurable ways as a result of this neglect. It's not a case of merely being "offended"- it's identifying a real problem and offering a real solution, and the expectation that people live up to their responsibilities. That's all.

I am all for your idea of screening movies on the sides of buildings- I'd suggest following that up and making it happen, I'd be happy to attend. In the meantime, I'm going to do my best to ensure you still have some buildings left to project upon.