Comment 37608

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted January 30, 2010 at 15:43:26

"Clearly, most of you think that money grows on trees. If the city wasn't spending 20-25% of its budget on social services, imagine how much lower property taxes would be. More money in the pockets of landlords and business owners means more cash for improvements, better products, more employees, etc. Property values would increase and owners would be encouraged to maintain their properties to further increase values. It doesn't take a genius to realize that half-way/subsidized housing, crack houses and the obvious presence of riff-raff lowers property values. grassroots, before you throw a tantrum, realize I am not referring to people who legitimately cannot work, but those who chose not to."

This, right here, is exactly the problem. Decades of city councils dedicated to helping landlords and business owners make more money is the direct cause of this crisis. Development firms like very easy and very profitable projects like buying farmland and converting it into virtually endless tracts of mass-produced suburban housing or big-box warehouse store districts. At best they're willing to do a few flagship pieces downtown (preferably condos or hotels, as they're most profitable). Communities want decent housing, livable neighbourhoods and heritage architecture. By writing laws to benefit landowners we've only made speculators, slumlords and strip mall developers into some of Hamilton's main industries.

And of course we have to bash people who "choose not to work", as if those on welfare, ODSP or EI are somehow a disastrous drain on society, or that making them poorer and less serviced will somehow cause the problem to go away. How about that other class of Hamiltonians "choosing not to work" and instead living off the avails of under-maintained rental properties? They cost students, working families and communities far more than welfare could ever pay out.

"Bums" may often be seen near abandoned buildings, but that's just a correlation. It does not imply causation. It is abundantly clear who is responsible for Hamilton's rash of "blighted" properties - names like Zoran Cocov or Darko Vranich and Joe Mancinelli. Until we hold them accountable, this is just going to keep going.

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