Raise the Hammer

'University' and 'Health Sciences' sounds much better then hospitals and schools. You're not explaining anything to me. Except that you ignored the fact the poorest cities seem to always have public hospitals and public schools as their number one employer. And the reason ..... because the private sector has left the building.

I get it the spin offs and research jobs. They probably commute from Halton/Peel then get the hell out of dodge when their shift is over. And there is a good reason why a spin-off company .. I don't know, let's take Gennum for example (founded by McMaster grads) chose to put their head office and research offices in Burlington. After milking our publicly subsidized Flamborough (Hamilton) innovation/incubation park for all its worth. Gennum is not about to locate in the Stelco Tower, I can say that.

McMaster Innovation Park... the jargon has changed from 'incubator' to 'innovation'.... all the same. I think Wescam did the same thing as Gennum. AIC started downtown too, now where are they? Heck even when the media reports where Michael Lee Chin lives they say he lives in Burlington. Last time I checked he lived in Flamborough which is Hamilton, but no one would ever say the fifth richest person in Canada lives in 'Hamilton'. No he is a Burlington Billionaire but pays his residential property taxes to Hamilton.

We can be great at starting them, but can't keep them once they become successful. Bottom line, once they leave our subsidized incubator (slash Innovation bs) they move ops and pay taxes to another municipality.

The new McMaster DeGroote business school... currently being built in Burlington... hmm.. Is that a spin-off? It certainly is, but it's not benefitting Hamilton's tax assessment. But we created it. "Sorry we're not going to locate downtown, because of the".... what did you call them.... "endless parade of drooling meth clinic clients"... exactly.

So let's turn the Royal Connaught and into public housing, let's keep the halfway house downtown (next to a high school), let's expand social services and social housing downtown, and ad more homeless beds and meth clinics. Let's turn downtown's retail into government offices, let's subsidize land speculators whom buy significant buildings downtown and then threaten our City Hall for subsidies or else... the wrecking ball. Heck let's just keep on the same track we've been on for 30 years.... that's seems to be working well.

Further, McMaster has one of the worst rates of Ph.D. grads leaving the city once they've graduated. O we'll educate them, until they graduate, see ya. Why is that? If you graduate with a M.A./Ph.D. in say... medical physics... will he/she find work in Hamilton? ya right. McMaster has one of the best/most difficult to get into Engineering schools in the country, but where are all the engineers working? WE ARE A CITY OF HALF A MILLION> that should be enough. But we operate as if we are a town of 50,000. Burlington, Guelph and Oakville kick our ass and they have nowhere near the amenities that Hamilton offers. What;s the problem?

Back to the spin of saying our economy has changed from manufacturing to health/education. It has, but only by default. Do you not see why? Burlington Street -- that was built for about ten times the amount of traffic it has now, was for local workers to get to local factories -- now its main use is to supply commuters a route to get out of Hamilton. Why? Because the private manufacturing sector has closed down, leaving Health/Ed to rise to the top is not an accomplishment. It's just that Health/Ed -- and probably Government now -- are our top employers by default.

I'll bet even Gary IN and Erie PA have education and healthcare as their biggest employers.

We attract doctors, except family practitioners that do not chose to set up shop in Hamilton, leaving us with one of the biggest family doctor shortages in the country. We'll educate them but when it's time for them to start business, they don't practice here.

One more interesting point .... that I will leave this conversation with is this.... that Hamilton had at one point, not that long ago, maybe 40-50 years ago (that's considered two generations, Baby-boomers mostly, have fucked it all), enjoyed the prestige as having the third most Head Offices in the Country.... they benefited well and could care less about their city now). Ask any senior city staffer where his/her children are now. ??? not here. But they pretend to say that Hamilton is the best place to raise a child?

Stelco, Dofasco, Westinghouse, IBM, Hi Case, Ellis Elevator, Firestone, International Harvester, Pigott Construction, etc. not to mention the dozens of ad agencies, accounting, and legal firms that serviced those companies. Here's a thought.... can you imagine that not that long ago... 80s... all of the advertising for Jaquar Canada (cars) was produced in the Right House>top floor? It's true. Now I think it's a meth clinic that will soon be moved to the Lister... via "Public Health". Replace a national ad agency with a meth clinic to a vacant office.... in no less then 30 years.

Let's keep 'turning that corner'... that corner that is turning into a circle.