Raise the Hammer

Thank you, Amygdalian. The comment thread on here, however, perfectly illustrates my point that people on both sides of the argument have fallen back to a sort of ideological Western Front. No progress is going to be made unless we (the Pro-LRT side) are willing to engage in meaningful dialogue.

The people who like to argue just for the sake of arguing will always be there - the challenge is when people who take really obstinate positions (i.e. Blog Trolls) start to influence the thinking of the broader group in the middle who are still sitting on the fence about the the LRT issue.

At this point, I'm talking more about change management, then LRT specificaly, but it's all relevant. I still think a coffee or dinner between Hamilton Light Rail and the Downtown BIA would at least take the barking out of the media. Then iff (if and only if) there was a meaningful attempt at finding a common ground, raise the possibility of some kind of mutually agreed upon position on LRT.

Then, if the BIA and Hamilton Light Rail can say that they agree on some - any - points in the LRT debate, suddenly the A Smiths and Serwatuks of the world become voices from the fringe - and have much less ability to influence the debate.

Again, maybe I'm hopelessly naive, but I have seen some pretty amazing initiatives dumped in the bin because nobody was willing to swallow their pride and extend a welcoming hand - this pretty much describes the entire rebuilding of downtown Calgary in the 70's/80's - the loss of a century of priceless architecture, and the building of an 'anti-people' downtown that Calgary is only NOW starting to recover from (thanks to the LRT!).

I have also seen a couple of really amazing projects get pushed through because someone had the Emotional Intelligence to take the first step towards dialogue. These conversations, when they go well, end up becoming part of community legend - and the seeds for greater dialogue and greater cooperation in the future.

Sure it's a gamble, but the alternative is: the trolls win.