Raise the Hammer

Everything Graham says is with an air of utter contempt. Even the factually correct stuff is objectionable in the way its presented. The fact is I'm not in favour of Longwood, its way more expensive than Rheem which in turn is way more expensive than East Mountain which should never have happened either because Confederation Park is a much more attractive site thats got pie in the sky plans to commercialize anyway. At least with the stadium that would actually happen instead of the acres and acres of weeds on priceless waterfront property that should be a crown jewel not an eyesore. I've opposed bringing in the games from the start, in fact I opposed the Commonwealth Games because its a giant waste of money no matter which level of government is funding it. I've opposed a WH stadium without the perimeter road for just as long. I opposed the RHVP in favour of the perimeter road and a parkway that would run down the escarpment east off the city thus protecting the valley Many here just hit down as soon as they see my name. Its really obvious that minds are closed here. There is no point in talking to you about facts because you still believe Rheem is viable and East Mountain is not in spite of mountains of evidence to the contrary that you refuse to accept. I've also said that the Future Fund money should not exceed $35M for the entire project and in that light no site should be funded because it will require $60M to get both the stadium and the velodrome. People here also hit the down arrow when I post that. I've said that the Rheem site acquisition cost has to be considered when comparing costs of alternate sites and it cannot be added to the cost of an alternate site as many seem to want to do. I've said that ALL infrastructure costs have to be consided at ALL sites equally. That means that costs that are already in the budget at one site cannot be added just to make it look worse than another where similar costs that will be required are not being included. Frankly this has been an unfair dishonest debate from the start and RTH should be ashamed of themselves. The fact is that we may very well have an outcome we both agree is good for the city but the dishonest mean spirited attacks on Bob Young's character will surly hurt the city's ability to attract business in the future. While it may be good that the stadium project fails for the budget the public vilification of an honest hardworking man that has done nothing but put his own money into an important facet of our social fabric thus saving it from extinction will ultimately cost the city far more than you can imagine. The fact is we has a serious image problem that people here on this site have made a whole lot worse