Raise the Hammer

Ryan, I apologize for the Hammer and Sickle comment. I did not realize at the time, that my comment fades, not omitted. I should have read the guidelines before I accused of censorship. That being said, I still don't agree that certain comments are harder to read because people don't agree. Did I say anything personal about ...anyone? Anyone's family? this city? Hamiltonians? No. I would never do that. The 'It makes an accusation of bias without articulating any evidence of said bias' comment doesn't fly with me. I have seen many Pro-West Harbour comments that are NOT backed up with ANY evidence, and they don't get faded.

Your comment about driving TO downtown, doesn't sit with me either. West Harbour is not part of the downtown, but that's my opinion, and I guess many others don't see it that way.

And Bob Young is a businessman who benefiets from the public purse. That being said, as major tenant in the new stadium, don't we want to ensure that he is successful, especially, since we're the ones helping to pay for the stadium? Bullying him in to playing at the WH is not a friendly way to say 'Bob, how can we help you be successful?'

Here's one thing I'm noticing: Most of the people who want WH stadium are the ones who live downtown. Most of them are young, hip urbanites, the type who go on the James St Art Crawl. Call this an unfair generalization, but as I see it, the majority of people who want the Ticats to play at the West Harbour are the ones who wouldn't step foot at a football game. Likewise, the ones who go to a football game, are the ones less likely to step foot in an art gallery. Sorry, I live on the mountain, and I would HATE going down to West Harbour for a football game. Last Canada Day, my family and I spent 2 hours getting out of that area after watching fireworks at Bayfront Park. I'm not going through that again.

After I read your comment, I looked at your 'principle' values that this website emphasizes. I agree with some of those values, on the fence on some, disagree with some, and offended with one: I live on the mountain, not downtown, and you make it sound like suburbanites have absolutely no brain, how stupid they are for having a car, etc...

One final thing: You or your readers may not care about the Ticats (except to make money for your downtown businesses at a WH stadium), but many, many people in this city do. This city, across Canada is known for 3 things: Steel, failed NHL bids, and the Ticats. Steel is no longer a desirable reputation, failed NHL bids are an embarrassment, and all that leaves are our historic football team. Sorry, you can argue that we have waterfalls, parks, and art crawls, but I'm sorry... our art crawls do not make news in Calgary or Vancouver. The Ticats are part of our national identity. Does that mean we shouldn't promote our parks and art crawls? of course we should. Those are all things this city should be proud of. But Ticats and steel? That's our identity. Sorry to tell ya, folks.