Raise the Hammer

Random ramblings, in no particular order: This is what you get with another 11th hour 'proposal' and insufficent time to properly research all the variables. As a resident of Hamilton I am 100% against the use of the Future Fund towards a renovated Ivor Wynne. It's a personal opinion, but I don't feel that this use is in alignment with th City Building mandate. By using this money for Ivor Wynne we are basically handing it over to the Ticats. Let the Ticats negotiate with the School board for additional parking; as they are getting all the revenue. We (th City) should not be assuming the administrative costs of brokering the deal unless we are charging the Cats for the City Staff time. Additionally, I am concerned about the WH lands and what will happen in that area. Millions in property that cannot be resold to developers for residential use without millions in remediation costs. The fact that Brian Timmis can be rebuilt for $2.3 M is well and good, but there is no current site for this in Ward 3 and there is no money to purchase land if there is no City owned property available. Having to pay for an alternate location for the Ticats to play during the construction - another $7M??? WOW. And they are proposing McMaster WITHOUT EVEN CONSULTING WITH MCMASTER AS TO THE FEASIBILITY OF THIS IDEA. Unbelievable. As a resident of Ward 3 - I don't think that pouring money into the current stadium location will have any spinoff developments that are not directly related to the Ticats. It's already been there for 80 years and look at the area; Dense residential, pinned in by schools. The stadium is not a part of a critical mass for commercial development. It's like putting a $65,000 kitchen in a two bedroom bungalow -no opportunity for return on investment. At work I draft strategy proposals for my business development team on a fairly regular basis and the lack of detail in this proposal is alarming. I have no words for the lack of concrete answers to some of the councillors questions today. One final point - both Rossini and Murray did appear to be less than impartial today.