Raise the Hammer

You are likely correct. This stadium has been in its current location in various forms for 80 years and it hasn’t spurred off might. We can either do nothing and let this trend continue, or we can do our part to make sure this time is different.

As for nobody wanting to go there, well outside of some pretty tough years, attendance has averaged around the 25K mark at least as of late. I am sure low attendance had nothing to do with location and everything to do with 1-15 and a few other factors.

There are some things to fix. Some things that the Cats want to make a more sustainable go at it. I think if we work together on this design and we all put our ideas out in the open, there will be some compromises that will need to happen but I think all sides will be pleasantly surprised at how in the end, some of the things we thought we wanted/needed, we didn't, or that there exists more creative ways to go about those things that will turn out better than anyone could have imagined in the end.

Parking for instance. Give the Cats some more parking but put a tree/bush/greenery medium every so many spots. Make it look green and inviting and not a big mass of blacktop. I think that is what those against parking lots hate the most outside of the grid-lock of traffic leading up to most large-scale stadiums. Look at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro and the acres of blacktop surrounding that monstrosity. It looks awful and I am a Pats fan – not to mention it being in the middle of knowhere.

I think it was Trey S who posted something about an alternative to blacktop when we were talking Confederation Park. Is there a way to be creative even in this aspect of the stadium build without the costs skyrocketing? Can we also try to keep most of the parking 'offsite' say by the old Consumers glass or something. Not all that far away but not taking away from any greens paces or trees from the current landscape. Brian Timmis is all grass right now. Paving that over completely would be a shame and I actually believe the original design showed that area being transformed into more than just a parking lot. We could re-work the shared Prince of Whales school/Ti-Cat parking to be a little more green as well, and ensure we find ways to increase parking in a way that keeps any parcel of land in the district from looking like a big, black square.

What Don Maga is doing with Scott Park is an example of how this project won't just be about public funds. He is now actually the first person doing anything within this district.

We can all sell the properties and vacant land/warehouses, etc. ourselves as well. There are soon to be three storefronts empty in the Stadium Mall which in itself, looks to be around the Jimmy Thompson/Ivor Wynne era. How about a CFL Shop there or move the Tiger-Town store into there. There exists lots of parking, the lot is clean, Frescho looks sharp in that plaza, etc. Tear away the awning and show off that brick even. That gives folks walking up Gage from the off-site lots, a place to stop and shop along the way. Make people feel like they are already in the stadium district, and they won’t likely care that they have to walk 10 minutes. Throw a trolly up and down Melrose even??

As for history ... I think the history that is special is how long the game has been played there amongst a community and how long a sports venue has existed there in general. They could bring back some history in the new design, keep with the design of the houses and the neighborhood when designing the new south side stands. How about bringing back the concrete streetscape entrance that once existed along Balsam. Looks pretty sharp with that archway entrance when you browse old photographs.

Yes, Wrigley and Fenway in so many ways, have far better preserved their history but for Boston in particular, they didn't realize the value of preserving history until the 60's.

Unfortunately for Hamilton, history is not something we realized. It's something we have fallen back on but I believe it's taking a long look at history and what people love about these other historic buildings, is what can save a project that so many people think is an epic failure.

It's been six months since Ivor Wynne was given the green light yet we are still sore about West Harbor and in many ways we should be. But Ivor Wynne is what we have to work with and I don't think it's all that bad. Quite the contrary.

If something beautiful becomes of West Harbor in light of how this stadium process played out, and if the community is involved with the building of the stadium and district, than I think we will all be very happy with how the whole story played out, come 2015.

If West Harbor still sits derelict and without a vision when the world comes to town in 2015, than I think no matter how beautiful Ivor Wynne and the surrounding area becomes, this will have been a failure.

So I think we have two major projects to work on in the immediate future. East vs. West. Downtown versus the gateway to it. A bright future, versus where in the world do we go from here?

If there is one thing I think we can all agree on, is that the Stadium and West Harbor, will always relate to one another until both dreams are realized. Ivor Wynne perhaps will never be able to boast its beauty, until the neighborhood whose dreams it whisked out from under its awaiting grounds, sees the vision come to fruition that a very large population in our city had for that community.

We can either continue to say that nothing will ever change in this city or the area around Ivor Wynne in particular, or stand up and make sure that it does. Perhaps the reason why it has remained more or less the same over the past 80 years, is because everyone assumed the surrounding business growth would just happen on its own. The stadium doesn’t even have its own website and there are no signs for it off the highway. It’s like it is not there and the city didn’t want anyone to know how to find it.

We simply need to find creative ways (and I think we are slowly getting there), to show them a better way. If they are set in their ways, than let's show them that they can have their cake and eat it too; maybe just not as much icing. They just have to be open to the mentality that you can use a spoon too and in many ways, it actually works better.

And when the stadium is fait de compli, saving it is a term that can never seize to exist again. As long as we care for it, sell it, and cherish it like we would our own homes, can it continue to serve us and be something that as a community, we can remain proud of.

If we want something done, we have to do it ourselves.

Comment edited by lawrence on 2011-06-06 15:12:53