Raise the Hammer

Iler is absolutely right, as usual, as is Locke. If Hamilton becomes the cycling capital of Canada, or even the northeast of the U.S. (remember the only other international level velodrom is in L.A.) this will improve the cycling environment for all of us, improve the city's image 100 fold, and bring money, publicity and prestige to this city for decades to come.

As a mountain biker, I know how hard it is to convince various governments and conservation authorities to respect us and work with us in trail building. As an occasional cycling commuter I am frustrated by the suddenly disappearing bike lanes and disrespect shown to us. I am never going to be a velodrome cyclist, but I will benefit tremendously by the prestige and awareness achieved by Hamilton becoming the Canadian cycling capital. All of us will.

Hamilton has achieved national prominence in health care and education. We are on our way to reinventing ourselves as a city, much like Pittsburgh and other "rust bucket" cities have done. But we are behind in this process and need a boost. Becoming the country's leader in anything would help this process.

And as for the funding, the writer should know that smart folks like Iler tried to arrange for a fundraising campaign when the velodrome issue was first presented, but the city and the pan am committee dropped the ball, not the cycling folks. Now the Infrastructure Ontario cost estimates have added to the problem by inflating the estimated cost of the velodrome (and all of their estimates) by about 40% on average. Iler's research has shown that all of the international standard velodromes built in the past decade have come in under 25 million. That amount of money is on the table now between all three levels of government. The "shortfall" is a total falsehood created by Infrastructure Ontario's inflated cost estimates. There is no shortfall in all of the honest assessments, or examples, of permanent velodromes. The only shortfall comes from political B.S. And the real waste would be to spend 11.5 million on a temporary facility....that is the thing we should be outraged about.

Finally, let's think about the future. When our children and grandchildren ask us about some international athletic competition that came to southern Ontario, they will ask us why Hamilton had nothing to do with them. We lost the marquee track and field and now we will lose cycling. On the other hand, imagine a future where our children and grandchildren have one of the rare facilities that can offer them the opportunity to train at an elite level and achieve great things, or just to enjoy athleticism in an indoor cycling facility that is not available in other communities. This facility is planned to include incredible local participation by our children....not just elite athletes, but to offer the experience to all of our community. Over half of it will be paid with federal and provincial money, and we are going to reject that??? What a wasted opportunity that would be.

Let's use some of our future fund money in order to create a truly great legacy for this city....exactly what that fund was intended to accomplish!!!