Comment 75462

By lawrence (registered) - website | Posted March 27, 2012 at 12:06:38

We were willing to live in trees to save a valley. Maybe there are no trees to tumble or creatures to displace, but to what lengths are we willing to go to fight against these people and corporations who really have no desire to work with our city and we the people, to understand our needs and our goals and our dreams for a Hamilton we can be proud to hail and feel safe to walk through ourselves.

We could baracade the entranceways or surround the perimeters of the land with cameras capturing both snapshots and film of this blatant disgregard for what we are trying to do as a city. Make the workers feel uncomfortable and create quite a scene. Maybe force them to not want to work until the camera's go away.

I am not sure I like these kinds of extreme measures but how do we fight this?

We have talked so much about bullying as of late but there is a form of bullying we haven't addressed. We are being bullied by business whether it be individuals with too much money to excersise their need for power or faceless large box corprations. I am almost willing to bet 90% of our leaders have no desire to have these big American conglomerates puke their heartless corporate boxes all over our beautiful landscape but we don't really have a lot of say in so many of the ideals we truly believe in. We need these corporations. We have no power over who buys 'our' land but we do need to always remember, that it is our land. Every single inch of Hamilton-Wentworth is ours.

I believe we have more say and power than we truly realize. Maybe we need our own Rudy Baylor? Maybe I watch too many movies.

We need to work towards finding a way to not need large corporations or to allow ourselves to feel this powerlessness.

Perhaps these land owners realize (I am sure some of them dont' conform in spite because bottom line, they hate or have no regard for the success of Hamilton), that until they can build what they want, parking is always a profiting business or at least better than no income or right offs or lower taxes while these lands they are swallowing up just because maybe from the onset, have risen in value or finally approved through more bullying, for whatever their ultimate goal for these properties are.

All these owners have to do is pave these parcels of land half-heartedly and put up a box for someone to sit in. They don't care what it looks like. They doen't care about strategic placement of parking to suit our real needs, so maybe we need to create an evnironment that relies less and less on parking. Find a way to make parking lots an un-needed entity downtown or maybe we rip out all parking metres and build our own free parking lots and encourage people to use city lots that are free.

I don't know this individual personally. I only know what I have read and I have judged him and those like him harshly for how I percieve they are damaging my city (and maybe rightfully so), but perahsp we shouldn't feed back into their negative ways in our fight for what we believe is best for our city. Some people we may never change, but we can change the way we respond or fight back. We teach childen to not punch back when struck - to use compassionate and mature voices to fight back. Maybe it's time for us all to listen to our own adivce and teachings. Me included.

We shouldn't have to waste our valuable time and negative energy fighting or getting angry over these things we have little control over. Instead, how do we use the enormous amount of creativity that this city breaths, to fight this productively? What about a documentary on our local HBS network? Get The Spec and CH to show it as well. Talk about why people shouldn't support thsee parking lots. What it truly means to support them.

"Do 'you' want to see your city thrive? Do you want to feel safe downtown? Do you want to walk along and see endless parking lots? This is why we are almost powerless 'legally' against these developments. These are some of the ways you can help us fight back against this."

We need to all scream out loud at once whether on Facebook or Twitter or wherever, and say I have F'ing had enough of this sh!t. I am not going to be bullied any longer.

Pssst ... I also think we are being bullied with regards to 100 Main. I still believe in my heart that that building shouldn't come down. I think that existing HBS production by MJ should be televised on CH, C14, and again in The Spec. Maybe it won't change the standing decision this late in the game, but it can be how we moving forward, ensure that every citizen in this city knows everything they need to know and why so many believe we should be fighting to save things like the Board of Ed building.

I miss that fight that was Red Hill. How do we switch that raw energy that was that battle, and use what we learned from that experience to start winning some fo the battles we need to start winning (not that we didn't need with everything I hold dear, to win that fight), to truly turn this f'ing awesome city around.

Everyone catch this Letter to the Editor:

A love letter to Hamilton

Dear Hamilton:

It’s not polite to be sincere, but I have to tell you: I have loved you from the moment I met you in 2002. I’d never met another city before, having only been with a rural town, and you showed me such a good time.

I’ve loved you for the HSR drivers who get me safely home, the farmers’ market vendors who pack me extra cheese, the Westtown waitress who knows my breakfast order before I ask. For the waterfront trail, the Rail Trail, waterfalls, Cootes and the Dundurn steps. For Bryan Prince, Goodness Me, My Dog Joe, Locke Street Bagel, the Winking Judge and the Bean/Bread Bar.

I’ve loved you for the AGH, James North, the Department of English at McMaster and the Ryerson Rec Centre water-fit class. And for Jackson Square Cinemas, the Dundas Cactus Festival and Gage Park.

I’ve loved you for your collection of neighbourhoods that breathe, grow, pulse.

I am a privileged woman and you are not a perfect city. Still, I have loved you.

I’m leaving you, Hamilton. It’s not you; it’s me. I have to go away, but I wanted to thank you for being the city that I learned so much from, for being the city I will miss so much.

Erin Aspenlieder, now of Vancouver

If you don't follow every #hamont tweeter, search this hashtag and start. Read every single one of their bios. You'll see for yourself, just how much people both lifers and newbs, love and believe in this city.

As the flames across our bayfront slowly blow out, it's time to turn up the flame on a love affair that has existed in a closet for far too long. There is a lot of love and passion in this city and there has been for many generations. It simply wasn't as easy back then, for all of us to truly realize what truly existed in the silenced hearts of this hard working city.

I am angry at this in part, but also sad and emotional because I just got news that my uncle passed away this morning. My family is close and we have close and deep ties to this city as well. I also know these close family bonds exist all over this city. I know our family is not unique. I know this deep love and connection is not of it's own kind amongst the varying little crevice of this country surrounded metropolis.

This powerful bond I feel towards my family, is what I feel for our city.

I am tired of seeing all of our friends and family struggle. We all deserve better from all of our leaders from politicians to the business community. It's time for you to bring out the best in us so that we can know better how we can help you help this city reach it's full potential.

I am tired of us being bullied.

F you non-conforming business or indivduals as a whole with negative motives. You either want to be a part of helping us grow or realize our true worth, or you need to be brought down to size. The world is getting angrier. Hamiltonians alone, are getting angrier. This site is the best example of that frustration and also evidence of what real people like you and me, are doing more and more to fight against this powerlessness we have all felt for far too long.

The only thing that matters in life, are the things that live and how everything in our day connects us to or helps us live the life every single living thing on this earth, deserves to live.

This may on the 'surface' be about a parking lot, but in the end it all comes full circle to not being able to get along in the backyard sandbox - how to effectively communicate with one another.

It's time to say F' you and then take a deep breath and with a clear head, figure out as a 500,000+ person collective, how we build the city we want. Not the one corporations are planning for us.

It's also time to shut up about Bratina and Peggy. It's time to stop judging. It's time to stop worrying about feeling we deserve some kind of appology or whatever it is we feel we deserve. This has all gone too far and is taking us a huge step back from the direction many of us have felt this city pulling towards.

We can blame the Mayor or council or Vranich or Walmart or the boogyman, but nobody owes us anything. We are all at fault for our existing realities. Let's put down the swords and start being productive in our conversations instead of destructive.

Whether we chose to believe it or care about it or not, our Mayor, Peggy, council, you and I, have families. We have feelings and to feel that we have some right to bring others down or judge others for actions we don't believe in, makes us no better.

Who are you or I to judge?

I know I have come full circle here from hatred and frustration to all of us holding hands and singing Kumbaya. I could go back and edit but I think I did enough by removing names and specifically directing this at any one person or corporation. Maybe I'll go back and remove one company I have been targeting and start breathing some of the love I am preaching here too. Maybe I too should stop blaming others, and just start doing my little part every day, to change the world in the ways I feel could bring more hapiness, emotional and fiscal prosperity, to all of us.

I challenge all of us, RTH, The Spec, CH, whoever, to stop this council scandal. It's time to stop selling papers and start selling the value in stories that reach positively into our core.

We as a society thrive on negativity and scandal. We think that we have this human right to put down and judge others either in article, interview, or commenting space forms. Can we change that? Can we sell papers and intrigue people by talking about greener grass? Can we change that risen hammer, with compassionate voices or creative pens?

I started off pissed off at one person and now I suddenly find myself thinking about a book I am reading about The Power of Conversation and I wonder, what has happend along the way to make land owners not care about bi-laws or the vision of our leaders? If they won't listen to power, will they listen to people? People who aren't judging them but merely using compasion to plead to them to help us build a stronger, healthier, happier community for our children and grandchildren to grow up in.

That is what we all want weather we have children of our own, grandchildren, nieces or nephews, our freinds have kids, we volunteer with kids, or in whatever ways we are connected to children. That is our one common desire. How do we as fellow human beings, help the people holding so much of the power, see the true bottom line in everything from a parking lot, to a skyscraper to tearing down a forest. How does it all come full circle to the children of our communities?

Comment edited by lawrence on 2012-03-27 13:56:51

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