A horn player recently told me about how jazz colleagues are somewhat rusty from not having the gigs or the opportunity to jam during the forced isolation of the pandemic. Folk rocker, singer songwriter, guitar player and Crown Point resident Laura Keating had a different experience during the past two-years. “I turned to new ways …
Continue reading "Laura Keating, a working musician"There is an unfortunate phenomenon that seems to be part of Hamilton’s DNA: buildings torn down to make way for city-approved projects, only to fail to get off the ground. It happens for all sorts of reasons including uncertain financing. So, we end up with parking lots or other kinds of underutilized and empty spaces …
Continue reading "Crown Point artist at AGH"
This spring, Hamilton city council is expected to debate and pass a complete streets design manual to make roads friendlier and safer, especially for more vulnerable pedestrians and cyclists. Under the program, walking, cycling, and public transit will have a higher priority. The 2021 city transportation master plan (unanimously adopted by city council) states that …
Continue reading "Can a city be driven to change?"
We can argue about building aesthetics, compare vacant workshops versus brightly lit active spaces, but we know that whatever location is chosen, the Sherwood Saints tradition will continue with a very active and feisty parent council to continue to push for quality spaces for our children’s education.
Continue reading "Sherwood Secondary: Don’t make it political"
The Bulldogs have been a part of many memories for me and my family over the years. I have been to games with my kids, my dad and I once took my grandfather to a playoff game which might have been the only time the two of us ever talked hockey.
Continue reading "Hockey Returns to Balsam Avenue"
Ontario has a big problem with evictions. How big? No one knows for sure. While the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) is ramping up the assembly-line to pump out evictions, there is no means to measure the depth of the crisis. No government or agency is keeping count. An eviction crisis is occurring behind a …
Continue reading "Renoviction and the invisible eviction crisis"
Trustee Bingham and I got each other – as much as I could really understand a lifetime of constantly having to advocate for your child, or the behind the scenes struggles you don’t see not being at home every day through these parents’ tribulations.
Continue reading "The Loss of a Voice that Understood the Need"
November was an exciting month for the usually cautious city council in Hamilton. First, the city voted to freeze the urban boundary despite pressure from developers keen to build vast tracts of low-density suburban homes for automobile dependent commuters on agricultural land. A little more than a week later, the city transportation planners were unceremoniously …
Continue reading "Trucks, roads, and transportation reviews"
For me, being at Tim Horton’s field for the 108th and my first ever Grey Cup, will be a celebration and reflection on all of the above and the part 75 Balsam and our Tabbies have played throughout the story of my First 48.
Continue reading "The Road to 108: A Fan’s Journey"
Do artists and their art contribute to the displacement of poor and working-class Hamiltonians? That’s the question explored by Stephen Dale and his book, “SHIFT CHANGE: SCENES FROM POST-INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.” He takes a look back at Hamilton’s rise and decline as an industrial city, but his main focus is Hamilton’s post-industrial re-emergence as a cultural hub for …
Continue reading "Shift Change: A book review"