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"
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"
Hamilton Centre became home for Tony Lemma in 2006. He’s very passionate about his City and deeply committed to adding value to his local neighbourhood. He’s a servant leader in his community and feels a good community leader should also be a participant in community activities and ‘lead from among’. He’s shown this most recently …
Continue reading "Tony Lemma: The Independent"When Hamilton Centre MP David Christopherson announced last July that he would retire at the end of the current parliamentary term, Matthew Green chose to forego seeking re-election in Ward 3 and to instead seek the federal nomination for the NDP. “As a City Councillor there was only so much I could do to change …
Continue reading "Green’s New Deal"To begin, it’s important to note that the Board of Health passed a motion that has several components and consequences. These components and consequences can be best summarised and explained as three parts. The first being the symbolic (but important) act of the declaration of the climate emergency. The second being what the City of Hamilton will be doing differently in light of this declaration, as outlined in the motion. Finally, the third part is far from guaranteed, but together we can ensure a broad collective action is taken by all Hamiltonians to respond to the emergency.
Continue reading "What the emergency means"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Local Planning Appeal Support Centre (LPASC) was setup in 2018 in conjunction with the creation of the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) which has replaced the role of the former OMB (Ontario Municipal Board). As its name suggests, LPASC is a support centre developed by the previous Liberal Government which, according to their website, …
Continue reading "LPASC: Red tape or helpful service?"If you are unhappy that Hamilton City Council members banned public observers from the “public” meeting they held at a resort in Niagara-on-the-Lake, I would like to ask you to file a complaint to the Ontario Ombudsman. It’s the legal avenue for a complaint under the “Sunshine Law”. Source: Ask the Ontario Ombudsman to Investigate …
Continue reading "Ask the Ontario Ombudsman to Investigate Committee Meeting in Niagara – Raise the Hammer"The provincial government has tossed another bombshell into municipal planning with the release last week of dozens of proposed changes to the rules governing how cities can grow. These are in addition to the controversial Bill 66 changes that lets municipal councils override the Greenbelt Act, Clean Water Act and other environmental and planning legislation …
Continue reading "Citizens at City Hall – CATCH – Planning rules upended again"Probing by a new councillor has highlighted a disturbing threat to the city’s financial future and overturned long standing claims that growth pays for itself. Ward one councillor Maureen Wilson’s pointed questions during discussion of the 2019 capital infrastructure budget led finance chief Mike Zegarac to explain that about a third of growth costs are …
Continue reading "Citizens at City Hall – CATCH – Risks of expanding city infrastructure"
In the midst of a widely recognized rental housing crisis, the city is poised to approve conversion of more than 250 apartments to condominiums. The two conversion proposals are supported by staff because they meet city policies, and that makes it difficult to reject them because the owners will likely be able to successfully appeal.The …
Continue reading "Citizens at City Hall – CATCH – More apartment losses"
