By: Graham Crawford

We may not all agree that chasing and winning the bid for the Pan American Games was the best thing for Hamilton. However, having been awarded the Games, what we can all agree on now is the Games provide us with a hard deadline – not just for the construction of the facilities, but also for getting ready to showcase the entire city to the tens of thousands of attendees and the millions of viewers who will be watching the Games – and by extension the City of Hamilton. Whether you like it or not, it seems the stadium is going to be built in the north end, but little else is clear. As is so often the case in my hometown, we tend to embrace the old maxim – failing to plan is planning to fail. So kids, get ready for lunch bag letdown.

We need a fully integrated, articulated, communicated, resourced and supported master plan of all of the things the City of Hamilton will need to have ready in time for the Games, but instead we have sniping, griping, grandstanding and electionitis, the dreaded and apparently incurable malaise that grips this city every four years. When I say all of the things we’ll have ready, I’m thinking of some obvious things such as LRT, the implementation of the Gore Park Master Plan, the renovated Lister Block with street-level retail, GO train service to the north end, bicycle paths, waterfront park expansion, public art, special events, etc.

However, the list must also include an integrated, city-driven plan that features the revitalization and repair of Gore Park building facades, mid to high density housing and street-level retail/commercial around the stadium, a neighbourhood community centre, a new library, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame if we must, etc., all as part of an integrated urban plan for the stadium area.

Let’s be sure we develop an innovative plan for parking and entertainment for the stadium and velodrome area that’s more than just paved hectares dotted with stuccoed boxes featuring a mix of free-standing Tim Horton’s, Tailgate Charlie’s, Jack Astor’s, Philthy McNasty’s, and the odd bank, with a drive thru of course – all of which require their own parking lots. Our creativity and innovation must exceed that demonstrated by Centre Mall for example, which has become a fortress of rear door exits backing onto Barton. Mayor Eisenberger said recently that it was cheaper to remediate lands for commercial-use versus residential-use. Listen to the whispers, folks. This means the Mayor isn’t thinking residential at all – only commercial, and only because it’s cheaper to remediate. What kind of city are you ‘building’, Fred?

Let’s not turn our core into Upper James Street or the Meadowlands – the ubiquitous, soul-destroying but oh-so-convenient suburban model used throughout North America. As Glen Murray, President and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute warns, “When every place looks the same, there is no such thing as place anymore. Part of municipal cultural planning is about combating the geography of nowhere.”

The stadium is to be placed in the urban core of Hamilton. Much of it has been here for well over 100 years. It’s a neighbourhood, parts of which may benefit from refreshing but none of which will benefit from demolition. It’s not the airport lands, nor the newly rebadged Red Hill Industrial Park. We must not allow it to be destroyed in the drive for short-term tax dollars.

The city’s Vision guides us to act differently. It says, “To be the best place in Canada to raise a child, to promote innovation, engage citizens, and provide diverse economic opportunities.” Ask yourself, which parts of the Vision statement are showing up in the dialogue you’ve been hearing since we were awarded the Pan Am Games? What’s the plan for the kids and their families? Where is the innovative thinking? How are you being engaged in the process? Exactly how diverse will these economic opportunities be?

We can all agree this opportunity must not be wasted. We must exceed expectations, not just meet them – a standard which, unfortunately for some councillors, seems to be acceptable. It’s not a secret that $60 million has been taken from the Future Fund for the stadium project. The pitch by Mayor Eisenberger was about “city building”. Allowing that amount of money to be allocated solely to build a stadium isn’t city building. For it to be city building, it needs to have a grander, more encompassing vision. You’d like to think such a vision already exists. It doesn’t. At least there are no signs of it. No documents. No presentations. No websites. No comments. Nothing but the constant din of dim, as in dim-witted. As in the out-of-touch, shortsighted, in-fighting behaviours of people we call City Council. If staff is pushing a grander vision, clearly they’re losing. It seems the debate is only about how many seats the stadium will have, and what that will cost, and who will pay for it, and never about how the neighbourhood and the downtown core will be made better for its residents both existing and new – its merchants and its visitors.

We debate features, always in isolation, and never as part of a comprehensive end state. They say it’s great the stadium will be connected to the harbour. OK, but why? Connected so that who can do what and when? If it’s to be connected, it must be connected with a purpose for both visitors and residents – the very people who have chosen to live and raise their kids in this neighbourhood 24/7!

This is a time when Hamilton needs to leverage a much-needed victory into something that moves us from also-ran to leader. This isn’t just about stadiums, or flags, or songs, or medals. In fact, it’s primarily about rebuilding, re-energizing and re-focusing this city. I look to Mayor Eisenberger, while he’s still Mayor, and to councillors, while they are still councillors and not mayoral wannabe’s, to ensure we have an integrated strategy to truly take advantage of our Pan Am commitment, and to justify using a huge portion of our Future Fund dollars. Otherwise, they’re just common thieves – people who will have effectively stolen our savings and thrown them at a stadium with little else to show for our investment. They must instead build the city as part of an integrated strategy, and not as an after-thought. This includes the old Ivor Wynne site as well. Can we at least consider something a little more innovative than Stone Church Road in the centre of Hamilton? Can’t we shoot for award-winning, mixed-use, mixed income for example, rather than just talking about selling the land to the highest bidder? We own the land. We can set the rules. If you don’t like them, don’t bid. Who knows, we may find a developer who doesn’t think it ‘onerous’ that you’re required to plant a few trees if you’re going to build and sell residences on land the citizens of Hamilton sell to you.

To make all of this a reality, we need to have a project leader, and I do mean a leader, not some person who might have his or her Project Management Professional (PMP) Certificate. I mean a person who first and foremost loves this city, and who deeply understands urbanism, who can marshal a complex set of resources to meet an even more complex set of deadlines, who can make great decisions based on clearly-articulated community requirements, who can rise above pettiness and embrace city-building. I don’t know who this person should be, but this leader should have been identified before we won the bid. Instead, once again Hamilton planned on losing and was caught off guard when we won. We’re still bumbling around trying to get this thing off the ground. Just in case you thought it should be you Lloyd, as in Ferguson, think again. You may think your past experience building bridges and parking lots by the hundreds makes you an obvious choice, but the butchering you did to City Hall proves just how little you understand design and quality.

This integrated strategy needs to be formulated and communicated urgently before we all get caught up in electioneering. If our local “developers” have neither the vision, nor the finances to play their part moving forward with innovative ideas, then perhaps Economic Development needs to get busy helping them find partners who do from other parts of the province, the country and the globe. Getting a bread plant is OK, but focusing new development exclusively on the outer ring of the city while the core suffers is not what I call balanced. In fact, I call it shameful. Shovel ready indeed!

If the Games are leaving you cold, try to warm up to the idea that you need to somehow be involved to ensure all the money that will be spent is spent on building our city, and not just on building a stadium. Otherwise we’ll end up using a phrase too often on my lips these days.

- If you can’t tell a joke, be one.