Stadium debate ramps up
Campaign takes form on street, online to keep west harbour site
July 14, 2010
John Kernaghan and Paul Morse
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/807248
Cats and rats are symbols of a surge of opposition to the football team's proposed east Mountain stadium site.
'Paws off' is the motto of the citizen campaign Our City Our Future, which aims to head off the Tiger-Cats bid to move the Pan Am stadium site from the west harbour.
And a James Street storefront displays a group of stuffed rats fleeing a ship and chasing a trail of play money. That mocks some city councillors willing to move the stadium after Ticat owner Bob Young proposed $74 million toward construction and operation.
Our City Our Future says the west harbour location provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to revitalize the city.
"There definitely is a groundswell of support for west harbour," said organizer Ryan McGreal. "The e-mails are just flying around."
Graham Crawford, owner of HIStory and HERitage museum and gallery, has launched the storefront poster campaign slamming the city for appearing to throw in the towel on the west harbour stadium and an integrated urban plan.
"This decision is so big and the implications so broad," he said, "that to use a suburban site flies in the face of brownfield remediation, public transit, urban intensification and saving greenspace, all of which Premier Dalton McGuinty says he wants to make happen."
McGreal had the website ourcityourfuture.ca up and running yesterday with a proposed motion for city council to back its original stadium site when it makes the Pan Am facility call next month.
Crawford's posters criticize city councillors for "falling all over themselves thanking Bob Young for his generosity," and chastise facilitator Michael Fenn for overstepping his role by recommending the east Mountain site in addition to the west harbour.
The rats did not go over well with Councillor Bob Bratina, a consistent critic of the west harbour site.
Crawford said Bratina sent him an e-mail yesterday.
"In it, he said, 'I don't find your rat-ship metaphor funny or insightful.'" The Spectator was unable to reach Bratina yesterday.
McGreal, of Raise The Hammer, a group dedicated to making the city more vibrant, said the surprise introduction of the east Mountain location is mobilizing citizens to make sure city tax dollars and other public funds are used to best advantage in an area that can connect downtown with the waterfront.
Dave Kuruc, owner of Mixed Media on James North, says the east Mountain is not a good location for a stadium and that the city should stick with the Setting Sail master plan for the west harbour.
But a west harbour stadium will not help cultural development on James Street North because the city doesn't know how to connect the two, he said.
"I'd rather see the stadium in downtown."