Raise the Hammer

Thank you, Nicholas.

I have to take issue with this statement: "It's frustrating to see people who already have homes in our city trying to prevent other people from moving in. This is one of the biggest problems underway in Hamilton today: people who already own their nice luxury condo or Victorian home trying to block others from moving into their neighbourhood."

This is pure ridiculousness, and is not true in the Durand and DNA (although you don't mention us by name, Jason). We are already the densest neighbourhood in the city and we have learned that we have to deal with developers from the beginning. We have all rented in our lifetimes, and one of our board members is renting currently. We would love to have more tenants on our board and are working towards that goal.

Design matters, and not everyone thinks Brad Lamb's vision is "beautiful". In fact, many think the buildings are pure ugly. But one of the important aspects is how the buildings interact with their surroundings and the interaction with the street. We are not all enamoured with Lamb's vision of having retail tucked underneath the towers.

So when should we put our comments forward? When shovels are in the ground? Too late!

It's amazing to me that three groups: The NA, the Design Review Panel and Planning Staff have all questioned various aspects of the design, but those in other neighbourhoods - Kirkendall and Strathcona see it as OK to criticize their fellow Hamiltonians in favour of a Toronto developer's vision. Allow the development to go ahead, shut up or you are just NIMBY! That phrase NIMBY is used as a weapon, and I've learned that people who use it have stopped listening.

FYI, there was a lot of feedback from tenants in buildings around 163 Jackson, but a revealing comment at Planning Committee told the story about why there may have been few written comments: The addresses on the notices to the surrounding apartments used previous tenants' names -- they were working from an old list, so many of the notices were not read and ended up in the garbage. Some tenants arranged a meeting with the Councillor last year to discuss their concerns. Facts are important to report the whole story.