Raise the Hammer

"Stereotypes are never helpful!"

Frank, isn't your characterization of Bob Young and a poorly researched EM site (both of which claims are open to dispute) a bit of a stereotype drawn along some pretty obvious ideological leanings of your own?

And then there's this description of the WH and EM sides in the Pan Am Stadium dispute by Ryan in his August 23rd, 2010 article "Amid Denials, Questions Remain Over Political Interference":

"...on the one side, a broad coalition of diverse community and economic stakeholders who have evaluated the issue on its merits and come to what I regard as a sound conclusion based on clear evidence.

On the other side, you have a narrow coterie of interests who have engaged from the start in a sneaky, secretive and disingenuous campaign to distort, subvert, and co-opt the process (with its attendant tens of millions in public funding); and when they couldn't succeed at that, are now apparently trying to sabotage it entirely."

Isn't that not just a stereotype but an egregiously biased interpretation of positions? Why wouldn't I cite "a broad coalition of diverse community and economic stakeholders" language as part of a citizen-based New Urban point of view (that's at least twenty years old now) and who'd deny that the characterization of the EM position as "sneaky, secretive and disingenuous" is a hostilely anti- big government, or -capital, or -urban sprawl one? It's not helpful to deny that political labels exist and that almost all significant discussions stem from them.

Again, I say that the WH dispute is being divided into political camps (whether people acknowledge it or not), with Ryan's "Raise The Hammer" blog as a sort of community activist flagship for a pretty identifiable point of view. And, of course, there's nothing wrong with that. "Conflictual tension" of the kind that a real or cyber forum generates is good. I get the importance of talking about the material life of a downtown community that shuns the Bob Young logic of capital; and I'm also very sympathetic (as I've said) with a need to designate places like a vibrant downtown core for rallying around collective (or communitarian) interests. I'm personally involved in the downtown Hamilton Artword Artbar community of poets, musicians, & artists.

I'd just like people to be more honest about their politics.