Raise the Hammer

Isn't ironic that some of the worst Red Hill Parkway critics now have it to thank for maybe getting trucks out of the downtown....about time I say!

I appreciate the Spectator-like spin, but I've been consistent all along in calling out the city and the Red Hill proponents for the various lies that were used to win support for the highway. One of them was that trucks could be diverted out of downtown and residential neighbourhoods where they don't belong. Another one was that the highway wouldn't lead to any residential sprawl growth, but instead would be acres and acres of great paying jobs and new industry.

You see, lies like these are very well placed by those who perpetrated them. Who in Hamilton could say no to new jobs after the hallowing out of our industry over the past decades? Who in the lower city could say no to the prospect of having a normal downtown neighbourhood instead of a truck freeway at the their front doors?

I personally don't think it has anything to do with whether someone supported or was against the highway. It is incumbent upon us all to hold our politicians accountable. You may be the biggest Red Hill supporter to ever live - that doesn't mean you should just stick your head in the sand and pretend that the thousands of new sprawl homes don't exist up there or that trucks continue to be the only thing to have the red carpet rolled out for them at city hall. Surely you aren't happy with one Canada Bread factory announcement in the first 3 years of the highways existence? If Hamilton ever gets an LRT system I'll be the first one to ask 'what went wrong' if only one condo development takes place along it's route in the first 3 years.

Red Hill is built. Deal with it. Now it's time to use it for some of it's intended purpose. Apparently that's what the 'majority' of citizens wanted, after all.