Raise the Hammer

All this buzz around Aldershot is hilarious, and after going on and on about the importance of "Journalism," the Spec should be ashamed to be uncritically printing font-page headlines like, "Burlington stadium cost? $0".

As if.

If that headline were a car ad, it would have to end with a very big asterisk and about 20 lines of 6pt text along the bottom of the page. I don't know how much the Cats are worth to the Spec, but it must be a lot, cus nary a word of healthy skepticism has been printed in their pages about the latest move by the team.

Regardless, Burlingtonians are not fully on board with this plan, and my family and friends that live in and around Aldershot indicate that there is precious little community support for a massive stadium in one of the last remaining tracts of under-developed land in the city.

Worse still, for the 'Cats, the Paletta lands may contain environmentally sensitive lands, including an intact Carolinian forest. An environmental assessment might also be required in order for any development to proceed on this site. A friend of mine, a PhD candidate in earth geosciences, has put up a website with the information he's gathered at the site--I encourage you all to check it out: Proposed Aldershot Stadium Site: a natural perspective

All of this needs to be hashed out in 2 weeks. Something about inducing a council to make a decision on a supposedly 'zero-cost' stadium, located on sensitive lands, with no community support doesn't smell right, and I think Burlingtonians are wise to this.

And so are Hamiltonians, it seems: I notice that the commentary on the Spec's website has taken a rather ugly turn, at least in terms of support for the Ti-Cats. The vitriol being spewed at Mitchell and Young over their treachery is ramping up, so I'm wondering what type of permanent scars the brand will bear if the 'Cats are eventually forced to come crawling back to Hamilton, tail between their legs.