In case you haven't been following, there has been a great war raging in Hamilton over the site of a proposed Pan American Games stadium that would also be the future home of the Hamilton TiCats CFL team. Anyone who has been following my twitter feed will know that I'm a supporter of the West Harbour location, a progressive site in the age of Peak Oil, environmental awareness, and urban reorganization. The TiCats have argued for a site in the suburbs of Hamilton stating that their fans want a "driveway to driveway" experience and that they will lose money at the West Harbour site. The point of this post is not to argue one way or another. You can see the differing opinions at the following two websites:
The folks over at Our City, Our Future have done a tremendous job of running a grass roots campaign for the West Harbour and have amassed over 3,400 supporters to date. They have asked for supporters to begin emailing our elected representatives at the provincial and federal levels as well as the members of the Pan Am Host Committee. My email to these representatives is after the jump...
I recently had the opportunity to catch the preseason Canadian Football League game between the Hamilton TiCats and the Winnipeg Bluebombers which the TiCats won. Check out my pics below:
Pigskin Pete started us off with a rousing cheer of Oskie Wee Wee!
Another interesting few days on the internet. Up today, we have a cool picture, a dumb parent doing dumb things to his kid, a flashback to an amazing college football game, and a couple of crazy stories from around here in Hamilton, Ontario. Let's get to it!
The Auroras from Space
Not much to say about this, it's a pic from the International Space Station of the "Southern Lights". I'll leave the description to the folks at The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth:
"While aurora are generally only visible close to the poles, severe magnetic storms impacting the Earth’s magnetic field can shift them towards the equator. This striking aurora image was taken during a geomagnetic storm that was most likely caused by a coronal mass ejection from the Sun on May 24, 2010. The ISS was located over the Southern Indian Ocean at an altitude of 350 kilometers (220 miles), with the astronaut observer most likely looking towards Antarctica (not visible) and the South Pole."
And, the pic:
Very cool.
Dumb Parents
Once again, not much description needed. Parent thinks it's funny to attach a rocket to a kid's loose tooth and decides to film it. Parenting 101 says "propellant and children's mouths don't mix". Just because something bad doesn't happen here doesn't mean it's not stupid.
Northwestern vs. Auburn in the Outback Bowl 2010
This isn't anything recent or very old...so it's kind of in the internet's version of purgatory. So what if it isn't "cool" to post stuff that's either only a few days old or super retro - this video will be posted nonetheless! If you like college football, sports, or surprise endings, you'll love this recap of an instant Outback Bowl classic (I think that's kind of an oxymoron, but I digress).
Yes I know I suck at formatting clips to fit horizontally in this blog. Thanks for making me feel worse.
The Local Edition
Part 1
Only in Hamilton. I've been holding back on posting this for a few weeks. I don't know why because it makes me laugh every time I read it. Apparently a guy in downtown Hamilton was trying to steal a phone booth of all things. From The Spec:
"He was wheeling away a stolen booth, pushing it on a skateboard when an incredulous cop caught up with him near King Street East and Hughson Street about 7 p.m.
Police don't know where the booth came from but say Bell Canada values them at about $1,000 each. A 59-year-old Hamilton man has been charged with theft and possession of property less than $5,000."
First of all - wow. Secondly, he was 59 years old (!!!1!). Third, what is a 59-year-old man doing with a skateboard?? Fourth, I really love how the reporter makes a point of declaring that the police don't know where the booth came from.
Way too funny.
Part 2
Hamilton roadwork crews had a bit of a surprise as they dug up the sidewalks of Queen Street North. What did they find? Well nothing really at all - unless you count the giant unknown tunnel found under the street! Once again, from our friends at The Spec:
"The tunnel -- believed to be a remnant of Greening Donald Company Limited -- is about two metres tall, about 21/2 metres wide and around 20 metres long. The top of the tunnel formed the sidewalk on either side of the street and runs across Queen, near Peter Street.
"What they did was they put reinforcing steel in it ... and then they poured concrete around it to make it appear as though it was the sidewalk, which in actual fact it was, but it was also part of the roof structure of the tunnel itself," said Jeff Pidsadny, senior project manager in construction with the city."
On a bit of a depressing note, it's being reported that they're going to fill in the tunnel. That seems like a perfectly good waste of a tunnel to me.
Click here for full size. From Tuesday evening. Took 7 photos and stitched together in photoshop using layer masks. First time I've ever tried this and am pretty happy with the results.
Shot from the Bruce Trail on the Niagara Escarpment. I'd like to try this once a season from the exact same spot.
I am a lover of cities - I need urban life. And I'm particularly fascinated by the challenges that "rust belt" cities face and the potential for real urban change that they can lead. I guess my fascination stems from growing up in Windsor, Ontario - the car manufacturing capital of Canada and right across the border from the car capital of the world in Detroit. I now live in Hamilton a steel giant down on its luck. Just like Windsor had its mirror image in Detroit, Hamilton sees itself in Pittsburgh. At least it hopes it does. Pretty much my whole life has been spent living with and rooting for the underdog, the ugly urban stepsister, the manufacturing giants that have been used and abused by more prosperous neighboring cities. Root root root for the home team, they say, and my home teams have 2 of the biggest down on their luck cities in Canada for the past few decades. But that's what makes them so interesting to live in.
Detroit is the ultimate curiosity. After living so close to this former great for most of my life, I kind of consider myself to be a cousin-like citizen of the Motor City. I've been regularly following the great Times Magazine blog on the site called (quite creatively) The Detroit Blog. The writers there have done a great job of capturing the absolute devastation that has occurred but also the hope that the people cling to. David Okrent:
If Detroit had been savaged by a hurricane and submerged by a ravenous flood, we'd know a lot more about it. If drought and carelessness had spread brush fires across the city, we'd see it on the evening news every night. Earthquake, tornadoes, you name it — if natural disaster had devastated the city that was once the living proof of American prosperity, the rest of the country might take notice.
The stats continue to blow my mind away:
100,000 foreclosed homes, 30% of the city's total homes
Population has decreased from 2 million people to 800,000 today, losing 1,200 citizens per month
Median home prices dropping from $59,700 in 2005 to $8,000 in 2009
28.9% unemployment - let me repeat - 28.9% unemployment! Post-Katrina New Orleans reached a peak of 11% unemployment.
Detroit once was the future city, where new technology was developed and featured and represented the American dream to its fullest extent. I pass it off to David Okrent again:
If what was once the most prosperous manufacturing city in the nation has been brought to its knees, what does that say about our recent past? And if it can't find a way to get up, what does that say about our future?
To some, the answer to the problem Detroit faces is what folks are calling "rightsizing". Detroit is a sprawling city built for 2 million people but only housing 800,000. 4o square miles of land has been left vacant as the mass exodus continues - enough land area to hold 2 Manhattan islands. Many neighborhoods have only a handful of inhabited homes - the rest have been abandoned. Some are calling for city officials to mandate the leveling and uprooting of whole neighborhoods and redistributing the population in an effort to redistribute essential city services in an economically viable way. Even for a citizen of a manufacturing giant in decline like myself, these measures seem inconceivable. But the opportunity to basically start a city from scratch is overwhelmingly intriguing. Imagine the possibilities. Well, I already have begun by developing a film idea that we've been pitching around on this very topic called "Right Size Me: The Shrinking of Detroit". Check out the treatment here. Pretty mind-blowing things going on in Motown.
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