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March 2004
Newsletter
It's Not Over!
Anyone who has visited the Red Hill Valley recently can testify that it isn't a pretty sight. Buzz-sawed and uprooted trees are stacked up everywhere. Ugly noise barriers have been erected at Greenhill Avenue along the backyard fences. At Albright Avenue, where a path led into woods, there is now a long wall made of concrete blocks.
No one who has experienced the valley in its natural state can look upon what has transpired recently with equanimity. It is simply sickening, and disheartening.
But the fight to stop the expressway is not over.
Spectator editorials encourage us to "move on" and accept the expressway as a fait accompli. This is premature. As the accompanying articles indicate, Hamilton's fiscal state of affairs is, to put it mildly, perilous.
It's clear that Hamilton has been breaking the law by running deficits in recent years, and that it will likely do so again this year. To achieve a "sustainable" budget would require a miracle. Or at least a whole new mindset. Neither is likely.
Budget documents say that more money from senior levels of government will be necessary to complete the expressway. But, as we know, that is not exactly a sure thing.
Queen's Park has its own deficit problems, and it would appear that Hamilton does not loom prominently in the collective consciousness of the federal government. Significantly, our city failed to receive an invitation to the conference on big-city mayors convened in Toronto. More important, however, is the fact that since the beginning of August, when our confrontations with the City and its bulldozers began, a movement has been born.
Anti-expressway activists have gathered to monitor the City Council and its committees in a group known as Citizens at City Hall (CATCH).
Others, concerned with the threatened increase of HSR fares, have formed Hamilton Transit Users Group (TUG). Other groups are organizing to promote smarter growth and curb urban sprawl.
The fight against the expressway is now part of a larger effort to make Hamilton a more liveable city.
The Spectator, again, would have us believe that the people "have spoken" about the expressway. Well, about 38 per cent of them "spoke" - ie., voted. And about half of these - about 19 per cent - voted for Larry DiIanni as mayor. Hardly a crushing majority of our citizens.
In Ward One, a much more convincing majority voted for Brian McHattie, who ran on a clear anti-expressway platform, in his win over expressway proponent Marvin Caplan. Lynda Lukasik would likely have won in Ward 4 were it not for her late entry into the race against Sam Merulla. And Andrew Schroeder in Ward 5 did surprisingly well against incumbent Chad Collins - again with a brief, shoestring campaign.
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