Is it time to for serious discussion of a new home for the Cats? Can the new City leadership tangibly contribute when the the City is nearly broke with a crumbling infrastructure, dwindling tax base and highest residential tax rates in the country?
http://tinyurl.com/2u6kvf (page 12)
Beyond Dofasco kicking in a few thousand bucks for the new screen sponsorship, is there any plausible business case to build a stadium without government subsidy?
Will the suburaban folks continue to sit on wooden planks, watch sub .500 Canadian Football in a neighbourhood that is becoming further removed from the safe middle-working class area that Civic Stadium was built in?
Rumour has it that murders have happened downtown, at the waterfront, even on the mountain...now what are we going to do?
I know..we'll move it to Burlington. Wait..murders have happened there too. Even in a gas station there. Thats it. No more football. Anywhere. Ever. And while we are at it..lets close all the gas stations too...they just arent safe.
I personally have never felt unsafe walking through the neighbourhoods on my way to the park, so changing the location for this reason is absurd. The delapitated state of the stadium..now thats another story. But if they elece to renovate, I have no issues with the location.
Wouldn't bother me in the least to have the Hells Angels in the neighbourhood.
Heck I would think that it would be relatively free of crime. Between the Hells Angels and the cops I would think there wouldn't be room for any petty crime! :lol:
But the Hell’s Angels quickly broke it up as they wanted first dibs on selling to Ricky Williams.
j/k.
[/serious] The way some people talk make it sound like gangs, violence, murder and theivery were invented by the kids in the “sticking your ass out of your jeans” gangs. Give me a break. There’s been organized crime since before we were “civilized”, and no amount of political posturing is going to change that there will be organized crime in my child’s lifetime. I’d love to see it removed from Hamilton, but I’m real enough to know that’s not going to happen.
The Angels (and other organized crime groups) may actually want to have a nice IWS, and a winning team… when the city is happy, it’s easier for them to fly under the radar.
But now that I think about it, I’m sure organized crime does not want Tim Horton’s to be a sponsor… too many cops… and referees.
hold on there..
my folks live in that neighborhood as do many, many decent people I know...
the BEST thing that could happen to Ivor Wynne and that neighborhood is for corporations, individuals and even government to invest in the area... why not do something with the Scott Park property? how about revitalizing the swimming pool?
and if we are calling that area blighted..
2 murders in the last few years? Buddy, you are either naive, or a coward. Go to the Big Smoke and see how much crime is at the doorstep of the Skydome...the recent shooting murder at spadina and front.... on weekly average three to five stabbings/ shootings in the Club District.. which is a lot closer to the Dome than that bar on Barton which has you in such a fear-frenzy
what makes a neighborhood safe is people.. not their exodus...
shame on you! The Ticats belong in the heart of Steeltown---not in the 'burbs
with apologies to Tim Horton's (thats how the American cities have developed their abandoned buildings/ empty street donut where crime begins to flourish in the core...)
oh, but then I suspect you d want Timmies to vacate the neighborhood too... after all, there are things that go bump in the night..and you might run into one when you get your latte..
This may be the stupidest, waste of time post I have read at this site. Talking about gang members and the Hells Angels at this site is a waste of my time. HORRIBLE POST.
Hey Jake, where should I move to get into a crime free neighbourhood. Obvious I am in grave danger every minute of my life living within a 10 minute walk of IWS
How about people with warrants and known gang members being locked up, to late for 2 kids that went to my kids school :x -----"(Investigators) were plugged into a known suspect right away," said
So maybe there is something more systemic happening in the area?
Probably not many lattes in sight either, I would have preferred a Steeler or Brava, but that wonderful community builder Teresa is trying to cash out. What a shame.
So another recent post got me thinking again about Stadiums. Is it possible? Can a stadium be built anywhere in Canada without government funding or concessions?
Why a horrible post? You think Jake is the only potential fan that reads the newspaper once in a while and thinks that the lower city isn’t a safe place to take in a football game?
If only to provoke an opposing view, it’s a perfectly reasonable post.
Barton Street IS pretty seedy in some stretches, although lots of decent people do live in the area of the stadium. I’ve had my car broken into twice after games in the past four seasons - once while I was enjoying a few at the Dizzy Weasel after a game, the other time when I left it overnight in one of the church parking lots off Barton. I, like at least a few posters here, figure you can’t run from urban crime - you let the city rot and the rot will eventually follow you to the burbs. If I didn’t feel that way, maybe I’d have thrown in the towel and become a former Ticat Season Ticket Holder, which makes it a Ticat issue.
The only way to combat urban crime is for decent people to flood into the city, not run from it.
You want to fee unsafe going to a game? Try parking your car at the old Tiger Stadium in Detroit where my Dad used to take me and my brother for Tigers games, we would park about 1/2 mile away and walk to the stadium through Detroit streets that at the time would make IWS and area look like downtown Ancaster.
Very true - Hamilton isn’t bad compared to some other places. I’ve been to a number of ballparks/arenas over the years where you just knew you had to clear out as soon as the game was over. You wouldn’t even consider leaving your car there and wandering off for a few drinks after the game, and a break in would be the least of your concerns. Some of those areas have cleaned up in recent years.
Funny you should mention that. I lived four houses down from the Dick house through the 70’s and 80’s. Throughout that time, there was a small trickle of crime tourism - once or twice a month, and more often when the case was brought up in the media somewhere, a car would drive by a few times, then eventually park on the street in front of my house, a few people would get out, stand on the sidewalk across from the Dick house, sometimes holding a well-used copy of that book about the case called Torso, sometimes snap a picture of the house, or themselves with the house in the background, then drive off. A good mix of goths, slightly creepy true crime nuts and just pain folk.
For me it was like a really, really slow version of that car game you play as a kid where see how many different license plates you can see on the highway. The Torso tourists were from all over - mainly Ontario and Quebec plates, but also several other provinces and US states.
Not to make light of anyone’s real-life tragedy, but if regular murders had that kind of lasting interest, the city would have no problem with tourism.
I spent an evening in Inglewood California once, where the Great Western Forum was located. I've never seen so many creepy people in my life, and I used to work in downtown Hamilton.
The Lakers and the Kings found a new home at the Staples Centre. Good highway access, and likely a lot of government subsidy to have the place built. Staples Centre hosts the Kings, Lakers and whack of conventions and profitable trade shows.
Is there an economic arguement for a new stadium in Hamilton? Surely there is a social arguement to be made.
Here's an idea, the Stadium could be built in Ancaster, funded by housing developers with good highway access from Brantford and London dwellers, and also be home to the crime museum at the concourse level.