Hamilton Think Tank
 

Is there anyway we, members of this forum, can come up with some comprehensive plans for the city together and have them recognized by city council? It seems as though our voices are never heard, and that is part of the reason why nothing is done.

Maybe together we can form a strong enough team to actually have our voice heard and our ideas taken into consideration, and possibly even put into action!

It seems like most of us are very compassionate about Hamilton, and I know it bugs me that nothing ever changes here!

Here's my two cents (and I'll try to keep my comments brief for a change): if you want to effect change, you need to go beyond posting comments to a forum. You need to form real relationships in an actual organization of people who meet in person and hash out strategies to make their case in the community, the local media, city staff, and politicians.

As an example of what I mean, I humbly offer Hamilton Light Rail. When we formed a year ago, LRT was off the radar. We started holding monthly planning meetings open to anyone, and put together a strategy of reaching out to community groups, business associations, city staff, councillors, etc. to make our case for light rail.

In combination with a few dedicated people inside government (including the Mayor), we managed to convince public works staff to start a feasibility study. By the time they released their initial report in April, the media had noticed and were starting to cover it.

We organized a public presentation and panel discussion for May 1 with a spokesperson from HLR, a public works manager and a planner from Waterloo Region. To our delight and amazement, it was attended by over 120 people.

Since then we've kept at it with monthly meetings, more community outreach, op-eds, letters, media interviews, reporting, and so on. We're probably going to organize another public presentation some time in the near future as the Metrolinx budget shapes up.

Anyway, the internet is a good way to make contacts and share information, but if you want to change things you need to organize.

I agree, and that is what I am talking about. I am wondering if there is any one on this forum that would be dedicated to what you described above. I would like to help with planning/ideas, but unfortunately I don't have any connections so I don't even know where to begin.

I'm reading the Durand Neighbourhood Association's history and it has several examples of such groups. In fact the DNA was quite ground-breaking in terms of citizen involvement in planning. I just read about the Central Area Plan Advisory Committee, formed in the late 70's or early 80's with the purpose being just what you described. It's amazing, how many city hall endorsed groups and outside consultants have advised against such things as one-way streets, even since the 1970's. There have been gains but by and large the ideas fail in implementation, running into a brick wall with public works.

There is definitely a growing number of us young(-ish) people who want to improve the city and call Hamilton home.

The Gore Park thread has sparked a lot of controversy. Some want to sweep the homeless under the carpet and others want to attract other types of people downtown.

Here's an idea: There are cool little shops and restaurants that pop up downtown here and there.. problem is a lot of people don't know about them... the THREE16 Lounge is one that comes to mind. I think McMaster students can really help out the downtown. They are a good consistent source of young, educated people willing to spend money on a night out.. Also those from neighbouring suburbs provide a population of those who want to go out to dinner at a restaurant. A lot of them go to Toronto though.
Maybe a website or similar that showcases a particular restaurant or place each week or month?

Yes. Getting involved with your neighbourhood association is the first thing that came to mind. (Great to see you getting involved, Jon.)

Is Hmag still having his civic drinks nights? That might be a way to meet face to face with other pro-Hamilton types.

If you don't have a neighbourhood association you could start one, although I can see how that might be a little daunting if you're young and don't feel like you have many connections to like-minded souls. If I were you, I would try to focus on one or two things and see if there are established groups focusing on them - LRT is a great example. Check out the Central Library and H magazine for listings of meetings and events. Check out the CATCH website and sign up for their newsletters.

Are you a student? Does your school/university have any student organizations concerned with the environment or poverty?

Don't forget, it doesn't have to be a huge amorphous project like LRT, or two-way conversions or whatever. It could be something small and simple. Is there an unkempt park or abandoned lot in your neighbourhood? Get some friends and neighbours together and pick up litter or do a little guerilla gardening. There's a group in my neighbourhood that adopts mailboxes and cleans off the grafitti. These are little things, but accumulations of small acts can effect change. Caring for our public spaces is something we're not very good at in this town, but it can be transformative.

Join an organization. Start small. Make connections. Build experience and confidence. I'll be watching!:)

One more thing. If you do start something, be sure to follow through. This gives you the credibility you need if you ever need help from people in positions of authority.

Good luck!

I think I met the guy who does HMag - Is he the owner of Mixed Media on James?

Yup.

In fact, I think one of the reasons for our relative success is that we have remained very specific and focused in what we advocate. On occasions when we have been tempted by mission creep, we have managed to stay on message by going back to our mandate: to build community and political support or light rail as a powerful engine of economic development.

Just be prepared to transition very quickly from "I don't know what to do" to "I've got more to do than I can handle". :-)

You're right. Amorphous wasn't the right word. I was just thinking that to someone who is just becoming active, something on the scale of LRT might be a little huge and open-ended. What you guys have done is amazing.

I think therein is a bit of the rub. HLR has made some great inroads in its short life, but the economic development angle is arguably what drove the message home. Politicians (and people more broadly) will generally embrace sustainable solutions to the extent that they are either a cost-efficiency or a moneymaker. Civic-minded organizations whose goals aren't so easily expressed as monetizable benefits may need to be prepared for an endurance test. The city doesn't seem to make a habit of doing things on principle. Of course, you may also choose to work around the city apparatus.

I think the lesson here is that the way to achieve success is not through opposition and conflict but through building relationships and finding common ground with the people you're trying to convince. We decided to make our case on economic development because it's supported by a very strong empirical case and it's an argument everyone can get behind without having to 'lose face' or concede some kind of ideological defeat.

To be honest, the case for light rail practically makes itself. Aside from the physical work of doing the background research, preparing our slides, contacting groups, arranging meetings, showing our presentation, and so on, it hasn't been a difficult 'sell'. Everywhere we've gone, we have been received very enthusiastically.

Again, I think that has a lot more to do with light rail in itself than with our efforts to promote it. You'd have to be pretty spectacularly inept or cleverly diabolical to make light rail look bad.

There's another lesson in here: if you want to achieve success, start or join a campaign that's concrete and winnable. To put it bluntly, certain elements of Hamilton's activist community seem to have gotten pretty comfortable with losing - with being on the 'morally proper' side of an issue in a hopeless stance of reactive opposition. That may be comforting in an identity politics kind of way, but it doesn't lead to tangible gains.

I don't want to overthrow the system; I want to make it work better. Radical politics may be personally gratifying for radicals but it doesn't help improve people's lives. Build relationships with people across the various divides (urban/exurban, liberal/conservative, business/labour, etc.), try to understand and respect everyone's values and priorities, and look for issues and arguments on which you can all agree.

For example, environmentalists and poverty advocates joined up with the Chamber of Commerce in 2006 in a campaign to stop council from raising fares. It was simple, empirical, broad-based, and successful. (Note: the city dodged a repeat campaign in 2007 by rushing the introduction of the fare increase recommendation to the public works committee on a Monday and ratifying it in council just two days later.)

Better transit, higher quality integrated affordable housing, new investment into poor neighbourhoods, safer streets and pedestrian crossings, continuous bike lanes, tree plantings, community gardens and so on: these are the kinds of issues on which you can make a strong case from evidence, build broad support across socioeconomic and partisan lines, and achieve success.

Environment Hamilton has enjoyed some remarkable successes in such cooperative partnerships, from the Tonnes for Trees campaign a few years ago to the north end transit study (which led to the new Wellington/Victoria bus loop) and the current Kirkendall walkability study. As a result, they have a lot of credibility with city staff and councillors, which you need to have if you want to be taken seriously since they are the very people who prepare recommendations and vote on them, respectively. [Disclosure: I worked for Environment Hamilton part-time for a year as their Transit Users Group coordinator.]

Even the most obstinant councillors will respond to a strong argument backed by strong public support. You can convince Lloyd Ferguson that light rail is a smart, worthwhile investment in economic development. You can persuade Terry Whitehead that two-way street conversions help create vibrant neighbourhoods.

But to do so, you need to organize passionate advocates, make your case to the community, attract the attention of the newsmedia, and build relationships with the people who form policies and make decisions.

The EcDev angle was done intentionally. The group realized that we couldn't sell LRT to homebuilders, suburban councilors and the chamber as simply fancy transit vehicles.
EcDev became the number one selling point, and you're right - it worked!

I don't mean to put it all down to dollars. Ryan's points regarding changing the system from within and using activist jiu jitsu to shift the political agenda are points well taken. I suppose I'm just struck that even in a case where the LRT system would be funded by the province, the debate inevitably hinges on ROI.