Future City - Hamilton Next

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by BCTed

Great... absolutely everyone is in agreement, at least on the topic of you no longer buying the paper.

Of course, you are wrong about the "privately owned company" bit... Torstar trades on the TSX.

And their mandate is???

money, money, money.

[the dude]

i tuned into ch news last week and lasted a couple minutes before i had to turn it off. by 6:15 they'd already digressed into a pirated news story from tennessee about a bridge being blown up. they then moved on to another story from the southern states THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH HAMILTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! am i to understand that we have nothing newsworthy to offer here in the hammer? and the mere fact that the station is now affiliated with e! makes the station a complete farce. bs they're meeting our local needs. bs.

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

And their mandate is???

money, money, money.

My comment was that the company is not privately held --- I wasn't making a comment on the reason for its existence.

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by BCTed

My comment was that the company is not privately held --- I wasn't making a comment on the reason for its existence.

no prob.
I was also just clarifying my reason for even mentioning their ownership - money. whether it's traded public or private doesn't really change that. And sadly, money trumps news. Or should I say, money shapes the news. Which means 'news' is actually (in the Spec's case) a slanted, altered version of reality as seen from the eyes of their largest advertisers - the homebuilders.

[fastcarsfreedom]

Have we regressed to the point now that we are discussing the fact that media outlets are for-profit businesses? What's next up for debate--relativity? gravity?

Did you realize you almost simultaneously bashed Torstar and praised The Toronto Star? If you want your arguments to hold some water--call out your biases. I am a right-of-center thinker and I like the National Post--I call that bias. If you plan to base your arguments on love of the CBC and The Toronto Star, then at least admit that your opinions are shaped by a leftist worldview. No two media outlets in this country are as egregious when it comes to pandering to leftist idealogues than those two. The fact that Torstar's ownership hasn't resulted in The Spec's editorial bias being completely bent to the left is a testament to local management at The Spectator.

That being said, The Spectator, CHCH-TV, CHML, whoever you want to include, serve an area broader in population, demographic and geography than that which is comprised of the Lower City. As outlets they serve suburb and city--and as single outlets in the region--they have to be "everything to everyone" so to speak. More media outlets would be great--but a second daily?...that's opium den talk. Philadelphia, PA--with a metro population of 5.8 million struggles to support two papers. Around here in the Detroit area there are two "suburban only" dailies--The Oakland Press and The Macomb Daily. Would suburban-only papers be preferrable to you? You wouldn't get your hands dirty having to read about the dreck that goes on in Stoney Creek and Burlington...suburban heathens, they are barely human.

Really, it's tiresome to read the same old tirades in here. Do I think people in the suburbs who are anti-city are dead wrong? Absolutely I do, I love Hamilton. But seriously, the way this forum reads I expect to see the lot of you marching up the middle of Wilson Street with swords and torches.

[the dude]

have you ever actually watched cbctv? just because it's [mostly] publicly funded doesn't necessarily mean that it's left-wing. you just hate the fact that it's supported by the taxpayer and can't get over that. watch the evening news sometime and tell me what the political slant is. if anything, i'd say that mansbridge, murphy and their lot are right of centre. but that's just a guess because they don't allow their political biases to be as blatantly transparent as other media sources. get real, man.

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by fastcarsfreedom

Have we regressed to the point now that we are discussing the fact that media outlets are for-profit businesses? What's next up for debate--relativity? gravity?

Did you realize you almost simultaneously bashed Torstar and praised The Toronto Star? If you want your arguments to hold some water--call out your biases. I am a right-of-center thinker and I like the National Post--I call that bias. If you plan to base your arguments on love of the CBC and The Toronto Star, then at least admit that your opinions are shaped by a leftist worldview. No two media outlets in this country are as egregious when it comes to pandering to leftist idealogues than those two. The fact that Torstar's ownership hasn't resulted in The Spec's editorial bias being completely bent to the left is a testament to local management at The Spectator.

That being said, The Spectator, CHCH-TV, CHML, whoever you want to include, serve an area broader in population, demographic and geography than that which is comprised of the Lower City. As outlets they serve suburb and city--and as single outlets in the region--they have to be "everything to everyone" so to speak. More media outlets would be great--but a second daily?...that's opium den talk. Philadelphia, PA--with a metro population of 5.8 million struggles to support two papers. Around here in the Detroit area there are two "suburban only" dailies--The Oakland Press and The Macomb Daily. Would suburban-only papers be preferrable to you? You wouldn't get your hands dirty having to read about the dreck that goes on in Stoney Creek and Burlington...suburban heathens, they are barely human.

Really, it's tiresome to read the same old tirades in here. Do I think people in the suburbs who are anti-city are dead wrong? Absolutely I do, I love Hamilton. But seriously, the way this forum reads I expect to see the lot of you marching up the middle of Wilson Street with swords and torches.

I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. Talk about tirades.
You're free to love and defend the Spec. I'm free to hate it and think it sucks.
You sound like a baby-boomer always trying to turn everything in life into a left wing/right wing conspiracy. Weird.

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by the dude

have you ever actually watched cbctv? just because it's [mostly] publicly funded doesn't necessarily mean that it's left-wing. you just hate the fact that it's supported by the taxpayer and can't get over that. watch the evening news sometime and tell me what the political slant is. if anything, i'd say that mansbridge, murphy and their lot are right of centre. but that's just a guess because they don't allow their political biases to be as blatantly transparent as other media sources. get real, man.

yup...I watch is most nights...great Canadian features (not Hollywood shite) and if there's any political party that gets 'picked on' the most by their guest reporters, its' the Liberals.
I've never understood the arguement that 'taxpayer supported' automatically means 'left wing wackos'. It's about as lame and shallow an arguement that you'll ever hear about any issue in life. People who have no real reason to not like the CBC like to say that just to sound good.
If you don't like CBC just keep watching E!

[SteelTown]

This Week

Should Burlington and Grimsby merge with Hamilton?

[raisethehammer]

heck freaking no!!
I want to get rid of Ancaster, Dundas (although I love Dundas...so urban and cool), Stoney Creek etc..... not add more burbs into the mix.
Imagine someone in Borington or Grimsby voting on urban issues - transit, poverty, taxes, downtown projects, waterfront etc....
We'd definitely turn into a craptown like Mississuaga if this ever happened.

[flar]

Actually I think it would be great to get Burlington's tax money. We could have rep by pop so that Hamilton itself had the most councillors. The amalgamation we have wouldn't be so bad if it had fair representation.

[SteelTown]

Yes, it'll only work if we have representation by population not an even distribution of urban and suburban councilors, you can thank Brad Clark for that idea under Mike Harris' government. Toronto and Ottawa has representation by population when they amalgamated but no us.

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by flar

Actually I think it would be great to get Burlington's tax money. We could have rep by pop so that Hamilton itself had the most councillors. The amalgamation we have wouldn't be so bad if it had fair representation.

the tax money would be nice, but still not worth the hassle of adding in 150,000 suburban residents to our city, which is already becoming dominated by suburban residents.
You think our roads budget is bad now...add in Burlington and downtown would be lucky to ever see any investment again.

[SteelTown]

News from fantasy site Future City: Burlington-Grimsby merge with Hamilton?


James Street North Esplanade opens in year 2036 on fantasy site Future City.

November 15, 2007

It's now year 2036 on the Hamilton Spectator's fantasy site Future City.

James Street North is now a very chic cafe district destination, and the film industry has taken up permanent residence in the city because it's a low-cost place to shoot. A trend is already evident in the early rounds of the game: large-scale projects such as a canal/superport and a gold-smelting plant have been turned down in voting and have instead gone to neighbouring municipalities. This is affecting employment levels and hourly rates.
 
Service jobs are in strong demand as the city's boutique neighbourhoods flourish, but the city is uneasy about being a bedroom community to neighbouring municipalities, where the high-paying jobs have fled.
 
Another big vote looms this week. Decades after its suburbs joined Hamilton, the provincial government now wants Burlington and Grimsby to join a Greater Hamilton Area. Ontario says it will allow residents of all three cities a referendum vote on whether they want a Hamilton-Burlington-Grimsby mega-city.

It sets up a classic battle in municipal affairs: advocates who say the merger will trim bureaucracy and inefficiency, versus opponents who say it will kill community independence and pride. If the referendum passes, the new municipality will be created in the year 2043.
 
Influence Future City by signing up to the game and posting comments. Voting on the Burlington-Grimsby merger question begins Thursday, Nov. 15 and closes Wednesday. Results will be revealed on Thursday, Nov. 22.

[raisethehammer]

carfree James North?? sweet!

[coalminecanary]

from craigslist.. hilarious!
---
Today’s Poll

On the fantasy site www.thehamiltonspecbacktomediocrity.com, it’s the year 2007, and there’s a new editor-in-chief at the only local daily, The Hamilton Spectator. Will he pronounce some ill-fated, big/one idea project – but with an internet interactive twist game that even Sims wouldn’t participate in - on his helpless staff?

Yes

No

Already has

The Spec published this:

On the fantasy site www.thespec.com/futurecity, it's the year 2029 and the public is voting on whether to allow a gold smelter on the waterfront. Do you think the new plant on the harbour will be approved?

---
http://hamilton.craigslist.ca/rnr/478972556.html

[raisethehammer]

haha...classic.
Maybe we should take over Burlington. We could move the CN Yard there, move the airport there, rejig the Port and have the industry on that side so we can redevelop our side....hmm, not a bad idea!

[SteelTown]

Preview of the next round: Toward the year 2050: Will Hamilton be hit by some sort of natural disaster?

[coalminecanary]

genius! we can all vote on if a natural disaster hits us. can we even choose what type? what fun

[SteelTown]

And can we vote on what area of Hamilton that gets destroyed? haha