July 2011 by urbanicity

urbanicity A monthly journal in the bay city

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HAMILTON ONTARIO | CANADA | Published Monthly | JULY 2011 | urbanicity.ca

Downtown Hamilton images and collage by Ryan Winton

UNDER THE SAME SKY P.2

Lemon Grass on Garth Street | photo by Martinus Geleynse

The original Mills sign unveiled | photo by regbeaudry.com

“Bicycle freedom” in Paris, France | photograph by Ryan McGreal

123rf.com

PROFITABLEA modest LEGACY A TASTE of VIETNAM proposal

THE GHOST of HERBERT S. MILLS

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE Deciding a different future

URBAN RENEWAL IS HUMAN RENEWAL

Another missing tooth | photograph by regbeaudry.com

MURLINE MALLETTE

GRAHAM CRAWFORD

RYAN McGREAL

PAUL WILSON

FR. BOHDAN HLADIO

There’s an odd paradox in this city. We’re able to build, yet we’re not able to develop. Here’s what I mean. Hamilton has quite a number of very successful home builders. Between them they’ve built tens of thousands of homes, literally around the city. As individuals, many of them (and their families) began with nothing. They moved to Hamilton from Europe, and many of them from Italy in particular, to build a better life for themselves and their families. Through just plain hard work, most have become multimillionaires doing what they do best – build. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to have a corresponding number of successful developers. We

In 1997, I spent 9 weeks travelling Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. The countries and the people were amazing, and since then I have been hooked on their cuisine. I also gained a new appreciation of the skill required to manage chopsticks. I spent most of my time in Section 3 in Saigon, and a very kind young man silently slipped me a knife, fork and spoon wrapped in a little napkin for my purse. After several weeks I felt comfortable with chopsticks, but I have never forgotten this small kindness. My little bit of Saigon here in our wonderful city is “Lemon Grass” up on Garth Street on the mountain.

There’s a gem making the rounds on YouTube called “Portrait of a City”. It’s a 21-minute promotional film from 1946. It manages to make Hamilton look like heaven on earth. Some who watch it say it makes them cry to think how this city has fallen. They’re the scenes of downtown that make you ache for those times. True, only the rosy stuff makes the reel. But unless those are imports from central casting, there really were throngs of well-dressed shoppers clogging sidewalks in the core back then. The narrator explains that downtown Hamilton had stores “featuring every type of merchandise…fine

There's a prevailing idea that cities, whether great or middling or desperate, are inevitably so. Great cities are renowned for their iconic architecture, lively streets, vibrant economies, famous amenities, rich arts communities - indeed, it is these things that make them great. One begins to assume they spring fully formed, like Athena, from the foreheads of their founders, operating under the aegis of their masterful design. This line of reasoning gives underperforming cities an excuse not to try doing great things. As CHML's Bill Kelly said when a group of citizens wanted their residential street taken off the city's truck route,

People the world over are rightly concerned with urban renewal. Anyone who cares about the city they live in wants that city to be as nice as possible for as many citizens as possible. Architects, landscapers, and city planners are engaged to redesign and rebuild whole neighbourhoods with the goal of creating a safer, more beautiful, and more comfortable environments for residents. But I don’t think urban renewal is possible without human renewal. The reason houses become rundown and decrepit is because human beings don’t look after them. As part of my ministry I’ve been in dwellings that stink, are filthy, and have been wrecked

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BRAD CHICHAKIAN, B.A. | Sales Representative HERITAGE REALTY INC. 256 Locke Street South, Hamilton ON, L8P 4B9 Office: 905.522.2222 | Cell: 905.512.0009 haltonheritage.com | brad@haltonheritage.com

{Heritage Halton Halton

REALTY INC. BROKERAGE

HAMILTON ONTARIO | CANADA | Published Monthly | JULY 2011 | urbanicity.ca

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DISTRIBUTION

urbanicity [ur-buh-nis-i-tee] - noun 1. a monthly journal in the bay city.

QUANTITY: 10,000 copies per issue | 12 issues per year DATE: First day of each month COST: Free

The venerable German statesman Konrad Adenauer was once quoted as saying, "We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon. In this instant age, perhaps we must relearn the ancient truth that patience, too, has its victories". While this statement was not uttered with Hamilton in mind, I do believe that it offers some relevant wisdom for our city.

DISTRIBUTION LOCATIONS Downtown Hamilton International Village Ottawa Street Locke Street Westdale Village of Ancaster Town of Dundas Village of Waterdown Stoney Creek Concession Street District Selected Hamilton Mountain locations Greater Hamilton Area

Currently, Hamiltonians are witnessing a tremendous wave of investment and activity aimed at the renewal of our downtown. This is evident in the restored vibrancy of streets like James Street North, Ottawa Street, Locke Street, and the Gore Park and International Village sections of King Street East. It is evident in the recent rise of young professional organizations, in the growing Hamilton Economic Summit, and in the breakout success of community events like the annual Supercrawl. This list of successes is still to be taken with a grain of salt, however, as we consider the facts presented by Chris Cutler in his article found in this issue (“Who Cares One Year Later?”). After all, while we as a city, are suddenly starting to accelerate in a positive direction, the fact remains that we are a municipality faced with tremendous inequality. Sadly, not all Hamiltonians are able to look forward to the same horizon at this point in our history. In fact, nearly 100,000 of us live in poverty.

PUBLISHER + EDITOR

This is unacceptable.

MARTINUS GELEYNSE Owner | MG International Director | Hamilton24 Festival martinus@urbanicity.ca

The motto of the City of Hamilton is, “Aspire together, achieve together”. Only when the entire population of Hamilton is able to aspire together and actually achieve together will we be truly able to measure quantifiable ‘success’. When over 15,000 of us need the help of food banks in order to sustain our families, it is evident that we do not all have the same horizon.

REG BEAUDRY Freelance | photographer Graphic designer reg@urbanicity.ca CONTRIBUTORS *PAUL WILSON Former columnist | Hamilton Spectator pwilson@urbanicity.ca MARK CHAMBERLAIN President | Trivaris Family of Companies Chair | Jobs Prosperity Collaborative mchamberlain@urbanicity.ca FRED EISENBERGER Former Mayor | Hamilton, Ontario CEO | Canadian Urban Institute feisenberger@urbanicity.ca

MARTINUS GELEYNSE | photograph by Daniel Banko

LAYOUT + DESIGN

It is time that we realize that true renewal of our city begins with the renewal of our citizens. Just as we invest in properties and various business ventures, we must invest in our greatest resource: each other. We must aspire together through the formation of local business relationships, through the investment of time and money in community organizations, and through vocal advocacy for fair and inclusive policy by our leaders. The renewal of Hamilton will take time. We must be patient, as we would be with any worthwhile investment. The time for this investment, however, is now. The fact remains that we all live under the same sky. However, only when we aspire together can we truly achieve the same horizon for every Hamiltonian. MARTINUS GELEYNSE | Publisher + Editor

*GRAHAM CRAWFORD Owner | HIStory + HERitage gcrawford@urbanicity.ca *MURLINE MALLETTE Director | Liaison College Hamilton Campus mmallette@urbanicity.ca TERRY COOKE CEO | Hamilton Community Foundation tcooke@urbanicity.ca PAUL SHAKER Director | Centre for Community Study pshaker@urbanicity.ca *RYAN McGREAL Editor | raisethehammer.org rmcgreal@urbanicity.ca ADRIAN DUYZER Associate Editor | raisethehammer.org aduyzer@urbanicity.ca LAURA FARR Staff Writer lfarr@urbanicity.ca *JAMIE TENNANT Program Director | 93.3 CFMU jtennant@urbanicity.ca

FORUM We welcome discussion! Each month, the FORUM section will display letters to the Editor. In order to be accepted, letters must include valid contact information and the full name of the writer. Send your letters to: editor@urbanicity.ca

*CHRISTOPHER CUTLER Manager | PATH Employment Services ccutler@urbanicity.ca *JOEY COLEMAN Independent Journalist jcoleman@urbanicity.ca DONNA SKELLY Broadcast Journalist dskelly@urbanicity.ca KEANIN LOOMIS Chief Advocate | Innovation Factory kloomis@urbanicity.ca *PETER ORMOND Environmental Engineer Lecturer | Mohawk College pormond@urbanicity.ca RICK COURT Dean of Business, Media, & Entertainment | Mohawk College rcourt@urbanicity.ca *DON FORBES Manager, Specialist Advisory Services | Grant Thornton LLP dforbes@urbanicity.ca *ROBERT LEAKER Vice-President of Innovation and Emerging Markets | Meridian Credit Union rleaker@urbanicity.ca AD INQUIRIES ads@urbancity.ca | urbanicity.ca 905.537.5928

continued from p.1 | HUMAN RENEWAL not by invading barbarians but by the residents themselves. If urban renewal is limited to tearing down old buildings and putting up new ones, it’s bound to fail. We can build the nicest new apartment block, but if the same people who ruined the previous building move in, there’s no reason to think it won’t end up looking just like the old slum. Ghettos and run-down neighbourhoods are usually symptomatic of local poverty, addiction, abuse, mental illness, prostitution, homelessness, family dysfunction, etc. I’m sure we all agree that it’s important to deal with these objective realities, and all the issues which prevent people from living a satisfying and fulfilling life. But each of these issues is the result of an underlying spiritual illness, and if we don’t address this spiritual malaise our efforts will usually fall short of complete success. Spirituality is a universal reality within the human experience. Though “religion” is not terribly popular nowadays, “spirituality” is enjoying great success – a fact which a quick trip to the local bookstore will confirm. Though religion is often portrayed as a divisive force, my experience is the opposite – that

religious faith can be a powerful catalyst for good. Spirituality is like language. The only way we can talk about language in general is by using one particular language. Likewise, it’s impossible to discuss spirituality without a shared lived experience. And this cuts across sectarian lines. Just as my knowledge of French grammar can help me learn the grammar of other languages, my experience of prayer, worship, contemplation, service to others, living an honourable and morally upright life, fasting, and helping the poor gives me a common starting point for dialogue with those who don’t espouse the same religious beliefs I do. And there are commonalities. All the great faiths teach us that we must be concerned with and care for our neighbour. The “Golden Rule” – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” – is a universal human teaching (for proof of this fact see part 4 of The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis). Lack of care, respect, and love for neighbour and self is at the heart of the problem of urban decay. When I suggest that there can be no urban renewal without human renewal, and no human renewal without spiritual renewal, I am suggesting two things.

I’m suggesting that the “higher teachings” of the great faiths - the golden rule, respect for the dignity of the human person, basic principles of morality, etc. need to be learned and lived by everyone, rich and poor alike. No “lip service” here - these teachings need to be manifest in the family, the school, the media, in politics, business, sports, the arts, everywhere. “If urban renewal is limited to tearing down old buildings and putting up new ones, it’s bound to fail.” - Father Bohdan Hladio

I’m also suggesting that this can only work if everyone actually belongs to a community dedicated to living out these higher principles – in other words, that everyone needs to belong to a “congregation”. Home made, self-centred spirituality isn’t any more useful than a language I make up for my own use. I’m not proposing enforced participation in a state religion, all I’m saying is that everyone needs community. The old saying “it takes a village to raise a

child” is true - and if that child is raised in a “village” mutual love, respect, and concern for neighbour they’re a lot more likely to respect their neighbourhood, their residence, their neighbours, and themselves. I don’t think it’s coincidental that as we’ve seen a decrease in church attendance we’ve seen an increase in crime, vandalism, addiction, family dysfunction, abuse, etc. Attempting to change the landscape of a city without changing the quality of its people is futile. And attempting to “improve” people psychologically, educationally, ethically, and nutritionally while ignoring them spiritually is no more effective than attempting to get an old car running by putting the drive train, electrical system, tires, suspension, and brakes in order without installing a battery or a steering wheel. FATHER BOHDAN HLADIO is a former priest at St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral on Barton Street East. Currently, he serves at St.John the Baptist Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Oshawa, but still cheers for his beloved Hamilton Ticats.

PRINTER Canweb Printing Inc. FORUM We welcome discussion! Each month, the FORUM section will display letters to the Editor. In order to be accepted, letters must include valid contact information and the full name of the writer. Send your letters to: editor@urbanicity.ca *denotes in this issue urbanicity 27 John St N | Hamilton ON | L8R 1H1 urbanicity.ca | martinus@urbanicity.ca 905.537.5928

HAMILTON INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL a three-day celebration of the classical guitar!

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JULY 8 - 10, 2011 | Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts GALA OPENING CONCERT | Friday July 8, 8 PM with the incredible Katon Twins for complete concert listings and tickets call 905.807.4792 or visit hamiltonguitarfest.com

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“Let’s be the future voice of business, but let’s always embrace our past.” - CIBPA's mission statement Treble Hall at John North and King East, currently being restored by owner Jeff Feswick | photograph by regbeaudry.com

continued from p.1 | LEGACY have too many individuals who go by the name “developer”, who are able to afford to buy buildings, but who don’t seem to be able to put together the ?nancing required to develop the buildings they buy. As a result, they end up doing what they seem to do best – buy. Hamilton’s home builders build dwellings that families call home. Too many of Hamilton’s developers buy buildings that only pigeons call home. I believe this Hamilton paradox is one of the fundamental reasons that Hamilton’s downtown is suffering. It’s not the only reason, but it’s up there with the other big ones. Certainly lack of jobs, underintensi?cation of the core, unfocused, ineffectual and uninspired leadership by too many elected of?cials and senior staff can all be added to the list. Look at our urban core. At the empty lots. At the derelict buildings. At the boarded-up storefronts. Look at the now missing-a-tooth Gore Park – Caesars has been buried, not praised. Look at the Federal Building on Main Street – is there any relief in site? Look at the Royal Connaught - which Cannot. Look at the Sandbar Tavern on King, owned by the City for the past 5 years – board to death. Each of them a once-productive member of our builtheritage family and each a past contributor to the vibrancy of our city. Now each an orphan. Each exclaiming to Hamiltonians and to visitors alike, that we can’t develop things in Hamilton. That we tolerate empty. That we accept ugly. That our great past is just that – past. But, all is not darkness. There is a list of very admirable individuals who are putting their money where their mouths are. That list includes names such as Sauve, Kulakowsky, Feswick, Curran, Potocic, Norton, Mercanti, and yes Blanchard, although it was

his organization that recently demolished what had been Caesars/Zig Zag Zebra on Gore Park. I put him on this list because of what he has done right, not just for what he has done wrong. In an ideal world, I’d like to see the following names added to this list: DeSantis, Losani, Silvestri, Molinaro, Frisina, and Valeri to name but a few. I’d like to add their names, and the names of other home builders, to the list of contributors to the downtown core by encouraging them to do what they do best – build. In this case, I’d like to encourage them to also help build Hamilton's spirit. To help build our pride in ourselves and speci?cally in our downtown. I’d like them to think of it as their "pro?table legacy". What does pro?table legacy mean? Well, pro?table means making money. Legacy means making a difference. Pro?table legacy means doing both at the same time by design not by coincidence. I'm not focusing on Italian home builders because I think it's their duty to help revitalize our downtown. I'm mentioning them because I'm impressed with what they do now, just as much as I'm impressed with how they got to where they are now. Simply put, through hard work. Let me explain. For two months this year, I featured an exhibition at Hamilton HIStory + HERitage called “Come On-A My House – Growing Up Italian in Hamilton's North End”. It told the story of the Malloni family of Bay Street, from the time they emigrated from Italy in the early 1900's till today. It was popular. Very popular. A lot of Hamiltonians of Italian descent came in to see the exhibition. Almost every single one of them told me stories about themselves, their parents, or their grandparents coming to Canada with nothing and making a better life for themselves and for their families. It was all about hard work. About family. About community. And about food, of course. Their

stories touched me. They made me even more proud of my city. Of its diversity. Of its ability to provide opportunity to those who choose to seize those opportunities, just as it did for my own parents and for me when we immigrated to Hamilton from England in 1959. When I started to think about who best to engage in some "pro?table legacy" thinking, it was Italian homebuilders who came to mind. Not only that, but hearing P.J. Mercanti talk about the Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association served to con?rm my belief in the role people of Italian heritage play in Hamilton. The CIBPA’s stated mission is, “Let’s be the future voice of business, but let’s always embrace our past.” Remarkable. So, here are some ‘what ifs’ to consider. There are many more that I, and likely you, could generate, but here are some to get us started. What if a group of six Hamilton home builders agreed to a come together on a project that would make a huge difference to all Hamiltonians - past, present and future? Although they don’t have to be, what if all six of them were Italian? They could, of course, just be home builders. Or “they” could be the entire Hamilton-Halton Home Builders’ Association. What if all six of these Italian, Hamilton home builders came to Canada as immigrants (either directly, or through their family history) and through their hard work went from being labourers to being millionaires? What if all six of these millionaire, Italian, Hamilton home builders were to do something they are unlikely to have already done - each buy a building on Gore Park, or along James North, or John North? Think in terms of purchase prices in the $500,000 to $1,000,000 range. Rather than tearing down, I'm suggesting they work with what already exists, just like

Jeff Feswick is doing with Treble Hall. What if each agreed to renovate their own building within the same timeframe and to the same standard of quality inside and out? What if they did this using the skilled trades people they already work with now - the very same people who build the houses that families move into. What if some of them bought two buildings individually, or three buildings together? What if they charged rents (retail, commercial and/or residential) that gave them an ROI on this single building of 5% to 7%, rather than the more common 15% to 20%, so they could be selective as to the kinds of businesses they rented to? I'm thinking destination retail for many people, versus cheque cashing businesses which serve a much smaller group of people who don't have bank accounts. Not that that's a bad thing, but how many cheque cashing places do we really need in one small stretch? What about commercial space on the second ?oor? Residential on the third? All at "pro?table" rates. But also at rates that ensure the kind of legacy thinking I'm suggesting. What if, when the renovations were complete, they put their family’s name somewhere on the building? Or, if it was the entire Hamilton-Halton Home Builders’ Association, the names of members they decided to honour? What if the investment they made as a group encouraged others to invest in the same area? I think the City could and should play an important role in making this idea of "pro?table legacy" a success. I suggest that Planning and Economic Development assign a single, senior person to the project, a concierge if you will. I say senior because this person must have decision making authority. I'm not talking about a junior, albeit friendly, coordinator. He or she would ensure that zoning challenges were

addressed before they became problems or roadblocks. So, why should these homebuilders even consider such an idea? Let me forestall the obvious objection, namely, "Who do you think you are suggesting to others how they should spend their money?" That's a very fair question. After all, it is their money and they’ve earned every penny of it. What I’ve done with some of the money I made in my business career is to open and operate Hamilton HIStory + HERitage on James North. It may not be the National Museum of Civilization, but it’s my way of helping Hamiltonians love their city more. Through information. Through dialogue. Through stories. About a city. And about the men and women that have helped to shape it. In the past 3 years, over 20,000 people have come through the door, all free of charge. I should add all of the people on my suggested list already give lots of money to charities. I'm not asking them to donate a building, but to buy a building. To love it. To repair it. To bring it back to life. To show Hamiltonians that the people who are good at building the houses we call home, can help us to revitalize our downtown. In other words, to make a living while they make a difference. The end result? People working together on a single, iconic street in our downtown core doing what they do best – build. GRAHAM CRAWFORD owns and operates Hamilton HIStory + HERitage, Hamilton’s ?rst storefront museum. He is also the 138th Chairperson of the Hamilton Club. gcrawford@urbanicity.ca

Web site of Chuck Gammage Animation Studio, now located on James Street North in the TCA building, Hamilton ON

DON FORBES

One of the many buzz-phrases around town right now is the “creative economy.” There are many who reference the creative class as the savior to Hamilton’s economy. I’m not sure we all understand how or why the creative class will be the savior, but we like to point to it anyway. We now have some terrific tangible examples that help explain why the creative economy will help Hamilton and how it will happen. At the 4th Annual Hamilton Economic Summit on May 12, there were six downtown investment announcements. Two specifically, that Chuck Gammage Animation and Pipeline Studios are in the process of moving from Toronto to the downtown Hamilton area, stand out as perfect examples of how the creative economy will translate into economic development for Hamilton. Representatives from both groups spoke at the summit, and discussed some of the reasons why they are moving to downtown Hamilton. I am going to break down these reasons (while adding to them) into four categories detailing why a creative company would

TANGIBLE IMPACT FROM THE ‘CREATIVE CLASS’ find benefit to moving to the downtown Hamilton area. In truth, these reasons likely apply to many companies, not just those in the “creative class.” 1. CREATIVE SPACE: I’ll piggyback on the line I used at the Hamilton Economic Summit: Downtown Hamilton has good bones. Companies see the excellent architecture and unique spaces that downtown Hamilton has to offer. For the most part, there are many buildings available (for now) and the interior space can be moulded to meet the company’s needs. Typical creative economy workers do not want to work in tiny cubicles crammed into 100-storey generic office towers. Instead, they want open, unique and stimulating spaces that can help complete their tasks more effectively and enjoyably. 2. VALUE: No, not “cheap”. While there is no question that the price per square foot in downtown Hamilton is many times less expensive than in downtown Toronto, the value that a company receives here can be far greater. Being located right beside big national corporations, from what I understand, is not

critical to business development for these kinds of companies (you could also argue it is becoming less critical for any kind of company). The Hamilton location also offers the ability to travel quickly to many nearby locations – a result of highway access to Toronto and the U.S border on two sides, the Hamilton airport, the nearby Buffalo airport, and improving public transit in and out of the city. This provides better value to a company than being stuck downtown Toronto, and having to pay employees more in order to meet the higher cost of living in, or communiting to Toronto. 3. LIVING SPACE: We all know the perception outsiders have of living in Hamilton, and we all know they aren’t entirely accurate. The chance to live in an urban area, or multiple suburban options, with many amenities across a diverse community, can be very appealing to the types of employees these companies are trying to attract. And, as already mentioned, the cost of living is quite favourable. 4.PROFESSIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE: A quick

plug for my professionals services brethren: there are many accounting and law firms in Hamilton, which possess excellent skill sets. There are great commercial bankers, and insurance agencies. In my opinion, the quality of professional services can be better for companies of this size and type when compared to other cities, because we understand small and medium sized entities. We also tend to provide a more personal, hands-on approach. It doesn’t hurt that Toronto billing rates are much higher than Hamilton, either. In order to capitalize on the above assets even further, there are still some action items the City of Hamilton needs to accomplish: Creative spaces – make it easier for a company to come here. I hear that it is getting easier and easier to obtain the necessary permits to move into the city, so if that is true, let’s make it known to everyone. Value – the next critical step to adding value to doing business in Hamilton (especially downtown) is all day Go Transit service. This way, downtown Hamilton

businesses are only 40 minutes away from a meeting in downtown Toronto. Living space – more unique residential urban space is needed. This is in progress, with development already starting. Infrastructure–let’s connect the creative businesses to the professional services. After all, we wouldn’t want a company moving here and using Torontobased services, now would we? I certainly do not intend this piece to insinuate that the creative economy will revitalize the city all on its own. But it is an important catalyst, and in my opinion will assist in economic development and downtown renewal. For these reasons, I would posit that it is our responsibility to support and encourage the new wave of creative economic opportunity in our city. Let’s truly be open for business! DON FORBES is a Manager of Specialist Advisory Services at Grant Thornton LLP. dforbes@urbanicity.ca

HAMILTON ONTARIO | CANADA | Published Monthly | JULY 2011 | urbanicity.ca

CHRIS CUTLER

On June 1 of this year, the Hamilton Spectator held a forum titled “Code Red: Where You Live Affects Your Health Series: One Year Later”. It claims that the series, has generated a new conversation on poverty in the city. It has, but at times that is all it has been: a conversation. If ever an issue could have been resolved by conversation, surely poverty would have been ‘jawed’ into submission by now. Dr. Chris Mackie, Associate Officer of Health for the City of Hamilton proffered instead that what was needed was not necessarily new programs and more dollars, but more caring. We need to learn to care more. We need to become a ‘caring’ community. So one year on from the release of Code Red who cares? Apparently it is not our political or civic leadership. They have ceded leadership to the Poverty Roundtable and to the Hamilton Community Foundation. It would seem that in turn our council has delegated caring to our City Manager and senior staff. Paul Johnson, the City's Director of Neighborhood Development has been quoted by The Spec at the time of an earlier Code Red Forum in January 2011 as saying, “Let's have the same intense conversation about that (poverty) like the (Pan-Am) stadium. Interestingly enough since the release of the groundbreaking Code Red series by Spec reporter Steve Buist in April of 2010, as well as in both the runup to and in the aftermath of the fall 2010 municipal election, the issue of poverty in our city has failed to make the agenda of our municipal council. Back in January at that same Code Red Forum, Johnson, a tireless and legitimate ‘poverty fighter’ assured us, “There will be staff time devoted to this. It’s part of the civic agenda, part of the staff agenda. There are things we can do. There are things citizens

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WHO CARES ONE YEAR LATER? can do. There is capacity to take this issue back to your communities and constituencies” In the year since the release of the Code Red series, countless emergency meetings of committee and council have been held to discuss and debate the location of and the financial contribution that the City is willing to make to the Pan Am stadium, aka the once and future home of the Ti-Cats. An emergency meeting of the General Issues Committee was held to discuss recent contract negotiations between the City and its largest union. Even the dismissal from the Farmers’ Market of Ms. Tilly Johnson was the subject of an emergency debate. Remarkably, not once have our elected officials paused from their labours engaged in a serious discussion of the gaping disparities that exist within our community. Not once has there been an emergency meeting to discuss the growing divide that poverty represents, or the opportunity cost it represents to our children, who remain our greatest asset. Are we going to be the the best place to raise a child? Sure, as long as you’re not poor or being raised in the epicentre of a Code Red area. In a recent release by the Social Planning Research Council (SPRC) of “Hamilton’s Social Landscape” commissioned by the United Way of Burlington and Greater Hamilton, we see that, “nearly 30,00 of Hamilton’s poorest are Ontario Works beneficiaries in Hamilton of which more than a third are children.” With respect to the Code Red series itself, this is not the first time that we have been informed of the profound poverty in our community. There have been numerous studies by the SPRC including “A Portrait of Poverty: Living On Social Assistance In Hamilton” and the recent report issued in April 2009, which told us

that “nearly 90,000 Hamiltonians were living in poverty in 2005”. Apparently the location of a stadium and the settlement of a looming labour dispute constitute emergencies. Somehow, learning that there exists, in our midst, a 21 year gap in life expectancy as determined by poverty across our city has failed the test of what is deemed a civic emergency This is all despite the fact that The Spec reported in October 2010 that, “A municipal election poll conducted on behalf of The Spectator by pollster Nik Nanos in October showed that 80 per cent of respondents supported spending more tax dollars to fight poverty in Hamilton, making it easily the top election issue for voters”. Now there are those who will point to the good work of Joe-Anne Priel on behalf of the City in creating the Poverty Roundtable in partnership with the Hamilton Community Foundation, or the appointment of Paul Johnson to his position as Director of Neighbourhood Development Initiatives as sure signs of the City’s commitment to the good fight. But at some point, some true leadership needs to be seen at the highest levels of our local government; by the mayor and members of our Council. You would think that learning that 100,000 of our fellow Hamiltonians live in poverty might just warrant an emergency committee or council meeting, even if it is a year after the release of the Code Red series. CHRISTOPHER CUTLER is a Manager with PATH Employment Services serving persons with disabilities. He is a proud and highly engaged resident of downtown Hamilton. ccutler@urbanicity.ca

Fluoride Dirty Bomb | redactednews.com

PETER ORMOND

POISONED: Water fluoridation and you

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The Vélib' system in Paris, France | photograph by Ryan McGreal

continued from p.1 | PARIS “Seems like there's an anti-truck or anti-vehicle feeling out there. C'mon, this isn't Copenhagen, it's Hamilton!" That's self-fulfilling defeatism. Great cities are great because they choose to be great - not just once or twice at the beginning, but over and over again in a constellation of choices, both large and small, that constantly refine and redefine the public vision of what the city can be. It begs the question to suggest that Copenhagen is bicycle friendly because it has all those bike lanes. Where did the bike lanes came from? Like most cities, Copenhagen was designed and built aggressively for motorists right up until the 1970s, when the OPEC oil shock awoke that city's leaders to the insecurity of being dependent on imported oil. They chose to make the city bicycle-friendly, and then they did it. In a recent Raise the Hammer piece, Nicholas Kevlahan noted that French government employees once parked in the Louvre courtyard in Paris - right until the construction of I. M. Pei's pyramid in 1989. Think of it: just a couple of decades ago, the sumptuous courtyard of the world's most famous art museum was used as a parking lot - in Paris, no less! Kevlahan concluded, "The moral of this story...is that urban design is not some sort of innate genetic code.

Paris is the way it is today because of a whole series of conscious decisions." Paris has undergone another remarkable transformation in the past two decades: against nearly everyone's expectations, Paris has transformed itself into a bicycle-friendly city. The story of how that happened is worth repeating because it disabuses the notion that history is destiny and showcases how a place can, with bravery and creativity, overcome even the most intractable obstacles to change. Back in the mid-1990s, cycling in Paris was exactly the kind of white-knuckled, take-your-life-in-yourhands macho excursion with which North American cyclists are intimately familiar. Sidewalks were for pedestrians, streets were for automobiles and there was little room for any other nonsense. The case against cycling in Paris seemed overwhelming: the tangle of narrow, medieval streets left no room for bike lanes, and in any case the prevailing conservative car culture was hostile to the very idea. Another challenge was the fact that Paris is more or less uniformly composed of 150-year-old, six-storey buildings that were later retrofitted with tiny elevators. For most residents, simply getting a bicycle in and out of their apartment presented a logistical nightmare.

Despite this, the city's leaders decided that Paris should be a cycling haven on par with Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Lyon. Starting in 1995, spurred on by a wave of public sector strikes that shut down the Paris Metro, they began making the choices that would transform Paris into a cycling city. In 1996, under the leadership of then-mayor Jean Tiberi, the city installed the first 50 kilometres of bike lanes. By the end of 1997, the city installed another 50 kilometres with plans to expand still further.

“Great cities are great because they choose to be great...we are not at the mercy of our own past choices” - Ryan McGreal

Cycling advocates were delighted. Others scoffed, wondering why the city should spend money on a bicycle network when so few people rode bicycles. A coalition of Champs-Elysées business owners managed to block a section of bike lane that was supposed to go on the city's most famous boulevard. However, momentum was building toward a robust, continuous bike lane network. A 1996 study found that

morning, ride to work, drop the bicycle off, and pick up another bicycle to ride home in the evening. The service is available 24 hours a day, every day of the year - and the first half-hour is always free. Over 160,000 Parisians have annual Vélib' subscriptions - long-term subscriptions make up three quarters of the total - and the service averages 100,000 rentals a day. This past April, less than four years after launching, Vélib' surpassed 100 million total trips. JCDecaux, the company that administers Vélib', calculates that the service has saved 40,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. There is an important lesson for Hamilton: we are not at the mercy of our own past choices. We are where we are today because of a long series of decisions that reflected our values and priorities. If we want our future to look different, we need to make different decisions. It's that simple. One thing is for certain: we can no longer accept the fatalistic sneer "This is Hamilton!" as a legitimate reason not to do something. RYAN McGREAL is the editor of raisethehammer.org. He lives in Hamilton with his family and works as a programmer and writer. rmcgreal@urbanicity.ca

A CRISIS IN OUR MIDST

JOEY COLEMAN

The 2011 Census collection is complete. We won’t see the results for many months, but we can surely expect Hamilton’s poverty indicators will continue to show a crisis in our midst. The McGuinty government declared addressing poverty as one of the top priorities of their second term with a goal of reducing child poverty by 25%. Numbers compiled from StatsCan by Ontario’s Social Planning Network shows that poverty is actually increasing. What can we do? Is there a macro solution to poverty that we are missing? There isn’t a magic bullet, but we are moving in the right direction. The investments made last decade in early learning are starting to produce results in our most povertystricken neighbourhoods. In one of my old neighbourhoods, Crown Point – home to the Hamilton East Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club – the Queen Mary Public School grade 3 classes are showing encouraging and substantial improvements in numeracy and literacy as measured by EQAO scores. In 2005/06, only 21% of Queen Mary’s grade 3 students wrote at or above the provincial standard for

400 Parisians died every year from poor air quality caused by vehicle emissions, galvanizing support for the plan. In 2001, newly-elected mayor Bertrand Delanoe introduced Paris Respire, or "Paris Breathes": Sunday and holiday road closures in the city centre, which drew out the city's latent cyclists, skateboarders and in-line skaters in droves. By 2010, Paris had a 440 kilometre cycling network that spanned the city. Still another 260 kilometres are scheduled to be installed by 2014, for a total of 700 kilometres. (Contrast Hamilton's 2010 cycling plan, which installs 300 kilometres of urban bike lanes and shared lanes over a period of 20 to 40 years. So far, two councillors have already exercised vetoes over bike lanes in their wards.) A major milestone was the July, 2007 launch of Vélib' (a portmanteau of vélo liberté, or "bicycle freedom"), a short-term rental service for utility bicycles. With a fleet of over 20,000 bicycles in 1,800 stations across the city and a rate system that promotes circulation, Vélib' is a particularly elegant solution to a major problem: the difficulty of owning and transporting a bicycle in a Paris apartment. Using Vélib', a commuter can rent a bicycle in the

their age. The provincial average at the time was 64%. In 2009/10, 73% of the grade 3 students met or exceed the standard. The provincial average was 70%. Literacy is important for being able to overcome poverty. We’re moving in the right direction, but what happens to these children when they reach high school and hopefully make it to post-secondary education? Are we doing enough as a community to promote and assist in the obtainment of post-secondary education for our most disadvantaged citizens? We can do more. We need to create the atmosphere for success. I attended the University of Manitoba for my first year of university. On my first day in Winnipeg, I travelled to the Winnipeg Boys and Girls Club to volunteer. The Boys and Girls Club in Hamilton is the primary reason for my success and the Winnipeg Club continued the Club’s support for me. I’ve grown up in Hamilton’s poorest neighbourhoods. Near Christmas of 2004, I was volunteering at a small Boys and Girls Club in north Winnipeg. The poverty in this neighbourhood shocked even me –

how could we as a country allowed for this? I could not help but notice the majority of people in the neighbourhood were First Nations. As I was building relationships with the members of this club, a young boy of no more than age 7 or 8, with a torn shirt and shoes with holes that could barely protect against the summer elements, let alone a Winnipeg winter, started asking me why I was in Winnipeg. He, much like any child in a poor neighbourhood, knew I was an outsider. I tried to avoid telling him I was attending the university. Eventually, he cornered me – I had to tell him “I go to the University of Manitoba.” His reaction shocked me: “That’s awesome, my cousin goes there. I’m going to go to the University of Winnipeg because that’s where my uncle goes.” Growing up, there was no one around me attending McMaster University. A few people went to Mohawk. There was no chance that a child in my neighbourhood would dream of, let alone plan on, attending McMaster. Both universities in Winnipeg offer extensive outreach programs both in Winnipeg’s poverty-

stricken north end and for first generation students on their campuses. We’re making strides with our younger children, but now we need Mohawk, and especially McMaster, to move into our neighbourhoods and build the dream of higher education in all our communities. McMaster’s president Patrick Deane served as Provost of the University of Winnipeg. He knows the positive impact that university is having in overcoming poverty in Winnipeg. I’m hopefully that he’ll bring the best practices of how a university can address poverty to Hamilton. We as a community need to do our part as well. A child born in Hamilton’s wealthier suburbs is nearly guaranteed to attend post-secondary education, most likely university. Why? They have support structures to help them succeed. They have the financial resources to focus on studying rather than working, and they have the mentorship (their parents who attended university) to deal with the challenges of university. A first-generation student rarely enjoys a mentor. For them, the adjustment to university is greater as

attempt to integrate into a foreign culture. I challenge Hamilton’s professional community to make a commitment of both their financial resources and their personal time to lifting young people out of poverty. Be that mentor. Hire a high school student from one of our “Code Red” neighbourhoods during the summer. Be the person they can call in their senior year for homework assistance. Hire them back in subsequent summers. Fund a bursary to assist them in paying for residence during first year. Let’s produce a generation of young professionals who seed future leaders from our most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. We cannot afford to squander the modest, and still inadequate, investment in early years made last decade. It’s time to step up to the plate. JOEY COLEMAN is one of Hamilton's emerging young journalists living downtown with his smartphone always in hand. You can follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/JoeyColeman. jcoleman@urbanicity.ca

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HAMILTON ONTARIO | CANADA | Published Monthly | JULY 2011 | urbanicity.ca

HAMILTON CENTENNIAL 1913 | Panoramic view of King and James | From the collection of Doreen and Gordon Birk | Head of the Lake Historical Society

“Some say downtown Hamilton is the prettiest place around – from the second floor up.” - Paul Wilson continued from p.1 | HERBERT S. MILLS English china particularly is a magnet for both residents and visitors.” And nobody had china like Herbert S. Mills on King Street, just east of James. Herbert’s been gone forever. But this spring, out of nowhere, he returned. History was peeled back to reveal his name once again, in gold letters on the glass over the door at No. 11. Herbert’s ghostly visit has stirred things up at this address. Suddenly City Hall wants repairs down here and the owner of the premises wants some breathing room. The five-storey building went up in 1903. Look up, way up, and you’ll see the date. Some say downtown Hamilton is the prettiest place around – from the second floor up. So it is at Mills. The façade of those upper floors is an architectural smorgasbord – decorative brick and terra-cotta piers, round-arched windows, pressed-metal

ornamentation. The store was a destination. This was the place for Royal Albert mugs, cups, saucers. Wedgwood’s Purple Aster place settings. Mills had every pattern, new and old. The mother of U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt arrived here in the ’30s to shop for the White House. Mills opened that night with all staff on duty so she could browse. The store is a slim slice of history right now, because two-thirds of the original Mills department store building has vanished behind a towering metal-screen wall. At No. 15, it’s Subway. Next door, at No. 17, Money Mart. Both addresses were originally part of the Mills store. They have the same fabulous fivestorey facades, though hidden these many years. Only No. 11 offers the original view from the street. It now houses a shop called Urban Alley, hip-hop clothing a specialty. It opened about seven years ago.

The owner is George Majithia. His son Rishi runs the store. A rigid banner over the front door spelled out the store name. But a wicked windstorm this spring carried that banner away. And lo and behold, the Herbert S. Mills name was revealed. Rishi is 31 and has not lived in Hamilton long. But he knew the old Mills name meant something. “Many people have noticed it,” he says. “They take pictures.” Unfortunately for Rishi, the city noticed too specifically that the façade of the 108-year-old building is in a general state of disrepair. An order-to-comply arrived with instructions to get the place fixed up – repair fascia, replace a boardedup window, paint all surfaces. Or, said the order from City Hall, “clear the property of all buildings” by July 2. In short, level the place. A strange option to offer – this address is on the

city’s official inventory of historical buildings. Rishi is not planning to tear it down. He would like to make the place look better and knows there are city programs available to help with that. Trouble is, there have taxes owing on the property – more than $60,000. The city won’t be handing out any restoration money while taxes are behind. Rishi says his father is taking out a line of credit on his house to pay those back taxes. But he’s not sure what will be left for repairs. Rishi says the cheaper route could be to just cover over the historic façade with screening, the way they’ve done next door. But no one wants that. The space on those four upper floors is vast – and woefully underutilized. On the second floor, the embossed-tin ceiling and stained- glass windows are still in place. A big front window gives a grimy but unparalled view of Gore Park. On the floors above, the lines of empty pine storage

shelves, longer than bowling lanes, are still there. I toured this space in 1985 for The Spectator, when Mills China was closing down. They were auctioning off cash registers, coat racks, and padded velvet chairs used only by well-heeled husbands waiting for wives to pick their place settings. I took readers inside the men’s marble-partitioned washroom on the third floor and mentioned that beside the sink was one well-thumbed copy of Readers’ Digest from June 1976. In the summer of 2011, it’s still there. PAUL WILSON blew into town 30 years ago to work at the Hamilton Spectator and learned to love this place. For most of his career at The Spec, he wrote a three-times-a-week column called StreetBeat. He recently stepped away from that to become a citizen at large. pwilson@urbanicity.ca

| EXPERIENCES p.7

Mills/Northways building in the 1940’s, and at right as it looks today | Two photos on right by regbeaudry.com

JAMIE TENNANT

The Brott Music Festival is an unusually diverse, wideranging classical music festival, now in its 24th year. This year, the Festival continues its heritage of diversity while sticking mainly to a classic repertoire. To wit: famous arias, duets, trios and quartets from operas; 15-year-old pianist Jan Lisiecki playing the music of Liszt; Italian high teas; a performance of Carmen; Broadway hits; adventurous mixed media group The Joe Trio, and even a program featuring the music of the Eagles (yes, the Eagles). On the surface, the Brott Festival is a series of musical performances - but there is an element of the Festival that ticket-buyers may not consider, even while in attendance. That element is the National Academy Orchestra. “The concentration of the festival has always been on the National Academy Orchestra itself,” says Brott. “It’s young people – aged sort of 28 to 35 – dedicated

THE BROTT FESTIVAL: Building audiences and a creative community to music; who decided to make music their profession. Every year from some 450 people auditioned this year, for example, for 50 spaces – so it’s the cream of the crop of young performers.” A newly popular slogan in Hamilton is “Art is the new steel,”. That's not meant to be taken literally; it's meant to suggest possibilities, to promote our burgeoning art scene, and to challenge old ways of thinking about Hamilton - Jamie Tennant

The N.A.O. provides an opportunity for emerging young Canadian professional musicians to work as apprentice musicians alongside established professionals from some of Canada's finest orchestras. The N.A.O. aren’t just a group of young performers, they’re a group of young professionals. They are dedicated to an art, and to perfecting their

performance – but they’re also encouraged to think about music from an entrepreneurial perspective. While over 1500 people have been graduated to major orchestras over the years, those coveted spaces are few and far between. Brott has the N.A.O. undertake different types of performances for different artists, hoping to encourage new ways of thinking. Speaking about a recent set of children’s concerts, he says, “I want [N.A.O. members] to see how they can engender a connection with a school audience. Some day that might provide the meat and potatoes. The income. They might choose to be developers in a smaller centre, to bring the string quartet or brass ensemble to Moose Factory and start a musical industry there.” Brott believes that his festival and orchestra have the duty –self-created though it may be – to give those entering the profession the tools they need to be

entrepreneurs. It takes classical music out of the ethereal realm and back down to earth – which is where the audience happens to live, after all. “We consider ourselves a grassroots organization,” says Brott. “We’re not after the hoi polloi of the city to show off their fur coats, which in July is difficult anyway. It’s not who our audience is. Our audience is young people.” A newly popular slogan in Hamilton is “Art is the new steel,”. That’s not meant to be taken literally; it’s meant to suggest possibilities, to promote our burgeoning art scene, and to challenge old ways of thinking about Hamilton. In spirit, the Brott Festival dovetails with the recent artistic zeitgeist. Hamilton has never been seen as such a creative hotbed. However, now it only seems right for the N.A.O.to attract young professional musicians from across Canada to Hamilton, and to plug them in to our

creative community. “I think the city’s future depends on its ability to attract and keep young people,” says Brott. “[The Festival strives] to give young people an opportunity to do something, to be creative within the city itself, whether they live here and work elsewhere, or work here and live elsewhere.” The Brott Festival is about musical performances, but local legacy grows even stronger with every artist it introduces to our city. Learn more at www.brottmusic.com JAMIE TENNANT is the Program Director at 93.3 CFMU FM, the campus-based community station at McMaster University. jtennant@urbanicity.ca

continued from p.1 | VIETNAM “Lemon Grass” is a small restaurant (45 seats - the perfect size for me) with the most efficient and welcoming waitresses. The menu is so extensive that you must visit often so that you can experience everything. I especially love ordering the rare beef Pho (which is a meal in itself) and then to share any of the other items on the menu with a friend. Sharing can be a problem though, as I like my dishes spicy. If you wish to experience this lovely little taste of Vietnam, be prepared to wait in line for a few minutes. Their take-out trade is just as busy as their dining room. Also on the mountain is a relatively new restaurant called “Spice Avenue” on Upper James. Another little gem serving traditional Thai/Vietnamese cuisine. The

décor is beautiful and once again the service is pleasant and attentive. The menu offers something for everyone’s taste. Both restaurants offer dishes well within our budgets. The food is divine and the service welcoming, quick and efficient. Finally if you are in the Bala area this summer, drop into “Skhooters Smokehouse and BBQ”. Our son Jason, a chef, has finally realized his dream of owning his own restaurant. Drop in, say hi, and order the ribs or pulled pork. But be certain to take a bib! MURLINE MALLETTE is the Executive Director/Owner of Liaision College of Culinary Arts Hamilton Campus. mmallette@urbanicity.ca Spice Avenue on Upper James Street in Hamilton | photograph by Martinus Geleynese

p.8

"Acting and photography are very much alike in that they are both forms of storytelling." - Sabrina Armani

Sabrina Armani taking a quick break during a wedding shoot | photograph by regbeaudry.com

LIAISON COLLEGE

STORYTELLER |

Sabrina Armani

WHY IS LIAISON COLLEGE THE LARGEST TRAINER OF CHEFS IN CANADA?

She's an actress and photographer. Sabrina Armani is a powerful storyteller.

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She's got 'story' in her. Stories that are her own, and stories of the many others that she is moved by. These stories are what drive her to do what she does best—acting and photography. “Acting and photography are very much alike in that they are both forms of storytelling. In photography the audience waits to see a story through an image captured in time. The subject that is photographed will never be the same again. As an actress, however, the story is told to the audience in a real-time live experience. Both arts involve telling of a part in the stage that is life” says Armani. Two years ago this August, Sabrina was brutally assaulted while living in Toronto. Walking home one night, Sabrina and her date were jumped by two attackers. Sabrina was one of 16 victims randomly assaulted in the summer of 2008. “There was a moment when I was on the ground—I had no choice but to just continue to lie there. I didn't feel anything. I was numb. I was in shock. And I had NO voice. I had a feeling that one more kick and this time it could be my head, and I would be toast. That would be the end. But something in me…I don't know what…somehow I got up. I did get up...I did have a gun to my head. And, thank God, I did get away.” Sabrina clearly remembers lying on the ground and observing the way the streetlights hit the pavement while she was being kicked over and over again on her back. Shocked and beaten, she hasn't been silenced. She has moved back to Hamilton since, and is more impassioned than ever to tell her stories. To tell them as she acts, and to tell them when taking her photos.

LLOYD D JACKSON SQUARE Unit 260 Upper Level 2 King St. W. Hamilton Ontario, L8P 1A1 liaison.hamilton@sympatico.ca liaisonhamilton.ca 905.308.9333

Sabrina Armani is full of stories—some are told by just a quick look in her eyes.

-RB

p.9

IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK | The Club's first Chairperson, in 1872, was the Honourable Isaac Buchanan whose stately home, Auchmar, stands today on the north-east corner of West 5th and Fennell Avenue.

The new Club was looking for suitable accommodations and approached Charles Magill, who served in Canada's first Parliament in 1867, and agreed to purchase his house at the corner of James Street South and Main Street for $10,000. The house stands today, although it has been expanded twice.

After renovations to Magill's house, the Hamilton Club opened its doors on July 23, 1873. The founding members requested that Bass Ale be available at the bar.

Inside the Hamilton Club

There have been two additions to the Club since it opened. The first opened in 1908 and was, according to Club records, designed by architect John Lyle (Central Presbyterian Church, the Royal Alexandria Theatre, Union Station). It includes the building to the east of Magill's original house.

The second addition was built to the rear of the Club and along James South. Opened in 1960 and designed by architect Lester Husband, the new wing was originally the “Women's Annex”. It is now the new Business Lounge.

Photographs by Martinus Geleynse

ROBERT LEAKER

Do you own your home? Then congratulations! You have already made one of the most important investments of your life. Home ownership is the one investment you can see, feel and experience every day. Pride in ownership makes Hamilton a better place to live, work and play. Furthermore, owning a home is one of the most profitable investments you can make. Helmut Pastrick, the lead economist for Credit Union Central Canada (The central bank for credit unions), recently stated that one of his greatest regrets was

WHY OWN A HOME IN HAMILTON? that he did not purchase his own home sooner. I’ll summarize a few of his points, along with my own below. In general, home ownership is the best, equity, leveraged, inflation-proof, tax-sheltered investment you can make. First off, you’re buying a hard asset that generally appreciates in value over time. Real estate, as an investment, is solid when compared to the markets. Since 1961, the Toronto Stock Exchange has yielded about an 8 to 10 percent compounded rate of return

including dividends. Real estate has yielded roughly a 7 percent compounded rate of return. But, if you hold a mortgage (i.e. if you have loans outstanding against your property) it becomes a “leveraged” investment and your real rate of return can exceed 10 percent. This is an example of using “good debt” to your net worth advantage. Best of all, you can live in your investment while it appreciates. While I own a modest portfolio of stocks that go up and down, I enjoy the equity in my home everyday Secondly, in Hamilton, as. in most of Canada,

housing prices have continued to rise with demand for housing generally outpacing supply. Owning a home will insulate you from these increased costs of living, and where cost of living is rising faster than inflation (like it is in Hamilton), you can build real equity. Of course there are lots of ongoing utility, maintenance and repair costs built into your mortgage payments, but do you really avoid these by renting? In general, landlords are typically looking for a 10% return on their investments. So as a renter, you are most likely paying for those costs through your rent

payments anyway – and then some. Finally, capital gains experienced on the sale of your principle residence are exempt from taxes. Owning a high value property is an effective means to shelter your net worth. When you need the cash for retirement, you can downsize without losing equity to taxes. ROBERT LEAKER is the Vice-President of Emerging Markets and Innovation at Meridian Credit Union. rleaker@urbanicity.ca