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city hall

Saturday October 15, 2022

October 15, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 15, 2022

New Hamilton council must grow political will to tackle complex and polarizing issues

Of the myriad issues and challenges facing Hamilton’s new city council, few are as complex and polarizing as homelessness and the drug epidemic that continues to take a horrific toll.

Glorious architecture gallery

Mental health, poverty, addictions, safe and secure housing — all are at play in one big tangled Gordian knot. But if the new council just begins with a sense of urgency and addresses some of the pieces, it will already have achieved what the current council has not.

To begin, we need a broad and official acknowledgment that what is happening now isn’t working. While no one wants to see tent encampments in the lower city or elsewhere, the solution cannot simply be to tear them down and displace the residents. All that does is move the problem from one place to another, making it more difficult to serve this challenged population.

We have empathy for residents who feel less safe and inconvenienced by the presence of encampments, but there is no sweeping this under the rug.

What we need is more stable and secure housing options. The current council hasn’t done nearly enough. A part of the solution could be the HATS initiative which would see homeless people accommodated in purpose-built small shelters, clustered together for optimal service delivery. Tiny shelter communities are working in many other places in Canada and the U.S., including as close as Kitchener.

Some Hamilton councillors have expressed support for HATS, but that support is typically accompanied by a list of locations where they don’t want the settlement to be. Everyone can agree the idea should help, but no one wants to see in their ward. That’s not real support. In other cases local government has actually become actively involved in the project, but here council has been hands off. The private group driving the pilot project is seeking a site, and if they find one on private property, HATS could come to life. But it will be in spite of city council, not because of it.

Similarly, consider the opioid epidemic. Three years ago, city hall recognized the need for more supervised consumption and treatment services sites (CTS) that are proven to save lives by having resources on hand to help overdose victims. The limited services running now are literally saving lives, but the supply of CTS sites is far from adequate.

October 1, 2022

We know the city needs more. Community groups are actively working on plans for more, but they are facing opposition from residents, in particular in the lower city. Their argument goes something like: Inner city wards already house an above average number of services and shelters, so the needed CTS capacity should be in some other part of the city. The problem with that is that the population that needs the service isn’t someplace else, and it doesn’t make much sense to open a CTS site where drug users won’t use it.

It is worth noting here that city staff are not the issue. They are already working with others on the ground with community partners. What’s missing is political will. It is our fervent hope that a new council and mayor will change that. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

From sketch to finish, see the current way Graeme completes an editorial cartoon using an iPencil, the Procreate app, and a couple of cheats on an iPad Pro …

https://mackaycartoons.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2022-1015-LOC.mp4

 

Posted in: Hamilton Tagged: 2022-34, architecture, city hall, council, councillor, election, Hamilton, integrity, politician, procreate

Hamilton City Hall Cartoon Gallery

October 15, 2022 by Graeme MacKay
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Posted in: Hamilton Tagged: 2022-34, architecture, city hall, Hamilton, hamilton city hall

Friday July 22, 2022

July 22, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday July 22, 2022

Ontario planning to bring in ‘strong mayor’ system for Toronto and Ottawa

Toronto Mayor John Tory welcomed the prospect of gaining more authority as the province considers introducing a strong-mayor system, while critics warned that the city has recent evidence of the risk of empowering its top politician.

July 28, 2018

Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday the policy shift was being planned for Toronto and Ottawa and it could eventually be expanded to other large cities.

Although specifics about the new powers were still being sorted out, Mr. Ford said the mayors would have veto authority on certain issues that come before council. This could then be overruled by a two-thirds majority of council members.

Under the current system, Toronto’s mayor has only one vote on council but has considerable power to manage issues and lean on councillors for support. Mr. Tory has been able to enact his agenda through two terms without losing any substantive council votes.

Posted in: Ontario Tagged: 2022-23, city hall, Doug Ford, Frankenstein, mayor, municipal, Ontario, parody, Strong mayor

Friday July 5, 2002

July 5, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday July 5, 2002

City, developer lay claim to cannon

A 19th-century cannon that withstood the siege of Sebastopol during the Crimean War has become the centrepiece of a battle between a developer and the city of Hamilton.

Angelo Riccio, of Brampton-based Varcon Construction Co., says the Russian cannon, which stood guard front of the Royal Hamilton Military Institute for three decades, belongs to him.

Glorious architecture gallery

The city, however, says the cannon belongs to the citizens of Hamilton, and Ward 2 Councillor Andrea Horwath is talking about speaking to lawyers.

“They knew it was our property,” Horwath said yesterday at a special meeting of the city’s Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee (LACAC).

The cannon was removed Saturday from the Robinson and Park streets landmark, which Riccio started tearing down last week ahead of city efforts to try to designate it a heritage building.

Riccio — who was granted a demolition permit from the city two weeks ago — said yesterday he removed the cannon and placed it in storage for safekeeping after receiving calls about it last week. He said he has no intention of selling it, but he wants the cannon to be displayed on the property again if and when it’s developed, as a reminder of the site’s military heritage.

“I want the city to show me proof of ownership,” Riccio said. “It came with the property.” (Hamilton Spectator)

 

Posted in: Hamilton Tagged: Alfred Lord Tennyson, Bob Wade, city hall, construction, Crimean War, Hamilton, history

Saturday February 22, 2020

February 29, 2020 by Graeme MacKay

February 22, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 22, 2020

Déjà vu: Commonwealth Games bid feels awfully familiar

There were two significant obstacles standing in Hamilton’s way back in 2002 when the city was lobbying to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games — New Delhi was pushing hard to get the event and Vancouver was in full-court-press mode for the Winter Olympics.

July 25, 2007

The former was a problem because the Commonwealth Games had never been held in India while Canada had hosted four times. The latter was an issue, many experts said, because two multi-sport Games wouldn’t be given to the same country in the same year. The Commonwealth variety would be massively overshadowed by the Olympics.

Whether these folks were prescient or simply guessed well, they turned out to be correct. Vancouver won the right to host the Olympics and Commonwealth voters awarded their Games to India shortly thereafter.

Fast forward 18 years.

From “You Might Be From Hamilton If…”

An organizing group called Hamilton100 is now pushing forward with a pitch to host the 2030 Games on the one-century anniversary of our hosting the British Empire Games, the precursor to the modern Commonwealth Games. Meanwhile, in a crazy twist, New Delhi says it’s interested in hosting again that year (or 2026). And the guy who ran Vancouver’s wildly successful Olympics told that city’s Board of Trade on Thursday that it should launch a bid to host again in 2030 since it already has most of the infrastructure in place.

In a flash, 2020 has become 2002 all over again.

Sort of. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Posted in: Hamilton Tagged: 2020-07, 2030, 2131, City Council, city hall, Commonwealth Games, Cryogenics, Hamilton
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This website contains satirical commentaries of current events going back several decades. Some readers may not share this sense of humour nor the opinions expressed by the artist. To understand editorial cartoons it is important to understand their effectiveness as a counterweight to power. It is presumed readers approach satire with a broad minded foundation and healthy knowledge of objective facts of the subjects depicted.

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