Saturday January 21, 2017

January 20, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 21, 2017

Music-on-patio plan tabled

City councillors don’t like the sound of a plan to allow musical entertainment on nightclub patios.

July 31, 2014

A pilot project was tabled Tuesday by the city’s planning committee that would have allowed bar owners to feature ambient music on patios in seven districts in the city, some golf courses and other locations in rural areas.

Councillors decided to deal with the issue at a later date after raising concerns about the potential impact on people who live nearby.

Others said it would be unfair to bar patio owners outside the designated districts on James Street North, Hess Village, the bayfront, Augusta Street, part of Upper James Street and Dundas.

Coun. Brenda Johnson said she had concerns about the plan in rural areas because sound can travel great distances in undeveloped landscapes.

Coun. Jason Farr supported the idea, saying it was consistent with Hamilton’s desire to brand itself as a music city.

The noise level would be kept to 60 decibels, which is the same volume as a discussion at an average planning committee meeting, Farr added. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Tuesday April 26, 2016

April 25, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 26, 2016

Ticks that spread Lyme disease are in Hamilton, warns study

Ticks that spread Lyme disease are in Hamilton warns a study accusing the public health department of “under-reporting” the danger and giving “the false impression” acquiring the illness here is unlikely.

“Lyme disease-carrying black-legged ticks pose a public health risk in the Dundas area and the surrounding Hamilton-Wentworth region,” concludes the research by Lyme Ontario published in the International Journal of Medical Sciences.

A Lyme Ontario researcher found 41 per cent of black-legged ticks collected in Dundas over two years were infected with Borrelia burgdorferi — the bacteria that causes the disease.

The results are in stark contrast to a report by Hamilton Public Health Services finding no infected ticks during a five-year period in an area 20 times the size, states the study.

“We point out the difference between what the health unit is saying and what we found out in the field,” said lead researcher John Scott. “There is a notable difference … of over 600 times. I would say their surveillance program isn’t working.”

The study calls for tick and Lyme disease warning signs, deer management strategies and advisories to health-care providers.

“Public Health Services appreciates the work of local researchers with respect to black-legged ticks in Dundas,” said Dr. Jessica Hopkins, an associate medical officer of health, in a statement. “We have just become aware of the recent publication and are in the process of understanding the study and its implications.”

Hamilton is not listed as a Lyme disease risk area by Public Health Ontario.

Local doctors and hospitals were told “Hamilton is not an endemic area and acquiring Lyme disease in the Hamilton area is unlikely” in a medical advisory from the city’s public health department in August 2013 — the same time the Lyme Ontario researchers were finding infected ticks.

“They are downplaying the health risks in this area,” said Stoney Creek Lyme patient Nancy Diklic. “I believe I was bit locally going on 11 years ago. To this day, the local public health unit says Hamilton is not an endemic area.”

She wants proper warnings so residents can take precautions such as covering exposed skin, using insect repellents, doing full bodychecks for ticks, showering within two hours of being outdoors and removing ticks within 24 to 36 hours. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Saturday April 4, 2015

April 2, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 4, 2015

City trashes Good Samaritan for downtown parking lot cleanup

Ted Pundey didn’t expect to be paid for his volunteer cleanup — but he certainly didn’t expect to be fined.

Tired of looking out his downtown condo window at a parking lot full of trash (one the city says has been identified as an illegal dumping “hot spot”), he decided on Tuesday to clean up the mess near King William and John streets himself.

But the intended good deed cost him $125 after he was slapped with a fine by bylaw officers who had witnessed the cleanup — one they alternatively call “illegal dumping.”

“They caught me cleaning,” Pudney — a CBC video editor in Toronto — said Wednesday. When three officers had showed up he was pleased, assuming they were there to help.

But when they handed him a ticket, he was baffled — for one, this wasn’t even his garbage. And he’d stacked the boxes just metres from where he’d collected the trash. In doing so, the city says, he crossed an invisible line in the lot, from private property to a public alleyway portion.

“We have no issues with anybody helping to clean up a property, but if someone is disposing what they’re cleaning up off that property onto city property … then the taxpayer ends up paying for that,” the city’s municipal law enforcement manager Kim Coombs says.

Pudney — who moved from Toronto three months ago — didn’t realize the distinction: “I was doing this strictly to be a good guy. I had no agenda, other than that the area needs some attention.”

He’d purposely stacked the boxes against a posted sign in the alley, advertising designated pick-up times between 10 a.m. and noon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Tuesday August 28, 2012

August 28, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday August 28, 2012

Burlington council takes aim at noisy bikers

What’s with the growth in vehicular volume? As if our roads weren’t noisy enough, we suffer every summer through the return of car stereos with woofers that shake windows and eardrums, motorcycles with modified exhaust systems to make them louder, and customized cars and trucks with modified engines to make them absurdly powerful, not to mention noxiously noisy.

Granted, most of us don’t live in pastoral settings where relative quiet is the norm, but does that mean we have to put up with this din of excessive noise pollution? If the guy next to you at the intersection with his overpowered stereo turned up ridiculously loud was a factory spewing toxic smoke it wouldn’t be long until he faced charges of some sort. But when it comes to noise pollution, we tend to suffer in silence — except for the muttered curses and the sound of grinding teeth.

Burlington Councillor Marianne Meed Ward isn’t suffering silently, though. She says she’s had enough complaints from her constituents about overly loud motorcycles, and she’s trying to do something about it by proposing a new bylaw capping motorcycle volume at 92 decibels — about the same as a jackhammer or loud lawn mower. Other jurisdictions, notably Oakville and Caledon, have adopted similar measures.

This is an interesting and well-intentioned idea, but it’s hard to imagine it being practical or making much of a dent in the overall problem of noise pollution. Perhaps in areas where there is a regular concentration of bikes that have been altered to make them louder than 92 decibels, a bylaw might provide leverage to eliminate the problem or at least move it to another area. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Wednesday June 20, 2012

June 20, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday June 20, 2012

Hamilton Bylaw Enforcement

Sixty per cent of Hamilton’s dog population is not licensed. So it’s entirely appropriate that city council wants to take a hard line to get owners to obey the Responsible Pet Owner bylaw.

Dog owners who won’t obey the law get no sympathy here. Licensing a dog is pretty much a user fee. If you can’t afford to pay the $28 per year to license a spayed or neutered dog, you probably can’t afford the dog, period. The city’s 87,000- strong dog population costs money, everything from leash-free parks to disposing of pet waste to running animal care and euthanasia services. It only makes sense for the people taking advantage of those services — dog owners — to foot part or all of the bill.

And yet, thousands of owners don’t. It’s enough of a problem that Councillor Chad Collins is proposing spot checks by bylaw enforcement, so someone walking their leashed dog could be “pulled over”, so to speak. Random checks without due cause might be a step too far. Still, it’s good to see council and staff acting on this problem. There’s valuable revenue waiting to be collected, and the public would be well-served by a much greater degree of compliance. Source

Meanwhile, Ontario’s deputy chief coroner, Dr. Dan Cass, announced 14 recommendations Monday stemming from a review of 129 cycling deaths over five years, including several high-profile tragedies in Hamilton.

In addition to recommending helmets for adults, Cass also called for mandatory cycling safety lessons in school, side-guards on heavy trucks, more paved shoulders on highways, point-of-sale safety information and beefed-up educational campaigns for both two- and four-wheeled drivers. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)