Each month, I do a Cityist column for The Graham Crawford Show. It’s usually about an issue, or an idea to overcome an issue, or to take advantage of an opportunity. This edition is much more personal. It’s about my first Christmas in Hamilton, having arrived from England in the summer of 1959.
The memories are simple. Told through the eyes of a child. But they are as clear to me today as they were that Christmas almost 60 years ago.
I hope you enjoy it. It’s the first time I’ve really had a way of sharing those immigrant memories with others - through this podcast that Dave Beatty, Alex Zafer and I have created each week since May of 2016. We thank you so much for listening and for commenting. Both mean a great deal to us.
To all of you, from all of us, Merry Christmas Hamilton.
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The Graham Crawford Show, with your host Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
Visit the official Graham Crawford Show website
The weather outside is frightful, so that must mean it’s Christmas time. That’s why I asked Paul if he would select a Christmas-themed column to share with us on this seasonal podcast.
Paul selected a column he called: Marie’s first Canadian Christmas tree. It appeared in the Hamilton Spectator on December 17, 2008.
It’s a truly beautiful story, beautifully written by Paul. Be sure to sit by the Christmas tree as you listen to this one.
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The Graham Crawford Show, with your host Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
Visit the official Graham Crawford Show website
He’s served at two levels of government, one as a Conservative MPP in Ontario, where he was a cabinet minister of two ministeries (Transportation and Labour), the other as Councillor for Ward 9 in Stoney Creek from 2006 to 2014. He ran for Mayor in 2014 where he placed second to current Mayor Fred Eisenberger and ahead of Brian McHattie.
His name is Brad Clark.
In this interview, Brad shares his views on the current state of City Council and the issues being debated such as LRT, affordable housing, ward boundary review as well as the impact the working culture is having on performance. All in all, a straight ahead discussion with someone who’s been there.
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The Graham Crawford Show, with your host Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
Visit the official Graham Crawford Show website
A neighbourhood that’s healthy makes the people who live in it healthier - mentally, physically and socially. A neighbourhood, by definition, is more than just the building where you go to sleep each night. A neighbourhood is as much a way of thinking as it is a way of living. If you love your neighbourhood, chances are that affection is about much more than asphalt and sidewalks and bricks and mortar and paint colours.
In this episode of The Cityist, you and I are going to go on visit to your own neighbourhood. That’s right. Your very own neighbourhood.
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The Graham Crawford Show, with your host Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
Visit the official Graham Crawford Show website
We’re calling this show a Civic Panel Mélange, because rather than focusing on a single topic or theme, we felt that there’s just too much going on to limit our discussion. So why don’t you pour yourself a coffee, or a tea, or something stronger, and join us for our free flowing, and very passionate, yap about all things Hamilton politics including:
The Conflict Interest Troika: Ranked Balloting, Ward Boundaries and Area Rating Affordable Housing on Pier 8: Good start or poor outcome?
The LRT Debate: Has Council gone mad?
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The Graham Crawford Show, with your host Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
Visit the official Graham Crawford Show website
LRT. Affordable housing. Ranked balloting. Ward boundary review. Area rating. Downtown casino. Biggest disappointment this term. Biggest accomplishment this term. Just some of the things I talk about with our special guest, Mayor Fred Eisenberger, on this very lively edition of The Graham Crawford Show.
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The Graham Crawford Show, with your host Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
Visit the official Graham Crawford Show website
You’ve probably heard of the term “Ward of the State”. It refers to a situation where the court takes responsibility for the well-being of an individual.
I’d like to turn those words around and redefine them at the same time.
Think of it as: State of the Ward. In this case, I’d like it to refer to a situation where the Councillor discusses the well-being of their constituents.
I’d like to suggest that we get our Councillors to formally present their own State of the Ward every year throughout the month of January about what’s happened over the previous year in the Ward, including plans, progress and remaining challenges.
I’m not looking to add more work to the Councillor’s job. What I am looking for is some focus. And some sharing. And some learning.
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The Graham Crawford Show, with your host Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
Visit the official Graham Crawford Show website
On this edition of the Cityist - Can We Afford This Kind of Thinking About Affordable Housing? I talk about the decision by Councillors to finally include some affordable housing (of the affordable home ownership variety) on Pier 8.
The 5% commitment is too low, but it’s a lot higher than what Chad Collins, and others, had planned for Pier 8. In fact, it’s really the lowest it could be and still be able to talk about a percentage. After all, who would talk about setting aside 2 1/2% of the units for affordable housing? I think we should have stepped out a bit more and talked in terms of 15%. Perhaps even higher.
Staff have been complicit in deflecting questions about a commitment to affordable housing on Pier 8 from residents for almost 2 years. So many people who attended those many West Harbour public meetings spoke so passionately, and tenaciously, in support of more affordable housing - many of them from the neighbourhoods where the housing would be located.
That speaks to a kind of kindness and compassion on which truly great cities are built. They put what was best for most ahead of any personal gain or concern. For me, this was a hugely meaningful moment in Hamilton’s history - people wanting to make more room in their own neighbourhoods for people who need a little bit of help.
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The Graham Crawford Show, with your host Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
Visit the official Graham Crawford Show website
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The Graham Crawford Show, with your host Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
Visit the official Graham Crawford Show website
This edition of the Cityist is called A Story About Storeys - The Height of Arrogance.
One use of the word story refers to a narrative. The other, refers to a building.
In Hamilton, we build too many brand new public buildings that are one and two storeys tall. On land we own. And that we control, both in terms of value and zoning. Why?
Why do we not take advantage of the situation and increase the height and the uses of buildings we build using tax revenues? We continue to build one storey community centres instead of adding a few storeys of affordable housing, or seniors housing. Or a library. Or anything. We’re about to do it again on the LRT line in the stadium precinct where we’re building the Bernie Morelli Community Centre. One storey that tells another story.
This week on The Graham Crawford Show.
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The Graham Crawford Show, with your host Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
Visit the official Graham Crawford Show website
Today’s show is all about things that never happened. And if you’re wondering how we can fill a show about that, then you don’t know my guest.
His name is Mark Osbaldeston. He’s a senior lawyer by day and an author by night and by weekend. Mark discusses his latest book called Unbuilt Hamilton - The City That Might Have Been.
It’s available now at booksellers throughout the City and beyond and I simply can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s a fascinating read. It’s also the focus of an exhibition running currently at the Art Gallery of Hamilton through to February of 2017.
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The Graham Crawford Show with your host, Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
In the Paul Wilson edition of The Graham Crawford Show we talk to Paul about a column from August 30, 2016 that he called: Movie time: wonder in the woods, worry at the Westdale.
From the Highlands Cinema in Kinmount near Bobcaygeon to the much loved Westdale theatre in Hamilton, Paul and I talk movies, where we used to watch them in Hamilton, and how we watch them now.
We also reminisce about the first movies we saw as kids. A cinematic trip down memory lane in Hamilton. Have a listen, we think you'll enjoy it.
Link to Paul's Hamilton Spectator column: http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/6829598-movie-time-wonder-in-the-woods-worry-at-the-westdale/
The Graham Crawford Show with your host, Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
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The Graham Crawford Show with your host, Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
THE REAL STARS OF HAMILTON’S WALK OF FAME
Here are two names you know. Eugene Levy and Martin Short. Both Hamilton boys. Both students at Westdale High School. Both well known as celebrities in the entertainment world. Some Councillors want to create a way to honour people like Levy and Short. That’s just fine.
But why do we want to celebrate people because they were born here versus celebrating them for what they did here.
When does celebrity become the hallmark of what represents us as a city? Why is it that we would talk more about someone who came from here, but who might not have contributed much locally other than perhaps being the celebrity draw for a fundraising event?
What about civic contribution? What about silent, unrecognized, civic volunteerism, year-after-year, that touches peoples lives in unheralded ways? That shapes a kid’s future. That helps a young adult believe in him or herself? That makes the lives of seniors just a little bit more comfortable? That makes living in our city easier, more fun, more rewarding? What about those people?
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The Graham Crawford Show, with your host Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
Visit the official Graham Crawford Show website
The idea isn’t a new one. For decades, organizations have been encouraged to see things through the eyes of the people who use their services. What if all members of staff, all members of the Senior Management Team, every Councillor, the Mayor, and all of the contractors the City hires saw things through our eyes as they deliver the services they deliver? What if resident-centred thinking was evident in all interactions we had with our City? Our regular Civic Panel explores that simple premise.
Thank you to our regular Civic panel, Ryan McGreal, Maureen Wilson and Peter Graefe.
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The Graham Crawford Show with your host, Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
The other day, I was looking at some old photographs that had to do with my parents - Jim and Marie. The photographs were not of my parents, but about my parents. They featured friends of theirs who had taken photos of themselves sitting on and around a bench on the pier at Port Dover that my sister Gillian and I had commemorated in our parent’s honour after they died.
My parents’ friends were celebrating my dad’s birthday. They had tied balloons to the bench. I could read my parent’s names on the back of the bench in the photos. That simple act of memory and of friendship, meant a lot to me. It told me my parents were still being remembered years after they had died. And that got me thinking about Hamilton. And about benches. And about memories. Our collective memories. As Hamiltonians. So, I asked my Councillor, Jason Farr, if he knew if we had a commemorative bench program. What I found out is what this edition of The Cityist is all about.
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The Graham Crawford Show with your host, Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
This show is about doughnuts and Hamilton. Through the eyes and writing of journalist Paul Wilson in the Paul Wilson edition of The Graham Crawford Show.
We begin on Ottawa Street at the very first Tim Hortons outlet and work our way through some of the other Tim Hortons that both Paul and I remember in our lives - some of which are still there.
Why not pour yourself a coffee and ‘fritter’ away some time with us?
The Graham Crawford Show. Always fresh.
Read Paul Wilson's article in The Spec: http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/5330111-paul-wilson-our-doughnut-museum-got-built-just-in-time/
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The Graham Crawford Show with your host, Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
This episode of the Graham Crawford Show is all about Adaptive Reuse - the practice of re-imagining heritage buildings and breathing new life into them. Creating familiar, yet updated streetscapes.
Too many developers see an old building as just old. Past its prime. Better destroyed than developed. But some enlightened developers, like our guest Steve Kulakowsky of Core Urban, look at an old building and see history and opportunity. And every great developer knows he or she can’t do it alone and that one of their most important partners is a good architect - like our guest Rick Lintack of Lintack Architects. And every finished adaptive reuse project needs clients who are prepared to buy or to lease space in a building that has some heritage - like our guest James Lefebvre of FirstOntario Credit Union. Between them, they contribute to a very lively discussion about big changes with familiar faces.
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The Graham Crawford Show with your host, Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
Straight talk about the Councillor from Ward 8 and his so-called "report".
As you probably know, Ward 8 Councillor Terry Whitehead produced a 58 page ‘report’, and I use the term loosely, that was essentially a Googled grab bag of articles and documents related to LRT.
For me, what’s just as troubling as is the report’s content, is the report’s intent. Why would a Councillor choose to spend money from residents creating a report when we have professional staff and consultants who do that very thing for a living? Why did the Councillor choose not to ask staff to do this kind of anti-LRT research if he had misgivings about the validity of the data that was being used by staff, by Metrolinx, and by municipalities and higher levels of government throughout North America, Europe and most of the rest of the world?
I think we need to question Councillor Whitehead’s actions. Or, for that matter, any Councillor who would choose to do something similar.
In this edition of the Cityist, I list 10 things to question.
Click below and listen to the podcast.
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Graham Crawford Show with your host, Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
Produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton
There are many different types of public engagement in Hamilton. Sometimes, public engagement is part of a legislated requirement related to certain kinds of public projects where residents must be consulted in order for projects to meet provincially legislated requirements. Other kinds of public engagement are driven by a goal to understand what residents would like to see happen. Sometimes that goal is real. Sometimes, it feels more like theatre.
On this edition of The Graham Crawford Show, our regular Civic Panel, Maureen Wilson, Peter Graefe and Ryan McGreal, discuss public engagement. What’s working well. What isn’t. And what we could be doing better.
Link to the IAP2 Spectrum of Participation model as referenced in this episode.
http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.iap2.org/resource/resmgr/imported/IAP2%20Spectrum_vertical.pdf
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The Graham Crawford Show with your host, Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
It’s still there. Just beyond the High Level Bridge off York Blvd. A secret garden that was part of the grand plan for Hamilton’s Western Gateway Project from the 1920’s.
It’s a fascinating story shared by our regular guest, Paul Wilson.
If you haven’t seen it, chances are you’ll want to after listening to this engaging interview with one of the Spectator’s favourite columnists.
Be sure to check out the historical photographs via this link that were part of Paul’s column from May 9, 2016.
http://www.thespec.com/living-story/6545580-paul-wilson-secret-garden-slumbers-at-city-s-front-door/
The Graham Crawford Show with your host, Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
We invited the 4 Councillors whose Wards the new B-Line LRT will run through to sit down to discuss why they supported LRT, which they all do. Each of them was quick to accept our invitation.
This edition of The Graham Crawford Show features Councillors Aidan Johnson, Jason Farr, Matthew Green and Sam Merulla in what can only be described as a lively discussion about all things LRT. Their comments and insights are most definitely worth a listen. Hope you enjoy the show.
Click to Hamilton Light Rail Initiative for more about LRT
Click to the City of Hamilton website for more about LRT
Click here for a list of City of Hamilton Councillors Contact Information
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The Graham Crawford Show with your host, Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.
If you think Cultural Planning is all about museums and art and concerts and theatre, please listen to this interview with Jeremy Freiburger of CoBALT Connects on this edition of The Graham Crawford Show.
Jeremy shares his expertise about the full meaning of culture in our community and how it impacts how we experience our neighbourhoods and our city. Whether you’re raising a child, or aging successfully, this is a discussion you won’t want to miss.
Click to visit CoBALT Connects
Click to visit Expressing Vibrancy
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The Graham Crawford Show with your host, Graham Crawford
Executive Producer: Alex Zafer
All shows are produced and recorded by Dave Beatty at Q.E.D. Media in downtown Hamilton.