A Missed Opportunity

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "As I Was Walking Down The Street":

Could the renting of the Hydro building been all a plan for the Parks and Public work dept. to get their brand new building?  Interesting  thought.

Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 16 August 2014 00:23

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Every now and again,I almost come to the conclusion it's not reasonable to expect people to be interested in the nitty gritty that exist between the lines in politics. I wonder if I'm wasting mine 
and everybody else's time by repeating the  details every time the picture evolves further.

Then I get a comment like the one above and I know I'm not.

Leasing the hydro building had nothing to do with the works and parks department's need for new facilities. 

The building  and yard was perfect for the parks department?  They had the artisan skills to build park furniture better than any. And all the space they needed in the yard for storage of  heritage salvage. The property had the capacity for future growth.  The office was being used for storage of  town
archives.

With the parks department  accommodated in the Hydro property,the site on Scanlon Court was big
enough for the works department to be rebuilt  with space to spare for future needs.

We had retained a space needs consultant. He advised the hydro property was needed for exactly how we were using it. We paid for that advice with taxpayer's money and ignored it in the haste to accommodate the Queen's York Rangers.

There never was  a need to buy and remediate a new site . Never the need for $27 million of debt.

The plan to  kick the parks department out  and lease the  hydro building  to the Rangers was the same as the one to pirate Church Street School away from the museum and give it to the "culture crowd."  Both were done in the same secretive under-handed way.

Neither plan  ever more than puerile politics by a gang of no-minds who believed catering to the"elite" was the  yellow brick road.

They never understood the community they served.

Who would have thought  the  process would dredge up a second group similarly ill-equipped
But without the evil intent?

In four years no effort was made to correct  the problems created and less still  was accomplished  save for a ton load of flim-flammery.

The photo of the Mayor  last week receiving a cheque for $750,000 from land developers;It was for the hospital . Why was the Mayor receiving it? Whose feeble  notion of promotion was that? Was that   using Town resources for political purpose? I think so.

A  second photo planned of an empty site with the CAO , the Director of Infrastructure and.

Environment Services  a contractor ,an architect, a candlestick- maker and any other hangers-on who want to get into the picture;  is that not also using town resources for political purpose?

A couple of months ago the Director of  Legislative  Services recommended a Bylaw prohibiting the use of town  resources for political purpose. The idea was rejected. I could not see what town resources  there were to be abused.  I never would have thought of such blatancy.

Remember the radio interview I told you about with  Michael Ignatieff. He had written a book about losing the election . He acknowledged not understanding until the night before the election...that it wasn't about him. ...it was about the people who were looking to him to help them with their problems.

He  publicly admitted he never understood until he faced the reality he had lost the election.

He blew the opportunity that came his way.