OK, thoughts for the week
First the election:
One week down and what have we seen? Signs - NDP in the west and CPC in the east. A couple of local statements and that's about it. More to come I hope.
Letters to the editor:
Being away for the week of September 4th I missed a doozy of a letter about conditions in Victoria Park and perhaps an opinion about the weekend users, I can't say any more I do not have a copy of the letter written by Art Cockerill. If anyone has it could you send it along. Any way the letter writer, a personal friend of mine, has taken it on the chin for being misguided and perhaps unaware of the real conditions, as neighbours see it, in a couple of rebuttals. The neighbours do not like the influx of users because they abuse the park: monopolising picnic tables, using the Pavilion without a permit, using BBQs, making noise and most unusual of all - defecating on the beach, this is apparently performed inside portable latrines, confrontations with bylaw officers and a whole host of other complaints. But this is tippy toeing around the main issue to some - these weekenders are not white! Obviously a situation to be studied again by Council.
Postscript
I have read Art's letter and find it to be very clear in his criticism of Councillor Spooner beating around the bushes by reporting that he has many complaints about people in the Park but refusing to disclose the main complaint - the visitors' skin colour. Art as usual is calling "a spade a spade". I fear that the legitimate concerns of the residents will confuse the issue by veiling it. The residents should ask themselves if good clean white folk would produce the same complaints. It is the volume of traffic not the kind of traffic that produces problems in the Park.
Here's my speculation:
The Kraft sale is creating a buzz, here's my contribution to the rumour mill. If the buyer uses it for an industrial use who knows who it could be. But if as I suspect the buyer is a deep pocketed commercial/residential developer it could be our old pal Mitch Goldhar. This is the guy who owns "SmartCentres" and builds WallyMarts all over Canada. He is familiar with Cobourg and it's Mayor and Councillors, he even contributed to the longest serving Councillors campaigns, a couple of weeks before the final vote to approve the application, creating quite the local controversy at the time.
The most important piece of this sale is not the buildings, not the land but the sewage capacity allocated to the acreage. Kraft needed a humungeous amount of sewage capacity to be able to run its rice producing line and that capacity has not been reduced, in fact Council has kept it in reserve despite the possibility of using it to forestall the need to build another treatment plant. So the potential to immediately build is enormous.
If this is the case, and I think it may be a long shot, the following rule should apply. We need a Community Centre. This and any other developer should give us one in return for such a windfall sewage capacity.
Just my opinion!
One week down and what have we seen? Signs - NDP in the west and CPC in the east. A couple of local statements and that's about it. More to come I hope.
Letters to the editor:
Being away for the week of September 4th I missed a doozy of a letter about conditions in Victoria Park and perhaps an opinion about the weekend users, I can't say any more I do not have a copy of the letter written by Art Cockerill. If anyone has it could you send it along. Any way the letter writer, a personal friend of mine, has taken it on the chin for being misguided and perhaps unaware of the real conditions, as neighbours see it, in a couple of rebuttals. The neighbours do not like the influx of users because they abuse the park: monopolising picnic tables, using the Pavilion without a permit, using BBQs, making noise and most unusual of all - defecating on the beach, this is apparently performed inside portable latrines, confrontations with bylaw officers and a whole host of other complaints. But this is tippy toeing around the main issue to some - these weekenders are not white! Obviously a situation to be studied again by Council.
Postscript
I have read Art's letter and find it to be very clear in his criticism of Councillor Spooner beating around the bushes by reporting that he has many complaints about people in the Park but refusing to disclose the main complaint - the visitors' skin colour. Art as usual is calling "a spade a spade". I fear that the legitimate concerns of the residents will confuse the issue by veiling it. The residents should ask themselves if good clean white folk would produce the same complaints. It is the volume of traffic not the kind of traffic that produces problems in the Park.
Here's my speculation:
The Kraft sale is creating a buzz, here's my contribution to the rumour mill. If the buyer uses it for an industrial use who knows who it could be. But if as I suspect the buyer is a deep pocketed commercial/residential developer it could be our old pal Mitch Goldhar. This is the guy who owns "SmartCentres" and builds WallyMarts all over Canada. He is familiar with Cobourg and it's Mayor and Councillors, he even contributed to the longest serving Councillors campaigns, a couple of weeks before the final vote to approve the application, creating quite the local controversy at the time.
The most important piece of this sale is not the buildings, not the land but the sewage capacity allocated to the acreage. Kraft needed a humungeous amount of sewage capacity to be able to run its rice producing line and that capacity has not been reduced, in fact Council has kept it in reserve despite the possibility of using it to forestall the need to build another treatment plant. So the potential to immediately build is enormous.
If this is the case, and I think it may be a long shot, the following rule should apply. We need a Community Centre. This and any other developer should give us one in return for such a windfall sewage capacity.
Just my opinion!
2 comments:
Ben, I seem to smell the same stink as you do about the situation in Vic Park. I was trying to locate Art's letter, but couldn;t locate a copy of it. CDS keeps things on its web site for only a week -- other newspapers keep it up longer. If you obtain a copy, please let me know.
When I visited Cobourg last summer, acquaintances told me some off-colour stuff about the park "abuse". I'm white, so they felt they could confide their inner bigotry to me.
If there is any fault, it lies with Spooner and his incompetent management of the park. He knows that large numbers of people come to the park but does bugger all to alleviate it.
And of course, the whiner don't have the moral spine to actually identify the problem with its real name.
Art's letter is quite accurate. The previous summer in Cobourg, I received comments about the park situation and the comments always pertained about the colour of the folks in the park and what they were doing - hogging the tables, leaving litter, etc.
It seemed to me that the real problem with the park is Spooner's incompetent. He is fully aware of the increased volume of traffic in the park but has done a highly inadequate job of preparing for it -- more table, more hiring of students parttime to keep things clean, etc.
I mixed often with immigrants in Toronto, and would sometimes admonish them for staying with "their own kind". While I understood the comfort level they were seeking, I also told them that their new country is great big big and that it was all theirs. I encouraged them to get out of the city to enjoy smaller communities, the north, etc.
They were reticent to do so because of valid fears of how "local folks" receive them. Some Cobourg folk seem to be reinforcing this fear.
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