About 20 cyclists attended last night's council meeting to encourage the city to approve and fund its new cycling master plan.

Councillors unanimously backed the plan without debate, but referred any funding commitments to the budget process.

It will take $51.5 million to implement the integrated cycling network on city streets, a cost of $2.5 million a year if it was completed over 20 years.

Staff recommended the city only commit $1.25 million a year and focus on urban bike lanes.

The investment, which would be staged over numerous years, would more than quadruple the city's designated bike lanes to 566 kilometres.

However, several councillors have expressed concern about the size of the investment, questioning if the bike lanes would be used enough to justify the cost.

They want to consider the expense in relation to the city's other financial demands.

Randy Kay of Transportation for Liveable Communities Hamilton wants the city to fast-track the plan. The yearly price tag, he argued, is affordable and offers the city a cheap way to improve its image.

"Hamilton is moving in the right direction, keep going. Don't be left behind," he said.

"People want choices in their transportation."

In a letter to council, cyclist Brendan Simons said he's lived in several cities, but finds Hamilton the most "hostile to cyclists."

"No matter which roads I take, I have to contend with cars and trucks whizzing by my elbow at 70 plus kilometres per hour," Simons wrote.

Kay said local cyclists intend to follow the plan to next year's budget process.

"We're hoping this is just the start of a campaign to see this through."

Via The Hamilton Spectator

Now that the city has approved the Cycling Master Plan let us see how fast it will be implemented. Cyclists, naturally, want to speed up the process while staff suggested a slow approach.

USMA Hamilton Chapter supports the cyclists in their efforts to convince council to move forward and would hope that Hamilton would take a progressive approach to the resolution of this issue and adopt a cycling and walking friendly policy in all of its decisions.

More cycling routes and a free and expanded public transit system means less money needed for new highways and for the maintenance of existing one.

We would like to sign off on it before we go into the meeting next month so that we wil just need to approve it. Have a look and make your comments, suggestions and proposed amendment soon: Hamilton Chapter Constitution.

Please also find included the Minutes of the May Meeting.

Finally find included the draft Action Plan for 2009-2010. I have attempted to cluster the elements that we have discussed in the past three meetings so that they would make conceptual sense.

We will be having a busy but very year ahead of us.

Please come to the meeting in June as this will be an important one. I will post a event on our facebook group. If you do not have access to facebook please send me your email address at usmahamilton@gmail.com and I will put you on our email newsletter mailing list. You should receive the first edition of our email shortly.

For more information on the activities of our chapter check us out on facebook and on our blog or contact us at usmahamilton@gmail.com

About 200 invitations were sent out to a broad cross-section of community leaders and the event sold out quickly. Tickets for the event were sold for $395, not exactly small change as this represent close to the equivalent of the entire monthly food allocation for some families in downtown Hamilton.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger attended the event and councillors Bob Bratina, Chad Collins, Lloyd Ferguson, Tom Jackson, Dave Mitchell, Rob Pasuta and Terry Whitehead were registered as well.

I may have been interested in the event but I was not invited. Apparently the club is "private" and only those who "matter" could attend which obviously did not include the public at large.

Eisenberger stated that the summit was a priority for him because it fosters collaboration:

"The old way was to let council do it all and then sit back and take shots at it. That doesn't work ... we all have a collective responsibility to do our part to lift all boats."

Councillors were given a special fee of $150, less than half the price of the regular $395 cost of registration.

But Merulla says he won't attend because the chamber is a special interest group pushing an agenda that doesn't include social justice or environmental sustainability.

"They should present (the summit) free of charge to councillors and the community. Ideologically, I can't support it."

Via The Hamilton Spectator

In a letter to the Hamilton Spectator Sam Merulla Stated: "I did not attend the economic summit for a range of reasons. I believe such a summit should be organized by city council, it should be free to attend and, most importantly, open to the public."

We agree that the event should be free and open to the public. It could be organized by city council and that would be a good thing but that is not the only option. It could potentially be organized by neighbourhood councils or by some other organization who, unlike the Chamber of Commerce, would open the doors to all stakeholders.

We had our second meeting a couple of weeks ago.  Four members were present. We continued to plan for our official launch in September. Minutes of the Meeting.

For more information on the activities of our chapter check us out on facebook and on our blog. To join our group just join the facebook group or email us at usmahamilton@gmail.com

Police blocked off the streets so the procession could weave its way from Main Street to James, onto King and north on Bay until it reached the federal building, where the rally landed.

Among chants including "union power," workers carried signs with slogans like, "Layoffs are not solutions," and "Hands off pension + benefits."

New Democrat MP David Christopherson told the crowd this was "the beginning of the biggest fight any government's ever seen in Canada.

"This labour movement and the politics it will generate will not be stopped," he shouted from the top of the steps of the federal building.

The rally, which started with speeches, stories, poems and song at the Hamilton Convention Centre, was organized by Steelworkers Local 1005, the Canadian Labour Congress and the Hamilton District Labour Council.

"The needs of the people can't be treated in such a cavalier and detached manner," Rolf Gerstenberger, head of Local 1005, told the crowd.

The packed house listened for about an hour and a half as labour leaders spoke of the need to maintain jobs and lambasted government inaction, corporate greed and problematic social services, such as employment insurance.

Via The Hamilton Spectator

We hope that this is the beginning of a movement towards change and not just a one time event. USMA supports the efforts of the labour movement to raise the attention of politicians on important issues to the working class as a whole such as Employment Insurance and capitalist greed.

We had our first chapter meeting last Wednesday. Three members were present. We began to elaborate our agenda for the city and discussed how to be recognized as an official group at Mac (McMaster University) in September. Minutes of the Meeting.

For more information on the activities of our chapter check us out on facebook and on our blog. To join our group just join the facebook group or email us at usmahamilton@gmail.com

If you want to use a similar page for your chapter let us know and we will create a News page for your group as well. Submit a short stories with pictures and we will post it for you.

Come back here from time to time to hear what is happening in Hamilton, Ontario.

Our report was on the Agenda for the Committee of the Whole 2009 Budget Public Delegations Agenda for January 22, 2009.

In fact it was the only written submission received by council other than those received by regular recipients of city's funding programs. See the city's agenda here: Agenda for the Committee of the Whole 2009 Budget Public Delegations.

Given that we are a relatively newly formed group we presented a modest agenda to City Council:

1.Public Transportation.

Free Public Transportation for all residents in the City. The cost to the city would be $30 million per year. As an interim measure and movement towards this goal we suggested that the city should offer free bus fare to all residents over the age of 65.

City's response: Hamilton Transit will offer free transit fares for all residents over the age of 85 at a cost of $40,000 per year.

While somewhat disappointed at the modest measure we are encouraged to see City Council moving towards a free public transportation system and USMA Hamilton will come back next year with a more detailed proposal for Council's review.

Increase funding for the creation and maintenance of dedicated bike-lane and bike paths by 10 per cent.

City's response: So far we have seen no movement on this issue.

The city asked all its boards and agencies to stick to a budget target and most complied with the exception of the library who is asking for 5.9 per cent increase to cover the cost of opening a new branch at Turner Park and for increased salaries due to a decision on provincial pay equity legislation.

On the positive side of things the city will be consulting for the elaboration of a new Urban Plan.

The City is developing a new Urban Official Plan - a long term vision of how Hamilton will manage land use planning change over the next 20 years. This will be our chance to provide some feedback on what we think the city should look like within the next 20 years.

2. McMaster University/Mowack Student Housing.

This is a long term issue which does not necessarily have a budget component attached to it. However, it does fall within the city's responsibility and we will continue to raise the issue with counselors and city officials.

3. Creation of Community Councils in Neighbourhoods.

We asked for $25,000 to be allocated towards a study on the creation of neighbourhood councils.

City's response: We have heard nothing on the matter, however, the city does have some neighbourhood policies. We find them inadequate and will be commenting during the upcoming urban plan exercise.

4. Economic Development.

We asked for $200,000 from existing funds over the next four years towards economic development pilot projects with an emphasis on worker-led enterprises and social enterprises.

City's response: No response thus far. We anticipate that this request will not register immediately with the capitalist mindset observed at City Council. We will need to provide much education both to city residents and to council before this type of radical policy gets implemented in a city like Hamilton.

5. Infrastructure.

We recommended to council to pursue an aggressive campaign with regards to seeking additional funding for infrastructure projects. We anticipate that the federal government will have significant funds allocated for public infrastructure projects and we encouraged the city to be bold in its approach.

What is infrastructure? Infrastructure is the construction, repairs or retrofitting of publicly owned projects:

• Airports
• Broadband and phone networks
• Buses and trains for public transit
• Government buildings
  
• Green energy initiatives
• Highways, roads, bridges
• Ice rinks, pools, libraries
• Power grids
• Public Housing
• Schools, hospitals and colleges
• Water and sewer treatment

A 2008 study by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities said that $1 billion spent on upgrading roads, bridges and watermains creates more jobs and a bigger economic boost than a tax break twice that size. Each $1 billion for infrastructure is estimated to create 11,000 jobs.

City's response:

While admittedly not due to our efforts only, the city has taken a bold approach towards infrastructure spending in the coming years. It has asked the federal government for $275 million for infrastructure projects which could begin now:

• $200 million towards a new $700-million wastewater plant
• $60 million for road and bridge repairs
• $8 million for a new downtown transportation terminal
• $6.8 million for hybrid buses

By the way if you google "Hamilton City Council" our blog's post ranks 6th. More exposure means more people will learn about socialism as a practical mean of social change in our community.

Other upcoming projects:

• Submission to the City's Urban Plan consultation process
• Establish a real presence for USMA Hamilton outside of facebook
  
• Establish 15 USMA neighbourhood community councils (one for each of the city's 15 wards).
  
• Run USMA candidates for mayor and counselors in 2010? Why not?

The USMA Hamilton Chapter is considering presenting a short submission to the Hamilton City Council for the 2009 Budget. Deadline for submissions is Monday January 12, 2009.

Find the document here:

Submission to Hamilton City Council 2009

Let us know what you think.