Рет қаралды 146
NOTE THIS:
Yesterday's January 14th, 2021 Heritage meeting was NOT listed on the city's website list of meetings, ergo, no meetings list webpage announcement nor link for the public to find to be able to watch the live youtube broadcast. The live broadcast thru youtube did not appear till well into the meeting, and today it is no longer watchable. It has been marked 'no longer available - private', so nobody of the public can ever watch it.
IMHO, both of those are violations of our rights as citizens of St Catharines. I want to know who's responsible.
Guess what though, I managed to record the entire meeting as HD mp4 file. LOL at whomever the responsible was.
On the one hand I agree with Brian Narhi's "Ire".
On the other, I fully understand why some people over the past year prior to yesterday's Heritage meeting got very hot under the collar, including me, and said things the Heritage Committee volunteers didn't deserve. It's because of shenanigans by others, not the Heritage Committee, like no online Jan 14th meeting announcement, no link to watch, delayed live broadcast, and the meeting having since been made private so nobody can watch it.
IMHO, there is fishy stinky things going on somewhere within the city admin process. The Heritage Committee volunteers are just as much victims of these shenanigans by others as the public is.
The historical advocate presenters at yesterday's Heritage meeting all did very well presenting. The Heritage Committee, several councilors, and city staff, all did excellent also. Everybody conducted themselves in a very proper respectful manner.
Don Sawyer related that there are a lot of people of all ages including young people who care a lot about St Catharines' and Canada's history and preserving it, especially the truly special, such as what's left the old Welland Canals.
Much was said about the upcoming 2029 200th Anniversary of the beginning of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Welland Canals, how important they were and still are to the economy and history of St Catharines, Niagara Region, and Canada, and how Mountain Locks Park can play a pivotol part in celebrating that Anniversary history, thus resulting in much economic benefits to be had from doing so.
Colleen Beard proved at least several of the proposed parking spaces will cause lock damage and destruction, and Kimberly Monk presented strongly for a full Archaeological Assessment.
Reference to the Rideau Canal was made as example of what can be done for some part of the old Welland Canals, specifically the 2nd Canal Mountain Locks and further north to Westchester Crescent.
IMHO:
Personally, I think Montreal's Lachine Canal would make a much better reference. After the The St Lawrence Seaway was completed in 1959, the Lachine Canal was abandoned, most of it was buried, and the rest fell into ruin. In 1988 a huge Niagara Region historical advocates' campaign proposal was made to governments and in 1989 came within weeks of achieving National Historic Landscape Designation for the old Welland Canals, and being allocated $ 100 million for "The Welland Canals Development Corridor" from Lake to Lake. But, by the end of 1989 suddenly overnite the bottom literally fell out of that project, it sank, and other much smaller attempts since never came close again. Interestingly, almost ten years later in 1997, 14km of Montreal's Lachine Canal received $ 100 million to restore it to full functionality for use by kayaks and canoes, sided by hiking and biking and green space, and, Historic Site Designation. Since then the entire related area of Montreal was soon revitalized by a further over $ 350 million worth of investments, resulting in over a Billion $ worth of business and recreational economic activity.
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