Re: They have made it definate that they want only one surfer at this meeting.
October 7 2005, 4:18 PM
From the info I read, the "Paid" consultants have two choices suggested...Marina on Lake Ont. side or do nothing. The cost of the new breakwall would be $10-$16 million. No decisions are made yet.
Re: They have made it definate that they want only one surfer at this meeting.
October 8 2005, 11:36 AM
Typical.
Only offer the choice that costs a bundle. I wonder whose pockets get lined. I also wonder what's the problem with putting it on the other side of the QEW. No need to build a break wall. Put the 16 million into great facilities. Then the marina would be a jewel instead of just a parking lot for boats.
Good luck Frank (or whom ever ends up as the spokesperson for the meeting).
Magilla Schaus ESA Great Lakes Co-Director (no login) 24.150.197.83
Frank is a fine spokesman for local surfing.
October 8 2005, 12:10 PM
He will say all the right things that we all agree on. Move that marina project into the bay and into the sheltered harbor where the big shows go. Anything else is a waste of tax payer money and the destruction of the tax payers beach.
The whole gist of this process is to build a marina where we surf.
October 14 2005, 2:29 PM
The most recent Hamilton Port Authority marina project report is very depressing!
In reading this report it is clear that the whole point of this process is to build a marina. The beach and surfing have no value to the Hamilton Port Authority. They are playing with us to say they listened to our opinions and then did what was best for attracting tourism. The beach has no importance to the Hamilton Port Authority. The conclusion of this entire process is aimed and targeted towards constructing of a marina.
The project to build a marina is anti environmental and exclusively oriented. We are being made victims of class warfare. This project destroys one of the few remaining public beaches in Hamilton that gets surf. Can the public in Canada sue to protect an area that is a public beach and surfing area? It seams awefully onesided that condos, private homes, industry, and marinas get to gobble up shoreline and push out the public from the lake and surfers from the waves. This would not happen ever at Martindale Pond. A government entity would not dream of developing a park with baseball diamonds. The government would not for one minute take a provincial park and turn it into a golf course.
A marina at The Bridge is destruction of a sensitive surfing area in that there are few places in this part of Lake Ontaio with waves and open access. Practically everywhere else along the shoreline there are blocked access roads with no parking signs and no trespassing signs.
It is time that we get off our butts and really amp up our cause and raise consciousness and fund raise money within the community to stop this project via the courts if necessary.
The process itself is off balence for the Hamilton Port Authority Project in it's entirity. The pre concluded out come is designed to steer opinion towards a marina and nothing else. This is all about calculated use of persuasion and subterfuge to marginalize the present beach and surfing use of the beach and to boost up and present the marina as the brillant change for the betterment of the community. But what in fact is happening here is that a government entity is more responsive to big business needs than that of the ordinary man and women's family to have access to a sandy beach and to surfing there.
Surfers if we don't get better organized right now than kiss surfing goodby forever in Hamilton at The Bridge. How many surf breaks are there in this area? Not many! We used to be able to park at 50 Road and the developers pushed surfers out there. At Wyldewood Beach the public beach was turned over again to developers. This summer 74 year old Don Harrison was confronted by this middle aged women and reminded that where her new house had been built on the old sand dune that it was now private property.
I am not a Canadian but what I am seeing playing out in the United States and at The Bridge. It is a sham and something that is an outrage to the common person. We deserve our beach as much as the c.e.o, deserves his golf course or marina.
Are not all types of recreation to be encouraged and protected for the betterment and health of Canada? Why is boating allowed to displace surfing at The Bridge? It is not right or just.
Re: The whole gist of this process is to build a marina where we surf.
October 14 2005, 4:40 PM
The Port A doesn't even own the water lot where we surf. The would have to get it off the Federal Gov't. No help there, they are corrupt and I can't beleive the voters vote them in time after time. I told the P A Ceo that unless the Liberals can scam big money off this project don't expect to see any Federal help...
names real on this site. ESPECIALLY on a topic as important as this one. There may be eye's outside the surfing community watching the post concerning the bridge break. Last weekend it was publicly posted in the globe and mail how to get onto this site. Having a post from some one named "freakface" doesn't support how important this situation is. Just a thought.
Just following what the moderators were saying to Bill just last week:
"Bill Ulicki I know this is you but I have to be fair with everybody. If another Bill logs on here I won't know who they are without checking the numbers." - Magilla
"We feel that users of this forum are less likely to be outrageous and disrespectful to other Great Lakes surfers when they use their real name." - Magilla
I've seen two more replies from Magilla concerning the next Bridge meeting with nothing said about the false name being used. Saving the Bridge break is a HUGE deal to a lot of people, even to those outside of the Hamilton area. It seems there is a lot of opposition to the surfing community and IF in fact someone did read the forum and saw phony names being used that doesn't do much for holding water in an argument.
I know who Bob is but there are people here who don't. So as per the rules of this site EVERYONE should abide by them. Just a thought.
Point made about real name useage. Thanks for reminding everybody.
October 15 2005, 2:18 PM
Everyone don't forget to use your real name here.
NO ALIAS NAMES or just first names. We will except a first name with a last initial so we can differentiate who is on our forum.
Back to the topic:
Development recently negatively impacting on local surfing:
1st at 50 Road. The access road used to run all the way to lake. We start surfing there and a guard rail is installed a block away from the water and no parking signs are installed everywhere by the guard rail.
2nd at Wyldewood Road in Port Colborne the old sand dune is not turned into a park but turned over to developers and the sand dune is removed and homes are built there. 74 year old Don Harrison, with surfboard under his arm, this year is asked does he know this is a provate beach? THe Wyldewood Surf Club has been surfing there since 1960 and cleaned that beach up for years.
Now at The Bridge the Fishermams Marina Divestiture of Surfing Plan.
We are not part of the recreational development plan under the Hamilton Port Authority and maybe the Hamilton Port Authority is going counter to the Canada Marine Act by imposing one sort of recreational activity over the current indigenous surfing activity at The Bridge. What the Hamilton Port Authority deems as leadership is similar to an invasion of a foreign country predicated on loose information and bad interpretation of facts. Rebutal on page 19 of, "Fishermans Development Plan."
How can on one hand the Hamilton Port Authority be committed to sustainable environmental practices? How can a marina improve the work of God and nature and restore beach dune vegetation by building giant walls for a marina that will destroy and permanently alter the natural beach already used by surfers, kayakers, bird watchers, and kayakers? Rebutal on Page 19of "Fishermans Pier Development Plan."
Page 86, "Pros: "Best location for marina based on market analysis"Cons: "eliminates existing surf break, but provides for enhancements in proximity to the waterfront trail.)" As one can clearly see the report is already slanted to constructing a marina and divesting those with surfboards for those with boats. This is like telling Delphi workers to take a cut in pay from $25 to $10. This is classism at it'sworst. Divest working people of using a natural beach to impose a development that favors the more well off. Impose one recreational past time over the current recreational activity in the name of progress. Build a marina on a natural beach and that improves nature? Permanently alter the natural flow of waves and water to protect sand dunes is comparable to cutting down all the trees in a park to save the grass.
In a nut shell surfing in this part of the Great Lakes is under assult. Every last inch of beach access and and surfing comes down to market analysis that is a marginalization of wave riding to benefit a long term destruction of beach parks for development that is for the select few. They might call this recreational out sourcing.
If we follow this progression using the Hamilton Port Authorites logic then maybe there are many economic opportunities being also missed in public parks. Maybe recreating for the less well off has become economically non sustainable and we could commission a study to eliminate all park land for urban sprawl development. Institute a 7 day work week, with 16 hour days, no vacations, no health care, no retirement. Abolish public education and put children to work as soon as possible. This is extreme as displacing surfing at The Bridge. It is unjust and places favoritism and class recreation activities over and above those of the current long time users of The Bridge.
If this project was truly well thought out it would use the available land in the well protected harbor for the marina and spend those breakwall millions towards building water treatment facilities to improve the water quality of the bay for the citizens of Hamilton and the wildlife while protecting the industrial uses for jobs. As it stands the fishermen that currently fish the walls at The Bridge won't ever be able to afford even a fishing pole at the rate that government and business is back sliding on social responsibility and on ethics. The old saying, "A man with a brief case can steal more money that a man with a gun." North America is forgetting the past. If you take surfing away from The Bridge one of the last few places for hundreds of kilometers with waves is being destroyed.
More postings from this rotten document that cooks words and boils down what we do to some insignificant and almost invisible substance.
Right on Frank Kunkel for being the voice of surfing at that last meeting! We are being led like sheep to the slaughter by the Hamilton Port Authority.
Try to make friends:
The canadian constitution has no right to private property, but lake access is a right, therefore if someone tells you a beach is private, politely tell them that you have the right to lake access and they were ripped off by their real estate agent that sold them a 'private' beach. The only rights they have under canadian law is the right not to pollute it and not to break laws on it.
Check with a lawyer about case laws on this if you're going to regularly surf at a 'private' spot, because the what the constitution says and what the cops might do until your lawyer gets there could be different. If your car gets towed in the winter while you're out on the water and the only house contains the people you just told off, you could die easily.
Be glad canadians don't have guns. Also remind persnickety landholders that a surf break can increase property values by up to ten times, that could warm them up a little on a cold day.
just watch where you park your car!
Brendan Smith
Environment & Integrated Management Systems Auditor
Halton Hills, ON
PS Why do they want a marina where there's big waves? Are these people nuts? 16 million for a breakwall? WTF? Who are the engineers on the project?
Would it be helpful if we all wrote to our Municipal (if we live in Hamilton) and National Members of parliment in this scenario? I wrote to my MP in the past and they went beyond the call of duty to help. Just a thought.
