Looking for answers as we kick off 2018
Here’s what’s been knocking around the old noggin
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All of a sudden it’s 2018, and there are a few totally random questions knocking around my noggin.
What’s happening with the building beside City Hall that housed the Canadian Football Hall of Fame?
They shut down the football shrine two years ago. Average daily attendance, three. The plan was to open a new hall of fame at Tim Hortons Field, and they’re still working on that. Ward 2 councillor Jason Farr says three new tenants will soon be moving into the old building — McMaster, Mohawk, Redeemer — operating under the name CityLAB.
“Innovating for the betterment of our city,” Farr says. The Hall of Fame name has just been stripped from over the front door, and from the sign on Main West.
But what about Touchdown, the lonely three-metre-tall sculpture unveiled at the hall on Nov. 28, 1972? The plan, it turns out, is still to hustle him four kilometres east to the new stadium.
Just days after that statue was presented to the world, the Ticats won the Grey Cup. So maybe there’s luck left in those old tin men, and the last-place Cats sure need some of that. Get those stainless-steel heroes down to the field fast.
Where will they put Hamilton’s first legal pot shop this summer?
There’s a nice empty space at the west end of Jackson Square, right across from the LCBO. It used to be a McDonald’s. Put a pot shop in there, and it’s one-stop shopping.
Brilliant. Let me bounce that off Jocelyne Mainville, leasing manager at the mall. She says they were approached last month about a possible location. But it turns out the mall is too close to a school, namely Sir John A. Macdonald.
Ken Leendertse, the city’s director of licensing, says that at this point Hamilton is only getting one provincial cannabis store, and he doesn’t know where it will be. Whatever the location, lines will be long. A golden opportunity for the guy with the Willy Dog cart.
Why is Rod Stewart not coming to First Ontario Centre this March?
Old rocker Rod last played Copps in May, 2007, and that was his third appearance in Hamilton in seven years. He seemed to like us.
Now he’s doing another tour. Ontario dates include Toronto, Ottawa … and London. Why are we missing out? Did our people not try hard enough?
Not our fault, says Scott Warren, head of Core Entertainment: “The decision not to play Hamilton was solely made by Rod Stewart’s management. Oftentimes, when an artist plays Toronto, management believes Hamilton is too close and skips the market to play London … Hamilton remains very viable. We chase after every show.” Days after emailing me that reply, Warren left his job. He said he didn’t know what he’ll do next.
Will the winter of 2018 bring another perfect skate?
No way to answer this one, just say a prayer. A few weeks ago, the Globe and Mail carried a piece on a rare event where the ice on B.C.’s Lake Windermere froze smooth and clear. Skaters rejoiced.
Marnie and I had one precious day like that right here, on Cootes Paradise, last January 15th. It was a sunny Sunday, but there was almost no one out there. It was so clear you could see bottom. Of course, it’s only a few feet down.
Cootes was all ours, from the High Level Bridge to Dundas. We carved that wondrous ice until the sun went down. Best skate ever.
Why aren’t David Lee’s trains running yet?
Apparently hundreds of people have left disappointed after visiting McMaster’s new health sciences building at Main and Bay to see a model train layout. It’s the work, over 50 years, of retired Dundas lawyer David Lee. It was to be on permanent display in early December, as detailed in this space.
But the contractors installing a long glass wall along the length of this miniature world broke three pieces of that glass — and the glazing manufacturer has been on shut down. Sorry, no new date yet for the opening.