Seemingly in an attempt to make lemon aid out of lemons, Clr. Farr is proposing the following via a motion.
MOTION: Making Good Use of a Great Amazon Bid Package
Moved by Farr
Seconded by_____
Whereas; Amazon has announced it's shortlist of cities that are eligible in their new H2 contest.
Whereas; Hamilton is not on that list.
Whereas; the City of Hamilton shared in a 50/50 cost split of up to 500k in our bid to attract Amazon.
Whereas; it was always contemplated that in the event Hamilton lost the bid, the bid proposal to attract Amazon would be beneficial in attracting future jobs and business, particularly in the tech field.
Therefore be it Resolved That; The appropriate staff from Economic Development be requested to report annually to council on any new jobs and business that were attracted to Hamilton as a result of both our staff's ongoing efforts and where those efforts included utilizing some or all of the materials the City submitted in the unsuccessful Amazon bid.
In tandem, this from Mayor Eisenberger:
STATEMENT BY MAYOR EISENBERGER ON AMAZON HQ2 SHORTLIST
Hamilton, ON – We learned this morning that Amazon has released its’ shortlist for their new HQ2. While we are disappointed that the City of Hamilton was not one of the 20 named cities, we are optimistic the only Canadian city to be included is the City of Toronto. Amazon choosing to locate anywhere in Ontario is beneficial.
We look forward to working with the Province and the City of Toronto in whatever way we can to support their bid. I offer my sincere congratulations to Mayor Tory and hope your bid is successful in this massive tech investment for Ontario.
Our ambition will not waiver. The City of Hamilton continues to celebrate those investing in our city, and welcome new interest in Canada’s most diversified economy. This bid was an opportunity for us to highlight our city, resources and capabilities. It was, and remains an opportunity to showcase all that Hamilton has to offer.
From a cost perspective, the very short time frame dictated that we engage outside resources to get it done professionally and on time. We quickly interviewed a number of firms, and landed on PWC, Cundari and Urban Strategies to assist. The investment was a 50/50 split of public and private funds.
We received tremendous input and support from community and regional partners including Niagara Region and the City of Burlington. I would like to thank everyone involved.
Welcome to Hamilton. Welcome to Unstoppable.
Thursday, January 18, 2018
12 comments:
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"Welcome to Hamilton. Welcome to Unstoppable."
ReplyDeleteHuh? Has the Mayor had his yearly health check up?
Trumpstered
Apparently we had no one on staff competent enough to read the RFP or submit a professional proposal.
ReplyDeleteNot one.
Who is this supposed to help?
This reckless feckless boosterism by the Mayor and City Manager is so over the top! Hamilton had as much chance as being a successful bidder for the Olympics. What a waste of effort, goodwill, money and reputation. This shows that Hamilton does not have a plan for economic development and instead relies on responding to RFP's wherever they may come from. Meanwhile, while they play the fiddle, Rome burns as follows:
ReplyDelete- pot holed streets
- homelessness visible on the streets of Hamilton
- crime & insecurity on downtown streets
- unaffordable rents
- poverty
These are only a fraction of the issues that the City must coherently tackle before pie in the blue sky dreaming that seems to be going on at the Mayors/City Manager's office.
I don't think anyone should be surprised by this outcome. I don't believe that noone in the staff pool had the skill to write this up. This has become a giant waste of money.
ReplyDeleteSeth
Well, at least we tried.
ReplyDeleteIf it were up to the brain trust above, we'd be paving our way to bankruptcy, attracting new business by having roads to nowhere.
Welcome to Hamilton. Welcome to Unstartable.
or maybe,
Welcome to Hamilton. Welcome to Mediocrity.
or perhaps,
Welcome to Hamilton. Welcome to closedmindedness and committing to the status quo that has let our city fall apart and then we wonder why we have nothing.
-H2O
Amen to that brother, it's not as if we are talking about our money.Right? I mean when was the last time you or I made a meaningful contribution to society?
DeleteMr.Clean
well, we failed again.
ReplyDeleteIf we had good roads, good transit,we would have at least had a chance.
But we have given all that over to anonymous academics-people who will tell you they are clever-and look where that has gotten us.
leadership that foregoes infrastructure investment for hallucinatory pipe dreams.
Welcome to Hamilton. A City with a sign.
H2O
my favorite part?
ReplyDeletechoosing to compete against Toronto, then groveling for some left overs when it is revealed they have a chance, and we never did.
nothing says progress like failure.
nothing defines leadership like losing
orangemike
If it were up to the brain trust above, we'd be unsuccessful all the time.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Hamilton. The City with a sign.
it should come as no surprise that the same intelligentsia that thought blowing big money on Amazon was clever think that replacing infrastructure that does not need replacing while foregoing obvious neglect is responsible.
ReplyDeleteThe shape of water.
Pinky
turns out the split wasn't 50/50 after all-
ReplyDelete-not even close.
Fred isn't disappointed.
We'll find that money someplace.
CBC Hamilton 1/30/18
H20
Hamilton.
ReplyDeleteIntelligent, but ratty.
Uncle Teddy.