Why Taylor's Way Shouldn't Be the Final Word on the Clock Tower Development

There are a number of people in Newmarket who feel that Main Street is perfectly fine as it is. Those people will be happy to hear that the Clock Tower development proposal won't be going ahead.

But in order to have a vibrant community, growth and change must happen. Otherwise Main Street is to become as lifeless as a museum. And unless we start charging admission (like most museums do), the economics of keeping Main Street locked in one point in time don't make sense.

What we are seeing on Main Street and elsewhere in Newmarket, are the results of years and years of neglecting planning. The Taylor legacy, from Tom Taylor through to John Taylor, over the past number of decades, has been a passive approach to development. The Taylor way is to sit and wait until developers propose something, then give into the various NIMBY groups who in turn promise to vote Taylor in the next election, And here are the results:

• Davis Drive - once the business heart of our community is now essentially a ghost town. Multiple proposals for high rise condos gather dust on the shelf because our economy is not in good shape for high rise condo development. There just aren't any new jobs in Newmarket that would support new high rise condo development.
• Yonge St - again, mostly a ghost town. Same plans as Davis Drive and guess what? Same sorry end result of empty plazas and derelict buildings. 
• Harry Walker Parkway - this area was supposed to become the economic driver of our community. Most lots are either empty or have a vacant structure occupying the lot. 

Main Street Newmarket is not in a good economic health. We know this because one bank has already left Main Street for greener pastures. Banks go where the money goes and Scotia Bank leaving indicates that the money has already left. 

Anyone with two eyes knows what Main Street needs to thrive. It needs a grocery store and a general goods/ hardware store (like a Home Hardware). Without these two anchor businesses, serving not only Main Street, but also the residents nearby - like Church, Botsford, Queen, Park and Millard residents - then there is really no reason for people to head over to Main St on a regular basis. 

But without an influx of new people moving into the Main Street area, something that the Clock Tower development would have provided, entrepreneurs don't see the upside of opening a grocery or hardware store. And that is the predicament that we are in. 

My advice for the Forrest Group, which owns a valuable asset in these Main Street buildings, is to take a page from the Taylor election campaign book. The next municipal election is just under two years away. There is time to recruit and promote the right candidates for mayor and other council seats. Good, hardworking, decent people who appreciate what prudent municipal planning really means.

The Clock Tower development doesn't have to be at odds with the best interests of the public. In fact, a good case can be made to say that this construction is exactly what our town needs. So if Bob Forrest believes in what he is doing, then put the case to the public through the ballot box in 2018.  

We all should care about the economic vibrancy of Newmarket's Main Street because a disproportionate amount of public resources are spent propping this part of town up. If Main Street was in better shape economically, then it would result in public money being freed up to be invested in other parts of the community or maybe even a reduction in property taxes (something that hasn't happened in Newmarket for as long as a Taylor has been in charge). 

Unbiased reporting at the Newmarket Era? Some assembly required

The credibility of the media in the wake of the US Presidential election has never been more in doubt. "Lyin' media" was the rallying cry of many Trump supporters. And who could forget this t-shirt that sent a stark message in the last few days of the campaign?

Yet, criticism of the American press can be quite appropriate. The false equivalency the media gave to the Clinton Wikileaks to some of the impolitic things Trump said is one example. The voting public knew that Hillary Clinton's emails were far more serious and didn't believe the press who actively tried to convince everyone that these email revelations weren't important.

The American press unfortunately crossed the line from covering the news to actively campaigning for Hillary Clinton. When they did that, the voting public didn't believe three-quarters of the news coverage they reported on Donald Trump.

And just as President Obama's talk of gun control achieved no other results other than to unintentionally increase the number of guns sold in the US, the pro-Hillary bias in the American press actually convinced the plurality of voters to cast a ballot for Trump.

Time will tell what the consequences for the United States will be as an outcome of the American press abandoning its neutrality. Will Americans ever believe the Fourth Estate ever again?

There are parallels to Newmarket.

In the last municipal election, the Newmarket Era was narrowly focused on getting rid of Maddie Di Muccio on Council and ensuring no conservative minded Councillors were elected, (the Era even went so far as publishing multiple false "news" about her and other candidates), and despite achieving success in the short term, the Newmarket Era is now in a tailspin as a result.

Instead of Council meetings where important measures received meaningful debate, we now have 15-minute long Council meetings that basically rubber stamp $600,000+ projects without any due consideration.

And outside of a Letter to the Editor from the Inn From the Cold organization demanding that the Newmarket Era report facts not innuendo, when was the last time any resident from Newmarket ever wrote about any issue related to Newmarket Council? Recently the new editor of the Era (the third one since 2014), wrote an editorial begging Newmarket residents to write to him.

But ever since Deputy Mayor John Taylor's wife became a top executive at the Newmarket Era "newspaper", credibility in the local media has dropped to an all time low. The Era, which had a tenuous idea of unbiased journalism previously, has devolved into a fan-page for the Gruesome Twosome of Mayor Van Bynen and Deputy Mayor Taylor and their council cronies.

The public has stopped trusting the Newmarket Era and more importantly, stopped reading and engaging too. The once profitable Newmarket Era has been steadily losing money as a result

I began this blog five years ago in response to what I felt was bias reporting. I made a promise to stop my blog once the Newmarket Era re-committed to the basic tenets of journalism. Instead of heeding the wake-up call, the Newmarket Era swung the pendulum even more to the extreme. 3 editors later, I am still blogging and the newspaper is still losing money. The public needs me in order to hear the truth about Newmarket Council.

After five years of bleeding red ink, you would think that the parent company of the Newmarket Era would get the message?