As fall rolls along and work coagulates into one large boredom clot, I thought it would be fun to reflect on the past 2.5 years since we moved to Burlington and balance out the good, the bad and the ugly.
In that time there have been some good changes to the city.
- Ice rink opened downtown.
- Downtown waterfront pier started.
- Central Library re-opened.
- Commitment to build a McMaster Campus downtown.
- Commitment to passing a pesticide ban by-law.
- Mountain Equipment Co-op announces a new store for Burlington.
- GO transit starts refurbishing the Fairview station and opens a new rail line and introduces weekend service.
- Upper Brant (below Fairview) gets a make over.
The flip side to the above - some not so good developments for the city.
- McMaster campus blows off the downtown deal and looks for a place with a parking lot.
- Walmart wins at the OMB and plans to build close to downtown.
- Traffic continues to be snarled.
- The pesticide bylaw may take a while to enact
- Home prices run amok - so much so that we can not even afford Burlington anymore.
- Global warming and climate change news continues to dominate the media and Burlington's modest efforts to control carbon emissions will be a drop in the ocean.
