ArtwordBlog

Just in case anybody missed Jim Chambers’ excellent article in the Spectator entitled “Who Are Artists and Why Should We Care?”, here is the link: http://www.thespec.com/article/563049

Here’s a quote:

Toronto artists ask me weekly, “Is Hamilton a good place to set up business?” I give a qualified “yes” but after witnessing the recent roadblocks the city’s bureaucrats have thrown in the path of enterprises such as the Pearl Company with its arcane and punitive zoning laws I really wonder if Hamilton has the “political will” necessary to reinvent itself in a time of downscaled heavy industry.

That’s really the point, isn’t it? Artists are only one group within a larger sector of self-motivated, entrepreneurial people who do things because they’re worth doing. Together, we could transform this city. We don’t need a whole lot of help, just not so many barriers. We have a city management this is primarily in the business of collecting fees. The fees are onerous. The paperwork is excessive. The pace of administration is glacial. These are strong disincentives. If people want something to happen, they make it easy.