March didn’t go as planned at City Hall, with a serious cybersecurity incident making it difficult for City staff and Council to do our work resulting in official meetings being cancelled, programs being impacted, and systems going down.
I’m grateful that we found it through this challenging time without there being an impact to the public’s personal data. Other impacts will be long lasting, however, but meetings have resumed and City staff, in every department, have been working throughout the technical shut down. If you need more information about what the City is doing, and how things are progressing to full system restoration, visit www.hamilton.ca/cyberincident.
For those closely watching what’s happening at Jamesville, the City, CityHousing Hamilton, the developer, and CN Railway are still in discussions in advance of a potential hearing date scheduled for May 21. I have been continuing to foreground the neighbourhoods concerns and hope that, no matter the outcome, the project will be able to move ahead this summer.
The Jamesville project, along with many others in the downtown core, were discussed in detail at our first Ward 2 Town Hall of the year held in the Corktown neighbourhood on March 26 at Queen Victoria Elementary. There’s a massive amount of development happening in Ward 2 and our new development map will be an important resource to help everyone follow what’s happening. To access it, visit www.ward2hamilton.ca/maps.
There’s a lot to do in the coming months, now that the nicer weather is coming, including discussions about the future of the Eastwood Area and how the greenspace along Strachan Street can be used. I’ll be announcing meetings in the coming months to discuss both of these issues and to get feedback from North Enders, present data and other information gathered by the City, and move things forward.
Otherwise, I have been meeting with members of the community, including the North End Neighbourhood Association, about events booked for Pier 4 Park during the coming spring and summer season. There have been a number of concerns about blocked sidewalks, greenspaces above capacity, and excessive noise that I’ve been working with City staff to address in advance of this summer. We’ll be running a pilot to mitigate these issues and I hope to be able to report back successfully about it before the end of the year and make recommendations to continue to find ways for events to be successfully enjoyed by everyone in the North End.
In the meantime, if you need the Ward 2 Team, for anything, please reach out to us on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8am to 4pm, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8am to 8pm, and Saturdays from 10am to 2pm. The best way to reach us is by sending an email to Ward2@hamilton.ca. If you’d like to reach me directly, send me an email at Cameron.Kroetsch@hamilton.ca.
Image caption – Councillor Kroetsch answering questions from North Enders at the Welcome Inn Community Centre in early March
