The following Guelph Mercury editorial was forwarded to Councillors by Randy Norris:
I remember my parents telling me that time speeds up as Father Time gets older. I much prefer being called mature compared to what my teenagers could call me. It allows me to retain some resemblance of dignity since I’m on the dark side of 50, but my parents were right. Where did the time go?
‘Twas the night before Christmas and my oldest boy told my wife and I that we were old. According to him, our supper table conversations were funny since we talked about what we could remember about events, not about events to come. When did I start being fixated on what happened? Has something slipped?
My teenage boy claims there are far too many conversations containing the phrases “do you remember when” or “no, that’s not what happened.”
I’m in danger of becoming a parody of myself since I can’t remember when.
All of sudden, according to my children, I’m looking backwards and rushing into the future. Where did the time go and what do I hope for in 2008?
I hope that the Blue Jays, Maple Leafs and the Raptors, without steroids, win, respectively, the World Series, the Stanley Cup and the NBA championship. I could hope that crossing my fingers will make it happen, but I don’t think it ever will. Even salary caps won’t make it happen. Not in my lifetime.
For 15 years I’ve thought about, obsessed about and generally made a pain of myself over sports facilities. I and many others have debated the quantity and quality of our facilities.
But something happened on the way to 2008.
Any logical conversation, however, has to include the status of all municipal facilities since resources come from the same trough.
I can’t stand on any soapbox and clamour about sports facilities without realizing the need for a new museum and library, the need for an expressway without lights that has enough room to expand along its borders and a public transportation terminus that’s integrated into a regional and provincial hub.
Where did Guelph the ‘Recyclable Green City’ go? Guelph garbage on the 401, I’m ashamed. Where’s the vision of greatness for Guelph?
As much as the West End Community Centre adds to the recreation facilities in Guelph, I still have a hard time accepting that it has a wading pool that’s also called a therapeutic pool. We almost starved Centennial pool to death. We have an arena in a mall.
I shudder to think what lies in wait for the new south-end facility.
I’m dizzy with the contradictions, or maybe it’s the city buses that spew exhaust in the central city square that has me so discombobulated.
Despite this, someone has to say, “Excuse me, what about sports facilities?”
Many of the conversations that I’ve had contain a not-so-quiet discomfort about how this city has approached the provision of public services across the entire range of possibilities including sports facilities.
No matter which wing of political persuasion occupies the municipal government roost, our energy and drive seems to fall short.
It’s not about one voice or another, but it’s about us collectively exceeding our grasp. Where’s the recreation master plan that understands today’s pressures?
I’m getting older and maybe I’m reviewing too much of my past, but it’s still clear to me that we desperately need municipal leadership that can lead us beyond our grasp in 2008.
Randy Norris is an active community sports volunteer, freelance writer and supportive dad of three competitive kids. His column appears every Friday. [email protected].