Letter to the Editor, Stoney Creek News, regarding the Dairy

In response to the front-page article in this week's News, 'Dairy stays, customers sour about Quebec sale', I sent this off to Ms Elik:

While I'm sad that Stoney Creek has lost small scoops of both manufacturing and employment with the selling off of the production aspect of its facilities, I'd like to do something entirely different and begin imagining the potential that this development affords. In other words, borrowing from Lazarillo, Cervantes and Helen Keller:

"When one door closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed one that we do not see the one which has opened for us."

The retail aspect of the Stoney Creek Dairy is staying. Yay! So in keeping with the spirit of the the above expression, the real question is 'What can we envision for the buildings and/or land that will soon be 'the former production facilities' of the Dairy?'

My answer? Something that embodies the spirit of what the Dairy has come to mean to Stoney Creek over the past 80+ years.

The piece of land that will be vacated is an amazing gift of possibility. From what I can gather via Google Maps, it's a larger property than the retail portion and the traditional parking area combined. And this is within the contiguous borders of what is rightfully referred to as the original Stoney Creek. How many times does such an opportunity present itself, that a chunk of land like this becomes available?

Now, I know that the default result is that it will developed as housing. All fine and good...but why not approach this from the point of view of true stewardship of the land, in the same way we approach our more 'natural' resources? Why not turn this into a multi-aspect community tract?

Why not have a seniors' recreational and activities centre here?

Why not have a parkette, a true grassy area, one where you could picnic at in the summer, and skate at in the winter; an outdoor ice rink?

Why not keep as much of this in the hands of Stoney Creek, of everyone whose lives the Dairy has touched, and pay it forward? Why not create some new traditions out of the sadness of losing one of our most cherished ones?

Think about how great a combination this would be: warm weather, ice cream cones and milk shakes, Hutch's hamburgers and fish & chips...while in the winter, all of these plus hot chocolate as the family skates together? How wonderful would it be to have a complex for seniors to use, given the nature of how our community's demographics are shifting?

My understanding is that the neighbourhood won't miss the noise associated with the production facilities. I believe they'd feel much differently about the recycling of some of the buildings for our retirees (and others, of course) and the creation of a sizable natural enclave.

I encourage all Stoney Creek residents, all patrons of the Dairy to give these suggestions some thought...and begin urging those involved in the transaction to not simply sell off the land's ownership to developers...but to find a way to pay tribute to the rich heritage the Dairy has created for us all, and plan on building an equally rich future there.

(Oh, and does it go without saying that the Stoney Creek News is the perfect mechanism to spearhead this kind of grass-roots, pro-active notion?)