We thank the Spectator for providing a forum for Hamiltonians to discuss important 2014 election issues and, on behalf of the members and supporters of the Beasley Neighbourhood Association, would like to add our voices to the conversations on transit in downtown.

There have been a number of commentators quick to offer wholesale prescriptions for the future of Hamilton's transit system, especially with regard to council's repeated votes in favour of provincially funded construction of a light rail transit line along King Street. We note many of these perspectives are marred by inaccurate information, and come from a very unneighbourly approach to city building.

The residents of Beasley, which is located between Wellington, James, Main streets and the CN rail tracks, live in an area viewed by many Hamiltonians to be a shared space: our downtown.

Hamilton locates many of its key commercial operations in the core, side-by-side with residential neighbourhoods, aging industrial facilities and vast institutional buildings such as hospitals, shelters, convention and performance venues, police stations, etc.

Downtown residents do not begrudgingly accept these other land uses for our neighbourhoods — indeed many of us live downtown because we enjoy the energy and dynamism they provide. But we also expect that our shared, highly used downtown be as desirable a place to live as less urban areas are to their residents.

As we have repeatedly heard, local transportation issues are one of the most important components of resident satisfaction, whether it be access to well-built, well-serviced roads or, for those who do not own cars, additional road uses such as bike lanes and effective transit.

From Ancaster to Stoney Creek, Dundas to Mount Hope, Hamiltonians want the freedom to move around quickly and at a reasonable cost.

It is the cost element, however, that keeps tripping us up as a city. We want to make clear that cost is as important to us urban-dwellers as it is to those in suburban and rural areas of the city. Downtown residents' property taxes also go to pay for roads and transit, so we expect our contributions to city coffers be used responsibly and equitably to address transportation issues all around our city.

That is why we fully support city council's oft-repeated support for LRT downtown, because it imposes the lowest burden on taxpayers by leveraging provincial money to completely build the east-west LRT line. It would also save money long-term by imposing one of the lowest costs possible on the operation of the line — each LRT vehicle replacing many buses, each with its own HSR operator.

The bus rapid transit scheme that outsiders keep trying to impose on downtown, in contrast, imposes smaller upfront capital costs to the province, but each additional bus on the road will mean additional operators with their own wages, benefits and pensions that will be borne by Hamilton taxpayers.

Why are so many so-called fiscal conservatives so in thrall of the BRT option that will ultimately cost us more money to provide less service? Because it's a wedge issue they hope to exploit for their own electoral gain.

Much like the Ford brothers in Toronto, these advocates hope to confuse the average voter with promises of made-up financial savings, and pit downtowners against suburban and rural residents by presenting the issue as a zero-sum game: spendthrift downtowners benefiting from LRT while everyone else foots the bill and suffers from the resulting traffic snarl-ups.

It's time to ditch this false dichotomy.

Let's stand with the many commissioned reports that show LRT is the best overall option for Hamilton because it moves the most people the fastest, and imposes fewer costs on Hamilton taxpayers now and in the future. It also provides a better basis for future investment along the LRT line, further easing its costs through the collection of development fees and additional property taxes. LRT is also projected to earn an operating surplus, which will help pay for expanded transit across the entire city, not just downtown.

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We encourage all Hamiltonians, including the Spectator's editorial board, to stop spreading the fiction being conjured by electoral opportunists, and get behind the option that our duly elected leaders have endorsed time after time.

LRT has the potential to build our city physically and economically, but not if we continue to chip away at the social trust and respectful neighbourliness needed to develop as a modern city of more than half a million people. It is fine to have a difference of opinion, but let's make sure it is based on facts and realities, not the cynical whispers of those who aim to gain from pitting citizens against one another.