Luck, persistence, reputation, and luck.
Those two words describe how I came to possess a report sent by City Manager Chris Murray to members of Hamilton City Council Friday evening informing members of Council the Ivor Wynne stadium renovation project was no more – it’s a new stadium.
The document, which is was* not publicly available on the City of Hamilton website and was not* only briefly discussed at Monday’s special meeting, landed in my inbox via an intermediary Friday evening – The Luck.
For the past few months, I’ve been chasing the velodrome story knowing that a decision was required this summer. I’m attracted to information voids much like matter is drawn into a black hole – I can’t escape my insatiable thirst for knowledge and my instinctual urge as a journalist to share information – The Persistence.
I practice open journalism. I upload the audio of my interviews, I share the source documents I obtain, I constantly effort to make public information public. The source wanted the information to be made public in its entirety – The Reputation.
99% of everything is preparation, but that 1% luck is important.
CORRECTIONS:
- The document is now on the city website.
- The item was discussed briefly at the end of the meeting on Monday. (Thanks to Carla for using Mediabugs ‘Report an Error’ to bring this to my attention)