{"id":10272,"date":"2015-04-01T17:52:28","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T21:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=10272"},"modified":"2015-04-16T00:20:11","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T04:20:11","slug":"brocks-banter-renewal-whether-you-want-it-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-renewal-whether-you-want-it-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: Renewal (Whether you want it or not)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Easter is approaching and the closer Easter comes, it seems the more often you\u2019re reminded that this season is one of renewal.
\nThis reminder comes not only from the more Christian-minded among us, but everywhere you look as the world slowly wakes up to spring after a long, cold winter \u2013 especially as long and cold a winter as we\u2019ve just experienced.
\nThere is a certain electricity in the air after we pass the equinox and all of a sudden the sound of the birds outside seem to become more amplified. You know you\u2019ve had a long winter when you\u2019re sitting at your desk late on Thursday night in March and, upon hearing a flock of geese flying over your house, you have a reaction similar to those of Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn in \u201cOn Golden Pond\u201d whenever they spotted or heard one of those damn loons.
\nThe sound of the kids playing and basking outside becomes particularly welcome as well.
\nEven as I am writing this from my office, a lovely couple apparently from the apartment building next door have taken what seems to be a relatively routine domestic squabble out to their parking lot to enjoy the spring sunshine and several members of the York Regional Police have come to join them.
\nAh, Spring.
\nAs everything around us wakes up, it infuses me with a new level of energy. I sleep better, my time management skills suddenly kick back into gear, and I feel ready to take on the world.
\nSpring also marks a number of changes in a number of areas across Aurora, for better or worse.
\nAnd it was bound to happen, wasn\u2019t it? There must be something in that old principle of Murphy\u2019s Law.
\nLast summer, the Town teetered on the edge of losing the Aurora Tigers. New rules were handed down to the local team from their governing body, extending the hockey season, making it imperative they keep their grips on the Aurora Community Centre in the event they made the finals.
\nIn 2014, that ultimately proved to be the case.
\nAfter a stellar year, they went the distance, but there was a victim to their success \u2013 and who that victim was is in the eye of the beholder.
\nCapping that year, they made the finals but when the finals conflicted with the annual Home Show hosted by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, the hockey team was forced to take their action to York University where they subsequently lost in the very end.
\nCould this loss be chalked up to taking on their ultimate rivals on unfamiliar ice well away from home?
\nMaybe. Maybe not. But that was certainly the implication presented to Town Council when the Tigers approached local lawmakers to say if they weren\u2019t able to secure ice time at their long-time home for the duration of their season, they would have to move elsewhere.
\nThe kicker? The Home Show would either have to change their long-established spring dates or up sticks to a new location.
\nUltimately an equitable solution was found in the Home Show moving to the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex (SARC), but in the end it was all, theoretically, for naught.
\nTheir season came to an abrupt end on home ice last Tuesday night with little over two weeks to go before the Home Show is set to open in its new digs.
\nStrictly for my own entertainment, I wouldn\u2019t have minded being a fly on the wall at the Chamber Office last Wednesday morning as they discussed a possible next course of action, but I had to feel for both groups. The Tigers were riding so high for most of the season, only to crumble at the very end, while the Chamber put so much effort into a revamped plan that, from certain perspectives, might be unnecessary.
\nTheir efforts, however, will ultimately turn out to be invaluable, in my view.
\nAs a regular attendee of the Aurora Home Show, it can become relatively routine. You know what to expect, you know who you are going to see, and you usually know what you\u2019re going to leave with. The move to the SARC adds a new dimension and I am very curious to see what\u2019s new for their much more modern location.
\nStaff at the Aurora Chamber of Commerce came to Council cap in hand earlier this year looking for a cost break on the SARC. It is not beyond the realm of reasonability to expect a certain contribution from the Town to help offset any costs of the Chamber\u2019s move to the SARC \u2013 after all, it wasn\u2019t their idea to tinker with what had been a winning formula, nor was it the Town\u2019s, but it was the path of least resistance. Requesting a certain figure sure in the knowledge that attendance this year would be lower because, apparently, people won\u2019t be able to find the SARC in the vast expanse known as Aurora, almost seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
\nA move to the SARC might just prove the shot in the arm the Aurora Home Show and the Aurora Chamber of Commerce didn\u2019t even know they needed.
\nVisitors will be able to take in all the great things local and area businesses have to offer to address their home improvement needs, vendors will have more elbow room to show off, and there will be plenty of further opportunities for kids to have fun while their home-minded parents are elsewhere getting ideas.
\nAnd although it might take a few years to be fully borne to fruition, they are now going to be in the centre of thousands of new households and businesses housing and serving thousands of further residents, each with a house or an office to furnish, and a yard or two to landscape.
\nRenewal is always a cause for celebration, whether you are getting back outside, doing some spring cleaning, using the newness of the season to do a full-scale re-evaluation of your New Year\u2019s Resolutions, or tacking a new, previously unforeseen project bolstered by the vim and vigor that comes with spring.
\nBut, given the opinions expressed by our readers this week, maybe renewal is not all it is cracked up to be.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Easter is approaching and the closer Easter comes, it seems the more often you\u2019re reminded that this season is one of renewal. This reminder comes not only from the more Christian-minded among us, but everywhere you look as the world slowly wakes up to spring after a long, cold winter \u2013 especially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2FG","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-08 00:20:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}