Development will be the topic of mainstream conversation this week. From Brad Lamb’s Television City officially appealing to the OMB, the expected release of the Downtown Secondary Plan later today, and the potential of a new library branch at the West Harbour. I have these topics covered in the newsletter below. The opening note today is important, and something that most of us take for granted; our oral health. For a large number of Hamiltonians, the only dental care they can receive is an extraction at the emergency room as they and their children don’t have dental coverage. A report from Hamilton’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Elizabeth Richardson says public health dental staff screened 17,122 elementary students in the 2016/17 school year; 1471 of these kids needed urgent dental care, another 3244 needed preventive dental care. The statistics for Grade 2 students are very concerning, 42% have a history of tooth decay, 1 in 10 “require urgent dental care”, and nine schools report “very high rates of untreated cavities”. 42% of Grade 2 students have a history of tooth decay, 1-in-10 Grade 2 students require urgent dental care, and nine of our schools – the majority of them in the Lower City – have “very high rates of untreated cavities”. There’s another trend the report is revealing, as the Lower City gentrifies as Real Estate Investment Trusts drive up rental rates, lower income families are being forced to move into the poorly serviced suburbs. A map (above) in the report shows that postal code L9A is now seeing the same number of children requiring oral day surguries at Hamilton’s hospitals as our poorer Lower City neighbourhoods.With both municipal and provincial elections this year, we need to ask our politicians what they are doing to address poverty, oral health, and how they will ensure as vulnerable populations are forced to move to the suburbs that services are available to them. Full Story on The Public Record here. Thanks for subscribing, I’m always interested to hear your thoughts and ideas for the newsletter, I read every email you send me at [email protected] – Joey Coleman Tonight Tomorrow Next Week