Q & A with Matt Jelly

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Matt Jelly for over 10 years now. He is perhaps best known for his “By-Law Crawl” events which gained attention earlier this year in the aftermath of the Century Theatre demolition. Matt also lists himself as a graphic designer, artist and musician and may just be one of the most passionate advocates for a better and brighter Hamilton that I know…

DK: Matt – you’ve been very active over the last six months – can you get our readers caught up with what you’ve been doing?

MJ: Sure. In February, two decades of neglect culminated in the demolition of the Century Theatre on Mary St. When I first heard the news of the internal collapse in the theatre and the news that the Century would have to come down, I was pretty outraged, as someone who cares a great deal about our City’s built heritage. The cause of the collapse was clear to me- Demolition by Neglect. Since the 1970’s, Municipal Law Enforcement (MLE) has relied primarily on citizen complaints when it comes to Property Standards By-Law enforcement. Last summer, when the Vacant Building Protocol was passed by council, there seemed to be a renewed commitment to proactive enforcement- a positive step. However, the collapse of the Century Theatre showed us that collectively, the City still wasn’t taking this issue seriously enough. So I organized an event called “By-Law Crawl”, which was essentially a group of citizens documenting serious infractions on some of the vacant and derelict properties in the downtown core, and reporting those infractions to MLE. We were successful in bringing attention to the issue, and eventually working with City Staff to beef up their approach when it comes to effectively monitoring vacant properties and proactively enforcing the Property Standards By-Law. Time will tell if the revised Vacant Building Protocol will effectively prevent another Century scenario, but at least the event lit a fire under a few bums. I felt that By-Law Crawl was a more measured approach to the Century disaster than any protest or rally could have achieved.As a part of the By-Law events, we started picking up litter along the way and it became Garbage Crawl. It seemed like a natural extension of what we were doing as a part of the By-Law Crawls. I’d love to see the 107 vacant buildings in Hamilton fixed up as soon as possible, but progress can be very slow on that front. There was something more direct and satisfying about directly cleaning up litter. The entire project revolved around the idea of civic pride and engagement – more and more people are starting to care about our physical surroundings in Hamilton, and more and more people are looking for ways to tangibly show that pride. Now do I ask you a question?