HamiltonNext

How will Hamilton weather hard times?

Economist Benjamin Tal describes the economic downturn as a "once in a lifetime event" that represents the worst financial crisis since 1929. He told an audience of local leaders that Hamilton is in a reasonable position to weather the crisis. What do you feel are the next steps for the city?

Highways Revisited

Just reviewed the article in the Spec from 31 Oct 2007
http://www.thespec.com/specialsections/section/hamiltonnext/274850
and it had some interesting issues that were raised.
1.  The Mid-Penn expressway and far-flung employment would not be affected by rising energy prices. Well at least not until they double.  Let's see the prices have increased significantly already [since the end of October '07] and the prices are forecast to increase significantly even further by this summer. Perhaps some of that employment may have a difficult time getting their employees to work when they cannot afford to get there. For the high cost of land and the building process the highway might as well stay atop the escarpment and continue all the way to the 401 somewhere near where Hwy 6 intersects with the 401. This would truly create an alternative route that would still travel near the airport, but it would not be the Linc. 
2.   The airport.  If it is to function 24 hours strongly ensure that "cheap" housing is not built under the flight paths - EVER. The reason that Toronto's airport cannot operate 24 hours has to do with "cheap" housing being built under flight paths and then they complain about the noise! The original buyers may not be the ones there any longer and the buyers that followed raised a huge stink about the times of flights and the noise levels. To ensure that no housing is there it should simply be warehousing/industrial or even big box stores along the flight paths or potential flight paths.

The transportation not discussed in the article did not deal with is how to bring the workers to these industries near the airport at times they need to be there, but not using personal vehicles. Another important link that would be of great use is to have a rapid passenger link between Pearson and Munroe airports thus releasing the stranglehold of passenger traffic from Toronto Pearson. The Toronto Island airport and Hamilton already have an almost complete passenger link using the GO train between the cities. Buttonville is not a factor with its limitations on size of aircraft and the amount of housing being built near it.

To quote a dreamer Daniel Burnham 
"Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized."

This is the vision still needed for Hamilton.

Downtown Groceries

One must congratulate the populace of Hamilton for at least sustaining grocery stores in the downtown area. Many of the decimated US Rust Belt Cities had totally lost the grocery store from their downtowns. Hamilton has not just one or two such stores but a selection of them. In a National Public Radio broadcast about  Syracuse there was no such stores and it was determined that an up-scale store would attract and  retain downtown residents. the link is http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5314530

Hamilton has the good fortune of the local Zarky's and Dennigers as up-scale grocers. I realize that not all would view them as such but when compared to a no-name type of degraded grocery store you would agree.

Not all areas of downtown so truly blessed. The north end has a dearth of a full grocery store.  Yes, the area has some small stores that partially fulfill the needs of the residents but to obtain major supplies  one needs to travel to at least Barton and almost to Wellington. For added choice a north downtown resident would need to get to Jackson Square or travel to the west of the 403 or eats to at least Centre Mall. This starts to require an automobile!  To know the quality of a neighbourhood there is the walk score at http://www.walkscore.com/ although it has errors it will supply a relative value to an address. The errors originate with the source of the information - Google searches for categories creates errors. The site has been improving the source information for non-US searches.

This map shows most if not all the downtown groceries. There are some errors introduced by closures and openings of new ventures. Not all specialty shops are included like bakeries, meat shops, green grocers, and such. Local variety stores are excluded in this person map at this time. Some local variety store could qualify but it is far to time consuming to investigate all of them. http://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107470313868853011612.00000112d576cfed11b96&ll=43.264456,-79.868546&spn=0.057127,0.160675&z=13

We must celebrate our city's strengths.
Ilpo

A Slim Chance for greater Fame

There is to be a new Monopoly game board with a variety of cities on the  board spaces. Unfortunately there is  little time and a need to nominate Hamilton to be a wildcard for position on the board.
the link is at http://www.monopolyworldvote.com/en_CA/world

This is a Downtown Plan?

Downtown Secondary Plan "Putting People First" located at http://www.myhamilton.ca/myhamilton/CityandGovernment/CityDepartments/PlanningEcDev/LongRangePlanning/OfficialPlan/PPF-Land+Use+Plan.htm
is a curious collection of maps of the downtown which appear to show no true vision forward.

Effectively the plans show no real change to what is currently there now. Running a series of tall buildings along Main Street without a cohesive transportation plan to provide comfortable rapid transit [there is supposed to be one but it was not there when I looked - dead link!] The buses running there now just are not going to work in the long term. Bidirectional east-west transit travel on a single artery will also be required to satisfy the requirements of such density - this does not require the road to be bi-directional only the transit system. Workers going to this dense an area will not be satisfied walking around blocks to get to or from work, thus encouraging  driving. The envisioned density would only follow good transit.

Although I do not like the funding mechanism for the York Region VIVA bus system it does fulfill a need for a high capacity predecessor to other high volume systems. http://www.yrt.ca/services/viva.asp
The system uses a station model which would set the stage for higher capacity as the density warrants. The future plans for VIVA are for dedicated busways and then rail transit based on utilization of the system.

The plan presented for the downtown would only need a high capacity route across [east-west] downtown with feeder routes supplying passengers originating/ending their travels away from the main "Main Street" route.

Is there no vision for the longer term available? The vision should show organic growth  which builds on  a  system of moving people, workers,  to and from  the downtown CBD  [Central Business District]  and the  sections that are permitted  to grow outward from it.   

Ilpo

Downtown Revival

This posting is part of a series I started on Rustbelt Cities and their revival.

A number of rustbelt cities have attempted to revive their downtowns which became abandoned with the collapse of the primary industry by creating large or mega complexes including new Stadiums, Art Galleries, and employment. These have pumped a lot of dollars into these projects but fail to attract the necessary nucleus of residents to sustain the services required for day-to-day functioning. 

Fortunately Hamilton is not at quite such a state. The downtown has some food stores and the Market. Jackson Square has many of the other services required. What may be lacking is a large enough pool of residents to create a demand  [and the services which follow] for middle and upper income requirements to keep these open for hours that would allow all newer residents to also use them.

This can be accomplished by encouraging projects like the Piggott Building which brings in this level of clientel into the downtown.  The restoration of other old buildings and  creating complementary new structures would assist in driving the necessary population size to draw the businesses and thereby change the streetscape   with increased walking activity which encourages other business and legitimate activity.

check out this audio link from NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5412132

Ilpo

Rustbelt revival

After writing the first blog article about Buffalo and how it is dealing with its self-improvement I delved into research into other rustbelt cities. At this point I would point the reader towards a site at The Next American City in as article named   ENVIRONMENT: Greening the Rustbelt by Eric Pallant.
Eric's focus is on two rustbelt cities at varying points in their revival.  Meadville is the primary focus of the article with notes on other cities [as he is located there.]
Both Pittsburgh and Meadville included significant artistic components in their plans. Although that is not the sole revival point.
Environmental renewal up to uncovering an creek in the CBD of Meadville and the clean-up of the three rivers area of Pittsburgh which is still ongoing. This is reminiscent of the work in progress in Burlington Bay [Pier 4] and the preservation of Cootes Paradise. Additional work in Hamilton could include old buried creeks now used as buried main sewers [both require the lowest point in the landscape as drainage.]  The work on the Hamilton Beach should be considered as part of this kind of effort in Hamilton.
The saving of old buildings was considered crucial to the recovery. These old buildings were then placed into new uses. In the smaller city, Meadville was able to get local farmers and other craftspersons to go to market.  [In Toronto the Farmers Market at St Lawrence is only on Saturdays. The other part of the market is daily but are composed of businesses set-up for food selling and other related types of merchandise.] Hamilton's Farmers Market as raised in some comments previously may choose to move to 'new' digs in a manner to revive itself [previously I had questioned this but must recount as the loss of the Lister Block would be a worse fate for all concerned.] Consider the fate of the Lister Block as a current cause! Take pride Hamilton on the Piggott Building!  The hamiltonnext web page of the Hamilton Spectator web page shows a number of the saved, to be saved, and lost buildings of note in Hamilton.
Notation regarding small clusters of small shops and their owners remaining and being encouraged to thrive. These generally do exist in some form in many parts of Hamilton and contribute to a walkable neighbourhood and city. This is additional support for comments I had previously made on the encouragement of small shops for each neighbourhood to be the supply for the daily necessaries.
I will be continuing the Rustbelt city line of discussion in my next blog posting.
Ilpo

Look up river to see part of an Example

Hey in Buffalo they seem to have found some of what is desirable for the Arts. They get referenced as a "Rust Belt" city but they celebrate their Art Gallery which has very notable art pieces and great touring exhibits. They also have other artistic matters such as Art Markets and districts. This topic arose from a newspaper article from your big brother [The Star 10 Jan 07 - Travel]. Hamilton has its own Art Gallery with notable art pieces which are the envy of the Louvre! I suppose that Hamilton could be classified as a "Rust Belt" city also. This only speaks of its past and not of its present or future. Other Rust Belt cities and towns have been evolving from here to the tip of Lake Superior. Initially each one gets into a funk about itself, then one by one they find themselves. Some go back to nature [lost towns], others get into art and yet others into tourism depending on their assets. The article referenced above speaks of the great asset of the old buildings that have not yet been torn down although they may be in some level of disrepair [an asset that is somewhat available in Hamilton].

Just another starting point to talk about!

Ilpo

What Now: Will the arts save us?

What if this city focused on something we do well, but that it didn't focus on steel or healthcare. Maybe it's the arts that can save us. Tell us what you think on this Will the arts save us? thread.

What Now: Where do you work?

People won't stay here and live here unless we have jobs. Who should be creating the jobs and where are the jobs of the future? Talk to us in this Where do you work thread.