HamiltonNext

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.

What Now: Leadership

The city has been on the cusp of something great for years. It's going to take individuals to push it to the next level? Do we support our individual initiatives or are we crippled by our reliance on institutional thinking? Talk to us on this What Now: Leadership thread in on the Hamilton Next blog.

What Now: How do we live?

In what other city can you sail a boat, ride a horse through trails and enjoy live music -- all within a 10-minute drive of your downtown condo? Do we realize how unique our living environment is .. or do we take it for granted?

What Now: How do you sell the city?

The trouble with marketing Hamilton is that it's a mixed message that we are sending. How do we focus on one or two things to say to the world? Do we feature ourselves as a film shoot centre? Is our identity locked into Toronto as a bedroom community. How do we market ourselves. Talk to us.

Good suggestion regarding categories

We received the following suggestion from Les Farago. What do we think of these category suggestions?

- the eds

Hi Hamilton,

I also am very excited about this series and it is very encouraging to see the number of people committed to this city.

I think that over the course of this series, there is going to be alot of great ideas and I would hate to see a good one get lost or overlooked. It may help to categorize/label/tag our suggestions and create a searchable environment for our ideas.
It would help if we could come up with a list of a high level set of categories and maybe work on a type of mission or vision statement. A few statements that describe what we want this city to become.

Here are some possible categories to get the ball rolling:
Human Rights - social issues, poverty, housing, child care
Natural Environment - Sustainability, restoration
Built Environment - Infrastructure, transit, walkability
Governance - policy, government, decision making
Economics - Jobs, industry, sustainability
Education - primary, secondary, post-secondary, adult
Health - facilities, family physicians, research
Culture - Music, art, history, food, drinks (all the good stuff!)

All of these categories are heavily dependent on each other but I think if this discussion continues we could possibly move it into a wiki type environment and possibly create a very useable framework that describes all the ideas, suggestions, categories and relationships and how the relate to the goals we set out for ourselves.

Thanks,

Posted by: Les Farago