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?

Comments

[RickCordeiro]

This is why we start setting up Web Cams all over the place here in Hamilton. Would be a real eye-opener not only for people outside of Hamilton but as well for the locals too.

A great way for Hamilton to get the word out to the World is setting up Webcams in designated areas of town that you want to promote like our Waterfalls, Dundurn Castle/Park, Cootes Paradise, Niagara escarpment, Chedoke Rail & Bruce Trails, the Royal Botanical Gardens, the West Harbour, Confederation Park, etc, etc...We have the technology and everybody surfs the Net now so lets start setting up Web Cams in these areas because it's just like the Chinese say, "A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS."

Rick Cordeiro
imgoalsactionresults@hotmail.com

[Ilpo Lehto]

Currently, the way the city is built and more so in the newly constructed areas the municipality is subsidizing the users of automobiles. This is to the detriment of the actual residents. All residents whether or not drivers are paying for this automobile centric planning.

Planning based upon transit would serve the resident in a much better way. This would create the neighbourhoods that city residents would far more more appreciate.

[Ilpo Lehto]

Lets start by examining the assets.

Historic components: Dundurn Castle, Farmers Market, Whitehern, T,H,& B Building, and the Art Gallery.

Hamilton has a reasonable stock of older brick houses, a grid system of streets, rail lines [active and not], some small communities within the built area [composed of a small business area surrounded by residential, a park system [some great, some good, some not quite].

There are a few gems showing that life indeed exists. Like it or not the Hess Village is a very healthy transformation of using the existing built form to create a new environment. Expect this type of change to continue - it does need the permission of the city fathers to guide concentration of these examples as not all streets should become a centre of economic activity. This is usually done by zoning. Hopefully it is done appropriately to allow for sustainability. I muse that during municipal elections the we the electors should be afforded with the results of each one from their playing SimCity [a computer game] although some longer term results would not be a nice result in the game, but shorter term results would be interesting.

One definite need exists in all neighbourhoods [Hamilton or not] is the need to have a grocery store, not a supermarket but something smaller. An excellent example I came across was on the corner of Queen and Hunter which is about as close as one can get now to a General Store. A close relative is the corner store at the corner of Cumberland and Fairleigh. There are some of these stores scattered about but I would contend that there are not enough. There is a need to have a corner store within about two blocks of a everyone for a vibrant neighbourhood. Longer travel to specialty stores is always and has always been the case. These should be the ones on the throughfares on transit routes. The larger warehouse stores still have a place but they would be in the edges of the city and their purpose would be to serve a very large area. This is the basis of simple but effective urban planning. The concept of the Central Business District [CBD] taken through both smaller and larger scales is the way planning works. This then allows the population to walk short trips for the daily necessaries and travel for the less often required supplies. This also has the effect of reducing traffic which is a very positive effect.

The CBD of the original downtown would improved by permitting a reasonable mix that includes new residential development but it also needs these daily supply sources although it is also a potential destination for the specialty shops as is the norm when there is a concentration of transit and people. Allowing and encouraging theatre and art galleries would assist in this healthy neighbourhood even in the heart of the city.

Now that the ultimate goal of the 1950's has been accomplished with the ring highways system it is now time to re-transform the city's road system to be much more friendly to local neighbourhoods. The long drive through the city is no longer necessary as they can swiftly[?] travel around the core. The chance is upon the city to create one focal main street for the east-west throughfare with the other as secondary throughfare with a greater focus on shopping. The shopping would work well as the next level of CBD from the neighbourhood corner store. The road would still maintain its capability to handle the delivery traffic whereas the corner stores need smaller delivery vehicles.

Another transformative effect of the ring highway could be the removal of heavy truck traffic up and down roads that were originally residential. Victoria north of King would potentially be returned to be a secondary feeder street by making it two way and allowing street parking and a left turn lane at large street intersections to further tie up the existing roadway.

This is a start point for more discussion on a number of points.

[Rick Cordeiro]

I actually don't think that we take it for granted. Instead I feel we don't do a good enough job of promoting what we have already to the locals. I will give you an example, I was born and raised and currently reside here in Hamilton and not until this year for whatever reason have I heard so much talk regarding all these wonderful waterfalls that we are supposed to have here in Hamilton. Waterfalls? In Hamilton? Where have I been all these years? I have never seen these waterfalls until this summer when I decided to go and seek them out myself and take photos of them with my digital camara.

So, for starters how's about doing a much better job of telling the people who are here already in Hamilton where all these waterfalls are and how to best get there?

As well, I would also like to add that the city has done a remarkable job in transforming are waterfront, especially at the West-end and making it more of a "people place." Hopefully we will see some more improvements and growth in this area. We need to better connect our downtown core to our beautiful waterfront. We are after all a Port City.

Rick Cordeiro
imgoalsactionresults@hotmail.com

[Rick Cordeiro]

This is why we start setting up Web Cams all over the place here in Hamilton. Would be a real eye-opener not only for people outside of Hamilton but as well for the locals too.

A great way for Hamilton to get the word out to the World is setting up Webcams in designated areas of town that you want to promote like our Waterfalls, Dundurn Castle/Park, Cootes Paradise, Niagara escarpment, Chedoke Rail & Bruce Trails, the Royal Botanical Gardens, the West Harbour, Confederation Park, etc, etc...We have the technology and everybody surfs the Net now so lets start setting up Web Cams in these areas because it's just like the Chinese say, "A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS."