HamiltonNext

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

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

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?