Comment 120412

By JasonL (registered) | Posted November 07, 2016 at 08:30:23

One of the biggest problems is that folks in the suburbs think the old Hamilton-Wentworth region is how de-amalgamation, or uniting with Burlington would look.

I would barricade myself at city hall before ever allowing that to happen again. The old H-W region subsidized nearly all the costs of the unfettered sprawl in the suburbs on the backs of inner city taxpayers, while maintaining tax rates in the rich suburbs that were 50% lower than the old city.

Amalgamation still sees the urban tax base subsidize all their wasteful sprawl, but at least has brought the tax rates into balance so folks at Barton and Sherman aren't quite as heavily subsidizing people in Waterdown.

If Waterdown was to go alone, you'd see an immediate end to sprawl, and zero attempts at building unneeded highways or cloverleaf interchanges.
After seeing the obstruction to urban city-building by these councillors for 15 years, I've finally jumped to the de-amlgamation side. Not because I don't believe in the city working together, but because the suburban councillors have proven that they will remain petty and immature forever.

True de-amalgamation would be perhaps the greatest financial boon Hamilton has seen in many decades. Not the old H-W region setup, but a 100% full de-amalgamation. Suburbs sent off completely on their own without a dime from the city. Many of their communities would go bankrupt pretty quickly, but it would be so nice for the old city to be able to focus on city-building again.

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