Comment 13801

By jason (registered) | Posted November 09, 2007 at 18:49:25

perhaps the best way of marketing the benefits of light rail to Hamilton is to use the example given in other cities. As everyone knows, highways are a magnet for extraordinary amounts of development along their path and at interchanges. I realize many people reading this don't have much 'love' for the highway-driven sprawl. But bear with me. Go check out the east mountain and upper stoney creek right now. Developing like crazy. I know, it's low density and car dependent. But here's where we can use this very familiar example to win support for light rail. Light rail is just as much a magnet for development as a highway. Portland Oregon continues to go crazy building more light rail lines first and foremost (in their own words) because it is an 'economic development tool'. The difference between this and a highway starts here. It isn't low density, car dependent development that sets up along light rail lines. It's high density, mixed-use developments that are LRT dependent. That means walkable and urban. It's a completely different type of development, but absolutely no less of it. in the past 5 decades Hamiltonians have only known the highway-driven style of development. LRT from Mac to Eastgate would radically change the face of our most important neighbourhoods and downtown core. It has the potential to create a boom in the urban core the likes of which we haven't seen in a generation. The more support for this proposal, the better.

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