Comment 37372

By Jonathan Dalton (registered) | Posted January 25, 2010 at 11:06:49

I'm with Jelly. Once in a while you just have to give a good fistful back to the downtown haters. If nobody did, their arguments might be taken as credible and the disease of Hamilton apathy would spread unabated.

The large collective disinterest on the part of the majority of Hamiltonians has devalued our greatest assets as a city - irreplaceable heritage buildings and prime downtown real estate - to the point of inviting opportunistic investment which perpetuates this cycle of devaluation. Demo by neglect happens to some properties because, in an environment which allows it, some properties will be bought by opportunists drawn in by low cost and low risk.

A common mistake is to conclude that because some properties are used this way, that there is no feasible alternative. Wrong - properties are bought cheap and neglected because the market allows it and there are insufficient safeguards against it. History has proven that with intervention, buildings can be repurposed in economically feasible ways with private capital.

I still find the buildings we almost lost more amazing than the ones we did and continue to lose. Where were people like 'sign of the times' when they wanted to demo the Piggott, SunLife, Bank of Montreal, Sandyford Place, the Lister Block, City Hall, the TH&B, and basically everything we have left to distinguish ourselves? Were they saying our efforts at preservation were useless?

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