Raise the Hammer

The problem which IS mostly unique to Hamilton is that we let most of our downtown become unpleasant for anyone who doesn't hang out by default, and we don't have a healthy balance of people. That is a problem that's not shared by most other cities referenced. It's the statement "Downtown is only good enough to go into by default, and we really don't care about making it great for everyone."

Vancouver has its shifty areas for sure, but there's also an amazing number of pleasant ones -- it's not like in Hamilton that we have a nice downtown with a few unpleasant parts, we have a mostly unpleasant downtown with a few nice parts. I've worked in some of the nicest and some of the worst parts of Toronto, and the beautiful parts of downtown far outnumber the ugly ones.

Two really recent stories, both involving Gore Park.

One: I'm working a temp assignment this summer that involves working with some executives, and more than once I've needed to schedule appointments downtown around the Gore Park area. There's not a single executive-appropriate (or even really professional-appropriate, sorry P.A.M's) coffee chain in downtown proper. One of them likes to meet at Starbucks on Locke, but it's a bit far if the person they're meeting with works in downtown proper, and there's certainly nothing walking-distance, e.g. if they're meeting with someone working at the courthouse. That means meetings that could take place in a chain end up taking place at the Hamilton Club, which is SO unnecessary given that they're just as happy meeting at a chain coffeehouse.

There's also a dearth of business-lunch-appropriate places downtown. It's not a friendly place to do business. Gore Park certainly isn't a pleasant place to go with a coffee and talk, that's for sure.

Two: Last Thursday I went down to read for a while in Gore Park with my husband. I joked later that night that it was the "2 out of 3 problem" - 2 out of 3 times it's nice enough except for the constant smokers, the third time there's always a major problem.

No cops around, and there were a couple young-to-middle-aged guys openly drinking and half-shouting their conversation in the park - for an HOUR. Whatever sympathy you have for their life circumstances, they shouldn't be able to ruin the environment for the twenty other people who were using the park. If I had a cell phone, I probably would have stepped off and called the cops, but good luck with them responding to a "minor" thing like that.

In Hamilton, what I find unique is not that there's "some parts" of our lower city that aren't nice, or the fact different types of people use downtown.

It's that we say by our development policies, our failure to enforce bylaws with buildings, our abysmal job in making it a friendly business environment, our poor police presence and more that (again) "Downtown is only good enough to go into by default, and we really don't care about making it great for everyone."

Edit: I think the demographic downtown needs is very much NOT my own demographic. I don't make a lot of money. (Personally, I find it a bit ironic that I constantly get asked for money 'for coffee,' when I always bring a travel mug from home.) I sure don't bring a lot of dollars into the downtown. And while there can be a place for everyone, there isn't right now.

We need more people downtown who are able to inject money into it... at the same time, there's a lot of factors that make it really unpleasant for certain demographics at the moment and that needs to change.

Families don't like bringing their kids into a downtown full of secondhand smoke. If they're staying at the Crowne Plaza, a lot of them don't want to go outside. People are afraid to walk around and find a restaurant. That needs to change. I have friends who come here every year for a conference, and they're scared to go outside of their hotel and they drive to Grimsby on their lunch break. That's ridiculous!!!

I know people don't like the idea of displacing anyone, but demographics need to change for a successful downtown, and there are other public places in the city.

Comment edited by Meredith on 2010-08-15 13:02:49