Comment 46084

By realfreeenterpriser (registered) | Posted August 22, 2010 at 09:50:38

By Be T you said "if the downtown is dying as you say then it shows what a waste every other development has been and why would we waste more of OUR money in an area nobody wants to be in anway"

Well, actually, it doesn't show that at all and could indicate the exact opposite. The downtown might well be WORSE without those developments. Did it cross your mind that the current state of the downtown could be a reflection of previous development OUTSIDE the core such as Lime Ridge, Eastgate, The Meadowlands, Centre Mall, Clappisons etcetra or are you actually trying to say that those and similar developments IMPROVED the prospects for the downtown? And would it be safe to say that while the downtown development to which you refer was being built a thousand times more money was being spent OUTSIDE the core?

Look around North America. Every post-industrial city that has revitalized its core did so by building stadia downtown, opening the waterfront and building LRT. That's why Pittsburgh's not Mississauga.

Your contention that "nobody wants to be in downtown" only proves my point. Nobody wants to be in a wheatfield on the east mountain either....until you build a stadium there.

I don't live anywhere near downtown but I know that a city can't thrive without a viable core. That requires housing, jobs and attractions like shopping and recreation. When those aspects of community life are dispersed we never achieve the critical mass of people necessary to make a city work.

If you and the likes of Bob Young don't want to share the benefit of public money to make this a livable city by reversing the mistaken trends of the '60's then I hope you can understand why the rest of our community doesn't want to share public money solely to make the Tiger-Cats profitable and Bob Young richer to the exclusion of most everyone else.

It's simple, Hamilton's prepared to share millions of dollars of public money through a new home for the Tiger-Cats, LRT, more people for downtown businesses, and an enhanced waterfront while Bob Young and a few Tiger-Cat fans want it all for themselves.

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