Comment 52842

By RenaissanceWatcher (registered) | Posted December 09, 2010 at 08:49:18

The City of Hamilton needs to prove that it is serious about making downtown an attractive place in which to live over the long term.

When deciding on a place to live, most people will choose not to live beside a highway. Walkability is also important to most people.

The one-way streets in Hamilton are de facto highways and the pedestrian is often viewed as an obstacle thwarting maximum vehicle speed.

The hybrid system of one way and two way streets now utilized in downtown Hamilton is more confusing and more dangerous to locals and out-of-towners than having all two-way streets or all one way streets.

Very few new residential housing and hotel developments have been built in downtown Hamilton over the past fifty years relative to other Canadian cities of a similar size. In fact, the venerable landmark Royal Connaught Hotel struggled mightily for decades prior to its demise in 2004. The status quo is obviously not working for downtown Hamilton. Why not try two way streets to see whether they can help to increase residency in the downtown Hamilton area?

The economic impact to downtown Hamilton of one new downtown resident is many times greater than the economic impact of a person who works downtown or occasionally shops downtown and hundreds of times greater than a person who drives through downtown Hamilton to go somewhere else.

Encouraging more people to live downtown Hamilton should be a top priority. Making downtown Hamilton more pedestrian friendly is a large step toward making it more resident friendly.

Comment edited by RenaissanceWatcher on 2010-12-09 07:49:51

Permalink | Context

Events Calendar

There are no upcoming events right now.
Why not post one?

Recent Articles

Article Archives

Blog Archives

Site Tools

Feeds