Green City

Open Streets Hamilton

By Chris Farias
Published June 25, 2012

Over 100 local businesses, organizations and artists are coming out in support of Open Streets Hamilton in 2012, along with thousands of pedestrian, cycling and health enthusiasts to leave their cars at home and join in the streets!

Chris Farias is an artist, graphic designer and activist. You can visit his website or follow him on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

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By Borrelli (registered) | Posted June 26, 2012 at 09:07:41

woo! awkward hockey should take over that bit of real estate every Sunday!

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By Sigma Cub (anonymous) | Posted June 26, 2012 at 10:45:50

As aweome as this is, it'd be infinitely more interesting (and instructive) if it rotated around the city. The name certainly suggests something much more ambitious, even if it's just two or more streets in downtown Hamilton. Ideally, it'd involve every ward in the city (although maybe 14 is impractical). There are more than a dozen BIAs across the city, just to start. Is it simply a matter of this strip being relatively uncommercial? Or should we just rebrand it as Open James?

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By Papa Wheelie (anonymous) | Posted June 26, 2012 at 10:58:15 in reply to Comment 78920

Agreed.

http://www.raisethehammer.org/comment/41620

We've got around 30 weekends between Victoria Day and Halloween with seasonable weather. The city has around a dozen BIAs. We're currently managing two Open Streets Janes North a year. We should be able to do the same for the dozen or more BIAs around the city, just for starters.

I suspect that cost is the key argument in favour of the status quo. Based on James North costs, a Hamilton-wide program like this would cost the City around $250K annually. (The City granted $10K to cover the cost of the 2010 OS closure & policing, and as you add days and lengthen stretches of asphalt that are involved, your costs go skyward.)

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By John Neary (registered) | Posted June 26, 2012 at 21:26:38 in reply to Comment 78921

They could also just cut down on the policing, which would cut down costs. (Why exactly did there need to be a policeman at James and Cannon ensuring that pedestrians didn't run across on the yellow light? And why wasn't he ticketing drivers speeding on Cannon?)

Actually, now that I think of it, enforcing the speed limit on Cannon for a day would easily pay for the costs of providing police for Open Streets.

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By All Songs Considered (anonymous) | Posted June 26, 2012 at 11:04:07

Thank you for licensing something other than the obvious Petula Clark song.

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