Raise the Hammer

This is still being planned by the city??? Why?
We've finally started to see new investment in the city, to the tune of $1 billion last year, and more so far this year. There's no need for this. And we still have km worth of untouched development potential along King/Main/Cannon and Barton for urban, mixed-use development IF city hall ever decides to make it a priority and encourage it.

This is still being planned by the city??? Why?

I have to tell you, your lead-in worries me. You're an especially passionate, 'aware-and-energized' Hamiltonian, and this is (seemingly) a surprise to you?

This does not bode well, considering where all of this is going, what's going to unfold, what it's going to cost the City in the future...never mind the loas of irreplaceable land. Because if this is a surprise to you, then it's definitely off the radar for the 'average' resident.

...IF city hall ever decides to make it a priority and encourage it.

Actually, the cause-and-effect is more like "IF residents demand that City Hall decides to make it a priority and encourage it." Because if you're expecting the kind of migration of 'visionary leadership' at Council that your comment connotes, you're going to be waiting a lot longer than you might have to wait for LRT.

Like Gandhi said...

I guess I knew it was still 'on the books' but didn't realize any staff were actively working on it. If they would focus those efforts on increasing quality of life and business opportunities on arteries like Cannon, Main, King, Barton etc.... they would see much more bang for their buck.

Via the minds at MITL, "Sustainable Urban Gateway Development: An Illustration Using Hamilton, Ontario" seems to embrace both AEGD and LRT. The authors write: "we promote the idea that enhancing the gateway features of a city should not be achieved at the expense of the quality of life of its residents."

http://docs.trb.org/prp/12-2236.pdf

One subject no one mentioned, except Di Ianni offhand, is the unholy alliance between the AEGD and the mid-pen, which are lobbied off the other's proto-existence. The two both rely on fantastic projections of future growth and pay lip service to provincial planning instruments liable any election cycle to be repealed by a Hudak govt. So the mid-pen and AEGD will not lead to sprawl because that's already precluded by legislation (wink wink). Of course we can have AEGD and intensification (chortle). No, a mid-pen won't affect transit plans - in fact it's premised on transit increasing! (guffaw)

What a disaster.