Raise the Hammer

It might be interesting to look at how Vancouver developed the south shore of False Creek in the 1970s. This former industrial land was developed into low and mid-rise buildings with an equal mix of subsidized renters and owners and has a population of about 6000. Most of the buildings are actually coops. There is lots of green space, and it was maybe not quite dense or mixed use enough, but the residents love it.

The coop aspect and 50% subsidized renters features would go some way to addressing the "gentrification" concerns some are beginning to have about Hamilton's renaissance. Why couldn't we do this here? Coop addresses social cohesion and rent subsidies make living affordable.

"Since its founding in the 1970s, False Creek South's residents have quietly enjoyed the community's waterfall, its duck ponds and cloistered courtyards, its green expanse of lawn in Charleson Square, its view of the changing skyline of downtown between the Granville and Cambie bridges.

Unknown to most other Vancouverites, the nearly 6,000 people living in a dozen housing co-ops mixed in equal proportion with condo owners and subsidized renters -- all on once-industrial city-leased land -- was a conscious experiment in neighbourhood-scale urban design, since studied and applauded by planners and architects from around the world."

http://thetyee.ca/News/2014/01/03/False-...

It is a very different approach to how the north side of False creek was developed in the late 1980s and 1990s: the land was sold to Lee Kai-Shin of Hong Kong, the city had to pay hundreds of millions to rehabilitate the soil and Kai-Shin re-developed with very dense high rises (rather than the original mid-rise mixed plan). It is still pretty nice, but may not what we should be aiming for in Hamilton. (The photo in the article directly contrasts the two developments: green parks and a four storey building in the fore-ground, 30 storey buildings on the other side of False Creek.)

This site give a good sense of the South Shore neighbourhood:

http://x372sailor.smugmug.com/Architectu...

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2015-07-24 09:57:22