Raise the Hammer

Quite a beauty for a downtown core. We don't even yet have that quality in downtown Hamilton, a major city where this would work so well in a rapid transit era.

We are ONLY 30 minute walk between Gage Park general area and Downtown areas. Heck, even Tim Horton's Field is walkable from downtown -- only 30 minutes. But unlike in other more progressive cities, few bother to walk that distance because it's an unpleasant (and boring) walk. Why, indeed? Heck, like most of you, I drive a car, zoom the synchronized green lights on Main/King as quite briskly as any of you, but can't there be room for a pleasant walkable corridor?

There are a number of few younger people working for City of Hamilton -- with a really distinctly different mindset -- that wants to be more progressive, but is currently stymied by old thinking and having to follow orders, or the habit of older coworkers and bosses.

Thinking far ahead: One of the volunteers of the LRT advocacy I'm helping out with -- is an Urban Studies student. Might have a big career ahead of him in urban type stuff like this. In an era of LRT, bikeshare, upgraded HSR.

If you got an friend/student who's studying in this area (e.g. Urban Studies), make sure you mentor him/her by inviting along to events and meetings, etc. Take the effort to train the new generation. Mentor a student whose future career is involved in this sort of stuff. Even bring the person to the City Hall spectator seating to witness meetings and understand how City Hall works. Take the time to mentor. Please.

In better news, a SoBi bikeshare station just opened at Main-Eastbourne, bottom of Proctor Blvd. Now there's a bikeshare hub much closer to home. Planned incremental SoBi expansion (75 to 125 more bikes, hubs all the way to Ottawa Street) was revealed recently in TheSpec.

Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2015-12-08 11:50:02