Comment 12209

By Joe (registered) | Posted October 01, 2007 at 10:07:00

I definitely think attitudes need to change, whether it's for parking or visiting downtown. My wife and I had a 'date' last weekend in Hamilton (we've been living in Kingston for a couple years). The plan was to find a good restaurant on James St., and we were pleasantly surprised with Ventura's. While eating a seafood feast, I thought to myself how sad it is that I lived in Hamilton all my life and rarely ventured out to try local restaurants. Saturday evenings on James should be bursting with activity--especially in a city with half a million people. Surely a fraction of these people can be attracted to the core, I just don't think politicians have reasonably thought about how, and if they did, haven't translated their thoughts into action.

Here's what I think: Tourism Hamilton should spend part of their time on advertising to Hamiltonians. We're our best ambassadors, and if we don't even enjoy what our city has to offer, how can we expect others to enjoy it? If you read the TiCats forum (link above) you'll see how many Hamiltonians spew negative remarks about their own city. I think that bothers me the most.

An annual booklet with maps of downtown, clearly showing the location of restaurants, bars, and cafes, with discounts for students is a start. University and College students should be a primary target.

This tangent ties into the serious need for light rail lines from Mac, through downtown, to the east end (and another from the Mountain down James). Now that would tell me Hamilton is serious about downtown renewal.

In the meantime, we at least have people at the grassroots level who are working hard to make downtown Hamilton an enjoyable people-place. Keep up the good work!

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