Raise the Hammer

Nice try Anonymous. The plan was always for suburban assessment to go up so the city could afford to pay for social services, which are much higher in Hamilton than the surrounding areas because it already has the programs in place and has economies of scale like walkability and good transit that benefit people with limited means.

The idea was that the suburbs benefit from people with special needs living downtown, so they should help cover the cost. (Of course in that case having the province pay for social services makes the most sense.)

Even now suburban assessments are only just getting close to what people already pay downtown.

As for "the old Hamilton that is the boat anchor" the numbers say different. Every new house built in the suburbs, the developer pays less in servicing fees than it costs to deliver the service. That means every single new suburban house puts the city deeper in debt.

Also look at Red Hill. I know I know the highway is built but we still have to live with the economics of it. There's a reason Hamilton is the only city in Canada building a municipal highway - it costs a fortune to build and maintain!

next year's capital budget is being cut in half because we have no money left after paying for the parkway. I heard they can't even afford to service the land that the parkway was supposed to open up for industrial and commercial development. How pathetic is that?

All the promises of how Red hill was going to create all this new business and jobs and new assessments for the city are just exhaust on the air now. All the same people who jumped on the Red Hill bandwagon are now jumping on the airport/mid pen bandwagon, as if the results will somehow be different this time.

Meanwhile money drains out of the downtown to pay for all this sprawl.

And you call downtown the "boat anchor"?