Raise the Hammer

Jason, Use a little common sense. Did you really think San Jose had a population under 1 million? A lot of what you want needs the same thing. A little common sense. I am sure you mean well but....

I want our city to enjoy success. I just disagree with you about the value of LRT. Just because I am more fiscally responsible does not mean I am anti success. We are not Boston and Boston's solutions cannot be simply transplanted and assume to work. Hamilton is very unique in its geography and that must always be kept in mind.

Our projects need to bear in mind that we are not the urban destination for the entire area. We are half city, half suburb of Toronto. Before we spend hundreds of millions on LRT down King Street how about just a few million to extend GO Trains into Hamilton on a reasonable schedule for a couple of years to see what results that brings.

I am all for a lot of the kind of construction that has happened in some of the cities we have mentioned. I think Hamilton forced some of the buildings downtown to be torn down simply by refusing to listen to reason and refusing to negotiate a reasonable tax rate. The owners simply could not afford to pay the taxes on a vacant unrentable, unsaleable building. Tear it down and turn it into a parking lot was the financially prudent thing to do. The one way streets and the green wave did not cause the downtown to become what it is today. I remember a busy active downtown with the one way streets and the green wave. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Take one lane (south I would think) on York, and make the sidewalks 4 feet wider and put in a bike lane. There is lots of room. One of the worst things Hamilton has done is this mish mash of bike lanes that appear and disappear. Why not a comprehensive network of bike lanes? Sterling Street in Westdale is a classic example: it has bike lanes on both sides from Mac to King and then they abruptly stop.

There is lots that can and should be done that does not include hundreds of millions on LRT.