Raise the Hammer

was in the Annex neighbourhood in TO yesterday for the first time.
Yet again that city amazes me.

What folks like ASmith, the Spec and virtually every politician to be elected in Hamilton over the past 30 years fails to realize is that pedestrian friendly, community-oriented, friendly neighbourhood streets are FAR more successful and loaded with businesses compared to our one-way freeways.

The common refrain among the political elite in Hamilton is that they are 'business friendly' and rest of us aren't when we complain of more farmland or industrial land being converted to another Walmart.

I defy ASmith, Larry DiIanni, Lloyd Ferguson, John Dolbec et all, to travel to the Annex, the Beaches, Danforth Ave etc..... and tell me with a straight face that those neighbourhoods are hostile to business and are business-unfriendly due to the one lane of vehicle traffic each way, lack of surface parking, transit with the right of way (or at least the ability to stop all vehicles when loading/unloading) and mobs of people, cyclists and slow moving traffic.

If they honestly believe that Main/York/Cannon/Wilson/King Streets in Hamilton are more friendly to business than those streets, then Hamilton has absolutely zero hope for the future.

I would bulldoze all of the aforementioned streets in Hamilton in a heartbeat if I could replace them with the aforementioned streets in Toronto. And any so-called capitalist, or 'business-friendly' type would have no choice but to agree with me if a vibrant, successful business climate, and the exchange of dollars and cents is the true benchmark by which they make decisions.

The elite in Hamilton know this full-well, and they know that Hamilton's economy and business climate has SUCKED for decades BECAUSE of them. Not us. Ideas put forth here on RTH, if implemented across the lower city, would result in such a boom in the business, retail, construction, hotel, entertainment sectors we wouldn't be able to keep up with it.

Instead we are looking for ways to add parking lots to Locke Street, speed up traffic on James and John for fear that the two-way conversion might be too successful and building Walmarts from here to kingdom come, while streets like Parkdale, Kenilworth, Barton, King, Dundurn etc... sit and rot (all with the identical building style and building stock as you'll find on Queen, College, the Annex, Beaches etc... ). Hamilton and Toronto's main streets are virtually identical in appearance and architecture. The one difference? Their streets are full of people (shoppers) and their buildings are full of businesses (capitalism). Ours streets are full of cars and our buildings are covered in plywood.

WAKE UP HAMILTON and stop electing the old boys club to power!