Comment 33351

By rusty (registered) - website | Posted September 10, 2009 at 12:31:13

Meredith - My take on effective neighbourhood development is that jobs and services should be available in all neighbourhoods, along with a good mix of different choices of houses. We should not condemn low income folks to areas without accessible jobs and services.

What we need to create are neighbourhoods which comprise all walks of life in a good balance. What is clearly happening downtown is that one income group is taking precendence over others. Just because the neighbourhood is currently struggling to attract other income brackets is no reason to allow it to become ghettoized.

I'm sure property owners are frustrated with the lack of high dollar interest in their properties, but that doesn't mean council has to accept this deal. It will cost the city more in the long run. Better to ask property owners to sit tight and let council concentrate on upgrading the neighbourhood services and livability so that different income bracket folks will come knocking.

I agree that downtown is a 'different' neighbourhood - it does have prime access to lots of services and jobs. But it also has over 200 social services, a factor which is depressing property values and leading to proposals like the one we're discussing.

If you build a new golf course behind your street and permit only 10 room mansion construction - you'll get the neighbours you deserve. Same goes for the downtown. This is a critical vote for Hamilton - what kind of downtown neighbourhood does it want?

Ben Bull. Cap'n Bully has a new Blog! http://bullysmoviereviews.blogspot.ca/ or something like that.

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