Comment 39075

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted March 24, 2010 at 04:05:03

The City of Hamilton has sunk millions upon millions into various buildings and their redevelopment over the years. The Right House has been beautifully restored, and filled to the brim with City offices. And yet, one can virtually always get a crack rock within a few paces of the entrance - even after the welfare office was moved away.

Whether it's our low development charges, our million-dollar gifts to condo developers or the developer-led election finance scandal, is it not clear yet that pandering to landowners isn't producing the expected results?

Want to see Hamilton really thrive? Make some of this ample unused building space available to some of the hordes of enterprising young people around. This doesn't require multi-million dollar loans or grants. How about $500, a 6 month or so tax holiday and the cheap/free use of a storefront? Between out-of-work tradespeople, immigrants and underemployed young people, there is a truly massive population with enormous potential who are virtually shut out of these discussions. Yet at best, as is now being shown with the Skydragon and Reardons, they can hope to improve an area to the point where they get evicted in favour of more profitable tenants.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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