Comment 95775

By erskinec (registered) - website | Posted December 10, 2013 at 14:12:18 in reply to Comment 95752

Yes, taxes could change behaviours if people were acting in their best self interest.

In my opinion, destroying more buildings and creating more parking lots makes everyone worse off –developers, business owners and the city.

Parking lots generate less tax revenue than keeping a building in place a filling it with a successful business. As we lose more buildings, we lose more opportunities to fill those buildings with small and independent businesses.

Without those businesses, taxes will need to be increased, and this will discourage both existing and future economic activity.

With less tax revenue, the city’s ability to support existing services or to provide new services to attract people to the core further declines.

Without places to shop or activities to entertain, the people increasingly go elsewhere. This further strengthens a negative feedback cycle that will continue until we start looking like parts of Detroit.

Just ask yourself, how attractive does Gore Park look now compared to last year?

So, who wins in such a situation? Is it really in a developer's best financial interests to turn his properties into vacated wastelands?

I really don’t see how you get from point "A" (empty lands) to point "B" (profitable development).

Comment edited by erskinec on 2013-12-10 14:40:24

Artist and film-maker with a focus on the Hamilton. The Erskine family has either worked or lived in Hamilton for over 100 years.

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