Hamilton's public profile

[flar]

We all know Hamilton has a perception problem, the city has all kinds of negative associations. We also have the problem of low national profile and non-existent international profile. I wonder if anyone here knows anything about public relations and media and what could realistically be done to improve the Hamilton "brand?"


We have stores like MEC and others shun downtown in favour of suburban locations. The NHL won't touch Hamilton and it's becoming clear they simply don't want to be associated with the city. No major company headquarters ever consider locating in Hamilton. We don't even have hotels. All levels of government seem to ignore the city--it's rare that anything is ever put in Hamilton (CANMET lab being the only thing I can think of). We only have one TV station, CBC doesn't even have a presence here, and the national media rarely reports anything out of Hamilton.

Hamilton exists in a black hole. What can be done?

[raisethehammer]

blow up the rest of the world.

[flar]

I ask because someone posted this on my Hamilton thread over on SSC (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=582580):

Thank you for posting that photo of Mac's new stadium. I remember poking around there when it was being built. Thank you for the information above as well. If you're not from Hamilton originally, then from where? What do you think of my proposal below? Do you think it could work?



Sorry for the late response. I was thinking on the same lines. What if we started exchanging ideas on how best to co-ordinate an effort that may bear fruit. Flar seems to have a good handle on the local preservationist societies and groups in Hamilton, he's obviously doing a fabulous job documenting the city, maybe we could round up a few other like minded people. I bet Taller, Better would be supportive. Who knows who else might come out of the wood work.

You're quite right about the opportunity right in front of us. Media is a powerful tool that can change perceptions and move us to our end goal. Here's what I propose:

We try to find all the contacts we have with print media in the Horseshoe or beyond. Magazines like Walrus, Toronto Magazine, Area, Spacing, The Beaver, MacLeans, Now, tourism rags, etc. We find someone who's good at PR and ask them for advice. We bring on board Hamilton preservationist societies that hold some sway and seem to be on the same page. We then send out a proposal to suitable print media and explain what we want to do and why.

It may be hit and miss, but we may just get a receptive ear at some of these publications. Many might see the merit in the project, see the diamond in the rough that we do, the marketability of doing a big spread on Hamilton, and we'd be off and running.

I'm proposing a full length photo spread of Hamilton with articles pointing out the hidden gem that the city is, and what a gold mine Hamilton is, left in the right hands. We could co-ordinate it with 1 or more publications so that they all come out at the same time. We'd put out a press pack and send a free copy to every Hamilton City Councillor and every mover and shaker in that city with copies of the magazine articles, copies of flar's photo thread, and make a strong business case for preserving Hamilton's architecture.

It has to make monetary sense, or it will fall flat on its face. It has to make monetary sense to the magazines, to politicians, and to developers. If we can get enough people in Hamilton all talking about the same thing at the same time, Hamilton views on this subject might start showing signs of movement.

The message has to come from outsiders. People are usually more flattered ,take more notice, and view attitudes as more credible when they are made from outsiders. In the case, the outsiders are us, Torontonians, and beyond. etc. If Hamiltonians picked up a respected magazine and saw emblazoned on the front: HAMILTON, South Beach in the rough! The next best thing? They'd fall off their bar stool. I'm not necessarily proposing that title, but you get my point. Something thought provoking, because it's really not that big of a stretch. Hamilton just needs investment, some creative smart people, and determination to make the goal realized.

Politicians only care if the electorate care. It has to start there, and it to be stoked with information, education, a business case, and a lot of good advice. This also needs to be a coordinated effort where all parties involved are working in unison.

Well that's all I've got at this point. It would be great if something amazing like this could evolve out of a site like SSC that we all log on to mostly for enjoyment. Obviously, this is a great deal of work and needs to be fleshed out considerably, but you have to start somewhere.
__________________

[go_leafs_go02]

the major drawback is Toronto being so close by. That's the media capital of the world. The 4th largest metropolis in North America, and pretty dan powerful.

The steel mills are a terrible eyesore for the city I think. Imagine Hamilton Harbour dotted with glassy, sexy condo towers and parks and recreation along the southern shore where Stelco & Dofasco currently are. The trickle-down effect of harbour living would honestly be pretty stunning. Hamilton geographically is probably the best place in Ontario, for the land forms, the harbour, lake Ontario, and the escarpment that really loops around the whole city in a way.

I guess we'll see what the upcoming depression will be like. It might be really rough for a while, but who knows what might come out of it if some places go under and redevelopment is created.

watching the sunset set behind this from your balcony on a condo tower where the industry used to be? wow..i'd live there.
http://www.hamiltonwaterfront.com/photo/thumb.php?gallery=./Hamilton%20Waterfront&image=dsc_3892.JPG&width=480&height=320&force=1

[ryan_mcgreal]

Here's an idea for discussion: the rest of the country looks down on Hamilton because our municipal government is chronically dysfunctional.

Hamilton is run by councillors that too often act like a gaggle of small-town bumpkins. It's not just the decisions they make, though they're often painful in themselves: it's the process by which they make decisions.

Is it better to replace City Hall's exterior with concrete, or limestone, or simply to fix the broken marble? Who knows? Not our councillors on the renovation committee, since they didn't even bother to price the different options before making a recommendation.

Do we need to rethink area rating, the unique Hamilton policy by which different parts of the city contribute different tax rates toward public transit? Council voted last year not to ask staff for a report on how it works and what options might exist to reform it. (Though they did acknowledge in a vote this summer that they'll have to do something about it sooner or later.)

Should we raise transit fares? How will raising the fare affect ridership? What other options exist to increase HSR revenues? What does the community think? Council voted late last year to raise fares - for the second time in less than a year - without taking the time to ask any of these questions. It was raise fares or fall short, period.

Now Hamilton has the slowest ridership growth among Canadian cities (barely a percent) in a period of high fuel prices when other cities are increasing their ridership dramatically, and the HSR still has a budget shortfall due to fuel prices. Real per capita HSR funding is still significantly lower than it was in the early 1990s.

How does a city of over half a million people not see the value in a robust, well-funded transit system? Yet council won't even consider raising transit levies or studying whether to fix area rating. We have a bus system that's scarcely better than Durham Region.

Our council is sidetracked in ridiculous debates led by self-important contrarians over whether it's a bad idea to have five-lane one-way expressways running through our downtown neighbourhoods. We bandy about studies that were conducted 60 years ago that have long since been debunked, and ignore the overwhelming empirical evidence that one-way thoroughfares are bad for pedestrians, bad for businesses, bad for safety, bad for children, bad for community development and bad for tax assessment. While other cities fall over themselves to fix the bad thinking of the 1960s and 1970s, we relive it endlessly.

Should we locate 100% of our new employment lands over the next quarter century in prime farmland around the airport? Is that a good long-term investment given energy price volatility? Is it the direction we want to go when we're trying to do something about climate change? Is it a good use of our resources to run services to a new 3,000 acre zone several kilometres outside the urban boundary when we have thousands of already-serviced acres sitting unused and underused in the lower city? What does the province think of our plans?

We can't get straight answers to any of these questions. In fact, we weren't even allowed to imagine a growth strategy that didn't include this massive urban boundary expansion, let alone get some rigorous studies on it. Two and a half years after it was requested, we're still waiting for a staff report on how Richard Gilbert's Peak Oil study will impact air transport. A brownfields study prepared by Hemson Consulting redefined brownfields out of existence to conclude that there aren't any available brownfield lands for employment. Existing industrial sites are being rezoned commercial so they can become big box centres with huge parking lots and very low employment densities.

We have no idea how we're going to pay the capital costs to service the Airport Employment Growth District (AEGD), considering we haven't even serviced the already-existing and much closer Glanbrook Business Park, which is adjacent to the municipal expressway that was going to attract new industrial employers but hasn't.

Oh, and the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) believes we've vastly overstated the acreage we'll need in the AEGD, though there has been almost no transparency in the discussions between the city and the ministry over this matter.

Most of the new development we've had in the past decade is low density residential and commercial. We're giving up the employment lands we already have for more residential and commercial development, even while we insist that we need huge new tracts of farmland converted to employment uses that we insist we'll need. Through all this, our projected assessment growth for 2008 is zero percent.

We're a dense urban centre, but we run the city as though it was a small town. Hundreds of residents write in to complain about a rushed transit fare increase but council plows ahead; yet the home builders association writes one letter complaining about a proposal to increase development application fees to harmonize with neighbouring municipalities, and the same council refers the matter back to planning for further review.

The kinds of cities that are considered leaders are centres of innovation - dense, urban, exciting, progressive - are those places that attract and retain smart, creative people. They are walkable, with tame streets, wide sidewalks and an attractive public realm. They have excellent transit systems. They have traffic congestion (a sign of vitality). They're vertical and mixed. They have feisty, participatory residents. They are beautiful, not merely functional. They have diverse social and cultural scenes. Their academic institutions are closely involved in helping shape public policy. They don't cater to the builders of suburban houses and strip malls. They don't spend hundreds of millions of dollar building municipal expressways through protected natural preserves.

We're getting almost all the big decisions wrong, and it makes us look like a joke.

[crhayes]

Here's an idea for discussion: the rest of the country looks down on Hamilton because our municipal government is chronically dysfunctional.

Hamilton is run by councillors that too often act like a gaggle of small-town bumpkins. It's not just the decisions they make, though they're often painful in themselves: it's the process by which they make decisions.

Is it better to replace City Hall's exterior with concrete, or limestone, or simply to fix the broken marble? Who knows? Not our councillors on the renovation committee.....

Damn good post; I agree 100%. My opinion is that right now Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster are the only things that Hamilton has going for it.

Is there anything we as the public can do? Like can all of us here on the board band up and start a petition, or our own council and fight City Council? Lol...seriously though, if there is something we can do I would be down. I am just not experienced with this political stuff... I'd like to know your opinion Ryan because you seem to know your sh... excuse the language :)

After reading everyones posts on these boards (even though sometimes discussions get heated) I think that if we were to form a 'Hamilton Think Tank' (with our plans actually followed through) this city would be amazing.

[BrianE]

McGreal for Mayor!


Seriously, I've lived here 5 years now and even I can see that this city is broken. This City needs to be shaken up from top to bottom.

[markk]

Ryan, if you ever run for office in this city, you'd have my vote.

Your post above should be shared further than this site.

[oldcoote]

Simply put, you need to encourage people to visit.

95% of Torontonians think Hamilton is the armpit of Ontario for two reasons:

1. The view from the Skyway

2. Someone told them it is.

The fact is the vast majority have never even been to Hamilton. I know this because I was one of them. I am a Toronto refugee who discovered Hamilton because a few of my University buddies grew up here. It didn't take long for me and my wife to realize the beauty of the city, but the reaction we got from our Toronto friends was completely over the top.

So how do you solve the problem? Invite friends for a hike along the rail trail or through the RBG. Take them down to the waterfront. Go check out a waterfall. Show them the cost of real estate.

[crhayes]

Ryan, if you ever run for office in this city, you'd have my vote.

Your post above should be shared further than this site.

Yes, it should be written in gold - on parchment - in size 20 font (and bold) and put on every councilors desk.

They need a way of masking the view from the QEW....I know it is really hard to do because you can see Stelco etc. from Burlington.... but maybe once you cross over the QEW into Hamilton they could have massive trees along the side of the highway or something.

The 403 between the link and the highway 6 north exit (right through Hamilton) is my favourite stretch of highway that I have seen so far - I think it's awesome and it makes Hamilton look beautiful - it will be even nicer once MIP is complete and the hotel is erect.

[flar]

I am reminded of an old concept from 1950s sociology: Cosmopolitan vs. Local

Locals:
-parochial
-preoccupied with local problems to the virtual exclusion of the national or international scene


Cosmopolitans:
-identify and relate to issues, events, and social organizations outside of his local community.



There is even an article from 1963(!) that could be about Hamilton now(!):


Thomas R. Dye (1963) "THE LOCAL-COSMOPOLITAN DIMENSION AND THE
STUDY OF URBAN POLITICS" Social Forces, Vol. 31 No. 3: 239-246.

Abstract:
The local-cosmopolitan dimension refers to the scale of social environment in which the individual sees himself. Locals view themselves primarily as members of the local community, while cosmopolitans are more aware of their relationships to larger social organizations. Locals and cosmopolitans among political leaders and residents of sixteen suburban communities were identified by their consistency of response on a five item local-cosmopolitan scale. Localistic attitudes were found to be inversely related to status. Political leaders at the municipal level appeared to be more localistic in outlook than their constituents. Local-cosmopolitan attitudes were also found to be related to varying opinions in three current metropolitan problem areas, transportation, municipal jointure, and zoning.



A prescient excerpt from that article:

"Analysis revealed that individuals who were unable to perceive their relationship to any larger social systems constituted an important segment of the opposition to government supported mass transit operations. The opposition to mass transit stemiming from the occupational characteristics of lower status residents was in this case reinforced by the greater parochialism of these individuals" (p. 246).

[MsMe]

Ryan, if you ever run for office in this city, you'd have my vote.

Here is some dirt on our MP's so goes to show you what we have running for us.


30 have been accused of spousal abuse.
9 have been arrested for fraud
14 have been accused of writing bad cheques.
95 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses.
4 have done time for assault.
55 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit.
12 have been arrested on drug related charges.
4 have been arrested for shoplifting.
16 are currently defendants in lawsuits.
62 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year!

Can you guess which organization this is?

It is the 301 MP's in the Canadian Parliament!

The same group that cranks out hundreds of new laws designed to keep The rest of us in line?!

Which one did you vote for?

TAKEN FROM THE OTTAWA CITIZEN

[ryan_mcgreal]

Here is some dirt on our MP's so goes to show you what we have running for us.

I'm almost certain this is a hoax. I've received several versions of it in my inbox over the past few years, and it has been attributed equally to the Canadian Parliament and the American Congress.

I am reminded of an old concept from 1950s sociology: Cosmopolitan vs. Local

The same general dichotomy turns up in different sociopolitical dimensions: urban vs. suburban/exurban/rural; liberal/progressive vs. conservative; etc. The editors of Seattle weekly The Stranger wrote a manifesto after the 2004 US federal election which they called Urban Archipelago (http://www.urbanarchipelago.com/) in which they argued from a county-by-county electoral vote map that the Democratic Party is the party of urban America:

Liberals, progressives, and Democrats do not live in a country that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to Mexico. We live on a chain of islands. We are citizens of the Urban Archipelago, the United Cities of America.

The essay is surprisingly meanspirited and condescending, and I think it's wrongheaded in wanting to cultivate yet more "identity politics", but it does make some very strong points about the core urban values of density, diversity, creativity, innovation, and tolerance.

[T]he New York skyline is a stirring image of American prosperity and achievement. It symbolizes the motivation and spirit of the American people, the wealth of our nation, the thrum of diverse cultures, and inexhaustible cultural creativity. Cities inspire us; they speak to our hopes and our passions. Small towns diminish us; they speak of lost history and downscaled dreams.

[...]

Cities' freedom to go their own way extends, of course, beyond mere infrastructure. Urban dwellers are cultural libertarians--we don't just tolerate a diversity of lifestyles and attitudes, we embrace it.

[...]

Look around you, urbanite, at the multiplicity of cultures, ethnicities, and tribes that are smashed together in every urban center (yes, even Seattle): We're for that. We're for pluralism of thought, race, and identity. We're for a freedom of religion that includes the freedom from religion--not as some crazy aberration, but as an equally valid approach to life. We are for the right to choose one's own sexual and recreational behavior, to control one's own body and what one puts inside it. We are for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The people who just elected George W. Bush to a second term are frankly against every single idea outlined above.

Unlike the people who flee from cities in search of a life free from disagreement and dark skin, we are for contentiousness, discourse, and the heightened understanding of life that grows from having to accommodate opposing viewpoints.

It also makes the obvious point that cities suffer when they're governed by people with exurban/rural values, as is the the case with the over-representation of rural areas on Hamilton's City Council. Each urban councillor represents more than twice as many constituents as each rural councillor, and since councillors generally vote for their own parochial ward interests, that means a small exurban/rural population can effectively overthrow the will of the urban majority. That's a big part of the problem right there.

[flar]

Oh yeah, where I was going with my post above...

We need new blood, we need the talented and influential people who come to the area to live in Hamilton instead of Burlington. We need more people with a more worldly perspective.

Eisenberger lies much more to the cosmopolitan end of the scale than people like DiIanni or Ferguson (textbook locals) but we need more.

[MsMe]

Oh yeah, where I was going with my post above...

We need new blood, we need the talented and influential people who come to the area to live in Hamilton instead of Burlington. We need more people with a more worldly perspective.

Eisenberger lies much more to the cosmopolitan end of the scale than people like DiIanni or Ferguson (textbook locals) but we need more.

I agree 100%.

[flar]

Has anyone seen the Hamilton TV commercial?

My brother in Ottawa saw a Hamilton TV commercial. He said the voice over and music were amateurish but the visuals made Hamilton look pretty good.

[Jon Dalton]

I'm inherently a very cynical person so bearing that in mind:

The profile of a city is most related to its significance on the national / world level in terms of economic activity, which has long since tanked with the industry it was based on. Manufacturing is over, so lets forget about it. We need higher tech, smaller scale manufacturing firms which will be an integral part of our economy and provide employment to people working in those sectors (people who have to commute right now). North American cities that have turned around are the ones that have managed to shake their industrial roots, rather than cling to them.

Hamilton is barking up the wrong tree in trying to get attention despite the positive press we keep seeing. We need to get over cheap real estate - it isn't neccessarily an advantage. Forget the bedroom economy. "Cheap and close to Toronto" attracts people yes, but does nothing good for our image.

Most importantly, the problem with our image is that people by and large don't care about it. People conduct their lives on a metropolitan scale rather than a local scale and the city one happens to live in means alot less than it used to. What is there to be proud about when you live on the east mountain, work in Oakville, shop in Toronto, go to church in Ancaster, and on the whole spend more time outside of your city and neighbourhood than within it? It doesn't even matter how the city is percieved on a national scale if you don't count on it for work, entertainment or social interaction.

You don't need a reason to live in Hamilton. You can live here because you're born here, because it's cheap, you got accepted at school here, your boyfriend or girlfriend lives here, or in the unlikely case you landed a job here. Toronto, like any high profile city, tends to price out the apathetic.

[Jon Dalton]

What can be done?

Oh, wait, we're looking for solutions. Of course.

Anything that is relevant not only to Hamilton but to the world around it. That used to be our industry the technological innovations that were made here. Like you said, major corporations or sports teams won't locate here, but maybe one could start here?

[ryan_mcgreal]

major corporations or sports teams won't locate here, but maybe one could start here?

If Hamilton is a successful city, it will attract a sports team, not the other way around. Toronto, for example, is talking about getting a second hockey team. That has nothing to do with "fairness" and everything to do with the fact that the Toronto economy is arguably big and dynamic enough to support two teams.

I think Hamilton needs to play to its strengths: a dense downtown; lots of available industrial/urban land; good intra- and inter-regional transportation access (via the port, rail connections and highways); two post-secondary institutions; a scrappy creative arts community; and a large population that currently works elsewhere.

We also need to chase future performance, not copy past performers. That means looking down the road at what the larger economic framework will look like. It looks very much as though energy markets from here on out will be characterized by extreme volatility trending toward ever-higher prices.

That sounds like a big problem, but successful innovators turn crisis into opportunity. I think we have a guide for revitalization and growth in Richard Gilbert's report Hamilton: The Electric City, in which he argues that Hamilton should make energy conservation and production it's economic Plan A.

Remember: about 90% of the buildings we will occupy in 20 years already exist. We will need to become experts in making those buildings a lot more energy-efficient, and that means a pretty intensely labour-intensive retrofit effort.

It provides economic opportunities right up and down the line: pure research, applied research, market innovation, and lots of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled work to install and retrofit energy systems. Since other cities will need what we're selling, that also means expanded opportunities for manufacturing and transporting energy systems, plus a net influx of income into the city. It also spurs demand for both industrial and office space, which will help to repopulate our under-used lower city.

We will be very well-positioned for new regional, national and international global warming frameworks, which are coming sooner or later; not to mention well-positioned in the case of a provincial or national carbon tax, which I also believe is inevitable sooner or later. We would also, naturally, be more insulated from energy price volatility.

As far as I know, no other North American city is really delving into this market: it's just sporadic businesses here and there, with most of the action coming from Europe. If Hamilton starts now and builds on the foundation of the city's existing planning framework - Vision 2020, GRIDS, The Electric City, Downtown Master Plan, McMaster Innovation Park, etc. - we could quickly establish ourselves as national and even continental leaders.

That, in turn, will attract businesses, entrepreneurs, inventors and investors to build the critical mass that's required to establish a self-reinforcing, growing industry. That will lead to new municipal tax assessments, more employment opportunities, and a more vibrant city, which in turn will attract still more creative people.

There's one more facet. Hamilton, like most North American cities, is facing a demographic one-two punch: aging Boomers are giving up their suburban houses and moving back downtown to take advantage of walkable neighbourhoods, nearby amenities and quick access to medical facilities; and at the same time, young university-educated people are abandoning the suburban dream and looking to move into cities.

Those two groups represent the richest and most creative sectors of our population, respectively. If Hamilton can accommodate them with a dense, vibrant, growing downtown, we can attain both. If we do nothing, those two demographics will find accommodations elsewhere, taking their money and their enthusiasm with them.

[crhayes]

Does anyone know what kind of incentives the city has for attracting new businesses? I am aware of the grant programs for renovating buildings in the downtown BIA...but what else do we have in place?

Does the city give tax breaks to businesses here? It seems the city REALLY has to give incentives for businesses to locate their head offices here.

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

Simply put, you need to encourage people to visit.

95% of Torontonians think Hamilton is the armpit of Ontario for two reasons:

1. The view from the Skyway

2. Someone told them it is.

The fact is the vast majority have never even been to Hamilton. I know this because I was one of them. I am a Toronto refugee who discovered Hamilton because a few of my University buddies grew up here. It didn't take long for me and my wife to realize the beauty of the city, but the reaction we got from our Toronto friends was completely over the top.

So how do you solve the problem? Invite friends for a hike along the rail trail or through the RBG. Take them down to the waterfront. Go check out a waterfall. Show them the cost of real estate.

This is why I was motivated to do the work that I have done on Hamilton over on wikipedia. Along with the many articles that are there now on Hamilton which include an overview of the city, Its history, the economy and the streets of Hamilton I thought it was also important to include over 500 images of our city because as the Chinese say, "A picture is worth a thousand words". I'm not a professional photographre by any stretch of the imagination but I did my best to capture the best of what I think we have to offer here in town. In addition to this when I uploaded my images online onto wikipedia I intentionally uploaded them without adding any copyrights to them because I want as many people to feel free to use them on any web site they have where they are promoting Hamilton. I think wikipedia is a good way to send out the message on Hamilton especially when you consider that it is the 9th most visited web site on the entire internet and they get over 300-million page hits a day which gave our city unbelievable exposure when it was the featured article there on February 29th of this year. I hope that someone or some company takes a look at the data base we have there on Hamilton over on wikipedia from places like Dubai, Middle East, Japan, Asia or wherever and if I can help to increase their curiosity to the point of wanting to take a trip here to Hamilton to look around to see if we are a great place to move or start a business here then I would be thrilled about that. My only concern is once it gets to that point they might get turned off by all the red tape and beaurocracy we have here in Hamilton.

I think the business community is finally on the right track when they formed and organized this city's very first Economic Summit. I come across people all the time in this town who tell me that when they decide on doing something they just simply do it and leave out the city because if they were to include the city they would be held back and slowed down and they feel that they can get a hell of a lot more done and get farther if they leave the city out of the equation.

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

We all know Hamilton has a perception problem, the city has all kinds of negative associations. We also have the problem of low national profile and non-existent international profile. I wonder if anyone here knows anything about public relations and media and what could realistically be done to improve the Hamilton "brand?"


We have stores like MEC and others shun downtown in favour of suburban locations. The NHL won't touch Hamilton and it's becoming clear they simply don't want to be associated with the city. No major company headquarters ever consider locating in Hamilton. We don't even have hotels. All levels of government seem to ignore the city--it's rare that anything is ever put in Hamilton (CANMET lab being the only thing I can think of). We only have one TV station, CBC doesn't even have a presence here, and the national media rarely reports anything out of Hamilton.

Hamilton exists in a black hole. What can be done?

Flar,

I think that this is a great topic. The one thing that really sticks out for me that would be a really big surprise for people outside of Hamilton would be the way in which we are surrounded by nature. We have all these great trails like Bruce and Chedoke Rail trail, we have some great things also happening with our waterfront, and we have over 100 waterfalls along the Niagara Escarpment and we need to do a much better job of getting the word out to the world.

One of the best ways that I think we can show all this to the world would be to do what some cities from around the world have done and that is to place web cams in strategic locations in our town that you would like to promote. Places like our Parks, Cootes Paradise, hiking trails, waterfalls, waterfront, and the view that we get of our city from atop the mountain.

I know that there are people in Toronto that are fed up with that concrete jungle they have there and if they knew that just down the road here in Hamilton are all these natural wonders they would be amazed I think to the point of wanting to move the family here as well as their business and or company. So web cams are the way to go I think and once you have the web site set-up we start to target cities and towns all over the province, maybe we target the GTA first and post-up the URL of this web site with the web cams on a number of their billboards in some form of a marketing bitz. We have the technology here with us so lets do something with it!

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

Damn good post; I agree 100%. My opinion is that right now Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster are the only things that Hamilton has going for it.

Is there anything we as the public can do? Like can all of us here on the board band up and start a petition, or our own council and fight City Council? Lol...seriously though, if there is something we can do I would be down. I am just not experienced with this political stuff... I'd like to know your opinion Ryan because you seem to know your sh... excuse the language :)

After reading everyones posts on these boards (even though sometimes discussions get heated) I think that if we were to form a 'Hamilton Think Tank' (with our plans actually followed through) this city would be amazing.

I think that if we had some people from this forum down at City Hall right now this city would be flying!

I really admire and am extremely impressed with the grassroots movement started off by Ryan McGreal when it comes to the LRT. Sometimes I think I should start one up myself but when I start to think of all the work that it would require it seems at times a daunting task. Having said that, if I were to start a movement myself it would be to get some Film Studios up and running here in Hamilton. Now, I havent been in the film industry too long but I have been in it long enough to know the economic benefits that it can bring to our city. I also network with a lot of the people in the industry so whatever knowledge or expertise I lack I make up for by surrounding myself, which is exactly what I have done, with people who know more and have more experience than I. Add to the fact that I am very studios person by nature and a quick learner with a photographic memory. The Film Studio idea would be my pick.

[omro]

This is why I was motivated to do the work that I have done on Hamilton over on wikipedia. Along with the many articles that are there now on Hamilton which include an overview of the city, Its history, the economy and the streets of Hamilton I thought it was also important to include over 500 images of our city because as the Chinese say, "A picture is worth a thousand words".

I have to say the Wikipedia pages on Hamilton are incredibly good, I've always been impressed by them and they were a huge selling point for me when Hamilton was just a place on the map before my first visit.

[ryan_mcgreal]

Sometimes I think I should start one up myself but when I start to think of all the work that it would require it seems at times a daunting task.

Thank you for your very kind words. Honestly, it's not nearly so daunting a task as you might think. The trick is to recognize that any such campaign is a collaborative effort. I'm only one of several founding members, and I don't "own" the LRT campaign by any stretch, as it's a movement started and carried out by several dedicated people who do what we can with the time and resources we have.

We make decisions on a loose consensus basis and we stop frequently to assess how we're doing so we can make sure we're still being productive and effective.

If you're serious about starting a campaign to bring more film productions to Hamilton, I'd be glad to meet with you and share my experience being involved with the LRT campaign. You can reach me via email: editor@raisethehammer.org

[raisethehammer]

I have to say the Wikipedia pages on Hamilton are incredibly good, I've always been impressed by them and they were a huge selling point for me when Hamilton was just a place on the map before my first visit.

I second that! Boomtown - are you the one responsible for those pages?? If so, my hats off to you. And congrats on the 'feature article' recently! Way to get word out about the Hammer!

[BrianE]

I think Boomtown is also responsible for a lot of the great Panoramio pictures for Hamilton on Google Earth. Unless I am mistaken about your identity.

[highwater]

I have to say the Wikipedia pages on Hamilton are incredibly good, I've always been impressed by them and they were a huge selling point for me when Hamilton was just a place on the map before my first visit.

Thirded. Boomtown's wikipedia pages are a monumental achievement. Don't beat yourself up too much about not starting up another grassroots movement. You've done way more than most already.

[astroblaster]

boomtown, i think i said this in another thread, but you're seriously THE MAN for those wikipedia articles. it can't be said enough.

for the record. i'm also interested in getting involved with grassroots activities. i wanted to come to the last LRT meeting.. but something came up last minute.. perhaps the next one, Oct 28th?

Another selling point for Hamilton are the many wonderful old buildings that we have. I am trying to work this angle. This is especially true for attracting people from the 905 suburbs where there is very little history. Some people need that stuff around them.

In general, I feel i could, and should do more, I just don't know what.

[astroblaster]

I work in Mississauga/Toronto and I constantly talk to people about Hamilton, trying to do my small part in changing perceptions.

recent (random) comments:

-hamilton stinks (this is gonna be tough to get rid of... i usually counter with "no it doesn't" or "only certain areas" but then they throw back "you're just used to it" personally i think toronto stinks.)

-a coworker came to hamilton randomly for a day trip. they were impressed. they went downtown and got sushi and were stunned to find Christ Church Cathedral on James. She said it reminded her of Europe.

-another coworker has a boyfriend who lives in hamilton, she has been telling me to check out Ya-man caribbean foods in the international village area. i plan to shortly. she loves this place and states that its better than most toronto area caribbean places. i think thats a great compliment because toronto has no shortage of caribbean food.

-someone else told me they would consider moving to hamilton if they could find a nice old house here.. but wanted something on the mountain.

[raisethehammer]

it's the same story time and time again. People who've never been into Hamilton say it sucks/stinks etc.... but once people come, they are impressed with what we have to offer, even with some of the rougher areas and downtrodden areas. TO has downtrodden areas too. Every city does.
The key is to figure out a way to get more people to visit the city.
Having Hamilton Place rated on of the top 50 concert halls in the world this year certainly helps. I live near York and can assure you that I don't need to know what's happening at Copps to know that something big is happening. I just look out front and see York traffic slowly crawling by (which I love...much more city-like, quiet and safe). TONS of out-of-towners come here for big shows...like last night.
I had a guy pull over on Dundurn at Tom and ask me how to get to Copps. Lol. I told him to get back on York and just keep going - you'll drive right into it.
Too bad York is such a bland, crappy entrance to the city with it's 6 lanes and no retail/commercial activity.
Anyone else who lives near York can confirm this though - a huge portion of concert-goers come from out of town, presumably the GTA if they're getting off the 403 at York.

[flar]

There are some nice old houses on the mountain, but it would be hard to get your hands on one.

[highwater]

-someone else told me they would consider moving to hamilton if they could find a nice old house here.. but wanted something on the mountain.

Well we all know that's pretty much an oxymoron. Do you know this person well enough to invite them to Hamilton for the day? My hubby did not want to move to Hamilton. Growing up in Niagara, the view from the Skyway was the sum total of his impression of Hamilton. One trip driving around Westdale, Durand, and Kirkendall was enough to change his mind. Of course when we told people we were moving to Hamilton, everyone said "You have to live on the mountain! It's so much cleaner and safer!" Perhaps your aquaintance is under a similar impression and a trip around some of the lower city neighbourhoods will change his/her mind.

[FairHamilton]

So if I'm reading all the above correctly Boomtown = Rick Codeiro, right?

[drpgq]

-another coworker has a boyfriend who lives in hamilton, she has been telling me to check out Ya-man caribbean foods in the international village area. i plan to shortly. she loves this place and states that its better than most toronto area caribbean places. i think thats a great compliment because toronto has no shortage of caribbean food.


I really like Ya-man too and suggest anyone who hasn't tried it to give it a try.

[sofasurfer]

I really like Ya-man too and suggest anyone who hasn't tried it to give it a try.

This.

I've eaten quite a bit of carribean food in London (UK - particularly Brixton, where I lived for a few years) and Ya Man is easily up there with the best.

They're on a par with the Winking Judge, IMO. Staff have a knowledge and passion for what they sell, because they care about good food and drink and share that love with people.

Oh, and while we're on food pr0n, we ought to give Stoney Creek Dairy a mention, surely? As a recent new arrival (but previous visitor to Hamilton), it really is a true asset. They ought to have be selling it at YHM and the like...

[Jon Dalton]

Sorry for going off topic but Mex - I - Can deserves a shout out here.

[crhayes]

Yeah Boomtown great job with the wikipedia articles. I have to say...before I found this forum I visited those articles weekly and just read over stuff!

I love Hamilton!! haha

[Millstone]

it's the same story time and time again. People who've never been into Hamilton say it sucks/stinks etc.... but once people come, they are impressed with what we have to offer, even with some of the rougher areas and downtrodden areas. TO has downtrodden areas too. Every city does.
The key is to figure out a way to get more people to visit the city.
Having Hamilton Place rated on of the top 50 concert halls in the world this year certainly helps. I live near York and can assure you that I don't need to know what's happening at Copps to know that something big is happening. I just look out front and see York traffic slowly crawling by (which I love...much more city-like, quiet and safe). TONS of out-of-towners come here for big shows...like last night.
I had a guy pull over on Dundurn at Tom and ask me how to get to Copps. Lol. I told him to get back on York and just keep going - you'll drive right into it.
Too bad York is such a bland, crappy entrance to the city with it's 6 lanes and no retail/commercial activity.
Anyone else who lives near York can confirm this though - a huge portion of concert-goers come from out of town, presumably the GTA if they're getting off the 403 at York.

York Blvd hasn't changed much since it was created... still those ugly stucco-type disasters with convenience stores lining it up until Copps.

[crhayes]

York Blvd hasn't changed much since it was created... still those ugly stucco-type disasters with convenience stores lining it up until Copps.

It's too bad because York could be a beautiful street. Once you get to Copps and it makes that band at Hamilton City Center it's so nice...but if there were nice offices to the east and west of that 1 block it would be awesome.

[flar]

Let me just post the old York pictures once more so we can weep again:

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k28/segaert/oddstuff/york.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k28/segaert/oddstuff/york0002.jpg

[Millstone]

It's too bad because York could be a beautiful street. Once you get to Copps and it makes that band at Hamilton City Center it's so nice...but if there were nice offices to the east and west of that 1 block it would be awesome.

Around that bend you can make out where they demolished streetwall to connect Wilson St with York Blvd, and fill the empty gaps with parking lots.

I'd like to see pictures of what was in the super parking block of Wilson/John/Rebecca/Hughson before.

[flar]

I'd like to see pictures of what was in the super parking block of Wilson/John/Rebecca/Hughson before.

I'd like to know too.

[crhayes]

Around that bend you can make out where they demolished streetwall to connect Wilson St with York Blvd, and fill the empty gaps with parking lots.

I'd like to see pictures of what was in the super parking block of Wilson/John/Rebecca/Hughson before.

It would be nice if all of those parking lots were office skyscrapers.

[adam]

Sorry for going off topic but Mex - I - Can deserves a shout out here.

Yeah! Its amazing food. Much MUCH better than chain mexican cuisine places like Mexicala Rosa's. They just upgraded the floor in there too.

[raisethehammer]

York Blvd hasn't changed much since it was created... still those ugly stucco-type disasters with convenience stores lining it up until Copps.

you need to go to the library. York is one of the oldest streets in Hamilton. It was ruined in the 1960's not 'created'.

[raisethehammer]

Around that bend you can make out where they demolished streetwall to connect Wilson St with York Blvd, and fill the empty gaps with parking lots.

I'd like to see pictures of what was in the super parking block of Wilson/John/Rebecca/Hughson before.

I'm pretty certain that a huge church was located on the east side of Hughson between Wilson and Rebecca. Don't quote me though. It's been a while since I browsed my history books.

It's really unfathomable what they did to York. I'm I ever glad that 'progress' isn't so stupid and blind these days. If only we could have made it through that couple decades without so many massive attempts at 'renewal', downtown would be a different world today. Much more pedestrian-friendly and vibrant.

[adam]

Sorry to take the other side, but those old pictures don't look like a good sustainable model to me... and look how soon after the city became decrepit. Replace the old cars with new ones and the old retro signs with newer ones and you have the hell that is Upper James with street parking.

[highwater]

Huh? You're being sarcastic, right? The photos show 2-3 storey buildings abutting one another and coming right up to the street, lots of pedestrian traffic, and on street parking. This is pretty much the antithesis of Upper James.

[raisethehammer]

look at the top picture again my friend.
If that was upper james you'd be lucky to see both sidewalks in the photo. This shows a great streetwall of historic buildings the entire length of the street. The city rammed 4 lanes of traffic into it later on, but it would be more suited to 1-lane each way with street parking on both sides like College or Queen in Toronto (and, again, like the top photo clearly shows WAS the case before we 'fixed up the road').
How you see Upper James in that pic is beyond me??

[raisethehammer]

great observation highwater re: heights of the buildings. Most are 3 and 4 floors. King St east of the core is generally 2 or 3. James North and King West are generally 3. That indicates to me that York through this stretch was as vibrant and dense as those other streets...down in market square York had even higher buildings than that. It was a prime, important street in our city and we destroyed it for the #$%& car!

[flar]

I would estimate that about 3/4 of Hamilton's streetwall's have been demolished.

[raisethehammer]

I would estimate that about 3/4 of Hamilton's streetwall's have been demolished.

I think that's high.
Barton, King, James, Ottawa, Kenilworth, Parkdale, Locke, Westdale, Concession all have theirs fully in tact for the most part.
Main St between Queen and Wellington was ravaged as was York, Jackson Square, and parts of King William, Rebecca, Jackson, Catharine etc.....
Not to mention, residential areas in the lower city. Thank God, most are still almost fully intact. Durand was hardest hit, but otherwise, most areas haven't been harmed much by demolition.

[FairHamilton]

I would estimate that about 3/4 of Hamilton's streetwall's have been demolished.

Unfortunately, that's all past. Fortunately, we have the power to ensure it never makes it to 7/8's

[flar]

I think that's high.
Barton, King, James, Ottawa, Kenilworth, Parkdale, Locke, Westdale, Concession all have theirs fully in tact for the most part.
Main St between Queen and Wellington was ravaged as was York, Jackson Square, and parts of King William, Rebecca, Jackson, Catharine etc.....
Not to mention, residential areas in the lower city. Thank God, most are still almost fully intact. Durand was hardest hit, but otherwise, most areas haven't been harmed much by demolition.

I'm thinking about the core, I should have specified. The other ones out along Barton, King, Concession, Ottawa, etc stretch out quite a long way and make up for it a little. Most of those are holey compared to what was downtown. I can't imagine some of the buildings that were demolished downtown, entire streets erased.

[ryan_mcgreal]

great observation highwater re: heights of the buildings. Most are 3 and 4 floors. King St east of the core is generally 2 or 3. James North and King West are generally 3. That indicates to me that York through this stretch was as vibrant and dense as those other streets...

Boston (the city proper, not the larger metropolitan area) has 600,000 people living on 130 square kilometres, for a population density of 4,600 people per square kilometre.

Aside from a small financial district right downtown, the entire city is composed of row houses and three- to five-storey mixed use streetwalls.

Hamilton proper, by contrast, has 350,000 people living on 228 square kilometres, for a population density of 1,530 people per square kilometre.

[flar]

The lower city bounded by the 403, escarpment, harbour and Red Hill Valley has a population of 133,837 and an area of 49.16 km2 for a density of 2722.48 per km2. If you subtract the industrial census tracts, it's 126,983 in 32.12km2 for 3953.39 per km2. Between Queen, the rail corridor, Wentworth, and the Escarpment there is a population of 40,136 in 5.81 km2 for a population density of 6908.09 per km2. Not too shabby.

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

I have to say the Wikipedia pages on Hamilton are incredibly good, I've always been impressed by them and they were a huge selling point for me when Hamilton was just a place on the map before my first visit.

Thanks for the kind words omro,

I am glad to hear that it was a huge selling point for you. This was my primary motivation for doing the work that I did over there on wikipedia. Like has been said many times already in this forum the image that a lot of people have of our city that have never been here is the image they get of Hamilton whenever they make the drive over the Skyway bridge. For me personally I love that image especially at night time when the waterfront is lit up by the flames shooting up from those smokestacks at Stelco and Dofasco but that's just me.

So we have to come up with multiple ways, creative ways to get the word out. With me I'm all about marketing and promoting and whether you are running a business or running a city I believe that you can never do enough of the marketing and promotional work that needs to get done.

Wikipedia was a way I tried to use for this, web cams I think is the next logical way to go. I've also uploaded a few of the images on Google Earth that are on wikipedia. I still have a few more to add there as well.

I like the idea presented by flar regarding some form of a timely marketing blitz of our city in all of the Toronto and National dailys and magazines.

Thanks again for the kind words!

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

Thank you for your very kind words. Honestly, it's not nearly so daunting a task as you might think. The trick is to recognize that any such campaign is a collaborative effort. I'm only one of several founding members, and I don't "own" the LRT campaign by any stretch, as it's a movement started and carried out by several dedicated people who do what we can with the time and resources we have.

We make decisions on a loose consensus basis and we stop frequently to assess how we're doing so we can make sure we're still being productive and effective.

If you're serious about starting a campaign to bring more film productions to Hamilton, I'd be glad to meet with you and share my experience being involved with the LRT campaign. You can reach me via email: editor@raisethehammer.org

Hey Ryan,

Thanks for the offer. I just may take you up on it.

For me personally the Film Studios are the way to go. Without getting into any details I'll just say that we've had the private sector have a go of it to try and start-up a Film Studio here in town and both times they failed and it was short-lived. Because of it the next person or group of people from the private sector may be a little hesitant because of these two previous failed attempts. This is where I feel the city needs to step in and take the initiative to start one up. The city does have the money to get involved in such a project despite what some people in this town may think. The Hamilton Film Office also have the numbers to back up the start-up of a studio. The Economic Development Department recognizes the TV/ film industry as a growth industry for the city of Hamilton. The two things working against them right now when trying to convince council to move ahead with this would be the two previous failed attempts by the private sector and the slow year in 2008 in Hamilton and Southern Ontario due to the strikes in Hollywood with the Screnwriters and the Actors Guilds. Prior to this season the film production numbers in Hamilton had gone up for 5 consecutive seasons. In addition to this last season TV/ film industry was a Billion dollar industry here in Ontario and 40% of that was right here in Hamilton, Ontario. With Toronto being the film hub of Ontario Hamilton is benefiting in two major ways:

(1) Hamilton is close enough to Toronto that we are getting all the spill-over work there into our city.

(2) Hamilton is just far enough away from Toronto that we lie just outside the Toronto film zone. The reason why this is important is because the province of Ontario offers film companies extra tax breaks if they shoot outside the Toronto Film Zone to encourage filming to other parts of the province.

Its not like if we build the studios they will come. We don't have any studios in Hamilton and they are coming here already. We've seen the film trucks all over town. Nicolas Cage is in town right now shooting a feature called "Kick-Ass". We've had some other big names in town to shoot films like Sean Connery, John Travolta, Robin Williams, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Wahlberg, Ron Howard, Russell Crowe, etc, etc....the thing is whenever they are here they always ask if we have a film studio. If we had a film studio here in town to offer these guys they would shoot here more often.

Last season when they were in town filming the "Incredible Hulk" all off our hotel rooms were booked solid. They eat in our restaurants, they shop in our malls, they pump a ton of money into our local economy. It is for these reasons and more that Hamilton's Economic Development Department recognizes this industry as a growth industry. The next logical step for Hamilton is to build a studio. The guys shooting the Hulk would have stayed here even longer if we had a film studio to offer them and because we did not have any to offer them they went back up the road to Toronto to finsih filming because right now in Southern Ontario that is where we have the film studios.

Now I say build a studio but we also have a number of factory and warehouse buildings in our industrial north-end that could be easily transformed into film studio, just as long as there's not too many support beams in them because with film studios you need large un-interupted space inside plus ideally you need the facility to be at least 3-stories in height.

Thanks for the offer Ryan. You will get an e-mail from me within a week.

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

I second that! Boomtown - are you the one responsible for those pages?? If so, my hats off to you. And congrats on the 'feature article' recently! Way to get word out about the Hammer!

Thank you Sir for the kind words.

I first took a look at wikipedia and the Hamilton articles there after reading up on a Paul Wilson "Streetbeat" article where he was talking about it. That article peaked my curiousity to go over there and check it out. When I got there the two things that really stuck out for me was that there wasn't a whole lot of info on Hamilton. The second thing I noticed was that the little info they had there on Hamilton was not very accurate and no one was citing their sources there. So I began with the clean-up work and started citing sources, started expanding on the Hamilton article to the point where it just became too long and I started to branch out to other sub-articles, everything from the History of Hamilton, to the Historical timeline of events, The Economic History, List of people from Hamilton, The Culture, The film industry, Sports in Hamilton, Streets of Hamilton, etc, etc....I had no idea it would grow to the size that it is today. I would come home from work late at night from the bakery and work on it for about 4 to six hours a night and piece by piece, day by day, the database there on Hamilton just grew to this monster we now have there.

The neat thing of helping to make the Hamilton article over there a "Featured article" is that when it happened Hamilton, Ontario became only the 45th city from around the world on wikipedia to reach that level and only the third in Canada. The other two from Canada to make it before-hand were Vancouver and Dawson Creek British Columbia. Not even Toronto has reached the "Featured article" over there.

As much as there is there now we can always add to it because things keep changing all the time. It was starting to take up a lot of my time and luckily for me being single and not having any kids to support or look after I have a ton of free time at my disposal which allowed for me to work over there on wikipedia. No one told me to do it and know one asked me to do it. I just felt that I had a job to do there and I rolled up my sleeves and I got cracking on it.

Thanks again for your kind words!

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

I think Boomtown is also responsible for a lot of the great Panoramio pictures for Hamilton on Google Earth. Unless I am mistaken about your identity.

Yep, that's me.

A lot of the photos there of Hamilton on Google Earth were the ones I added last summer. I still have a ton that need to be added that I took this summer in places like Dundas, Stoney Creek, Beach Boulevard and the Hamilton Mountain.

When I first logged onto Google Earth 2 years ago I went to Toronto and saw thousands of images that were uploaded there and then when I went onto Hamilton was hardly a thing so I just felt like I had to do something about it and started adding some of my Hamilton photos there onto Google Earth.

Cheers!:notacrook:

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

Thirded. Boomtown's wikipedia pages are a monumental achievement. Don't beat yourself up too much about not starting up another grassroots movement. You've done way more than most already.

Hey Helen,

Thanks a million! ...and just so you know buds, when it comes to Hamilton I'm only just getting started!

Cheers!:D

[raisethehammer]

The lower city bounded by the 403, escarpment, harbour and Red Hill Valley has a population of 133,837 and an area of 49.16 km2 for a density of 2722.48 per km2. If you subtract the industrial census tracts, it's 126,983 in 32.12km2 for 3953.39 per km2. Between Queen, the rail corridor, Wentworth, and the Escarpment there is a population of 40,136 in 5.81 km2 for a population density of 6908.09 per km2. Not too shabby.

those are great stats.
Where do you find this info?? I'd like to noodle around and do some comparisons.

[flar]

those are great stats.
Where do you find this info?? I'd like to noodle around and do some comparisons.

I have the stats for every individual census tract so I can put them together any which way. I don't think they are publicly downloadable though.

[raisethehammer]

ok, so maybe this is an opportunity for us to spread the word about the Hammer:

http://www.thestar.com/Travel/article/513646

Off the top of my head I'm thinking about our 100+ waterfalls, RBG and views of the GTA from Sam Lawrence Park. Perhaps even Pier 4/8 and the James North arts district would be a great day trip to promote.

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

There is another area here that I wanted to touch upon here the other day but was not able to because of the high traffic load here at skyscraperpage.

I think the other area here is, generally speaking, Hamiltonians are their own worst enemy. Many Hamiltonians have a very low image and opinion of the city and tend to be negative and very pessimistic. If a lot Hamiltonians are not going to be thinking positive thoughts of the city then why should others from outside the city think positive of it. So I think before we can convince outsiders and Non_Hamiltonians to think positively about the city we need that to start happening here in town with Hamiltonians themselves and so now the question becomes how do we go about doing that? because if we can start to get the majority of the Hamilton citizenry to start to think highly of the city then all of a sudden the city would have its best group of salespersons that it could posssibly have...its own citizens.

That then brings us to the next focus and another question that needs to be answered; (1) Why do a lot of Hamiltonians have such a low opinion of the city? This is where it could get lengthy and complicated. Some of you out there have your own theories and opinions here. I'd like to know what your opinions are on this before I share with you all my own personal opinions and theories here with this. After that gets answered the next question then becomes, (2) What can we do about it?

[flar]

There is another area here that I wanted to touch upon here the other day but was not able to because of the high traffic load here at skyscraperpage.

I think the other area here is, generally speaking, Hamiltonians are their own worst enemy. Many Hamiltonians have a very low image and opinion of the city and tend to be negative and very pessimistic. If a lot Hamiltonians are not going to be thinking positive thoughts of the city then why should others from outside the city think positive of it. So I think before we can convince outsiders and Non_Hamiltonians to think positively about the city we need that to start happening here in town with Hamiltonians themselves and so now the question becomes how do we go about doing that? because if we can start to get the majority of the Hamilton citizenry to start to think highly of the city then all of a sudden the city would have its best group of salespersons that it could posssibly have...its own citizens.

That then brings us to the next focus and another question that needs to be answered; (1) Why do a lot of Hamiltonians have such a low opinion of the city? This is where it could get lengthy and complicated. Some of you out there have your own theories and opinions here. I'd like to know what your opinions are on this before I share with you all my own personal opinions and theories here with this. After that gets answered the next question then becomes, (2) What can we do about it?


I agree with this, and very few people who live here are good ambassadors of the city. A lot of self deprecation when people talk about Hamilton, a lot of people who ignorantly say stuff like "the mountain is nice" or "Ancaster is nice" instead of defending the city.

To answer the questions:
1. it's an inferiority complex that seems to go back generations.
2. bring in new blood and do better at keeping our best and brightest.

[highwater]

I don't have time right now to go into any great depth on this, but off the top of my head I'd say in order to be passionate you have to have a sense of place. When we made the car king in this city, we created alot of generic landscapes that placed convenience above character and quality. Who was it who said "there's no there there"? (Kunstler?) In any case, outside of the lower city and the mountain brow, all we have is the "geography of nowhere". There's no sense of identity, or anything that makes the city unique. Why would you care about Hamilton when you live in Anywhereville, North America?

[ryan_mcgreal]

Who was it who said "there's no there there"?

It was Gertrude Stein (http://www.bartleby.com/66/37/55537.html), talking about Oakland.

[flar]

I don't have time right now to go into any great depth on this, but off the top of my head I'd say in order to be passionate you have to have a sense of place. When we made the car king in this city, we created alot of generic landscapes that placed convenience above character and quality. Who was it who said "there's no there there"? (Kunstler?) In any case, outside of the lower city and the mountain brow, all we have is the "geography of nowhere". There's no sense of identity, or anything that makes the city unique. Why would you care about Hamilton when you live in Anywhereville, North America?

That's an interesting idea, I think it would apply better to a place like Mississauga than Hamilton. I think Hamilton's problems have deeper (generational) roots.

I read this interesting piece the other day:

Pardon My Lunch Bucket (1972?)

by David Proulx



"Pardon my lunch bucket ma'am," said the burly man in the hard hat as he edged his way down the aisle of the bus.

"Now you were asking about Hamilton? Well, you see, a few years back this town had what you might call a bad case of inferiority complex. A real bad case. It was always 'Toronto's doing this, Buffalo's doing that and we're doing nothin'.

"You know, things like that. Down-in-the-dumps talk. Well, all of a sudden some of the boys downtown and the boys at the city hall got talking and decided they we're sick and tired of wearing Toronto's hand-me-downs.

"There was nothing wrong with the city that a new spirit and a few new buildings wouldn't cure...say a new downtown core...somewhere where the people could go and shop and look around, a place where they could take their friends from out of town with a little pride.

"And some new housing to get rid of those old decaying buildings in the north end, an urban renewal project, something that would perk up the people of the area yet would cause very little relocation.

"Now with this Lloyd Jackson Square project, the tall buildings, the pedestrian malls, separating pedestrians from all the traffic and such, the new stores and expanded old ones, well Hamilton is putting on a new face.

"The old Hamilton, the grimy old town, is disappearing. What you're seeing now is new money coming in, new people from abroad settling and bring their cultures with them--and getting us interested in them as well.

"The people are slowly changing their ideas about the old town. A few years back, they'd admit they were from Hamilton all right, but only if you pressed them. Kind of apologetic-like. But not now. That attitude is changing to one of pride, the kind of elated feeling you get when everyone gathers around for a big celebration...People are getting out and taking a second look at their town, rediscovering it if you will, finding places and things they never knew existed. A lot has changed in the last few years and all for the better.

"Just let me drop my lunch bucket off first. Been meaning to get rid of that image for quite a while now."

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

That's an interesting idea, I think it would apply better to a place like Mississauga than Hamilton. I think Hamilton's problems have deeper (generational) roots.

I read this interesting piece the other day:

I know exactly what you mean by trying to press people into admitting that they are from Hamilton. For example, if you go to the GTA area and ask someone from Scarborough where they are from they will tell you that they are from Toronto. If you ask someone from North York where they are from they will tell you that they are from Toronto. On the other hand, over at this end of the Lake if you ask someone from Stoney Creek where they are from they won't tell you that they are from Hamilton, they will tell you that they are from Stoney Creek. As well, if you ask someone from Dundas where they are from they won't tell you that they are from Hamilton they will tell you they're from Dundas.

In Hamilton you get the exact opposite happening compared to Toronto.

[ryan_mcgreal]

Here's what Proulx had to say about the then-planned fustercluck that is now Jackson Square et al.:


[The city is] cutting away the rot of the Victorian age. the 26-story [sic] Stelco Tower, rising 330 feet, a four-storey banking pavilion, an enclosed shopping concourse, a two-acre landscaped plaza, two movie theatres with a total of 1,200 seats and underground parking for more than 250 cars... followed by ... a major shopping centre, an addition to the shopping concourse, a 24-storey office tower, a 400-500-room hotel, a department store extension, five apartment towers with 800 units, more underground parking and an enlarged plaza.

Added to that will be the city's $10,000,000 theatre-auditorium ... a trade-convention centre, new art gallery, new main library and new farmers' market. Pedestrians will cross over major streets on elevated walk ways, [I]high above the noise and fumes of traffic while most of the projects will be interconnected by underground and concourse level walkways. [emphasis added]

His sheer contempt for urban life was palpable.

[Jon Dalton]

I read through the whole 'Discover Hamilton' magazine put put by the spec tonight. Overall, I thought it was lame. More of an advertising publication than anything else, in particular advertising for new homes in the outer suburbs. The articles have such a broad based appeal that they dumb down Hamilton's best qualities - for example it mentions in passing that 'James North is somewhat of an art hub'.

Dear Hamilton: Shoot for the moon, you might hit the stars (or how does that go?)

Seems like we're just shooting for beer cans lined up on a fence.

[highwater]

That's an interesting idea, I think it would apply better to a place like Mississauga than Hamilton. I think Hamilton's problems have deeper (generational) roots.

That's kinda my point. Outside the lower city and the mountain brow, Hamilton might as well be Mississauga, and that's where more and more Hamiltonians are living. (It's also where prospective Hamiltonians are told they should live, because it's so clean and safe - like Mississauga.) But I agree there's also a historical inferiority complex dating from the post-war period. This is especially dangerous because older generations, who should be our link to the past and everything that makes Hamilton unique, tend to have real contempt for their city, so they're not able to pass on anything of value to future generations.

[raisethehammer]

I read through the whole 'Discover Hamilton' magazine put put by the spec tonight. Overall, I thought it was lame. More of an advertising publication than anything else, in particular advertising for new homes in the outer suburbs. The articles have such a broad based appeal that they dumb down Hamilton's best qualities - for example it mentions in passing that 'James North is somewhat of an art hub'.

Dear Hamilton: Shoot for the moon, you might hit the stars (or how does that go?)

Seems like we're just shooting for beer cans lined up on a fence.

yea, I'm not sure what the point was. It was lame.

[omro]

Pardon My Lunch Bucket (1972?)

by David Proulx

"There was nothing wrong with the city that a new spirit and a few new buildings wouldn't cure...say a new downtown core...somewhere where the people could go and shop and look around, a place where they could take their friends from out of town with a little pride."



Shame that in 1972 they made such a mess of it :( And that 35 years later people still want the same thing.

[ryan_mcgreal]

This is especially dangerous because older generations, who should be our link to the past and everything that makes Hamilton unique, tend to have real contempt for their city, so they're not able to pass on anything of value to future generations.

As a result, young people who have independently discovered a passion for the city have had to reconstruct a cultural web of awareness that they never received from their Baby Boomer parents. They're doing this by exploring urban neighbourhoods, documenting them (in words and photos), finding and reading reference books like Vanished Hamilton and Their Town, sharing stories and ideas with other new urbanists, and so on.

They're also building links with older residents who don't share the prevailing mood of civic self-loathing - often artists, architects, historians, etc. - to create a sense of historical continuity.

Essentially, they're reaching back before the postwar "renewal" phase to try and pick up the dropped threads of urbanism and find inspiration for restoring old buildings and constructing new ones to fit better into the urban fabric. To paraphrase John Gilmore (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Gilmore), they have interpreted the Pardon My Lunch Bucket mentality as damage and are attempting to route around it.

[raisethehammer]

I still wish we would have gotten the 800 residential units on Jackson square...we missed out on one of the most important phases of that mess.

[highwater]

As a result, young people who have independently discovered a passion for the city have had to reconstruct a cultural web of awareness that they never received from their Baby Boomer parents.

Uh oh. We're finishing each other's thoughts now. We have to stop meeting like this.

They're doing this by exploring urban neighbourhoods, documenting them (in words and photos), finding and reading reference books like Vanished Hamilton and Their Town, sharing stories and ideas with other new urbanists, and so on.

It is possible to pick up the threads, as you say. I don't think 'dangerous' was too much of an overstatement, though. It's always dangerous to lose knowledge and memory. In Hamilton we've even lost living memory, in a conscious attempt to wipe the slate clean, which is even more egregious. It makes picking up the threads so much more challenging, since there is an entire generation with a stake in making sure they remain dropped.

They're also building links with older residents who don't share the prevailing mood of civic self-loathing - often artists, architects, historians, etc. - to create a sense of historical continuity.

You forgot hippies. We've got a few in Westdale. They save my sanity and my a** from time to time.

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

Uh oh. We're finishing each other's thoughts now. We have to stop meeting like this.



It is possible to pick up the threads, as you say. I don't think 'dangerous' was too much of an overstatement, though. It's always dangerous to lose knowledge and memory. In Hamilton we've even lost living memory, in a conscious attempt to wipe the slate clean, which is even more egregious. It makes picking up the threads so much more challenging, since there is an entire generation with a stake in making sure they remain dropped.



You forgot hippies. We've got a few in Westdale. They save my sanity and my a** from time to time.

Hi Helen,

We now know some of the things that you don't like about Hamilton but I was just wondering if you'd like to share with us what are some of the things that you like about Hamilton because there must be something you like about it since you live and work here in Hamilton?

Just curious.:)

[sofasurfer]

I think the other area here is, generally speaking, Hamiltonians are their own worst enemy. Many Hamiltonians have a very low image and opinion of the city and tend to be negative and very pessimistic.

Substitute 'Hamiltonians' with 'English' and you've got one of the reasons I'm glad to have left... ;)

(Half-)Joking aside, there do indeed seem to be parallels with places in England that are now in the process of rediscovering and reinventing themselves in a post-industrial light. And having seen how such cities over there have fared to date, it feels like something's bubbling under here.

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

Substitute 'Hamiltonians' with 'English' and you've got one of the reasons I'm glad to have left... ;)

(Half-)Joking aside, there do indeed seem to be parallels with places in England that are now in the process of rediscovering and reinventing themselves in a post-industrial light. And having seen how such cities over there have fared to date, it feels like something's bubbling under here.

You know something? that's quite all right. If you left because you didn't like Hamilton all that means is that we are left with a higher percentage in town who still live here because they love our city.:)

The more folks that we have here in town that are happy to call Hamilton home then the more sales people and ambassadors this city will have and that is always a good thing.

The last thing that I want to see happen is someone tell me and everybody else that they hate living in Hamilton....you hate living in Hamilton then fine, get the hell out....would be great if the person who hated Hamilton told us why they hated it so that maybe we could do something about making it better....even better than that would be for that person to stay and help us make Hamilton a better city in which to live, work and play.;)

[omro]

You know something? that's quite all right. If you left because you didn't like Hamilton all that means is that we are left with a higher percentage in town who still live here because they love our city.:)

The more folks that we have here in town that are happy to call Hamilton home then the more sales people and ambassadors this city will have and that is always a good thing.

Unfortunately that's not quite how it works.

The people who leave Hamilton, because they hated it, are the ones spreading the word throughout the world.

Case in point.

One of my best friends moved to London from the US with one of his friends, who is Canadian. When I mentioned that some of my family had moved to Hamilton and that more of us, myself included, were going to move there, my friend told me that his friend was from Hamilton, that he had worked hard to get out of the city and carried on saying how awful he'd heard it was.

[highwater]

Hi Helen,

We now know some of the things that you don't like about Hamilton but I was just wondering if you'd like to share with us what are some of the things that you like about Hamilton because there must be something you like about it since you live and work here in Hamilton?

Just curious.:)

I don't expect you to pay any particular attention to my comments, but if you're not going to pay attention, then you should at least not generalize. Anyone who has been paying attention to my comments would know that I have a deep and abiding love for this city. I consciously chose to live in Hamilton. We were living in St. Catharines and my husband was working in Oakville (my hometown). We could have lived in Oakville, Burlington, Grimsby, you name it, but we chose Hamilton partly because I have family ties here, but also because it's beautiful and we love cities in general, and Hamilton in particular.

The only thing I hate about Hamilton are the people who hate Hamilton. The people who have no regard for it's history and heritage, or its beauty, built and natural, who would gladly pave it over or destroy it to make a buck or save a buck. The people who have no clue how real cities work, and even if they did, they wouldn't apply those principles to Hamilton because their contempt for Hamilton blinds them to the fact that it is a real city. I hate the fact that too many of our political and business leaders have this mindset, and they are actively preventing the city I love from reaching its full potential.

I live and work here because I have hope. I have hope that the haters and squelchers won't do too much irreparable harm before they fade away into the history books, and that the threads of Hamilton's urban fabric will still be there to pick up, even if those of us who give a crap have to pry them from their cold, dead hands.

I hope that answers your question.

[ryan_mcgreal]

The only thing I hate about Hamilton are the people who hate Hamilton.

The trick, of course, is to distinguish the people who actually hold this city in contempt from the people who sincerely want what's best for the city but have a false concept of what the city needs.

[adam]

Ryan, have you checked out the Hazel on Hamilton thread? What is your opinion? She says Hamilton needs more diversified industry but says expanding the airport is the way to do it.

[ryan_mcgreal]

Ryan, have you checked out the Hazel on Hamilton thread? What is your opinion? She says Hamilton needs more diversified industry but says expanding the airport is the way to do it.

My take is that air transport has poor long-term prospects as an economic growth engine.

The global rate of oil production has peaked at around 85 million barrels per day over the past few years and will soon go into a permanent decline of 2-3 percent a year, with exports from oil-producing countries falling faster. Unlike the oil shocks of the 1970s, this peak and decline is geological, not political.

Aviation is a past performer. It worked well for Mississauga from the 1970s on, but that flight, to use a lame pun, has taken off.

Just as building a municipal highway in the 21st century was a myopic, retrograde idea that had long passed its best-by date, throwing our long-term growth eggs into the Mount Hope Airport basket will be an economic disaster at a time when we have the opportunity to anticipate future growth areas and get in early.

Richard Gilbert already gave Hamilton a big hint on where we should concentrate our long-term economic strategy: conservation and production of energy, which will become increasingly important - and valuable - in the coming years and decades.

It's coming on three years since Gilbert presented his paper Hamilton: the Electric City to council in early 2006, and we're still waiting for the follow-up study council asked staff to prepare on how peak oil will affect Hamilton's growth strategy of airport-related development.

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

I don't expect you to pay any particular attention to my comments, but if you're not going to pay attention, then you should at least not generalize. Anyone who has been paying attention to my comments would know that I have a deep and abiding love for this city. I consciously chose to live in Hamilton. We were living in St. Catharines and my husband was working in Oakville (my hometown). We could have lived in Oakville, Burlington, Grimsby, you name it, but we chose Hamilton partly because I have family ties here, but also because it's beautiful and we love cities in general, and Hamilton in particular.

The only thing I hate about Hamilton are the people who hate Hamilton. The people who have no regard for it's history and heritage, or its beauty, built and natural, who would gladly pave it over or destroy it to make a buck or save a buck. The people who have no clue how real cities work, and even if they did, they wouldn't apply those principles to Hamilton because their contempt for Hamilton blinds them to the fact that it is a real city. I hate the fact that too many of our political and business leaders have this mindset, and they are actively preventing the city I love from reaching its full potential.

I live and work here because I have hope. I have hope that the haters and squelchers won't do too much irreparable harm before they fade away into the history books, and that the threads of Hamilton's urban fabric will still be there to pick up, even if those of us who give a crap have to pry them from their cold, dead hands.

I hope that answers your question.

Well I have only been a regular poster here the last couple of weeks and was not really too sure exactly what you liked about Hamilton. Thanks for sharing.

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

Unfortunately that's not quite how it works.

The people who leave Hamilton, because they hated it, are the ones spreading the word throughout the world.

Case in point.

One of my best friends moved to London from the US with one of his friends, who is Canadian. When I mentioned that some of my family had moved to Hamilton and that more of us, myself included, were going to move there, my friend told me that his friend was from Hamilton, that he had worked hard to get out of the city and carried on saying how awful he'd heard it was.

I am sure it happens a lot more than people realize. Whenever I am on the job in Toronto and bring up the fact that I am from Hamilton sometimes I get the odd joke or negative comment about our city but I do something that a lot of other Hamiltonians do not do and that is I actually stick up for Hamilton and start to do my best to talk about all the great things that we have going for it and also do my best to promote it wherever I go. A lot of times people just don`t know what we have to offer them so its our job as Hamiltonians to be ambassadors for the city and let them know and even better is to show them photos of the city... and even better than that is inviting them to Hamilton, like I`ve done many times before, and take them on a guided tour of the city.

It is great if we love our city to the point of pointing out all the areas where we have gone wrong and playing the blame game by pointing the finger in the direction of some of our politicians...but would be even better to also have a balanced approach and include all the positives that we have going for us here in Hamilton in any discussions that Hamiltonians have with others cause with some of the folks here in this town who claim to love the city it just seems to me that all we get from some of these folks is negative talk and not enough of the positive talk.

[ryan_mcgreal]

I am sure it happens a lot more than people realize.

Not long ago, I flew from Tampa to Buffalo. When the agent at the departure gate looked at my ticket, he apologized for my having to pass through Buffalo on the way back to Canada. I asked him what he meant, and he said he had been born and raised in Buffalo and couldn't get out fast enough. Now when he goes back he cringes at how awful it is.

I felt compelled to defend Buffalo, pointing out the breathtaking architecture and the nascent urban revitalization, but he wasn't having any of it. I finally said, "I live in Hamilton, I enjoy gritty urbanism," and he replied, "Ah, now I understand."

It was all kind of depressing.

[adam]

I find it hard to be patient in these situations, but we've gotta keep promoting the city (As you are great at doing, RTH). Things are slowly changing, and its only going to get better from here on in! :banana:

[Boomtown_Hamilton]

Not long ago, I flew from Tampa to Buffalo. When the agent at the departure gate looked at my ticket, he apologized for my having to pass through Buffalo on the way back to Canada. I asked him what he meant, and he said he had been born and raised in Buffalo and couldn't get out fast enough. Now when he goes back he cringes at how awful it is.

I felt compelled to defend Buffalo, pointing out the breathtaking architecture and the nascent urban revitalization, but he wasn't having any of it. I finally said, "I live in Hamilton, I enjoy gritty urbanism," and he replied, "Ah, now I understand."

It was all kind of depressing.

I love the drive through the Skyway bridge and the view we get of the city from that vantage point especially when the flames shoot up from those smoke stacks and into the night sky. It's a view like no other and I just embrace it. That's Hamilton and that's who we are.

[raisethehammer]

Not long ago, I flew from Tampa to Buffalo. When the agent at the departure gate looked at my ticket, he apologized for my having to pass through Buffalo on the way back to Canada. I asked him what he meant, and he said he had been born and raised in Buffalo and couldn't get out fast enough. Now when he goes back he cringes at how awful it is.

I felt compelled to defend Buffalo, pointing out the breathtaking architecture and the nascent urban revitalization, but he wasn't having any of it. I finally said, "I live in Hamilton, I enjoy gritty urbanism," and he replied, "Ah, now I understand."

It was all kind of depressing.


Lol. Good story.
I wouldn't live in Tampa if you paid me, but to each their own.

[bornagainbiking]

Why does Hamilton look so dirty. I know the air quality is in Question but is there no civic pride especially in the lower city. There is so much litter.
Our citizens just buy, consume, and drop whatever they have had. So food wrappers, coffee cups and plastic bottles and cans.
We can keep complaining about the city but is it their job to walk behind us with a garbage can and a stick with a nail on the end. If they just pick up the city park refuse cans.
We should teach our kids civic respect.
I intend this new year to walk the Red Hill trail and carry a shopping bag and bring it home to my recycling.
Maybe we should return to deposit bottles and cans so there is incentive to pick it up.
It is the people who make the city. Talk is cheap so just pitch in, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.

[adam]

Public space has become nothing more than a throughway for cars, so i understand why kids have no civic pride. Its not just kids though, adults have the same attitudes too. In most areas you can see people running across the roads in fear of their lives even when they have the right of way, even in parking lots people routinely run away from cars. Its absolutely ridiculous.

People have the attitude that pedestrians are second class citizens. You don't see trash on the side of the road from your car, only when you are walking. I don't share any of these attitudes and it boggles my mind, but I see it everyday. I can't speak to how to change these attitudes because I don't understand them.

[chris_erl]

That's very true, and it's all a slippery slope too.

If people don't feel connected to their communities, then they don't try to improve them. If they don't improve them, then less and less people feel connected to their communities and little improvement is done.

We need to take pride in our city regardless of how it looks! If we look at the good things about Hamilton and we see what our city CAN be, then we'll begin to love it again, and begin to feel the desire to change it again.

There is still hope, and it lies in our hands!

[steel]

Not long ago, I flew from Tampa to Buffalo. When the agent at the departure gate looked at my ticket, he apologized for my having to pass through Buffalo on the way back to Canada. I asked him what he meant, and he said he had been born and raised in Buffalo and couldn't get out fast enough. Now when he goes back he cringes at how awful it is.

I felt compelled to defend Buffalo, pointing out the breathtaking architecture and the nascent urban revitalization, but he wasn't having any of it. I finally said, "I live in Hamilton, I enjoy gritty urbanism," and he replied, "Ah, now I understand."

It was all kind of depressing.

This kind of attitude is common in the expat Buffalo crowd. Their oppinion is born mostly out of ignorance of the city. They were often raised in the suburbs. You will find many with the exact opposite view who would love to come back to Buffalo

[rousseau]

I spent my elementary school years in Caledonia, a little town which is in close contact with Hamilton. I then moved to Hamilton for high school. After that I spent my university and subsequent adult years in other places and countries, then returned to Hamilton just before the turn of the millenium.

My wife, whom I met in another country, appreciated certain aspects of Hamilton, such as the ethnic diversity. We lived in two different apartments in the Durand neighbourhood over the course of four years. But the pollution in the air consistently gave her headaches, so we looked elsewhere when looking for our first home, and ended up in Stratford (yes, the headaches are gone).

We sometimes miss Hamilton. When we mention that we moved here from Hamilton we invariably get snorts of derision. Numerous people have said "good thing you got out of there!", and others have insinuated that we've moved up in the world. Our next-door neighbours are natives of Hamilton in their late seventies who moved here forty years ago, and any time Hamilton comes up in conversation they always make sure to remind me that "Hamilton is a complete shithole."

My standard response to that is this: "Hamilton's actually a pretty cool place, it's under-rated. We miss it a lot." This always (and I mean always) raises eyebrows. But I'm doing my small part. I could never live in Hamilton again for numerous reasons, yet I miss it, and I find myself drawn to participate in this online discussion forum. I truly wish the best for the city, and in my own small way hope I can spread some goodwill for it.

But it's an uphill battle, no question.

[emge]

We can keep complaining about the city but is it their job to walk behind us with a garbage can and a stick with a nail on the end. If they just pick up the city park refuse cans.

Hmmm, getting a few "board-with-nail" people on patrol gets my vote! :jester:

more on topic, i love this city. :) and littering is really, really irritating.... i often pick up litter that isn't mine.

[FairHamilton]

Why does Hamilton look so dirty. I know the air quality is in Question but is there no civic pride especially in the lower city. There is so much litter.
Our citizens just buy, consume, and drop whatever they have had. So food wrappers, coffee cups and plastic bottles and cans.
We can keep complaining about the city but is it their job to walk behind us with a garbage can and a stick with a nail on the end. If they just pick up the city park refuse cans.
We should teach our kids civic respect.
I intend this new year to walk the Red Hill trail and carry a shopping bag and bring it home to my recycling.
Maybe we should return to deposit bottles and cans so there is incentive to pick it up.
It is the people who make the city. Talk is cheap so just pitch in, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.

Things are changing, http://www.thespec.com/article/440545.

Have faith, and I'm not meaning the religous kind, but that might help too :)