[markbarbera]

Your feelings on Jackson Square may be very different had you been in to Hamilton to visit it anytime in the past decade or so...

Jackson Square is not a sound development for several reasons. First off, there is no residential element in it. Any succesful modern downtown requires a significant residential element. This is a very basic urban design concept, like motherhood and apple pie.Yet somehow it was completely ignored in the development. Secondly, the phases of development are seriously disjointed. There is little evidence of forethought in the design of the various phases. It is diffiult to navigate, with pockets of its retail concourse excluded from a natural traffic pattern. It was doomed to poor tenancy by design.

How Hamilton would have evolved if JS was not built is purely speculative and second-guessing in its most abstract form. Having said that, had I been around at decision-making time, I would have hesitated on razing such a large part of a thriving business area all at once, and I am including York Street's conversion to a boulevard in this assessment. A more gradual development with a solid long-term vision for the neighbourhood would have produced a much more successful overall project. Having a property management office that is in touch with the needs of the neighbourhood, and a willingness to invest in correcting oversights would have also been helpful.