WNED PBS - Right Now
 

4:30pm Sunday - Urban program on City of Cleveland on PBS WNED and talking about urban renewal. I've already seen some parallels to what is happening in Hamilton and smoe of what needs to happen in Hamilton (and what needs to be avoided).

Turn it on.

Wow a nice looking mall completely empty lol

Yeah, very post apocalyptic. I called my wife to come and see this because I couldn't believe it was totally empty.......100,000 sq ft.

It's a good looking mall even better than Centre Mall yet completely empty expect for one store, probably a dollar store.

And acres, and acres of empty parking lot........

Interesting fact that it costs $200K/acre to rehabilitate contaminated old industry lots, but only $30K to buy an acre of corn field in the country. And that's why it's hard to attract new industry to the city core.

There was some interesting stuff. The part where to attract new residents to the inner city was interesting but I don't think it could work in Hamilton. In rust belt cities they have large areas in inner city neighbourhoods that are abandon. In Cleveland they are giving a 15 year freeze on property tax for new residents and allow you to build suburban style houses on abandon land. Here in Hamilton we don't have abandon neighbourhood problems like in the rust belt cities.

But it is true a weak inner city will eventually come back to haunt suburbs as well, something Councillor Ferguson should note.

It wasn't a 'freeze' it was an abatement, i.e. no property taxes for 15 years. A very interesting, and appealing prospect for filling in brownfields, rundown neighbourhoods. In the US they also have racial segregation issues to deal with, which for the most part aren't an issue here.

I totally agree, Hamilton doesn't have the abandoned neighbourhood problem, but here's what we got as a new homeowner (March 28th) in Hamilton Centre, and I quote;
"You may not have received a tax bill due to the timing of the change of ownership. The City of Hamilton generates two tax bills annually. the Interim Bill is mailed in February with instalments due in February and April, and the Final Bill is mailed in June with instalments due in June and September"

And oh yeah, you owe us $650.57 on April 30th. Welcome to Hamilton. In no way a direct quote, but that's what I read into the letter........lol

haha...yea, gotta love that tax payment always being 6 months in advance.
I don't have cable, or would have loved to check out this show.
We don't have nearly as much work to do as US counterparts - Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit etc.... they have entire districts on the threshold of hell.

I saw the show, pretty damn depressing.

There are some areas in Hamilton though that I think could use the special treatment. None of them are as large as Cleavland's though.

I don't have cable either, only amplified rabbit ears. I've wondered what I'll get for TV in Hamilton and worried the Mountain might block WNED, we'll see in the next weeks.

Everything is relative. Starting from a lower point has it's pro's and con's.

i haven't been able to pick up WNED DT or HD or analog from down here, although it was clear as day in Fort Erie.

Having lived in Hamilton for most of my years and having driven a cab here since ... well .. I drove a guy named Napoleon to a Boy Scout Meeting ... I have come to accept the city, and all cities in general, as living entities.

Like all living things, cities get old and like all living things, if left to it's own devices, the ageing can become irreversible ... "Young men senesce" ... old things just fall apart.

Hind-sight is 20/20 ... it would be nice if we had managed growth and development so that cities would senesce rather than get old and decrepit.

By the way, I like the way that WNED is billing itself as Toronto/Buffalo's PBS Station.

They do put on some great stuff.

Mack

Senesce! Good one. Had to look it up. However, according to Oxford it means 'deteriorate with age', so now I'm not entirely sure what you meant. Did you mean it more in the sense of growing old gracefully as opposed to just falling apart?

Ok wait... what mall was it? Tower Centre? If so, it's smack-dab in the middle of Downtown (in their public square) and I believe the mall 'used' to be called Terminal Tower Mall? I missed the show :(

I've actually been to this mall several times (I always stop in Cleveland on the way to Cedar Point in Sandusky), and although I couldn't tell it was a mall from out front, then inside was a completely different story! Full of life AND quality stores (incl'ing Abercrombie, Banana Republic, etc).

If this isn't the same mall, then ignore this post! haha

Sadly, Hamilton is way better off than these 3 cities... Detroit will NEVER re-urbanize itself :(
Cleveland & Hamilton are very similar in size/demographics. What works there can work here... but I believe most urbanization projects would be much more successful in Hamilton than in a city like Cleveland... Canadians are just more opwn minded ;)

No, I think it's a different mall. I can't remember it's name, but is was in the first suburban ring. They talked a lot about how the abandonment was expanding outward from the downtown core as people relocated further out to the 'cornfields'.

I don't remember the name of the mall but I know it's east of Cleveland.

The most depressing sight was the galleria.

It almost makes you greatfull for how busy HCC is.

Highwater ... actually, I was thinking that it is better to detreriorate with age than to just fall apart ... i was looking for a word that was not quite as strong as ' fall apart' but not as soft as 'grow old gracefully' ... somewhere north of mature.
And 'senesce' has a nice ring to it ....LOL

Mack

Then I think you nailed it. And I added another word to my vocab. Thanks!

I'm still looking for a way to work my favourite word into the conversation: fenestration. Maybe I'll make my way over to the Days Inn thread and talk about the crappy fenestration.

Adieu sweet Mack.

Actually .. I think I heard the word 'fenestration' used by someone lamenting the collapse of the building adjacent to the 'Lister'.
Not sure if it was a TV reporter ( doubtful ) or one of the engineers .. perhaps from the City.
Something about the loss of the fancy windows on the upper floors.
Engineers and other 'experts' seem to enjoy using seldom heard words that we 'commoners' have to look up in the dictionary.

Mack