Although I agree a lot, one-way streets is just ONE of many reasons why downtown Hamilton fell into what it is today.
Don't forget about
:
-an increasing automotive industry after the war
-creation of suburbs which would require these new car owners to drive to and from their homes to, say, downtown
-change in lifestyle which we can partially blame on cars (ie: drive-thrus)
-80's to 90's recession. The #1 reason for why retail ran away from downtown to begin with
-
Urban Renewal (just look how busy Yonge/Queen are compare to Queen/Bay in Toronto). There's a reason why Yonge St is a destination and Queen between Bay/University'ish is a wasteland: Big, Ugly, 70's style cement blocks! Just like "civic square" which destroyed York Blvd.
EDIT: Wow... reading that over it seems as though I've got quite the hate-on for cars :S hahaha
Key Point... we know what destroyed downtown. Suburban Malls did not do it alone. And suburban Big Box Centres will not destroy what we've worked so hard to bring back to the core. A Walmart in the burbs wont single-handidly destroy the downtown... a Walmart IN the Core surely would.
Aslong as we can keep attracting those who find urban living as exciting/attractive as the majority of us, then we need to capitalize on that and have them live downtown Hamilton rather than Toronto. How? Well we've all come up with a million great ideas.
If someone wants to spend their lives destroying the earth with their fossil fuel emissions as they drive from drive-thru to drive-thru, idling for 5-10 mins at a time, then drive from store to store rather than walk and therefor opening themselves up for obesity/diabetes, etc... then hell, let the gluttons be gluttons. We'll have fun downtown
... and stay fit, too!!