Quote:
Originally Posted by raisethehammer
I'm saying it was a bad thing. I think it helped kill downtown retail.
Hamilton used to function as a 'big city' with department stores, street retail etc.... JS and York Blvd killed it. Our downtown would be like a mini-TO today if we had of kept it intact instead of razing it for malls and our bloody one-way highways to whisk everyone out to the burbs.
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Jake the Squire is outrageously bad simply because the city razed Old City Hall, as I understand it, to clear room for this mall.
Not all urban malls are bad things, though. TO's Eaton Centre is a pretty vibrant place. Calgary has several downtown shopping malls that are all respectable. Vancouver, too. The Downtown Thingy (this is going to stick, I swear) could be salvaged if they blew out the James ST wall and added shops and restaurants and patios--something that doesn't alienate the streetscape. Let's face it, James North is rocking; the DT is holding it back.