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Originally Posted by adam
You can move to where the grass is greener, or you can stay and grow your own. Great way to look at it.
But really there have been a ton of improvements in the city in just the past few years. It takes a really depressed or pessimistic person to not see this.
A few more changes I've noticed in the few short years I've lived here: Ottawa St and Locke St are both moving up in the world (in their own ways). The General Hospital now has a world class cardiac research centre next to it, HECFI now attracts world class acts, the gaudy strip bar next to Gore Park closed down and is or will be condos, Gore Park is getting a makeover soon, etc, the list goes on and on.. what more do you want??
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It's not a matter of being depressed or pessimistic, it's just skeptism or better yet cautious optimism. We have been burned so many times, we are afraid to put ourselves near the fire anymore.
As for Locke and Ottawa Sts they have always been thriving commercial areas. Ottawa St always had the fabric stores, it was widely known for that. It's just been in the last 10 years or so that they have suffered some economic hard times. They are currently reinventing themselves. Locke St has always been a thriving commercial area as well, before the antique stores there were the small family owned shops selling a variety of merchandise. There was even a movie theater there at one time. That building is still there and being used for something else.
For Gore park, this will be the third makeover in the last 30 years. The sad thing is the original was just fine. If they had have left it alone then they wouldn't be wasting even more money to make it over again. Thats one of the problems in this city, we just don't know when to leave things alone sometimes.
HECFI has always attracted world class entertainment so that is nothing new.
The investment in the hospitals is nothing new either. We are a regional centre for healthcare serving over 2 million. Thats not a new role for this city.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blurr
I think the sooner citizens stop thinking this as a manufacturing town the faster moral will improve.
clumping the last 30 years together isn't useful analysis because the economic make up from then to now is completely different.
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Most long term residents have never given the loss of manufacturing a second thought. That point of view usually comes from outsiders who know nothing about the city other than what they read or hear from people who are outsiders as well.
The economic makeup of the city really hasn't changed much over the last thirty years. The numbers are still somewhat the same as far as what people in this city do for a living. The only difference being is that now people have to travel to Burlington, our industrial suburb, or a little further down the road to get to work. There has to be a benchmark or a basis for comparison, thirty years seems like a reasonable time period. The decline started at about that time, especially in the downtown, so it isn't unreasonable to want to get back to that point and build from there.