Well, hopefully we will be able to push some HSR service up there so that at least Waterdown feels more connected to the city. Part of the problem though, is it's too easy to get lost in a bubble when you live so far from the Core. Many residents up there have no reason to ever come into Hamilton - they go east for work, and do all of their shopping between work and home. I used to be one of them. And even though my passion for Hamilton runs deep, even *I* had trouble finding time to come into the city!
How will someone living along centre road ever feel like they are part of the city? And if they never do, then they will never have a reason to be passionate about Hamilton as a whole.
I honestly don't know how to solve that issue... Perhaps we need to do a tourism blitz to get our own residents to venture into town. We have some amazing spaces right now... the waterfront is unbelievable these days. I have a personal love (borderline lust) for the steam museum. Doors open is amazing, and maybe we should have a localized version of it that runs every weekend.
If we can get some of the suburban dwellers to spend more time inside the city - give them a reason to come in other than shopping (since that reason doesn't really work anymore).
Hopefully LRT can have this effect - if we can put decent parking at each end, we can give people easy options to get in the city and see things.
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no clever signoff.
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