Downtown Update

[ScreamingViking]

To be fair, many many major cities have a blend of lower-rise buildings (6 to 8 floors or so) with some taller ones... there are the New Yorks and Hong Kongs that have numerous very tall buildings, but there are also the likes of Barcelona and Paris (and New York has its neighbourhoods of older mid-rises too). The shorter buildings are just more consistently spread around larger areas, and they're often quite old.

I think we need much more in the way of mid-rise builds in Hamilton. If you walk around Durand you'll see the taller 1960s-70s era apartment buildings, but also lots of smaller ones and 3-4 storey walk-ups, along with the older homes that still remain - it's quite an interesting mix, to me.

Where we "fail" is along major arterial roads. The central stretches of Main and King have more of those shorter old apartments, and could intensify further without adding towers. But many of the city's other arterials, particularly the sections that are newer, are very low-rise.

Quality of architecture is another challenge, but I think that's a separate conversation.