Quote:
Originally Posted by rousseau
I'm a Hamilton booster and former resident, but this is just ridiculous. Hamilton doesn't have anything like the Scarborough Bluffs, the Don Valley, the Leslie Street Spit or the islands.
Hamilton has tons of waterfalls, which are great. Toronto doesn't have those. Hamilton's escarpment ("the mountain") however, while a really nice feature, is over-rated. Because the city apart from the escarpment is mostly billiard-table flat. And while the Bruce Trail goes through the escarpment, it's not really all that accessible or well-known.
No real attempt has been made to take advantage of what the escarpment offers. There should be a fantastic bike path or MUP path carved into the length and breadth of the escarpment from Stoney Creek right to Dundas. Is such a thing on the horizon? Has it even ever been considered? No. It's a damn shame.
Hamilton does have lots of nearby wilderness-like areas, but they are cut off from the city. The centre of the city and the east end are remote from them. Because they don't add to the city at all, they just compete with it. Wilderness enthusiasts in the Hamilton area love going to Dundas Valley or Cootes Paradise, but otherwise they want nothing to do with downtown itself, and will happily tell you that using choice words for their hatred of anything urban in Hamilton.
The geographical features of Hamilton are essentially a failure.
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Not to belabour the tangent to this thread topic, but...
Lots of people
do take advantage of the parks and trails along the escarpment and among the conservation areas in the city. Some are no doubt "anti" downtown, but I think there are many more people who appreciate having these amenities close by in comparison to the number who lament that those amenities have ties to a city/core they dislike.
I agree that there could be greater accessibility to these features from the more urban parts of the city. I think we're seeing improvements in that in terms of some of the cycling infrastructure, and perhaps there should be more transit options available (maybe extensions to existing services, to make them more feasible). More is needed.
The Niagara Escarpment presents challenges in terms of both existing land-uses and planning restrictions. A multi-use path along the crest all the way through the city would be a fantastic idea, but in places there are homes or buildings that have been around a long time which prevent that. There are stretches that do have that kind of multi-use path... the west end along Scenic Drive, and also between Upper Wentworth and Upper Ottawa... perhaps some of that can be extended (I believe there are plans for Mountain Brow Blvd. east of the Kenilworth Access). But the Niagara Escarpment Plan and the NEC would have a say over major changes. And we do have the two rail trails that extend through much of the older city - the Rail Trail running east between Corktown and Mohawk Rd. (and extending beyond to the south) and the Radial Trail from Dundurn St. to the west. The parkland along the brow is something we should be thankful for - maybe there could be more of it, but I'm glad that so much of that property was not given over to private ownership.
The city doesn't seem to promote these amenities very well (and it took a wealthy individual to start tooting the waterfalls). That is the failure... not the geographical features themselves. But anyone who knows the city probably appreciates them.
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