I can sympathize with both coalminecanary and highwater. In fact, it would be great if the city had kept its original location in the core, in which case this discussion would not be necessary at all.
At the end of the day, however, I'm with highwater on this one. The city hall is where it is, and at the end of the day, it would be most expedient to work with that. The more unanimity there is on the need to keep city hall respectable as a symbol of civic pride (ie. limestone and steel instead of concrete and aluminum; fountains, an ice rink, etc.), I think the more action we can expect from councilors. Ultimately, abandoning the existing building for something completely different is something that is not going to fly with the rest of the city, and we don't want to end up with a disgusting compromise (ie. a renovated HCC interior with an unrenovated exterior) as a result. The need to improve the existing structure is something everyone in the city can understand, while councilors might have a harder time justifying a "poor city"'s expenditure of dollars on something that opponents will inevitably tout as superfluous.
Why not give this cloud a silver lining? There's a chance that a revived city hall forecourt (complete with cafe, fountains, some decent landscaping, maybe even an alteration to its hideous rear parking and maintenance set-up - though I understand that this is not on the current agenda) will have positive spin-offs for the area across the street, especially if Main is ultimately traffic-calmed with street-side parking, wider sidewalks, LRT - and, hell, why not, even a proper cross-walk directly across from the main entrance. Again, the sooner we, Hamilton's transit intelligentsia (in residence or expat), cultivate a sense of unanimity on the need to improve this area, the better our hope that city leaders will act decisively and to good effect. As highwater put it, my Hamilton includes that hideous stretch of Main - an area, incidentally, that is rife with empty lots and ripe for redevelopment, while still being close enough to the historic core to count for something.
Vancouver might serve as a useful precedent here. The current city hall was relocated far from downtown (much farther than its Hamiltonian counterpart) in the mid to late 1930s. Given that this was a city that came of age with the automobile, this was no doubt a tribute to the burgeoning suburbs south of the city. From pictures I've seen, it truly was the boonies at the time it was built. Today, however, the Cambie city hall is right in the middle of a vibrant Broadway commercial and entertainment district. Given the much closer proximity of the Hamilton city hall to the historic city core, there seems to be that much more chance that, if revitalized, it will positively impact the automobile-dominated wasteland around it.
Hamilton's current facility was - make no mistake - built with the SOV commuter in mind: good roadway (or freeway) connections to the suburbs, a giant parking lot, and an exaggerated footprint better suited to the sticks than a densely-built, nineteenth-century downtown. I see no reason, however, why this cannot be changed. At any rate, the current predicament presents an excellent opportunity to do so.
How's that for optimism?
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