City of Hamilton General Discussion Thread

[Innsertnamehere]

I mean you can doom and gloom about it, but Downtown seemed busier this week than it has in years.

Office works are also returning big-time now, if not quite to the extent they were pre-covid.

GO is restoring peak-hour services on the Lakeshore line to pre-covid levels since commuting patterns have returned again into Toronto.

Remember that work-from-home existed before COVID - it wasn't uncommon for people to work 1 day a week at home in 2019. Now it's just 2-3 days instead and a bit more common than it was, but almost every office has returned to multiple days a week in the office.

Hamilton's Office Vacancy rate has also proven surprisingly resilient through COVID, seeing it's vacancy rate barely increase compared to drastic vacancy rate increases elsewhere.

While parking needs to be accessible downtown, you don't need parking in front of every business and definitely don't need 5-lane roads cutting through the city. Olympia Club has likely had issues leasing out because it fronts onto a 5-lane highway, not because it's not car-accessible enough. It's a balancing act, you need to encourage to take alternate modes of transit if they are available to them but also ensure that parking is accessible for those who need it. And those who need it don't need a high-speed highway cutting through the middle of the city to access it.

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

I mean you can doom and gloom about it, but Downtown seemed busier this week than it has in years.

Office works are also returning big-time now, if not quite to the extent they were pre-covid.

GO is restoring peak-hour services on the Lakeshore line to pre-covid levels since commuting patterns have returned again into Toronto.

Remember that work-from-home existed before COVID - it wasn't uncommon for people to work 1 day a week at home in 2019. Now it's just 2-3 days instead and a bit more common than it was, but almost every office has returned to multiple days a week in the office.

Hamilton's Office Vacancy rate has also proven surprisingly resilient through COVID, seeing it's vacancy rate barely increase compared to drastic vacancy rate increases elsewhere.

While parking needs to be accessible downtown, you don't need parking in front of every business and definitely don't need 5-lane roads cutting through the city. Olympia Club has likely had issues leasing out because it fronts onto a 5-lane highway, not because it's not car-accessible enough. It's a balancing act, you need to encourage to take alternate modes of transit if they are available to them but also ensure that parking is accessible for those who need it. And those who need it don't need a high-speed highway cutting through the middle of the city to access it.

That's only because hamiltons downtown vacancy rate was ALREADY super high before the pandemic, so a slight increase is still "bad". High property taxes and other factors have led to office buildings sitting mostly vacant downtown for YEARS..

Also fun fact, hamilton USED to have parking in front of EVERY building. We just done away with it with lane widening..

[Fruitloops]

Canada's empty downtowns defy post-pandemic return-to-normal — and business owners are feeling the pain.
Business recipe for success disrupted as downtown cores transform from places where people work and spend money to places where they don't do much of either.

...from the Financial Post. fyi

[TheRitsman]

Y'all obviously don't live downtown or come downtown if you think Hamilton's downtown is empty. It's busier than ever. Come to the next artcrawl, I dare you. Try to get into a restaurant without a reso.

Hamilton's downtown has more businesses now than it did pre-covid.

Office vacancy might be slightly up, but I bet that changes with the completion of multiple residential buildings and LRT. RTO is in full swing, and while we'll never get the same in office presence as decades ago, more jobs opening up and more people moving here means even if you need to be in office 2 or 3 days a week, they'll need office space, though less than they otherwise would have.

[Fruitloops]

Hamilton's downtown has more businesses now than it did pre-covid.


Curious, can you source this info?

Special events always do well. People do like coming downtown. Its the non event days that are tough.

I will take your dare as long as you find me a good parking spot lol. Im not taking the Barton bus home at midnight.

[Berklon]

I don't think there's a thread for this development and I don't remember reading about it in any threads. Anyone have more info on this?

Glen Echo school housing plan called ‘nightmare scenario’

It's in my old neighborhood and is still relatively close to me today.

Would love to see a development like this in neighborhood like this, but I do somewhat agree with the NIMBYs... it does seem a little out of place for the location - at least in terms of size. Scale it back to 5 floors and overall size. It'll reduce the traffic in the area. Of course, I'm not sure a smaller size would make financial sense for Losani. They already sunk 6.75m on buying the property though.

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by Fruitloops

Hamilton's downtown has more businesses now than it did pre-covid.


Curious, can you source this info?

Special events always do well. People do like coming downtown. Its the non event days that are tough.

I will take your dare as long as you find me a good parking spot lol. Im not taking the Barton bus home at midnight.

Living here is my source. I live a 5 minute walk from James St N.

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by TheRitsman

Living here is my source. I live a 5 minute walk from James St N.

We need more than restaurants and art crawls.. I've said this for years.. I used to be in the lister block art gallery and participated in art crawl and super crawl - supercrawl was ok sales wise but art crawl was mainly people with no money browsing saying "your art is so wonderful more people should buy it" smh..

3/4s of gore park area is still either boarded up or vacant. I get some of it is under construction.. or.. rotting, like the south side, but james street AND gore park should be the beating heart of the city. I really wish they'd focus more to do in the gore - I get those new condos will probably help but it sucks waiting..

I walked around the gore and counted how many places had paper in the windows, or said for lease, or had signs blacked out, it's not a good look.. also I am sure the homeless and mentally ill wandering about probably make people hesitant to move in ground floor - I had someone who worked at one of the hotels have someone come in the lobby and take a dump, another pissed in a pot.. I really don't get that - I mean there is a public bathroom available in the lister block.. I walked by someone pissing on the hoarding beside cobalt towers a couple days ago while other people just watched.. he was literally 20 steps from the lister block..

and how many new buildings still don't have ground floor tenants? Look at the building on the corner of main and john that was newly renovated - still empty - the building beside it, still has no roof and is slowly rotting.. they finally boarded it up.. A good point has been brought up though, so many people get all they need from their phones now, there really is a limit as to how many interesting places can actually GO into these places..

I can only imagine what traffic is gonna be like on james st once they start to tear down the city center..

[King&James]

One would think that with medium to high density residential infill that those street front retail units will find entrepreneurs willing to take a risk, and then eventually the regional and national retailers following suit. That being said, if you look at 150 Main West, there should have been at least one willing convenience store operator capitalizing on multiple towers going up over the last few years, and another 6 builds or so coming on stream or under construction, something will have to give.

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by King&James

One would think that with medium to high density residential infill that those street front retail units will find entrepreneurs willing to take a risk, and then eventually the regional and national retailers following suit. That being said, if you look at 150 Main West, there should have been at least one willing convenience store operator capitalizing on multiple towers going up over the last few years, and another 6 builds or so coming on stream or under construction, something will have to give.

I think we still have a big "image" issue in parts of hamilton - I mean it's crazy the difference in vibe in king william and james to john and king william, and king and james, to king and john stretch and they're only a block away - but one has become ritzy and the other still has.. well.. what it has..

and why? Well that king stretch has for many years become beggers and squatters corner.. I am sure some of the "businesses" along that stretch have not helped. At least some of the money sink cashmart places are gone.. I so can't wait to see the gore become the core and vibrant hub once more.. I don't know if I have ever TRULY seen it in my lifetime.. I do love the feeling of gore park though, this odd feeling of history and timelessness, and transformation over the years..

also I think you nailed it with "willing to take a risk" although I think it may be a bit more literal for many busineses, vandalism, pooping, crazy screaming, needles laying around in the back alleys, etc. lol..

[Fruitloops]

Re Vranich building, 32 floors on Caroline and George. I know there is a thread for it dam if I can find it.

Anyway, remember the big fire at King and Caroline next to A and W. Well the balcony on the vranich building that caught fire is still not repaired...really?

[PaperSun]

City looking to potentially establish encampment zones:

https://globalnews.ca/news/9698460/p...ents-hamilton/

[Innsertnamehere]

only 5 tents per spot means you are going to need dozens of sanctioned spots.. Good Luck!

I think Waterloo's approach is a much better way of handling it - 50 small cabins with central bathroom facilities and on-site supports.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitch...bins-1.6684097

[PaperSun]

Why does it have to be at parks where families hang out, the City owns the lands at Barton Street and Tiffany, why not let them set up there it's an abandoned lot.

[Chronamut]

Originally Posted by PaperSun

City looking to potentially establish encampment zones:

https://globalnews.ca/news/9698460/p...ents-hamilton/

I see, so they can give them somewhere to go.. but not address, the fact, they are ACTUALLY homeless..

what could POSSIBLY go wrong.. :/

step 1) why are you homeless

drugs/alcohol/family issues/mental issues/lost job/rent too high/

step 2) - assign social worker and put in whatever program is needed to solve issue

done

[TheHonestMaple]

This is going to be a disaster. Right when our city is getting back on its feet, our activist city councillors are supporting this crap. I'm glad Kroetsch supports homeless drug addict violent criminals over law abiding tax paying citizens.

Get ready for needles in parks, fires, murders, rapes, you name it. Whoever supports this type of thing has absolutely zero brains.

[Fruitloops]

These arsehole work for us. Prob most on this board pays a shitload of taxes. Time to speak up, lest we become Seattle, Portland, Philly.

[TheHonestMaple]

From what I am reading on Twitter, Spec comment sections and other places on the internet. There is going to be a MASSIVE backlash on this one. I don't think Kroetsch understands how much he has pissed off taxpayers with this activist fantasyland BS.

[LikeHamilton]

Originally Posted by Fruitloops

Re Vranich building, 32 floors on Caroline and George. I know there is a thread for it dam if I can find it.

Anyway, remember the big fire at King and Caroline next to A and W. Well the balcony on the vranich building that caught fire is still not repaired...really?

They are most likely custom made. While walking by this morning, I observed a truck delivering to that building, new railing parts.

[SFUVancouver]

With respect to the sanctioned encampment zones. For such a high-risk initiative, I think a highly-monitored pilot site is a must-do before rolling them out as a fully-adopted policy. And where should that pilot site be located? City Hall.