Our Future Downtown: Hamilton’s 10-Year Downtown Revitalization Strategy

There needs to be an emphasis on prioritized and safer pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure. Walking and cycling downtown is not easy, comfortable and a barrier for most. If you prioritize vulnerable road users, statistics show that business will increase due to higher foot traffic. The problem now is that Hamilton is far too auto centric - treating the downtown like something that is driven through and not treated as the destination it can be. Further, the dangers and noise of traffic make being downtown most unpleasant. Slow down and reduce car traffic and prioritize people - the rest will fall into place.

Forget about the Downtown, your roads are a disgrace, and have been for years! Have been driving for 55+ years, in every Province and Territory in Canada, and many 3'rd world countries, and every one has better roads!

I would move all the shelters and homeless services to ward 3. That ward is already a mess and that part of the city is not as important economically as a city's downtown is. The downtown is the heartbeat of the city so we need to push out the riff raff and bring in investment. A perfect example is having a new arena but leaving the salvation army across the street. That makes no sense so move it east away from the hotels, restaurants, and attractions.

I would like to echo the words that Corey Sullivan shared. I honestly cannot state it better myself so I won’t try. This city is worth saving and so are ALL the people in it.
I believe the city needs to inspire all Hamiltonians to show pride and that it is the effort of everyone that lives here to help.

Removed by moderator.

After reading many of the comments I agree that we with most posts that action on the homeless, open drug use, and the Gore Park Food bank need action now not in 10 years. Clean up the current mess then loon to the future

I stopped going downtown as the open drug use is rampant and it seems the core has been turned into one big social service. I was very annoyed that Gore Park was being used as a food bank slash homeless party. I then learned these folks who run the Gore Park food bank advertise out of town to try and get as many people in Gore Park as they can to push their cause. I will stay away until things like these are shut down

Less Vacant Units, More Protected Bike Lanes, Better roads, More Affordable and Free Housing, Cleaner Streets

These are the things Hamilton needs most. If we look to American cities, there are a number that have revitalized their downtown through a mix of preservation and reuse of heritage buildings. Hamilton has a rich history and this is reflected in the architecture of the city, but these heritage buildings are disappearing at an alarming rate due to neglect and disinterest. Too many buildings sit abandoned or empty, due to landlord's inability or lack of desire to fix them. Not only are these a loss for our city's heritage and culture, but they pose a massive safety concern when they are allowed to decay into ruins. The city needs to either provide incentives for landlords to repair these properties and rent them, or they need to be expropriated in order to prevent them from falling down. Once these heritage buildings are gone, they are gone forever.

The same must be said about the empty storefronts that litter downtown streets. Greater incentives to rent them at rates that new businesses can afford, or greater empty unit taxes to force landlords to rent them or sell them to someone who will do so.

Protected bike lanes drive urban vitality. Look at Toronto or any other American city as a guide. Fully separated protected bike lanes reduce car congestion and make main streets more usable and walkable. Noone wants to live or shop on a highway, and too may of our main streets are that. Main, King, Cannon, etc are all unpleasant to walk along at best. Traffic calming measures and separated bike lanes will make these streets more livable, but this is only true if there are businesses on those same streets worth going to, see paragraph 1. The biggest barrier to new bicycle users, especially women, is a real or perceived lack of safety. A protected lane increases cycle traffic exponentially, and this in turn drives business, reduces car traffic, and makes a city more livable for those who actually live there.

At the same time, our street infrastructure is crumbling. Many major roads have broken or cut pavement, potholes, and other hazards. These pose a real risk to motorists, and especially more vulnerable motorcycle riders and cyclists. Hamilton should also take a page out of Toronto's book and offer free parking for motorcycles. They take up less space and burn less gasoline, and the ridership is generally well off and more likely to spend money at businesses that cater to their interests.

A lack of affordable housing and assisted housing for those who would otherwise be on the streets. Every city has a housing and homelessness crisis, but pushing the unhoused out of public spaces only serves to further marginalize and ciminalize them. We need safe consumption sites because people will do drugs regardless of policing, and at least with safe sites the needles and paraphernalia can be safely disposed of instead of ending up in our parks and backyards. There needs to be adequate housing for these people. Shelters are not safe and not a solution. Pushing them to the margins only makes people more desperate, which leads to more crime, more theft, and more issues. Policing does not work, studies have shown again and again, it just costs the city more money to jail these people, or hospitalize them. We need to realize that providing safe, secure, free housing is cheaper than policing and emergency room visits.

Finally, the city needs to step up it's cleaning efforts and make sure that streets and parks are kept clean of debris and trash. Landlords should be required to maintain the cleanliness of the sidewalk sections in front of their buildings, regardless of whether the storefront is vacant or not.

Thank-you for your time and consideration. I love this city, and I am so hopeful that it can be revitalized but we need real changes and real commitment to the culture that has so far caused stagnation and neglect.

First thing would be to get rid of the weekly food bank at Gore Park. Why would any sane city allow their main park in the centre of the city be turned into something like this.

I have to start by saying it was so wonderful to see and chat with staff from the City of Hamilton at Art Crawl. Public engagement should be meeting people where they are and your team most definitely did - huge kudos. I would love to see the City have a regular booth at Art Crawl for folks to ask questions, provide feedback, and learn more about what's going on in their city.

My feedback is regarding the downtown core, where I currently live. I was born and raised in Hamilton and grew up in Kirkendall with the escarpment in our backyard. My dad, who has passed away now, always appreciated a home - and places where - you can "see far". That is what I would like to leave the City with. There are still places in downtown Hamilton that are not blocked by big towers where you can see the sky, see the sun, see the trees and see down the road (for example - I am sitting at Synonym patio on James St right now facing North and can see down the road and the sky, because there are no high rises). I originally wasn't going to share my feedback but it was yesterday, when I was driving down Bay Street, past the new Mac residences, that I was struck by how dark these large buildings make the city. It was a beautiful evening yesterday, but a block of Bay was sucked into shade by the massive Mac residence. It was striking because it reminded me of darkness of downtown Toronto (and I think most Hamiltonians will agree, they don't want Hamilton to be Toronto!). I appreciate the environmental benefits to increasing urban density and I know this will happen - but when you are approving these buildings, be mindful of how it will impact the light that hits the city streets throughout the day (where majority of Hamiltonians are - whether driving or walking, etc.) and how it will impact Hamiltonians' ability to "see far" - to see and enjoy the sky and the trees and the other buildings in our beautiful city. I hope this makes sense. Please contact me with any follow-up questions and thank youfor engaging us as you plan the future of this awesome, awesome city.

Open drug use, garbage, shelters snd homelessness are the major problems. Also allowing a weekly food bank at Gore Park doesn’t help the optics. Your encampment protocol brought hundreds of criminals and addicts into our parks and downtown core. The only way to fix it is by having a heavy police presence downtown and stop catering to the non profits and those who profit from homelessness. Also fire Mater, Baird, and Blake as they are the ones who got us into this mess

More police. Less Shelters

Feel unsafe In my place of residence which is 1st place because of the open drug use and disrespect. Workers in the residence do not want to listen to our complaints and refuse to take action.

Lack of entertainment. Tearing down of old building, takes away from the history. Public washrooms are always locked up.

I do not feel safe walking downtown. I love Hamilton but will shop on the mountain on purpose because I no longer feel safe in the core. We need to do a better job to help support the homeless, they are not treated very well.

Downtown (and Hamilton provincially) is a services hub, and those services are attended by people who need to use them, whether for addiction, social services, mental health, etc. A housing-first approach to homelessness and service provision will help to reduce this concentration, since services will move to the people who need them rather than vice versa. More residents walking and biking downtown and supporting businesses will help to create an atmosphere that more people want to get out of the safety of their cars and engage with.

Drug addicts openly using drugs such as meth and heroin. People having mental health crises, screaming, creating unsafe environments. They are scary and gross to be around. Downtown is igly, dirty and full of homeless people openly using hard drugs

What is the point of sharing ideas, visions, and hopes for downtown's future before the obvious problems are taken care of? Downtown Hamilton is an absolute mess. It feels unsafe and dirty, roads and sidewalks are in terrible condition and it is overrun by homeless people, addicts and the mentally ill. Panhandling, screaming and shouting, defecating, broken store windows, not to mention painfully visible blatant drug use in broad daylight are just some of the sights and sounds that greet downtown visitors. Why would anyone subject themselves to such an experience if they don't absolutely have to? You can't concentrate social services, missions, and methadone clinics in downtown, allow panhandling on every corner, meth/crack use on the streets, and expect a good outcome. First things that need to happen are:
- a real and lasting crackdown on anti-social behaviour which requires much more police presence
- a dispersion of social services, missions, methadone clinics (and not just to other areas of Hamilton but to other cities so that Hamilton isn't carrying the entire burden for itself and all the other surrounding cities and towns)
- the roads and sidewalks need to be repaired ASAP and kept clean
These are the essential first steps. Until these issues are resolved everything else is useless pie-in-the-sky musings. The rest will fall into place naturally: businesses and venues will want to open in a clean, safe, and aesthetically appealing downtown which will then attract both local and out of town visitors, money will start to be spent in downtown and then other initiatives and improvements can be discussed.

I think we need to keep bringing more homeless and socially irresponsible people into our city, we shouldn't allow police to do their job and allow the courts to continue to let violent offenders out (because they are still people) and allow more open-air drug use and an influx of immigrants with zero skill sets to soak up every single social need Hamilton provides. (SATIRE) This "initiative" is propagating the same narrative the city does time and time again; it's an echo chamber of liberal ideals, not the reality of life. Work on the root of the situation before we slap makeup on a pig. Fix our infrastructure, stop the city from overspending (we are the worst fiscally managed city in CANADA), and have some DOGE oversight and accountability on what we are doing in this city. This "Revitalization Strategy" is in no way addressing what people care about. Fix the roots so the tree can grow. This city is its own worst enemy.

Removed by moderator.