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

The question I ask myself everyday is " if i was a tourist, would Hamilton be a destination point for my vacation." At present, a definite NO. Why???
Two main priorities.
First. The major arteries need to be fixed. The roads are in terrible shape and would not be inviting for visitors to visit. Mainly the main arteries. King Street and Main Street and Barton Street. No one wants to drive over "split pavement" , potholes and sunken manholes.

Priority # 2
The homeless situation in Hamilton is beyond out of control. Every major city in Canada struggles with downtown core homelessness but Hamilton's is beyond out of control. After growing up in Stoney Creek and Hamilton until 35 years and moving too Oakville, then Calgary. AB for 23 years, my experience returning to Hamilton has been mind boggling with regards to the present homeless situation. I have spoken to many Hamiltonians who have lived thru the after Covid homeless situation and they have the same concerns as I do. The " City leaders" have enabled the homeless to a point which is reckless and concerning has come up in discussions time and time again. Citizens are well aware of the strides made by City Hall but it has come at constituent expense. If your going to attract new visitors, new business and families to the downtown core, homelessness must be addressed with fresh new ideas and more sensitivity to Hamilton citizens. No one will want to vacation in Hamilton, if the homelessness and drugs are better handled. City Hall has tolerated a very unsafe environment downtown.

1. Parking lots should have naturalized areas around all lots for shade, flood control, seasonal colour & scent. Use our native trees, scrubs & perannual plants to bring some natural to all theses asphalt areas
2. do city infill in all areas of parking & fenced properties with historical looking street views when new buildings are built
3. increase building fronts so that their is room for proper natural tree scaping for shade, blossoms, seasonal colour, scent & flood water control as apart of regreening the city
4. create natural forest (Miyawaki) in downtown park areas to address flood, air pollution create wild forest in 5 years or less small areas of every park
5. all parks should have water to help wildlife & drown out city noise( solar fountains for each pond or fountain
5. use native flowering trees, scrubs & perennials to create the excitement of spring & seasonal changes
6. try to make walkways so they meander & gardens with curves & rocks to create a natural feel can be use to sit on. (no maintenance)
7. create cultural zones like Artist hub or gallery hubs with artist residences among the galleries
8. Change building code for street front store (remove any cost to owners) to Bus/Res for small business owners being able to rent & live in same. Will help in reducing housing shortage & increase opportunity for intercity development & increase store front vacancies to many in the whole city
9. Encourage small unique business to startup in areas of low diversity , 2 businesses in one shop possibility
create tech areas ,artist hub, small business development etc.
10. wild areas in every park that creates a wild flower meadow - less maintannce cost & changing plants, colour, fragance & to use for butterfly & bee habiat

Look at European cities - with whole year around pedestrian streets, full of NORMAL people, clean, with beautiful buildings (standing, not in ruins), tree-lined, lots of parks, patios, keeping history, no billboards as a part of architecture (who even approves that?), wide sidewalks, 21st century efficient, affordable public transport, free cultural public events, no cannabis stores on every corner, not homeless and addiction hubs. Healthy family friendly city center with visible security presence for order. Law and bylaw to be implemented. Hamilton downtown now is sick and scary, heavily polluted zombieland with insane people, addicts, criminals that are doing whatever they want because they can. Millions of dollars and many decades are wasted on what?

Boarded up stores and businesses. Open drug use. Feels very unsafe. I lived downtown in the early 90s and it was awesome. Jackson Square/Eaton Centre were great malls. There were street vendors. Yuk yuks, great clubs. Now it's sad. We need to figure out what Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Halifax, etc etc are doing so great and do that. It's just not a place I want to go nor do I feel safe allowing my kids to go down there. Augusta is great. We need more Augustas

Parking is already a nightmare for people who live in the downtown area. It is very irresponsible of the city to not provide safe, adequate parking for a city that has multiple vehicles per household. We don't all have the time, luxury or feasibility to rely on public transportation & give up the convenience of car ownership. Please stop allowing housing to be built without adequate parking. It makes constituents frustrated & disenchanted to not have proper parking on residential streets. It's bad enough that you have slowed traffic drastically with rarely used bike lanes. Plus switching from one way streets to less efficient two way streets. Those of us stuck in these areas due to unaffordable housing & irresponsible mass immigration should not be penalized by bureaucrats that do not live in these areas.

We need to see some action on empty lots that appear to be good land. I'm biased because it's in my neighbourhood, but I recently moved to Corktown (Feb 2025) and after some research I cannot understand why 124 Walnut Street is sitting there with no movement on any type of development, or cleaning up efforts. Similar sentiment across many other lots that sit in Corktown, and other nearby neighbourhoods. We need to facilitate, enable, and encourage good development on these lots.

Gore park is just filled with homeless people who do not let the tax payers to enjoy the park. When the fountain functions, I have seen homeless people pissing in it.

There is too much human excrement on the streets these days. Especially around the sidewalks near King/Main and Victoria to Wellington. Please move the safe injection site at the old Cathedral school to a different non-residential location. Bus shelters and sidewalks are being used to inject drugs and to defecate. Emerald bus stop on main literally smells like urine. And there are fires at time too. Streets are more unsafe now. Fix those before beautifying the DT. Thanks

Homelessness and drugs. Hamilton downtown looks like a scene from the walking dead. What will the NDP mayor do to fix the core issues. Also, infrastructure upgrade in buildings that are vacant and doing nothing. Create a casino or a large regulated area for folks to come and enjoy a reason to be in Hamilton. The money alone would give a boost to the city and more enforcement money can come.

Get rid of the encampments. Make the area actually safer. Crack down on the BS , make driving in the down town easier, make everything down town more affordable, lower property taxes. Make it easier to even start a business. Fix the roads. Treat the tax payers who pay for all this with the respect they deserve. Make it easier for the people who are here now.

The two issues that keeps people I know from coming downtown is the perceived crime and the state of our roads. Too many of our main throughfares are in a state where you need a raised 4x4 to safely manage your way to and through downtown. We need to have the police out of their cars and walking through downtown. They need to stop and intervene when lesser issues take place. When the police fail to do so we end up in the current state where downtown is an open air drug market with all of the minor and major issues that go along with it.

I’m old enough to have been at the Tranquility Base concern at the opening of Jackson Square. Old enough to read, like clockwork, every ten years, about the new Renaissance of downtown. And, old enough to remember how ten years ago the Strathcona Secondary Plan was collaboratively generated and then, only a decade later, completely ignored when Vrancor wanted to completely ignore its guidance and built/is building towers far taller than the plan calls for. So, I’m cynical that the City can create and, more importantly defend with spine and vision, that plan for a vibrant downtown. I’d love to see it be a place for everyone but I’ve lost faith that the City has the courage to deliver that. I’d love to say I’d like to participate in a process to improve the downtown, but that’s not true. I’ve lost faith.

Despite what the “bleeding hearts” say, the homeless have to go. You will never have your desired downtown when those people are laying around on the sidewalks, smoking crack and consuming other drugs in plain sight, being in your face begging, making a filthy mess wherever they go, stealing, messing up toilets and washrooms that your downtown visitors have to use, and the list goes on. I live downtown, and I experience every one of those acts on a daily basis. It may by harsh, but it’s the truth. You can forget you dream of a vibrant downtown as long as you allow the homeless to be there.

The core badly needs some strong anchor institutions. NOT an outdated shopping centre (Jackson square), NOT an event venue that is only open at night (First Ontario), NOT major retail spaces abandoned by their owners (HART centre)... so if we no what we don't want, what would work? There is no public recreation "third space" anywhere in the core. The library comes close. The YMCA is derelict. It's a shame that a large recreation centre - library hybrid couldn't be created. There are beautiful large vibrant YMCAs (or public rec centres) all over this country that attract and serve diverse populations for positive purpose. That's just one idea of what could benefit the core. It needs a lot of help. Does the city have any leverage for compelling private property owners to keep their buildings in decent shape and active use? Doesn't seem like it.

Build more shelters and remove the drugs. Revitalize the Jackson square mall. Make it not scary.

I live in the centre just east of downtown. We technically can walk downtown and we often bike to the waterfront. We love James N and S and there seems to be a new vibrancy almost Toronto like feel at James and Augusta. There are great restaurants downtown and I love all the new condos going up all over.
The homelessness situation is very concerning but I don’t feel unsafe. It’s heartbreaking to see the state so many people are in. I don’t know the answer. We need to be able to live together in a safe community with supports available but not risking business closures or loss of people renting or buying downtown.
I am sorry to see so many places boarded up or waiting to be demolished. Pushing ahead with cleaning up and building up is key. We have the new stadium coming yet York street is a mess and I’m not sure people will be ready to go there by December 2025 to big shows.
There has to be a collective of community and developers coming together to work with the city to push forward with decisions and options.

The downtown does not feel as safe as it used to be when I first moved here.

My husband and I moved to Hamilton from Toronto five years ago.

What drew us here? A beautiful detached brick century home under $600K. A yard. A relatively easy commute to Toronto. Connectivity to friends and family in the GTHA.

What might drive us back? We have a young daughter now and it has us thinking about the future and the lifestyle we want for our family. Do we want to get in the car each time we want to go the grocery store or the bank? Do we want her to see homeless or drug users on each of our drives home along major in and outs of the city along Main or King Streets? When we think about going out on a Friday night for a date night, do I feel safe walking to the Capitol bar (from Stinson/St. Clair neighbourhood)? No, I don’t. It doesn’t feel safe. It feels like it has gotten worse in the last 5 years.

I think to myself, maybe the roads will be better and drive more businesses downtown once the LRT is running? Probably, but do I want to wait 5 or 10 years for that? Probably not. Great local shops are closing down or vocal about not being able to stay open much longer. It feels like there’s too many retail vacancies and gives me the impression that business owners don’t want to even try their luck at opening shop. Heck, I have thought about it myself but felt like I’d be the only shop in blocks, surrounded by boarded up shops. Would that look good to customers? Would my shop be enough of a destination?

When friends and family visit from out of town, they all pretty much have the same reviews… Hamilton has nice pockets, then not so nice.

Our street has seen a 70% turnover in the last 5 years. Our new neighbours are 30-40 years old, have created an amazing sense of community, have young families, and care about the future of the city. Many of us have reached out to our Ward 3 Councillor about implementing traffic calming measures in the area and have a really hard time getting answers or timelines about next steps. It’s pretty disappointing.

Thank you!

For the love of..fix the roads. No one will drive to access downtown (however else you want to make driving harder in this city) if they break their car trying to get anywhere in the city.

Downtown Hamilton needs additional employment opportunities. We should be a destination for large employers and employ thousands of talented people