[SteelTown]

For me I would like to bury the QEW under the Harbour and get rid of the Skyway Bridge. Sure it would probably cost $1 or $2 billion.

[Northern Light]

Seriously, Hamilton is a great place, but I would change 100 things about Toronto, which I love, I can't see how I could let Hamilton away with only 1!

Here's my list of the biggies, and I'm not gonna choose!


- Somehow fix the view of Hamilton from the QEW when westbound from Burlington. I don't care if its berms, painting the plants, real trees, fake trees, anything, it really does make a poor impression which unfairly taints the City.

- Connect the City properly to GO Rail, every 30min service total, with 1/2 going to CN Liuna (properly restored) and then Stoney Creek; the other 1/2 going to Hunter street (with 2-track tunnel), each branch would be hourly outside rush hour, 30-min combined, every 20min in rush hour on each branch.

- Add the Hamilton LRT - B Line

- Restore the original downtown Department store, and make it a signature HBC, creating downtown destination retail.

- Restore/rebuild at least one historic 1-screen movie theatre

- Build a state-of-the-art 12-16 screen megaplex downtown

- Get rid of the one way streets all together.

That's my A-List

:D

[realcity]

bring back the quality companies/head offices/jobs

- Firestone
- Westinghouse
- Maclean Hunter
- IBM
- HI Case
- Proctor and Gamble
- Otis Elevator

- Hamilton magazine isn't even published in Hamilton anymore

[urban_planner]

I agree with the previous poster to hard to narrow it to just one.

my short list includes the following

Invest money into the airport to lengthen the shorter runway to 9,000 ft also build the terminal they had planned several years ago if not something better. have some sort of significant Cargo Facilities.

Have greater densities on the Rymal Rd Corridor.

Have a new Stadium regardless of the Pan Am games.

Here is the big one. Forget a tunnel or what ever for the QEW. How about letting the steel plants walk away from the city and reclaim all the land for better cleaner uses office building, parks , Condos etc. big cost but long term gain.

Thats what i would do.d

[emge]

Just one thing?

Good jobs downtown.

[SABBATICAL!]

one thing?

i'd banish the rotten self-depreciating attitude a fair number of hamiltonians seem to have about their city, or at least about the old city.

[FairHamilton]

THE POLITICIANS!!! Then many of the other things can be accomplished.

[highwater]

I agree with the last two posters. Change our leadership and attitudes and the rest will follow.

[BCTed]

For me I would like to bury the QEW under the Harbour and get rid of the Skyway Bridge. Sure it would probably cost $1 or $2 billion.

Why don't you like the current setup?

[SteelTown]

I would like to see the Beach strip redeveloped and by having the bridge disappear it would open up land to add more housing and more recreational space. It would probably become Hamilton’s next hot spot.

Plus if we bury the QEW under the Harbour drivers won't have that famous view of Hamilton anymore.

[c@taract_soulj@h]

How about our media outlets?

Sure, we have the Spec, the View and a few radio stations here and there but for a city our size, it's pretty small considering although Y108 is clutch! I can count our main radio stations and only TV station on one hand and 2 fingers.
I've always liked the idea of a media building kinda like the Q107 centre in Toronto or in Byward Market in Ottawa. Also I could almost see a tabloid here like the Toronto Sun. Being under the grotesque shadow of Toronto, I'd doubt it though. Maybe a CBC station or a Top 40 too?

Any other changes would be;

The LRT (Why not tunnel the downtown porton..it won't happen but why not?)
Stadium (that includes a reno. Copps!)
A boost to our airport
Underground link to buildings downtown OR skywalk system

For the record, I love our road/highway network here surprisingly so I won't touch on them

[highwater]

We absolutely need and deserve a cbc outlet here, but we'll never get one as long as the conservatives are in power.

[drpgq]

Considering all the years the liberals were in power and no station, I'm highly skeptical that it is only the conservatives that are holding Hamilton back from getting a station.

[SteelTown]

Took the Liberals to bring back the spending level to CBC that Mulroney whacked off during his time as PM, VIA Rail service left Hamilton under Mulroney's cuts as well.

[drpgq]

Took the Liberals to bring back the spending level to CBC that Mulroney whacked off during his time as PM, VIA Rail service left Hamilton under Mulroney's cuts as well.

I seem to have a bit of a different memory about CBC cuts during Chretein's tenure.


Rating the parties on broadcast policy

Dateline: Sunday, November 12, 2000

The Liberals & the CBC

The Liberal Record on the CBC

Jean Chrétien's Liberals may be set to offer Canadians election goodies to improve CBC, but can we count on them to deliver?

Their record gives cause for doubt. This will not be the first time Mr. Chrétien has made big promises about CBC. During the 1993 election, seven years ago, almost to the day, Mr. Chrétien promised a Liberal government would provide CBC long term stable funding. The now famous Liberal Red Book contained this empty commitment:

"A Liberal government will be committed to stable, multiyear financing for national cultural institutions such as the Canada Council and the CBC"

After winning a majority government in 1993, the Liberals went to work on the CBC. During the next four years CBC's budget was cut faster and deeper than most other departments or agencies of government. When the dust had settled by 1997, CBC funding had been cut by more than $400 million - or about 33%. The Liberal's post election cuts to CBC even exceeded the Reform Party's 1993 campaign promise to cut $365 million from CBC.

During the 1997 election, Liberal policy again cited the important nation-building role of CBC and called for stable funding. The Liberals once again promised stable CBC funding, but not before cutting its budget again. These cuts took the form of eliminating CBC's guaranteed access to the publicly financed Canadian Television Fund, a move that cost CBC a further $26 million/year.

During the last seven years, Prime Minister Chrétien's government has loaded up the CBC's Board of Directors with partisan appointments whose key credential seems to be the Liberal membership card in their wallets.

Not satisfied with controlling CBC in this fashion, the Liberal government has engaged in a campaign to tame the public broadcaster. The Prime Minister's Office openly and successfully intimidated CBC over the tenacious and critical journalism of national television news reporter Terry Milewski. And were it not for massive public outcry, Mr. Chrétien's government would have passed legislation giving the Prime Minister power to fire without cause the CBC President and members of the Board of Directors.

Mr. Chrétien allowed to the CBC meander leaderless for six months last year during the critical period when the CRTC was considering the renewal of CBC's broadcast licence at the end of former President Perrin Beatty's term.

CBC is now a mere shadow of the public broadcaster it once was before Mr. Chrétien became Prime Minister in 1993.

After thousands of layoff and dozens of program cuts, the CBC has a shrinking pool of creative talent and a radio and television schedule full of repeats and centrally produced programs. The CBC can no longer meet its Broadcasting Act mandate "to reflect Canada and its regions, while serving the special needs of those regions."

In the words of current President Robert Rabinovitch, if the CBC were a private company it would be near bankruptcy. With a record like this, would you buy a used CBC from a salesman called Chrétien?

Stockwell Day's Secret Paper: Sell CBC TV

An Analysis of the Canadian Alliance's Broadcasting Policy

The net effect of the Alliance's policy proposals to sell the CBC English Television Network and to end grants and subsidies to business will be to wipe Canadian fiction television clean off the screen.

The NDP :

Establish a floor-operating grant of $1 billion per year to begin rebuilding the CBC as a distinctive national broadcaster firmly rooted in all regions.

The PCs:

The Progressive Conservative Plan for Canada's Future: Initiate a modern and fair set of rules that will streamline and simplify the access of film and television production funds for new Canadian works. Make the CBC's mission and role as public broadcaster relevant to all regions of Canada.

[SteelTown]

1998 was when we finally achieved a balanced budget. The deficit skyrocketed during Mulroney much like what is happening with Harper. Check the CBC funding post-balanced budget era. Sheila was Minister of Heritage 96-03. In a few months or years we will have to witness this kind of event all over again.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0011079
http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/newsreleases/20010502.shtml
http://www.friends.ca/news-item/1600

[Jon Dalton]

Just one thing? Connect the CN and CP rail lines east of the city allowing a full resurgence of the TH&B station.

[SteelTown]

^ That would be a good one.

[drpgq]

1998 was when we finally achieved a balanced budget. The deficit skyrocketed during Mulroney much like what is happening with Harper. Check the CBC funding post-balanced budget era. Sheila was Minister of Heritage 96-03. In a few months or years we will have to witness this kind of event all over again.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0011079
http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/newsreleases/20010502.shtml
http://www.friends.ca/news-item/1600

Uh, they cut it by like $350 million and then the funding stayed relatively stable.

In any case, I would like a CBC station, but barring an NDP victory I don't see it happening.

[realcity]

The Liberals' balanced budget was a shell trick.

Balanced for Ottawa maybe, but the Provinces suffered. They slashed EI payments when it was safe to do so because of near full employment. Slashed hospital budgets increased wait times and slashed transfer payments and forgot all about maintenance on infrastructure. Martinomics.

Sounds like everything we're trying to fix 10 years later.

[bornagainbiking]

There is so much talk of the waterfront and to combat urban sprawl.
So the site that is supposed to be designated for the new stadium is just a huge underused brownfield and an eyesore for any one going to Bayfront Park.
They should totally clean up the area from the railway tracks to Barton and Bay to Queen. This should be condos plain and simple. It worked for Burlington. Empty nesters looking to downsize and enjoy life near the harbour. Heck, that is why they are flogging condos along the beach strip for over $200,000 a pop. Attached to a great walking/rec trail.
So stop with the nonsense about blocking the view as most of the houses along Hess etc etc are one and two storey and would benefit from the increased density (stores and basic amenities). Not to mention inproved roads and infrastructure.
This should be a priority as it seems to be working at the foot of John at the Discovery Centre. Who knows how many empty nester would also have a boat moored nearby and the spinoff increased recreational harbour use.
So CLEAN UP the garbage and derelict buildings and then it might sell. it has to be done sometime, better now so we can entice occupants not make them sick.
Get the railroad to buy in as this may be a boost to commuters. Way cheaper to buy here vice Queen's Quay.

[Jon Dalton]

There is so much talk of the waterfront and to combat urban sprawl.
So the site that is supposed to be designated for the new stadium is just a huge underused brownfield and an eyesore for any one going to Bayfront Park.
They should totally clean up the area from the railway tracks to Barton and Bay to Queen. This should be condos plain and simple. It worked for Burlington. Empty nesters looking to downsize and enjoy life near the harbour. Heck, that is why they are flogging condos along the beach strip for over $200,000 a pop. Attached to a great walking/rec trail.
So stop with the nonsense about blocking the view as most of the houses along Hess etc etc are one and two storey and would benefit from the increased density (stores and basic amenities). Not to mention inproved roads and infrastructure.
This should be a priority as it seems to be working at the foot of John at the Discovery Centre. Who knows how many empty nester would also have a boat moored nearby and the spinoff increased recreational harbour use.
So CLEAN UP the garbage and derelict buildings and then it might sell. it has to be done sometime, better now so we can entice occupants not make them sick.
Get the railroad to buy in as this may be a boost to commuters. Way cheaper to buy here vice Queen's Quay.

I also like Bratina's idea of relocating the CN yard to east of Centennial where that that walmart schlock is supposed to be going. I don't know if that's a pipe dream or if CN is even interested. If I could dream for a second, CN would pitch the land to new urban style condo developers (does the city ever try that?), and get a good price based on its future redeveloped value. They would then buy the old metal yard on Centennial for a song from the Walmart assholes looking to cut their losses after the OMB defeat. Ok, dream over.

[Zaz]

I have only lived here (lower Hamilton) for about a year, but here is my take.

One way to resolve the aforementioned issues (i.e. electing better leadership, property standards, brownfields, more major employers, more condos etc.) is to dramatically increase the percentage of population with income, education and consequently more progressive thinking and civic pride. I don't believe existing people and attitudes can change en masse in a meaningful way.

Where will the fresh blood come from? Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga. Our major incentive is home prices. We need to get regular high-speed transportation to and from the GTA, and they will come. Increasing property prices will have a huge positive impact on lower city. Once we have enough Starbucks per square mile, the McMaster/Mohawk kids will start settling here as well. One huge factor that companies consider when moving or opening new offices is the talent pool.