York Boulevard Streetscape

[highwater]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

I don't mind sky tunnels. If you look at the pdf you can see it at night time as well. Nice LED lights.

I just hate the whole anti-urban mentality behind separating pedestrian traffic from the street. It's a proven streetlife killer. But if we have to live with it, I like what they've done with it. Just wish it, and the King St. one, had never been built.

[adam]

Agreed. Look at any major city and they don't try to artificially separate pedestrians from the street level. The separation sends a clear message: the city level is NOT for you unless you are in a car. 1950's mentality.... look where that got the city...

[SteelTown]

Have you been to Calgary? Actually pretty much all Western Canada is covered with sky tunnels. Montreal and Toronto both have underground and sky tunnels.

[highwater]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Have you been to Calgary? Actually pretty much all Western Canada is covered with sky tunnels. Montreal and Toronto both have underground and sky tunnels.

But the impetus behind them is definitely to get people off the street. There's enough critical mass of people in Montreal and TO that the tunnels weren't able to totally kill off street life (I can't speak to the quality of streetlife in Calgary, I was only there once, briefly, many years ago). In Hamilton, we have a much smaller population, and the bridges and raised plazas were aided and abetted by urban expressways that put the nail in the coffin of the idea of streets as public spaces in this town.

[SteelTown]

Yea but those two sky tunnels aren't like taking away hundrends off the street. The King St one is locked up majority of the time anyways.

[FRM]

the pedestrian bridge on york only connects the parkade to HCC i believe, so unless you are going from your car to the HCC then there shouldn't be too much of an impact on street life.

[highwater]

You're right. The impact in real numbers isn't huge, but like I said, it's the mentality behind their creation that I dislike.

[LikeHamilton]

Tender is out for this project.

Watermain Installation, Roadway Resurfacing, Sidewalk Reconstruction, Two-Way Conversion, Decorative Street Lighting and Pedestrian Illumination on York Blvd. from Queen St. N. to James St. N. and Roadway Resurfacing, Curb Replacement and Sidewalk Repairs on Queen St. from York Blvd. to King. St.

Closes April 28th

Fabrication supply and delivery of Heritage Style Light Poles and Traffic Poles for York Boulevard in the City of Hamilton

Closed April 8th

[scott000]

Two-way conversion starting at Queen? Seems like it would be easier to do starting at Hess St. so as to not have to completely redesign the whole intersection, unless the whole block between Queen & Hess is going to be reconstructed. Is Cannon becoming two-way also? May need a traffic circle lol.

[SteelTown]

York Boulevard will need some road work so the city will ask if they can tie this together with Burlington. Hope the city gets new street lights from Dundurn to High Level Bridge.

[Frankenrogers]

My wife gave me a book on Hamilton street name origins and under York the have a picture of it before they widened the street and killed it. You could just cry looking at it as it looked like King Street.

[pEte fiSt iN Ur fAce]

Some of us are a little angry for just that reason. So much has been lost for the sake of 'renewal' in Hamilton. My advice: burn that book and don't bother with any other history of Hamilton albums. Ignorance is bliss.

[realcity]

What the City did with York is truly the biggest mistake they ever made. It is very sad. They cleared out the streetwall to make way for a future canyon of skyscrapers but didn't realize the footprints were too small for any type of modern commercial developments other than a few muffler shops and variety stores.

[bigguy1231]

Originally Posted by realcity

What the City did with York is truly the biggest mistake they ever made. It is very sad. They cleared out the streetwall to make way for a future canyon of skyscrapers but didn't realize the footprints were too small for any type of modern commercial developments other than a few muffler shops and variety stores.

The problem was they put too many restrictions on what could or could not be built on the street along with specific rules on the design of the buildings.

If developers wanted to build there, they were expected to buy up the properties they needed, just like anywhere else. The lots you see along York are just the remnants of the property the city expropriated to widen the street. They weren't meant to be building lots.