Back to the past on York Boulevard
February 11, 2009
Paul Wilson
The Hamilton Spectator
(Feb 11, 2009)
http://www.thespec.com/article/511277
Life wasn't perfect a hundred years ago. The doctor couldn't offer many cures, movies didn't have sound, and nobody had invented permanent press.
But it was a very good time to be a pedestrian. In this city, the sidewalk still mattered.
Then the car came on strong and killed all that.
But tomorrow, at a public meeting at the Hamilton Convention Centre from 7 to 9 p.m., the city will show how it wants to turn the clock back a century or so.
There's about $3.5 million to do the job, for the stretch of York Boulevard between James and Bay. It used to bustle. In fact, the streetcar used to come along there every six minutes.
But today, that stretch of York is truly uninspired. You don't want to take a walk there. For starters, you'll get blown away by those five lanes of traffic rushing east.
And why would you stroll along there anyway?
Nothing interesting about navigating past the long north wall of Copps Coliseum, heaving patio stones and all. Not much to see as you pass the library, just a lot of concrete wall. There are windows at the market, but you can't see much.
Then there's the long cold wall of what most still call the Hamilton Eaton Centre.
From there, gaze across the street to seven storeys of homeliness, the city's parkade. No fun walking past that.
But a century ago, when this piece of York was called Merrick, the same stretch of street had lots of doors and windows and life.
The couple in the 1915 photo, above, are walking past the Hilda Cigars building, which housed lawyers, artists, a clock shop, a dance studio. Maybe that pair are on their way to the fine Royal Hotel, just out of the picture.
That bowler-hatted gent strolling the other way will examine with some excitement the coming-attractions posters at the Savoy. Then he'll head next door for an anticipatory pint at the Waldorf Hotel.
As for that groaning table of produce in the foreground, right there on the sidewalk, well that's exactly the kind of feature the city would like to see again.
"We've looked back to the turn of the 20th century to see what we can learn from those times," says David Cuming, the city's manager of community planning and design.
Step 1, he explains, is to get rid of that freeway on York. Make the traffic two-way. Yes, the way it used to be.
The plan may be to have two lanes heading east and one west, with accommodations for bicycles.
On the market side of York, there could be room for street cafes, seasonal retail stalls, movable planters.
Instead of hard curbs, they may incorporate the woonerf, or flush street concept, of which there are some 6,000 in the Netherlands. Hess Village already has a modified version of this.
This is a step toward making the street more flexible. For special occasions, it could be shut right down for events tied to the market or Copps Coliseum.
Not all of the past along here got knocked down. The stone Coppley building, where they're still making clothes, is more than 100 years old. So is Philpott Memorial Church, immense columns guarding its front door.
And then there's the Salvation Army men's shelter. It was built some 60 years ago and there was no budget to get fancy. It is merely an oblong block of bricks. On the third floor, the Correctional Service of Canada leases space for a halfway house. To the consternation of some, there's no indication they're leaving anytime soon.
On the second floor, there are 118 beds, about 80 per cent full right now. There is important work being done here, and the Sally Ann has no plans to move.
Major Harry Banfield, the executive director, likes the idea of two-way traffic outside his front door. He likes the beautification, too, though does suggest the benches be the kind you can't sleep on.
Nearly $500,000 is now being spent on renovations at the Sally Ann, but none of that will show from the outside. Banfield says they had looked at canopies and stucco, but it wasn't in the budget. However, if the whole street gets a lift, he said, they may feel obliged to keep up with the improvements.
The York Boulevard project is on a fast track because it needs to happen in conjunction with the facelift about to begin at the market and library.
Jackson Square is now preparing a temporary home for market stallholders. They're to be back on a more inviting York Boulevard by the end of next year.
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