Statement by Bruno Moos

The future of Hamilton,
When many years ago, the first city administration proposed to close the main street, to transform it into a pedestrian mall, the majority of business on, and not only on the street protested vehemently against it. At that time, no town or city had executed such a project and there was no example in North America to refer to. The first planner of such a venture had to fight against all objections and counter argument to fight his way through and eventually 'imposed' the realization of a pedestrian commercial street.
There were hundreds of arguments against it, by business owners, city councillors and more.
Once built, against all odds, the town woke up to a totally different reality. The street filled up with shoppers like never before and all the business owners were happy.
The next city that proposed to do the same came up against the same opposition but was able to convince the opponents by referring to the already successful example.
Many pedestrian malls have been built since then in North America, always against the initial opposition of the same kind.
In Hamilton, as much as I know, it never came to such a proposition. Not only that, the opposite happened: the original commercial streets were turned into five-lane, one-way roads, facilitating traffic, but chasing away business and commerce by turning the streetscape into an inferno for pedestrians, storekeepers, and inhabitants.
Many Hamiltonian's fled to upper Hamilton.
Since the introduction of pedestrian malls, many other urban planning ideas have been studied and explored, to improve communal living conditions, solutions to solve traffic congestion, air pollution, rapid transit, and especially to counter general urban decay.
Again, the first cities that introduced innovative solutions were hit by strong opposition, until, again, some courageous planners and politicians carried through the projects like building subways, LRT, pedestrian malls, bury hydro wires and subsidize renovation to generate urban renewal.
Again, other towns and cities had the possibility to learn from these pioneers and convince their constituents.
In Hamilton, we seem to be hard to convince. Many improvised 'planners' ignore carefully researched studies and dispute findings with questionable arguments, leaving the impression that any argument is good enough, just to be against any innovative project.
Not only in North America, with the unique problem of urban spread, but even in other parts of the world, planners and politicians have woken up to the reality that public, electric rapid transit systems on rail add, not only to accelerate displacement of the inhabitants but to create new bases for all kinds of improvements in the affected area. New housing, commerce, business, and industries are just some of the elements that add to the urban redevelopment.
Except for a small area in downtown Hamilton, streets are littered with abandoned business and badly maintained buildings and homes, not to mention empty lots throughout town and the omnipresent utility posts, occupying a great part of the sidewalk when there is one, and the overhead wiring with a multitude of wires and transformer pots that devastate the streetscape.
What is there more for those not yet convinced, that Hamiltonians could start to look around and see what is happening in other cities and take a step forward in a new direction of innovative improvements. People go to Europe to admire beautiful cities, and yet, Hamilton is located in the midst of a gorgeous landscape with a great potential for improvement and the possibility to grow out of its grey, miserable abandonment.

Bruno Moos
Hamilton

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