Raise the Hammer

I happen to also be a homeowner and property taxpayer, but also have lived in a modern all-inclusive condo (the type with a pool, gym, BBQ, party room, etc) and understand their convenience and allure, too.

I straddle somewhere exactly between the baby boom era and the millenials era, and I'm able to look in both directions.

I've also roomrented as recently as ten years ago, all the way to home ownership, and of my lifetime, I've had more years of carsharing memberships (autoshare, zipcar, vrtucar) in various cities, than I've had years of car ownership. I own a car now, but only out of sheer necessity -- might say goodbye to it again once we've got two 'parallel surface subways' in Lower City -- the LRT and the Downtown-Stoney Creek GO connection when it is running all day long in both directions, and maybe even a basic Gage GO infill platform built at the edge of the recently-bought land Hamilton bought for a soccer field at the railroad & Gage Ave. Especially when electrified GO service goes all the way to Lewis train yard, maybe twenty years from now (the Metrolinx PDF docs says Lewis yard in Stoney Creek is electrification-upgradeable -- though that's probably beyond 2025). Even now, The Connolly in the animation on the cover page of website is prominently advertising improving Hamilton transit as the #1 reason to get the condo (2 GO stations, upcoming LRT, bike share, car share) and they have less parking spaces than rooms. This would not have been thinkable only 10 years ago -- now it sells. This will be true for low rises (4-stories) that integrate well in the residential areas within 15 minute walk of downtown.

This is true we don't have the Europe ethic, but we can /still/ densify more than what we have so far. The Hamilton's small condo boom outlines this, and Toronto big condo boom clearly shows it as well.

When transit becomes far more convenient and you have cheaper places next to good transit, it's got allure to some people. That's why condos are now selling well in Hamilton, and more will get built. I, for one, welcome them (if properly done0.

We don't have as many teenagers today wanting the '57 Chevy experience of drive-in movies and rollerskate-diners. Increasingly, the new generation are slowly opting to live a car without car ownership. Even if we're not at European-levels of reduced car desire, it is undeniably lower than it used to be.

Bring on the Lower City densification, Hamilton! (As long as we do it properly -- I.e. don't expropriate or put the poor at a disadvantage...)

Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2015-07-28 09:51:20