Comment 113336

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted August 07, 2015 at 09:49:22

Excellent article!

There are definite similarities to Hamilton's planned re-development of the industrial waterfront and the most interesting thing for me is that False Creek South shows that you can build a high quality attractive development in a city with booming real estate speculation and still keep a diversity of incomes and housing types. Density could be a bit higher, and there could be mored mixed use, but overall it is still a good development 40 years on.

People in Hamilton are already worried about poorer residents being driven out, but this example shows how to address the problem.

You have to make inclusiveness a priority and work out how to achieve it: it really is a question of politics! You also need to build a high quality development that people with money actually want to live in (to avoid ghettoizing as happened with many of France's originally mixed income projects). Hamilton could also mandate a similar mix of co-op, rental, condos and subsidized/market based rents if it wants to. But it will take determination and political courage.

A worrying sign is that the city has already apparently caved to potential developers on the point of owning the land. Why is it enough for some developers to say that they would prefer to own the land for the city to just acquiesce? Why not actually try to do the right thing first, like they did in Vancouver.

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