Comment 16387

By jason (registered) | Posted December 28, 2007 at 09:58:46

for the most part, some good reading here lately. I've also heard some info regarding the airport numbers being up this year over last year and last year up over the year before that. Apparently going back 3 years is when Westjet left and obviously that puts a huge dent into the numbers.

I, too wonder about the logic of saying "any industry can locate here, airport-related or not". We've had the Glanbrook Business Park sitting empty for decades. Why would we think that business will flock to our little airport if they won't flock (or come at all) to an identical park 15 minutes away?

We've been building highways in and around Hamilton for the past decade in earnest - 403 extension, QEW widening, Linc, new Hwy 6 and Red Hill. Our industrial/business development has gone down, not up, during that time. Will another 5 highways do the trick? No. The best thing happening in Hamilton right now (besides downtown development, which is really at the heart of this issue of business attraction) is the new $1.5 million being earmarked for the EcDev department. I recall sitting in Vancouvers airport several years ago and reading ads from Halton and Toronto trying to lure people and business there. Hamilton needs to get aggressive in attracting business. Bottom line. We can build highways until we look and smell like L.A. but nobody will locate here if they know nothing about us and when they finally do come to check out our city they are greeted by a sub-par downtown. Harry Stinson was right - downtown is what matters. A healthy downtown breeds a healthy city. It's the face and image of the city. If we would get half as serious about that as we are about highways we'd have no problem attracting new jobs and business to our city.

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