Raise the Hammer

Mr. Young like others I appreciate your engaging in this discussion however I would like to pick a couple of points from your statement to discuss:

"The part of Hamilton's waterfront that does have good road and transit access, ie Confederation Park, is not being considered for a variety of reasons you'll have to ask council to explain."

I can explain that one for you... As a former resident of the far East end the main goal has been for several years to decrease the flow of traffic on #20 allowing for a more pedestrian friendly environment for the thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people who live around Eastgate Square. Couple that with the very real fact that, despite what you think, Confederation Park is incredibly poorly served by transit (it's at the far end of the system which creates longer wait times and longer ride times and it's only accessed by a couple of buses even during busy season) and the fact that there is NO (you read that right NO) sidewalk running continuously north from Barton under the CN underpass and on to Confederation Park and you get a stadium that is ONLY accessed by lousy transit or personal vehicle. This flies in the face of Hamilton's goal to lower the number of PV trips as well as proper/sustainable planning.

"The other reason that the East Mountain, while far from perfect, works is because of its proximity to downtown."

I believe another commenter has already addressed this issue. The shortest possible route from James Street downtown (up James to West 5th, across to U. James and then Linc) is not 6km as you state it is in fact nearly 13 km. As the other poster stated, if you're going to use numbers, use REAL numbers.

Regarding traffic and "the drive" in general I think attention must be drawn to the locations being driven through. An east end mountain stadium creates nearly all highway or arterial driving and while I understand that in terms of getting fans in and out quickly this type of trip is great, it actually detracts from the city experience which is what this stadium should be accentuating. Since this stadium will be largely funded by PUBLIC money, it needs to be built in an area that best serves the PUBLIC interest, not simply the Tiger Cats or even their fans. Public interest in this case is best served by utilizing a location that creates the best opportunities for future investment or investment in the current infrastructure and provides a catalyst for city renewal. Placing a stadium at a downtown location essentially forces people to either walk through downtown to their car (providing amazing opportunities to browse stores on revitalized James Street), take a bus to the transit hub (use transit) or be stuck in traffic in a personal vehicle. The first two are city building, the latter isn't.

By placing a stadium in the middle of nowhere with access only by road networks or at the far reaches of a transit system you create accessibility problems all around. You create the NECESSITY for PV trips to the stadium thereby thumbing your nose at the goal of reducing PV trips.

In terms of transit here's an exercise to go through: take a piece of paper and a pen and draw lines from edge to the other repeatedly and you will find that the area most congested by lines is the middle of the sheet of paper. This illustrates the fact that placing a stadium or any venue requiring access by a large number of people near a transit HUB is essential for making that location feasible to be accessed by transit. The closest transit hub to a West Harbor stadium is at MacNab street, the location currently being updated with two bus platforms and a new transit centre. This location happens to be a 1.6km walk (using roadways) from the Bay Area (I used Bayfront Park)! The closest hub to an East Mountain stadium is Limeridge Mall if I'm not mistaken and that would be suicidal to walk to (not to mention a long distance away). What this does is create the need to either have a bus run to and from the stadium during special events or place an underused transit hub at the location - both of which are poor uses of money.

Bottom line is this, saying that an East Mountain stadium is a good location for transit access is a fallacy at best and smoke and mirrors at worst!

I read above that in order for a Harbourfront stadium to be viable you wanted access from Burlington Street to the 403, my question would be: "what percentage of Tiger Cat fans come from Brantford or the London area?" as this would be the only people requiring the use of the 403! Anyone else who commutes from the regional area is far better served by a direct link to the QEW via Burlington Street which is a high capacity road, far higher than something like Upper James or Stonechurch because there is little access to businesses/residences that regular vehicular traffic utilize created less traffic stoppage. So again I ask, why is access to the 403 so important?

You state that people were frustrated this past Canada Day upon leaving the area and finding themselves stuck in traffic. My simple reply to that would be this: there's ample(if not excessive) parking downtown and a dedicated bus service accessing the waterfront, so why didn't you park yourself downtown and take the bus? The last time I attended Canada Day celebrations at Bayfront Park, I parked close by knowing full well that I would be stuck in traffic when I left. I therefore chose to spend time perusing the waterfront with my friends instead of jumping in my car and leaving. The goal of a downtown stadium is to create increased awareness and investment in a city core that has been for so long left to languish. A harbourfront stadium, while not the silver bullet, demonstrates a commitment to the core and city revitalization along with proper planning practices.

As an aside, I just read some early articles on the awarding of the games to the area and found it ironic that the mayor of Bogota was critical of the GTA's spread out plan for the games...I wonder what he thinks now?!

Comment edited by frank on 2010-07-14 09:10:09