Connecting the Disconnected City
- Peter Mokrycke
- 20 Jun 2016
Giving context to the conversation about LRT
The Disconnected City
Hamilton is a city shaped by its landscape. Our city exists, has thrived, suffered and grown within the boundaries of our natural environment. Wedged between our water-front and the foot of the Niagara Escarpment, Hamilton has never really mastered its landscape, we’ve simply adapted to it. While those of us who grew up in the city joke about what we thought a “downtown” was, this natural barrier dividing Hamilton has had a real impact on our city’s development. It has impacted the way our city moves, interacts, and thinks. The escarpment is more than just a scenic complement to the skyline, it’s a physical and metaphorical disconnection that divides us as a city in many ways.
Today’s Hamilton, as we all know, is experiencing rapid change. New people, new money, and new ideas are interacting with our city’s traditional way of life. Very few, if any, could have honestly anticipated the speed as to which our city is being rediscovered. In the midst of this exciting time for Hamilton, the public discourse surrounding The LRT has us once again divided down traditional political lines.
Ultimately, there is no question that the integration of Light Rapid Transit into Hamilton’s transportation network is a move in the right direction. For our city, and for our province. Hamilton has been given the opportunity to finally connect our city in a new, meaningful way. Unfortunately, instead of finding common ground and figuring out the best way to move forward we’ve pigeon-holed ourselves into fighting over whether we’re “for or against the LRT” (whatever that even means). The conversation has become political instead of strategic. To our own detriment, we’ve taken a complex issue down to a basic level and created opposing sides to an oversimplified version of a much bigger picture.
Unfortunately, because of the oversimplification of the scope of the Province’s goals in many of the conversations we’re having here in Hamilton, we risk losing appreciation for what we’re actually about to embark on as a city, and as a province. Take a step back and consider the Province’s The Big Move, and more specifically Hamilton’s B-L-A-S-T model (see figure). They suddenly put the true scope of the B-Line Corridor back into perspective; or at least they should.
Phase 1: The B-Line Corridor
Anyone who’s traveled around Europe can likely appreciate that transportation networks are not simply the sum of their parts. It’s not how the train system works in contrast to the roads, the bike lanes, or the airports, but about how they work as one functionally integrated, true network. For Hamilton, the B-Line Corridor isn’t the “be all and end all” of “LRT”. It’s the first building block of a new network within a greater provincial vision.
Unfortunately, some of the public discourse surrounding Hamilton’s upcoming LRT project is based on analytical studies that date back some years. That doesn’t mean that they’re irrelevant, it just means that they need to be applied with a grain of salt, and not necessarily with condemning authority. For example, in the Metrolinx King-Main Benefits Case from 2010, reflected an analysis of a very different city than we’re experiencing today. The Core’s future was still relatively bleak, and the divide between the Mountain and Downtown was as real as ever. Today, as we all know, the landscape has shifted quicker than anyone expected, and our city is craving new connections; economically, socially, and physically. Despite this all happening “without the LRT”, It doesn’t mean we should forgo the real opportunity to build and upgrade new connections for the future. It simply means we should accept that the environment has changed and how we move forward may need to be adjusted strategically, not derailed.
The B-Line is not Hamilton’s White Knight that some have made it out to be. But it is the first step toward a true city building initiative that will be realized over the course of the next 10-25 years. Today, some of the benefits we thought the B-Line would help our city out with showed up at our doorstep, fast and furiously. New Hamiltonians and new small businesses are already moving into the east – west corridor into once “hopeless” neighbourhoods. Shifting property values across the city are changing the tax base geography, and long-time vacant properties across the city are being utilized. For the first time that I can remember, downtown is … cool (weird). Despite all of these great things happening in our city “pre-LRT”, we should not view them as reasons to slow down our movement forward. We may not even begin to realize the true benefits of Light Rail for a few con- struction phases to come. For example, the A-Line, unlike the B-Line rep- resents a genuinely new kind of connection in the city. We will benefit from a direct link from John C. Munro Airport to the West Harbour Go, and for the first time connect the mountain to the downtown in a meaningful and efficient way. The A-Line will be the major artery
that will complement our existing east – west infrastructure, including the B-Line LRT. It will mean new opportunities for movement both within and outside of our city. That’s the future we can, and should be looking forward to in Hamilton.
The worst thing we can do to ourselves is stand in the way of that future. Instead of deviating back to our traditional Hamilton tendency to break down an issue into pieces and start picking sides, we should to take a humble look at how we’re going to move forward in an effective way. We should be harnessing our city’s newfound passion, energy and resources to figure out the best path towards our future goals.
As Hamilton continues to boom, we need to learn how to hold our city accountable to public projects instead of being held hostage by them. If we’re unwilling, or unable to come together to make smart long-term decisions, there’s plenty of outside stakeholders, public and private, who are more than willing to make the decisions for us. So instead of looking for reasons to disagree with each other, let’s look for ways to bridge the gap, and finally connect our city.
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