A heart would be a start, but City Hall needs a major boost in "testicular fortitude" as well. What Hamilton needs are more bureaucrats who think outside the box like the BIA, instead of ones who keep banging nails into the downtown coffin.
Members of the Hamilton Downtown Business Improvement Area say they are perpetually at loggerheads with city hall every time they offer a solution to rid the downtown of its image as a dirty, unsafe destination.
Overflowing garbage receptacles, street litter and disregard for the BIA's planned landscape design that featured plants best suited to survive fumes from waiting buses are some of the headaches members say they've faced. They also complain about hassles for the BIA in putting up Christmas lights.
And when the BIA wants to try something new -- like closing part of King Street for the Santa Claus parade or hanging lamppost banners that advertise sponsoring businesses -- the BIA often gets a "No, you can't do that." Without any logical reason.
Other BIA brainstorms:
The relocation of bus stops from around Gore Park, in effort to alleviate the unpleasantness to diners on outdoor patios from the exhaust fumes. The BIA has requested the bus stops be moved somewhere else downtown.
The BIA wants the city to find a way to get absentee landlords sitting on derelict buildings to either sell or improve their buildings so they can be put back in use.
The BIA isn't asking the city to pave the streets in gold, just get rid of the crap and spruce the place up. Is that to much to ask?
Later,
Kenaz
