Scott's Blog

Having grown up stones throw downtown  and frequenting it as a kid/teen growing up, today all I can say is yeah.  I grew up witnessing it's decline form a cool place to check out various stores, and to wander and discover, to now, low rent shopping, the fall of the Tivoli lobby(and now languising theatre) the collapse of the Century, the closing and again falling apart of the Connaught, and the Lister Block...  It's enough to make a proud Hamiltonian like me cry.  But the kicker is it has always seemd like the outer edges of the core, always had it together, like Hess Village, James South, and now James North where I spent a majority of my mis-spent( ;-)  ) 20's hanging out at  the cafes.  They all offer "destination" places like their unique ethinc cafes/restaurants/shop, bars, etc,  that you know you can't really get that product or more importantly, that level of service anywhere else.  We saw what the Eaton Centre did with "more of the same" that you could get at any other mall with free parking ..nothing! 

It needs to be unique, distinctive and offer something, especially in the way of service, that will make people not even think twice about paying for parking, like other succesful downtowns.