12-16-2019, 10:13 PM
(12-16-2019, 03:34 PM)westwardloo Wrote: This is crazy news. I am sad for the people of Hamilton. Looks like another decade of debate for them with no investment in rapid transit. Unfortunately I do think this will drop phase 2 down the line. Luckily we as a region more or less have seen the benefits of the lrt system and are committed to building it to cambridge so maybe we will be more prepared than Hamilton to receive funding.
I am interested to see how this effects development in Hamilton. Seems like we will se a slow down in investments there. I am also interested to see how this effect population growth. I know when I moved from Toronto I was deciding between kw or Hamilton but ultimately chose kw because of the lrt.
Not sure if I feel sorry for the people of Hamilton. The city would have never built an LRT if they had to put any of their own local taxpayers money into it. It's been debated before, and it was always a hard no. It became "perhaps we should look at it" when this region decided to go full steam ahead. Even then, they were very apprehensive until Ontario committed to paying 100% of the build and operational costs. Even at that, many were still against it, even though it wouldn't cost local tax payers a dime. Complaints then were about traffic disruptions (see KW) and businesses hurting (see KW). They couldn't look at the positives (don't look at KW) of an LRT, such as development (don't look at KW) and new business (don't look at KW).
I was talking to someone from Hamilton last week, before the announcement, and many there were not happy about this train to nowhere. He was also talking about how economically depressed the city is, and how it strictly is a blue collar working town. It seems that they cannot let go of the prosperous years when Dofasco and Stelco were so huge. When you look at KW, we have lost Uniroyal, Budd, Schneiders completely gone, and seen BlackBerry pretty much wiped out, yet here we are, doing are best to continue to grow strong, investing money where many wouldn't. Is our future guaranteed? Nope. But our continued investments in education (UofW, Laurier, Conestoga) and business (what Kitchener did for DTK) has already paid for itself.
Now we're getting 3,500 college students in DTK. This would have never happened without the LRT. Googles investment, likely would have never happened.
I do believe part of the reason why the LRT will transform the cities as much as it will, will be because of our relatively positive attitude towards it (minus the Woolwitch Observer). The negativity that Hamilton had from the beginning, even if Ontario decided to go ahead with funding, I truly believe it would not have had the same positive impact as it did here.
Mississauga and Brampton is a different story. They will benefit, and they want it.