Economy

• Create new jobs and develop new forms of work across all urban, suburban & rural communities.
• Introduce incentive based sustainability tools to lower taxes and promote relevant growth.
• Accelerate local & foreign direct investments to spur economic, cultural and transit sustainability.

Environment

• Develop innovations in planning, zoning and by-laws to promote a sustainable quality of life.
• Lay the foundations for a sustainable eco-city and develop infrastructure for a clean-green economy.

Education

• Build innovative educational and cultural institutions in the lower city through private investments.

Efficiency             

• Implement public accountability tools for system-wide transparency and operational efficiencies.

These focused priorities will reset the direction of Hamilton towards economic and ecological sustainability; and set a rapid pace for the rejuvenation of our economy and the urban environment.

Specific initiatives designed around these priorities will build up the economic vitality of all our community business districts, and provide new directions for relevant growth around the airport and on urban brownfields, including the waterfront.

All specific initiatives below are built on the InnoHa! framework that creates open platforms upon which our diverse residents, organizations and businesses will be able to reinvent patterns and forms which address contemporary needs; and create conditions for co-existence with our environment to generate new ways of living and working.

New jobs and new forms of work.

HAMILTONGreenPORT

HamiltonGreenPort Partnership, a proposed public-private investment & pre-development organization will establish the economic rational and conditions for the emergence of sustainable development within a newly defined and highly articulated north-south axis that connects our waterfront in the lower city to our airport lands on the mountain.

HamiltonGreenPort brings a true clean-green articulation to our collective aspirations. This initiative built upon zoning innovations, will reset our city's trajectory by establishing the first true multimodal axis, which will facilitate growth of new types of businesses and create a broad range of high quality jobs.

This critical north-south axis connects our fragmented sea, rail, road, bus, [BRT/LRT], and air transit systems into one seamless, co-dependent whole, and establishes right conditions for a new grassroots knowledge driven economy to evolve in the centre of our communities.

HamiltonGreenPort more importantly, offers every Hamiltonian a much needed metaphoric hook to co-author the biggest and most believable rejuvenation story to emerge from our city in decades.

HamiltonGreenPort provides the necessary springboard to a plausible HamiltonNOW! by harnessing the latent power of our people and our urban patterns to fuel our new economy and create new kinds of assessment revenues from innovative building types and business activities across the central axis of our city.

This bold articulation removes the economic development disconnect between our lower city and the mountain, and in real-terms reconnects our urban, suburban & rural districts into one economic region.

By leveraging existing strengths in our urban form, HamiltonGreenPort opens up a level playing field for all to confidently engage in Hamilton’s re-growth. This initiative will drive the much needed innovation in our city-wide planning and zoning policies, while reducing dependency on automobiles to get to the reinvented places of work on the central axis.

The capacity growth resulting from HamiltonGreenPort directly offers the strongest investment rationale to reconfigure our disconnected public transit into a true multimodal transit network.

HamiltonGreenPort strategically connects our existing seaport; the brownfield industrial sector B & Keith; the struggling Gibson, Stipley & Landsdale neighborhoods; the Upper James corridor; and the existing airport & surrounding rural lands, to create new opportunities in wealth creation that spreads real prosperity in the east-west directions across the axis.

The focus, scope and capacity of this eco-artery will directly open up thousands of new types of jobs and varying live/work & business opportunities — microscale to big, for our diverse residents across all age groups.

HamiltonNOW!  Leveraging existing strengths - leapfrogging smart growth to organic growth.
[use icons on top left to zoom and pan, and click white box on top right to expand map to full screen.]

GreenPORT District – Lower city node
Sanford – Wentworth Avenue Multimodal Axis Highlights.

Wentworth—GreenPort axis—Sanford

• Waterfront — Ferry/Hovercraft transit terminal to Toronto + Park & Ride + Regional & International Trade.
  
• Siemens/HSR land parcel — Bus - [BRT] Terminal + Go/VIA Rail Terminal + [LRT mid-town loop] + Park & Ride.
• Barton Street Rejuvenation — New hotel, commercial/entertainment south of GreenPort rail terminal.
  
• Main, King, Wilson, Cannon, Barton, Burlington — East/West spillover of economic activities.
• Industrial sector B & Keith district — Hamilton ExportZone (H-EZ) - new light industrial manufacturing.
• East & West of sector B & Keith district — Manufacturing & trade zone of new clean-green technologies.
  
• Innovative zoning & tax reductions to support transition to sustainable, clean-green tech enterprises.

GreenPORT District – Upper James node
Mountain Brow – Airport Multimodal Axis Highlights.

West Mountain—GreenPort axis—East Mountain

• Canada’s largest high-density mix-use urban-infill development on serviced lands.
  
• Innovative conversion incentives for auto-dealership lots with street frontage — to promote mix-use development.
• Conversion of Upper James street node to a eco-landscaped boulevard — to support mix-use, high-density.
  
• Innovative zoning & tax reductions to support transition to sustainable, clean-green tech enterprises.

GreenPORT District – Mount Hope Node
Airport Employment Growth District (AEGD)

The AEGD as presently conceived is contrary to all best practices in planning and is simply unsustainable. If our city is to achieve economic and ecological sustainability, it is imperative that the HamiltonGreenPort be used as a base reference to undertake a community re-visioning of the AEGD.

In keeping with the spirit of HamiltonGreenPort, our airport and surrounding lands is an highly critical node of the north-south green axis, hence innovative building types and alternative forms of development need to be studied in greater detail to avoid further stressing our resources with unsustainable models of economic development.

Below are two innovative project/building types which are far more relevant for visioning the AEGD lands:

• Educational:  Innovative Farming & Ecology Institute with ancillary facilities - which use the surrounding lands for developing large export niche-markets for strategically grown local produce, plants, flowers and herbs. This should be developed in strategic collaboration with the HIA corporation as a hedge against drop in air passenger traffic. HIA can use this approach to confidently reinvent itself as the world's first true sustainable airport with captive green cargo traffic, and develop many more such path-breaking innovations to redefine airport sustainability in light of diminishing fossil fuel supply.

• Eco-Recreational: A very large scale all season eco-recreational facility based on the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK. This building type can establish the rational for year around regional & international tourist traffic, resulting in sustainable air passenger traffic for the HIA, and a dependable market for hotels, bed & breakfasts and ancillary commercial/service use, on the south-east part of the airport along the Upper James axis.

With large scale local employment creation being proposed on the already serviced lands of the HamiltonGreenPort north-south axis, the AEGD lands around the airport can be used far more creatively by the construction industry to position the City of Hamilton as a serious contender for the title of a true sustainable city with a thriving clean-green economy.

Note: A similar sustainable rejuvenation initiative has been developed for the Tiffany-Barton lands, south of Pier 1. However, on account of the currently identified use of these lands for the PanAm games, it is presently omitted. In the event these lands come available, this initiative will be presented here under the title: Mizheekay (Turtle) Park Development — an edu-entertainment themed mix-use, live/work development; with a planetarium and a Canadian History & Native Arts Centre, strategically located at the head-of-the-lake.

RemoTWorx is an innovative building type that is focused on establishing local and foreign trade development networks for emerging entrepreneurs, start-ups and micro businesses – who are designing, developing and marketing innovative new technologies and services.

To accommodate transitioning to new forms of working, six RemoTWorx facilities are being proposed through a public private venture, in collaboration with local construction companies. These facilities will be built in the central business districts of each of the six communities of: Ancaster, Dundas, Flamborough, Glanbrook, Stoney Creek and the Hamilton Core.

RemoTWorx will pro-actively collaborate with foreign trade offices worldwide including major regional employers and fast growing companies in the GTHA; the waterloo/Cambridge/Kitchener technology triangle; and the Niagara region, to develop business linkages and cutting-edge programs for its tenants; and pioneer alternative local working approaches which will directly alleviate the gridlock on our highways, and promote local business district revitalization through population retention.  
These innovative new work & business creation engines, will be fully equipped with latest communication technology, and comprehensive business services to help establish new business and work opportunities for its tenants - and also directly support many among the nearly fifty thousand Hamiltonians in telecommuting to their existing work outside the city.

The goal of this initiative is to convert Hamilton from a growing bed room community to a LIVING room community by localizing commuter jobs, and creating a new breed of employees who work remotely for pre-registered businesses from these six certified off-site locations.

A development budget of approx. $15 million+ for each of these centres will bring in direct local & foreign investment of $100 million into the local economy. These six centres will create around 60 managerial/admin jobs, 10 per centre; and will house 50 businesses each -- resulting in around 300 new businesses across the city within the first year of operation. This initiative will have a projected job creation rate of around 2 to 4 jobs per year/per business, which will net around 2400 to 4800 new jobs within 4 yrs; and another 1200+ jobs/work opportunities in the supplier, distribution & service network.

With a conservative estimate of around $150 million annual revenue generation from these 300 businesses, and its resulting economic boost to the six local communities – this project will offer all the six communities the much needed hedge against a jobless recovery – while introducing to our city innovative market driven economic development solutions.

The RemoTWorx centres will be a self-sustaining operation based on rental revenues, with additional income from business and telecommuting services.

This project would be initiated in collaboration with many such innovative shipping container retrofit companies to reduce construction time & costs, and utilize this sustainable development to effectively set up a new market for container retrofitting in Hamilton. Given the steel manufacturing base of this city, this project in itself would generate large spin-off activities for strategic partners in this venture. Such spin-off would directly result in enhancing local manufacturing capacity to produce innovative container housing, and community projects for local, regional and export markets.

CoreHEALTH - Targeted projects in the downtown core

• MEDMark a business marketing network for small companies engaged in healthcare & bio-medical industries.
• Regional post-production facility for the advertising and animation industry.
  
• Local Agri-business Promotion Centre with a micro brewery.
  
• Hamilton Hobby Center for Seniors to encourage public interactions – (Mini-Rail centre, model sailboat pool, model airplane flying, science projects, urban gardening centres). 
• Downtown vacant office space strategy to facilitate conversion of surplus office space to live/work spaces.
• International Chamber of Commerce – Foreign-trade & business chamber offices from over 20 international cities will be housed in a uniquely restored building in the downtown core, to provide direct international linkages to local businesses and entrepreneurs. This building will also showcase monthly foreign trade delegations and provide exhibition space for local businesses; and host marketing and promotions events with provincial and federal trade agencies.
• Old building stabilization Support Network.
• Street-front retail experience enhancement strategy.
  
• Alleyway development program to spur density growth and make alleyways safe.
• Street-CornersFirst revitalization strategy to impact all street corners.
• Micro-work network to promote home and neighborhood based work for mothers.
  
• Hamilton Investment Roundtable – Quarterly showcasing of all development opportunities that are professionally packaged for rapid development. Property owners will get a chance to directly engage with REIT's, private investors, investment clubs, realtors, developers, architects, engineers and development consultants. This Roundtable will be developed in collaboration with many local industry organizations.
• MSMDC – Micro & Small Media Development Collective  –  A news media business development & support co-operative to be located in a restored building in the downtown core, to promote and sustain micro & small media companies in print, radio, television and web news service, from diverse cultures in our city. This collective will bring economies of scale and sustainability awareness to all member businesses. MSMDC will make available individual and shared office space; shared newsroom services; mobile audio & video live-broadcast capabilities including broadcast cameras, sound equipment, editing suits, computers and news feed service, along with business linkages to affordable services in prepress, printing, sales and distribution. MSMDC will offer local and regional advertisers / media buyers an innovative program called MStream, a one-stop shop for customized multiple media ad placement service to local and regional advertisers/media buyers. This collective will also offer ongoing professional development and house a Press Club with short-stay accommodations for visiting international journalists and writers. MSMDC is being proposed with a view to directly enhance the ongoing efforts of developing an inclusive community and fostering respect for cultural and ethnic diversity across Hamilton, while bringing vibrancy to the downtown core from the entrepreneurial energy of many engaged young news media companies.
• B2G – Hamilton Brownfields Bio-Remediation Centre to be located on a local brownfield site in the north-east part of the downtown core – will focus on developing a live on-site demonstration project in restoration ecology to rejuvenate urban brownfield sites using innovative approaches including bio-remediation and mycoremediation. B2G will be a critical made-in-Hamilton solution to bring a resolute end to the decades old debilitating issue of our urban brownfields. B2G will develop local innovations based on various established best practices in collaboration with local environmental organizations, our university and specialists; and create many new spin-off community projects such as the Rhizome Collective, Green Museum, Litmus Garden and the Evergreen Brick Works >>  [ Toolbox for Sustainable City Living ]
• Retired Mayors' Business Council – This innovative council comprising of all the retired mayors of Hamilton, will actively assist in promoting and rapidly expanding regional and international trade relationships. This council will facilitate and lead international trade and investment delegations; and collaborate on building strong and lasting relations among local, provincial, federal and foreign trade organizations. The Retired Mayors' Business Council will be permanently housed in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) facility in the downtown core, and will play an active role in articulating the spirit of HamiltonNow!
• Retired Councillors' Business Forum – This dynamic forum comprising of all retired councillors of Hamilton, will also be housed in the ICC facility, and will actively assist in rebuilding the economies of various communities in our city. This forum will leverage the resource base of the ICC to help local businesses expand their activities by facilitating product/service development and marketing connections with regional and international markets.

"A central challenge in an ecosystem approach to planning and its concern with managing
open systems, lies in this seeking out and questioning traditionally accepted definitions in our
conceptions of organization, boundaries and scale — definitions which, in the absence of careful
attention, inevitably permeate the descriptions we make of the natural and social world we seek to
control. In such cases, the idea that we should “think globally, act locally” becomes less than
adequate, and we may need to settle for some less catchy but more pragmatic version — perhaps
one that says: think at the scales that matter, and act at the levels that count."


Develop innovation in planning, zoning and by-laws.

Develop infrastructure for a clean-green economy.

“In a world fraught with uncertainty, what are today's CEOs doing to strengthen their situations against competitors?

Previously, CEOs have consistently identified change as their most pressing challenge. Today, CEOs are telling us that the complexity of operating in an increasingly volatile and uncertain world is their primary challenge. And, a surprising number of them told us that they feel ill-equipped to succeed in this drastically different world.

How are leaders dealing with this level of complexity? What strategies are the most successful organizations employing to tap into new opportunities, and overcome the barriers to growth? To find out, IBM conducted over 1500 face-to-face interviews—the largest known study of its kind with CEOs from companies of all sizes across 60 countries, representing 33 industries.”


“This economic downturn was far more than just business cycle fluctuations. We view it as a true paradigm shift that is revolutionizing not only business, but global social structures as well.”~  Fumiyuki Akikusa, President and CEO, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co., Ltd.

[ Capitalizing on Complexity ]