West Harbour Project Question 4: Where is Hamilton's Real Waterfront?

Is the confusion over the use of the title "Waterfront" deliberate?  We have a lot of shoreline next to a lot of water.  Technically, Coote's Paradise is water-front.  So is the tiny West Harbour shoreline.  But, as in the case of Kingston, Brockville, Port Hope, Toronto, Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, Grimsby, St. Catherines and a host of US cities, we have one real waterfront:  20 kilometers of beautiful and accessible shoreline on Lake Ontario.

Click Here and see Hamilton's real Waterfront

Next Question:  When we are spending $14 million on a pedestrian link to our Lake Ontario waterfront, it is really puzzling to understand why city officials are deliberately downplaying our Lake Ontario waterfront, taking it almost entirely out of the media, labelling the tiny West Harbour as our "Waterfront" focusing on that tiny bit of recreational shoreline in the west harbour that is unique and irreplaceable?  There is simply no other place on Lake Ontario that is as outstanding a recreational boating resource as Hamilton's West Harbour.  Geography, wind, water depth, stable shoreline, access, existing infrastructure, buildings, piers, people.  It just does not get any better.

The stakeholders who make the west harbour come alive are managing an uphill battle against the recurrent fantasy that what ails Hamilton will be saved by magic rather than the hard work of attracting entrepreneurs to bring business and jobs to Hamilton and fixing our downtown.  Dreams come easy and die hard.  

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HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE.

This man founded both the Steel Company of Canada and The Royal Hamilton Yacht Club.  Jarvis Street in Toronto is named after his family.  Grand Prize goes to the member of Hamilton's Public Works Department who can recall Jarvis' first name.

Turns out that the combination in one person of creating jobs in Hamilton and loving to sail in Hamilton Harbour may just be possible.

Here's how local artist David Collier interpreted Jarvis reflections on sailing in Hamilton Harbour in a recent issue of Raise the Hammer: