Re-imagining Hamilton: Can we play, please...?

Uncharacteristically, I'm going to get right to the point: I believe that we as Hamiltonians have not taken ownership of our city.

I believe that, as per tradition, we pay our taxes, vote Council and a Mayor into office...and then see how the cookie crumbles.

'Politics' and 'development' have traditionally been areas of Life that almost all of us have seen peripherally...or when something sucks, with frustration and anger, jumping up and down in front of it...because...because that's just the way it's always been.

But the world has changed. We now have greater access to the most precious resource available –information– than ever before, in myriad ways, at all hours of the day. We are linked far more powerfully than we've ever been, if only via social media. The power at our fingertips and by way of our monitors and screens would make a civic activist from a half-century ago drool.

What used to be cloaked in mystery is gradually being revealed.

What used to be regarded as 'unfathomable', or 'unapproachable'...especially within the context of our public officials being 'the parents' and we citizens being 'the children'...is no longer.

To a staggering extent, if you want to access information pertaining to your city, to your governance, to the essence of the Quality of Life on your street, you can. Not everything, to be sure, but make no mistake about it: we've been empowered. 

And yet we haven't taken actual ownership of these new abilities...and we have nobody else to blame but ourselves.

Once again, to the crux: I want Hamiltonians to be like children.

I want them to feel no inhibitions, no hesitation, no pre-emptive judgement-of-outcome so that they can  play.

Specifically, to play at imagining what their city could look like.

We don't tend to do this. Except in rare cases. Such as with the John & Rebecca Streets park. (The process I'm inching towards here is not the commiseration involved in working out a secondary plan.) What happens is that as 'employers', we hand over the keys to the company to those we've elected to look after things, our 'employees' the Council and Mayor, and we get out of the way and let things unfold as others decide is appopropriate.

I believe we've not only squandered much along the way, but we've actually abrograted our resposibilities as citizens by accepting that we have no say. And when you fold in the realities of the relationship between developers and some at City Hall, then it's no wonder we have a tradition of 'rendering unto Caesar' and looking after our own yard instead.

I'd like to see a regular tradition unfold in Hamilton. I'm going to refer to it as a 'Charrette Tour'. It would be a non-binding (I'll get to this aspect of the discussion presently) exercise to not only foster more engagement between residents and City Staff, but also residents and developers, residents and each other...and probably most importantly, residents and their imaginations.

Their desires.

Their wishes.

Their dreams.

Currently, even just within the Downtown Secondary Plan boundaries, we have a staggering amount of  development space sitting fallow. I'm not talking about situations where buildings need to be knocked down, or ones where some 'redevelopment' could be applied. I'm talking about acres and acres of asphalt.

We are rich with opportunity. Far richer than most cities, I'll bet. And yet by-and-large, we take no initiative to participate within the process. Better put, we place few demands on the process. This happens out of inertia. It happens out of apathy. Out of cynicism, out of nihilism...even out of our 'legacy malaise'.

But nowhere is it written that we aren't allowed to, or that we're unable to, or that we're incapable of participating in our own city's rejuvenation.

We've just generally never been invited. And hand-in-hand with this, we've thought it inappropriate to be involved. (If in fact we were motivated to in the first place.) Or we could gain access to the process. Or...we've just been too busy.

An ongoing 'Charrette Tour' would be an opportunity for people to talk about what they might imagine a location being like. Or a block. Or an entire neighbourhood.

It would provide a chance to showcase some of the vast untapped energy Hamiltonians possess, and for once direct it not into bitching and complaining about what this politician did or what that developer didn't do...but instead, into really taking ownership of the city by imagining what it could be.

The 'B-line Corridor Design Charrettes' (found here and featured on Raise the Hammer here) were wonderful examples of how various groups of people can get together, talk about possibilties, give their imaginations free reign...and play.

I'm not suggesting that everyone would participate. But the conventional paradigms (read that as 'power structure' if you like) do not need to stay in place. The world has changed, and I suspect that this is one area that lags behind. Much to a distinct deleterious effect for us. 

I see a three-part process: firstly, a town hall for a particular section of the city. As I said, a street, a block, a neighbourhood. An open discussion about the history of the location in question, about its profile, about various possibilties, a brain-storming session. Secondly, workgroups organize themselves and get down to some active imagining over a set period of time. Finally, another town hall to present the results. In the mix: residents, neighbourhood associations, Councillors, City Staff, architecture and urban planning students, developers, the business community, etc.

You could have regular 'Charrette Festivals', celebrating some of the best ideas and examining to what extent they might become realities. You could identify the best contributors and celebrate them, too. 

Some would immediately declare that this is a pointless exercise. That because we're not developers, we have no real power in what gets built here, there or anywhere. That it's actually naïve to believe that the development process could be influenced by so flighty a notion.

I prefer to believe otherwise.

Because I believe that these are the areas where we need to start essentially demanding a say in how our city develops, well past what the 'norm' has been since Hamilton was first being surveyed. Again, beyond consultation on the secondary plan level. 

Think of it as a 'creative protest movement'.

Think of it as us 'taking back our city's future'.

Think of it as a variation on 'Occupy Hamilton'.

There are some wonderful aspects to this mindset. Of playing in the name of civic improvement. First off, it's liberating. Any time you can free yourself from the confines of 'How things are', or 'How things must be', that's a good thing. Secondly, it allows people to come together in a real sense of community. And finally, the opportunities to influence how your city will look are myriad. Who knows what developer might take inspiration from all this and actually put into action plans to build what people have taken the time to fashion on paper, or in a model, or on a screen by way of an application? At the very least, it would open up vistas that aren't dominated by the typical navel-gazing and limited thinking that clearly hasn't gotten us anywhere. Or at least anywhere we feel any satisfaction about. 

To me, the best thing is that doing it requires no 'permission' from anyone. We can do it because we want to do it. We require no imprimatur from Council or any of its members. We require no nod from this developer or that power-broker. 

All that's really required is that we use our collective imagination. 

M Adrian Brassington