Ivan Sorensen | www.ivansorensenphotography.com
Remembering When....
I have lived in Hamilton or somewhere within the region continuously since 1957.
I remember a time when the downtown core and Gore Park would be teeming with holiday shoppers at 7pm on a Saturday evening. I remember a time when we even had snow at this time of year and this would look like a winter wonderland.
There was The Right House, Woolworth's, Birk's, People's Credit Jewellers and the ubiquitous United Cigar Store. There was the Farmer's Market and Eatons Christmas window displays.
I have been trying to keep smiling when I go downtown and I take pictures here strictly out of a sense of loyalty to the city but the bottom line is that downtown Hamilton is now a ghetto. A deserted shell of her former self. Most of the store fronts are boarded up and covered in graffiti. All of the major and former attractions are long gone. Does anyone remember the Palace and Capitol theaters? Does anyone remember the Spectator building. Downtown Hamilton used to be a destination. Now the only real denizens appear to be indigents, panhandlers and groups of loud and sometimes unruly young people who frequent the peep shows and cheesy record shops.
I used to think the advent of events like the Pan Am games and bringing LRT to the core would brighten this now very drab place. But why would you need LRT to bring people to a ghetto? They dont want to come here. Bringing the world to witness the games and this total decline of a once proud working city would be an embarassment.
If Hamilton is ever to regain her place as a preferred destination of travellers and shoppers then this blight has to be cleaned up BEFORE we invite the world to visit and BEFORE we even dream of running light rail transit through here.
This is a personal challenge from me to the city government. Get your shit together...NOW! This abomination of a downtown is totally unacceptable. I invite all city councillors to put aside your personal agendas and put on your thinking caps and reach some kind of reasonable and not piecemeal plan for rebuilding the core. Allow the Farmer's Market to flourish as it once did instead of choking it with bureaucracy and petty squabbling. I dont accept the argument that outside market stalls and places are 'unhealthy'. These have flourished all over Europe for many centuries more than we have even been a country.
Tonight was one of the saddest I have ever spent in the core. 7pm at the height of Christmas shopping time and this is the ONLY picture available to me. What kind of statement are we making here?
I have sent an invitation to each individual councillor as well as the Mayor to view this image.
If you are from Hamilton, Ontario, please leave a comment of support if you agree with my caption.
Remembering When....
I have lived in Hamilton or somewhere within the region continuously since 1957.
I remember a time when the downtown core and Gore Park would be teeming with holiday shoppers at 7pm on a Saturday evening. I remember a time when we even had snow at this time of year and this would look like a winter wonderland.
There was The Right House, Woolworth's, Birk's, People's Credit Jewellers and the ubiquitous United Cigar Store. There was the Farmer's Market and Eatons Christmas window displays.
I have been trying to keep smiling when I go downtown and I take pictures here strictly out of a sense of loyalty to the city but the bottom line is that downtown Hamilton is now a ghetto. A deserted shell of her former self. Most of the store fronts are boarded up and covered in graffiti. All of the major and former attractions are long gone. Does anyone remember the Palace and Capitol theaters? Does anyone remember the Spectator building. Downtown Hamilton used to be a destination. Now the only real denizens appear to be indigents, panhandlers and groups of loud and sometimes unruly young people who frequent the peep shows and cheesy record shops.
I used to think the advent of events like the Pan Am games and bringing LRT to the core would brighten this now very drab place. But why would you need LRT to bring people to a ghetto? They dont want to come here. Bringing the world to witness the games and this total decline of a once proud working city would be an embarassment.
If Hamilton is ever to regain her place as a preferred destination of travellers and shoppers then this blight has to be cleaned up BEFORE we invite the world to visit and BEFORE we even dream of running light rail transit through here.
This is a personal challenge from me to the city government. Get your shit together...NOW! This abomination of a downtown is totally unacceptable. I invite all city councillors to put aside your personal agendas and put on your thinking caps and reach some kind of reasonable and not piecemeal plan for rebuilding the core. Allow the Farmer's Market to flourish as it once did instead of choking it with bureaucracy and petty squabbling. I dont accept the argument that outside market stalls and places are 'unhealthy'. These have flourished all over Europe for many centuries more than we have even been a country.
Tonight was one of the saddest I have ever spent in the core. 7pm at the height of Christmas shopping time and this is the ONLY picture available to me. What kind of statement are we making here?
I have sent an invitation to each individual councillor as well as the Mayor to view this image.
If you are from Hamilton, Ontario, please leave a comment of support if you agree with my caption.