Gore Park strip in Hamilton, Ontario, could be cleared for demolition as soon as Jan. 9, 2013

Dec. 20, 2012 CBC article concerning Gore Park strip in Hamilton, Ontario.

The opening sentence reads:

“A row of historic buildings lining the south side of Gore Park could come down as early as January — radically changing the landscape of downtown Hamilton — unless council moves to protect them.”

The facelift and the wrecking ball

I’m reminded of an article entitled The facelift and the wrecking ball: Urban renewal and Hamilton’s King Street West, 1957–1971 (Margaret Rockwell, Urban History Review, March 2009):

“Hamilton, Ontario, wanted a modernist makeover for its downtown during the 1960s. Politicians and businessmen aggressively sought federal and provincial urban renewal funds to rebuild the city’s core. This research note focuses on Hamilton’s King Street West, between James and Bay, which ran through the centre of the downtown urban renewal area.

“The photographs show all that was lost, and the original plan helps us to understand why the people of Hamilton initially accepted the destruction. The resulting traffic corridor was a victory for modernist planners who wanted to remove the pedestrian from the street so that the car could dominate.”