Stoney Creek's Downtown: Part Five, What is a Downtown'?

To me, a 'downtown' is a city's center.

The village-core.

The town's hub.

A 'downtown' is a focal-point. It's where places that rise up from being a crossroads or some other practical origin organically grow. (There's a reason why new development areas have no sense of 'community' or 'neighbourhood': they're not organic creations and they're not the result of any sort of natural process of collaboration, they're the result of a developer's needs in concert -often 'cahoots'- with a particular political bent.)

A 'downtown' is the heart of a city or town or village. It's a gathering point. It's a nexus of energy, it's an engine of both commerce and social activity.

What goes on there should, by my definition, drive the area forward. There should be, indeed has to be a certain momentum, a force.

It should be about vitality. Vibrancy. Oomph.

But please, understand: I'm not just talking about dollars being generated. I'm not just talking about till receipts. I'm talking about providing a sense of place, of providing a sense of purpose, of context...

...I'm talking about providing a very real sense of inspiration.

In a nutshell, here's how most villages, towns, cities have begun, going back thousands of years:

-A trade route necessitates a stop, a junction point. This point begins to receive some focus. Or, perhaps

-A mineral deposit / natural resource site gets busy. Coal mining, oil, copper, etc. This site begins to receive some focus. Or, perhaps

-Some element of agriculture is a natural for production on a large scale. This area begins to receive some focus. Or perhaps

-New territory is being broken, land is being apportioned. Because there are settlers, the territory begins to receive some focus. Or perhaps

-Some combination of the above.

-An organic process begins: a general store. A feed store. A bank. A church. A bar/saloon, a jail, a school...a bakery, a butcher, a doctor, more general stores, more banks, manufacturing, more banks, more churches, etc.

In the world we've constructed, the traditional 'downtown' isn't there anymore. Or not to the same degree it used to be, in the same recognizable form. We have become a suburban culture, finding what cities usually provide, elsewhere. People like 'new', and this is where the development money is, this is where politicians can make their biggest gains accomplishments-wise, and to the focus shifts from 'downtown' to the peripheral areas, where breaking ground doesn't necessitate tearing down buildings; in this 'instant-gratification' society of ours, the gratification is much more instant in the outlying areas. I can think of several local 'residential centers' where the 'downtown' isn't a force to be reckoned with, something that defines those centers in visibly positive ways. And Stoney Creek is one of them.

But I'm still a firm believer that most everything stems from the downtown, from a city's center. (To all those who are, endemically 'anti-city', in the same way some have a 'rural/suburban vs urban' sensibility motivating them, I can only say 'Good luck with that.' There are good reasons why cities have propelled things forward for thousands of years.) I believe in city-centers. I believe in urban cores...though the variations of this theme are myriad.

I believe that a downtown must have those features that enable it to be a destination for people. Not merely the result of a 'situation of convenience', though this can contribute to what I'm getting at.

I believe that there must be 'excursion factors'. That is, that for varying elements of demographic, there are reasons for people making the trip there -by car, by transit, on a bike, on foot- that there are substantive reasons for them going there...as opposed to going somewhere else.

Modern commerce, modern shopping is predicated on several primary factors. Price, selection...but in terms of non-online purchasing, convenience. Which is why we have become a retail culture. But more...

...more than this, we've become a culture of retail experience.

Shopping is no longer strictly a necessity, or mainly one with some indulgences thrown in for seasoning. People unconsciously see shopping as a social activity. As a means to validate their existence through the act of 'foraging' for food, then obtaining it at the checkout counter. Whether it be in a mall, throughout a bustling city center, or in the UK, where the mall culture never really penetrated their lives, the 'high street'.

So making a purchase isn't strictly about paying for something and then taking that something home. (Although the materialistic, acquisitional, consumptive aspects of shopping is surely there.) It's about going there, it's about wandering about, it's about grabbing a coffee...

...it's about having an experience.

A downtown is also a gathering place. Ideally, where people meet, where contacts are generated, where ideas are exchanged...where neighbours meet, where community is reinforced, where people are reminded of where they are, why they're there, the hint of the reason they're living the life they're living, accentuated.

Granted, all cities, towns and villages have their own characters, their own histories that informed these characters, and their own path to tread. But in all cases of urban places that thrive, that have purpose, vibrancy, in all cases of areas where there's a dynamism of culture and commerce and those aspects of 'quality of Life' that contribute to us feeling fulfilled, you'll find that particular city, town or village's needs being addressed. (When you don't, in the case of, say Hamilton, its downtown that's been suffering for so long -though has pockets of earnest effort and innovation- you have stagnation, you have dormancy...and eventually, you have loss of hope, despair and ruin. That, and lots of parking lots and vacant buildings...until they're torn down. Hello, Century Theatre...)

There is no magic formula. There is no tried-and-true means of assembling an excellent downtown. (And even if there were, how would you effect this plan? We live in a free-market democracy.) But I know this: long-term sustainability of a business or businesses is no guaranteed indicator of any of the notions I've suggested: of vibrancy, of vitality, of dynamism...of inspiration. Just because a marriage stays together for a given amount of time, doesn't mean it's as 'good' as it might be perceived as being. And in the case of a downtown, the players involved, the knock-on effects, the contributing factors are so many more in number, there are so many more synergistic aspects to be considered.

And yet, in reality, the true test of a downtown is its ability to consistently draw people in for reasons that go beyond running an errand or passively indulging a habit. Unless you have people who see the area as a destination, where they're going to have some degree of an 'experience', then maybe what you've got is the commercial equivalent of a maxim my father suggested some years back regarding work experience, competency on the job:

'Sometimes twenty years' experience is really one year's experience twenty times over.'

In transferring this to the topic at hand, namely 'What is a Downtown?', it might look something like this:

'Sometimes Category 5 white-water rafting is actually someone sitting in a mostly-empty pool, paddling in a rubber-ducky dingy.'

LOL

OK, OK; I really mixed my metaphors and analogies there. But my basic point is that survival is something to be lauded. But it doesn't mean you've been successful. Nor does it mean that you're helping to create a situation where any of the previously mentioned attributes are being manifested.

Which brings me closer to the question of Stoney Creek's downtown.