When the Development Bubble Bursts
From the Nest, Issue 13
by Olga Kwak
Laundry is an inconvenient but necessary evil. We all do laundry. We have to, otherwise we would devolve back to being sectarian barbarians.
I know what you’re thinking. Isn’t that what happened with the freedom convoy protests? Maybe, but hot tubs aside, where are these people doing laundry?
My problem is much closer to home, though.
I have lived in Durand since 2017. As a single woman, my living space has more often than not lacked private laundry, either because it was not a priority for me, or because it was already elsewhere in the building.
For the last four years, I have lived in a beautiful pre-Confederation townhouse in the middle of the downtown. I am a two minute walk from the Hunter GO station and I consider Odds, the Arkells’ bar, one of my locals. Nations, Jackson Square, and the Bayfront are all close by.
Like many other community members, I use the best laundromat in the downtown core – Laundry Express on James Street South in the Corktown Plaza. I know that’s a polarizing statement; people have opinions about their ‘mats. But it’s true for several reasons. It’s massive – even during the height of the worst parts of the pandemic you could still go and not have to wait to use a machine – there’s free parking, and it’s clean.
This is perhaps the most important part of a laundromat’s purpose, to provide the basic public health requirements to maintain the health and sanity that comes from having fresh, clean clothes. And as anyone who has ever had to take anything to a laundromat knows, you don’t go to the laundromat with one load of laundry. If you’re going, you’re taking the bedding, the sheets, and the area rug you’ve been putting off to wash for months. It’s an excursion.
Laundry Express, and the entire Corktown Plaza footprint it sits on, will be demolished, leaving not only a literal massive hole in the ground, but in the fabric of the community that surrounds that city block. Corktown Plaza is bordered by Young Street, John Street South, Catharine Street and Forest Avenue. It is a block away from St. Joseph’s Hospital, and surrounded by residential neighbourhoods on all sides. To say that this is a frequently used laundromat is an understatement.
Hamilton City Council has approved an application by the GSP Group for the redevelopment of the Corktown Plaza location on the 2-acre parcel of land, into “two residential towers atop a multi-residential and commercial podium”. Goodbye, Laundry Express. Hello, twin towers.
The problem is we have to say goodbye to a really important part of our community support network, and there is no guarantee that what they plan to replace it with, will deliver the same or a similar benefit.
We all know there is a housing crisis in Hamilton and it is imperative that mixed density housing is built to keep residents housed, safe and warm. But do we need to sacrifice other parts of our community fabric for redevelopment? Is there a better way forward? Is it even the municipalities’ responsibility to ensure citizens have access to accessible laundry facilities during and after construction?
Remember all those reasons I stated Laundry Express is great? I forgot one – it is the most accessible laundry facility in the downtown core. There are zero stairs to climb, the doors slide open when you approach them, and the aisles are wide and clear of obstructions. In return for more housing – which may or may not be affordable – we are trading a true gem of a resource in our downtown core.
What is the government’s responsibility to its’ citizens, though? The Parliament of Canada says municipal governments “are responsible for areas such as libraries, parks, community water systems, local police, roadways and parking”. This is municipal infrastructure.
Ancient Rome was the first civilization to offer public laundry services. Sure, that might have been awhile ago, but one would think as a modern civilization, we would consider this type of infrastructure as just as necessary as libraries, parks, community water systems, etc. Perhaps even more so with the issue of climate change affecting all aspects of life, and Hamilton’s historical indifference to the local water systems. I, for one, do.
I do not blame the developers. There is ample evidence to suggest that they have asked for community input. I do however blame the municipality for shirking on its duties to its citizens, because the result of that public consultation was a failure.
And it wasn’t just the laundromat that was overlooked at this development.
After public consultation, which included town hall meetings organized by the developer, where citizens could voice their needs and concerns, residents suggested that a grocery store would be a valuable addition to the development. This was recognized by Ward 2 Councillor Jason Farr when he blandly called the location “a bit of a food desert” during a February 2021 meeting of the City’s Planning Committee.
GSP Group heard these concerns and proposed a footprint that could potentially include some of these amenities, but City planners pushed back and the developer was forced to change their plans (to accommodate a smaller footprint).
Right now there are two convenience stores in this section of Corktown. Indeed, the only downtown grocery store within walking distance for most in the neighbourhood is Nations. Anything else would likely require a bus ride or a car to get to (including the No Frills that’s somewhat nearby the neighbourhood’s eastern border).
For the approximately 126,000 people who live below the poverty line in Hamilton (as of 2018), the loss of just one Hasty Market is significant. The Hamilton Community Foundation’s latest Vital Signs annual publication reports there are still almost 10,000 people in Hamilton living on or with support from Ontario Works. The overwhelming majority live in the lower city where they rely on public infrastructure to live their lives. Due to abject poverty – and the city’s seeming indifference to it – many citizens struggle with issues of food security, health and housing.
Is it the government’s responsibility to ensure that when there is a major remodel to a part of the city it governs that it is done in a way that benefits the community during and after the project’s completion? When you mess with the existing infrastructure of your city, shouldn’t you make sure you aren’t making it worse in the process?
Some would argue that there are trade offs to development and progress, but why should there be? Why can’t we have a thoughtful approach that mitigates upheaval and treats people less callously?
I have found another laundromat that I can take my clothes to, but it’s in Dundas. I know I can find one closer, but it ticks off my prerequisite boxes, so I go there. I wish I could continue to go to Laundry Express, but it has already begun to cut hours of operation, partly because they know the end is nigh, and partly because of the endemic labour shortage that threatens all workplaces.
You can’t wash your laundry at Laundry Express after 4pm on weeknights or on the weekends. The facility is owned by Coinamatic, one of Ontario’s largest laundry rental businesses. At a certain point, the business will decide it is too much of a liability to keep the lights on any more and we will have to say goodbye to the Express. There are other laundromats that will absorb those in the community that will need to go elsewhere. It has probably already started. You can’t blame a business for making a business decision, but this type of business is so much more than that – it is a necessary part of our infrastructure.
Planned developments in the Corktown neighbourhood will bring thousands of residents to the downtown core, yet there are no plans to ensure that adequate services can support this influx of new community members and, in fact, the current plans will take away huge pieces of that service infrastructure.
As the paper goes up on the windows of Laundry Express, we will enter another phase of a ghost town model that precedes any major development in Hamilton’s downtown core.
You need only look at the Connolly Towers project, which is still a pile of rubble; the Television City project, which last summer had weeds so high you could no longer see the retaining wall along the side of the historic building housing the showroom; or Sir John A. MacDonald High School – which is right now in front of City Council as a subject of whether or not it should be the site of the tiny home community model we desperately need to give more people the chance to live in dignity, cleanliness, and peace.
Olga Kwak is a writer, reader and singer living and working in downtown Hamilton