Lot Letter to Editor

A nice supportive letter that appeared in the Hamilton Spectator March 29/12, following the article about Lot M. Very nice to see people engaging their imaginations to see a better future! Thanks Narina!

Unpave a parking lot, put in a paradise
McMaster paved paradise; Restore Cootes aims to restore wetland lost to campus parking lot (March 24)

With student parking occupancy at McMaster University well below capacity, vacant parking lots such as Lot M are starting to be recognized as unused spaces serving little purpose.

Here is where an amazing opportunity to utilize the space arises. Restoration of Lot M back to the natural habitat it currently rests on has immense potential for the ecosystem’s well-being, as well as the community surrounding it, both in its aesthetic and research value.

Not only does the parking lot back up against Coldspring Creek, but it replaces a large portion of riparian and forest habitat with pavement. This fragments the landscape and limits the ability of animals, such as the muskrat and water shrew, to migrate and feed at various locations along the creek banks. The lot is so close to the water’s edge that many pollutants, such as salt and oil from cars, seep into the aquatic ecosystem and may be carried downstream.

Restoration of the paved area will aid in cleansing the water as well as re-establishing natural corridors for wildlife movement that once existed. Moreover, the value of such a project would be directly felt by the McMaster community. It may not only provide a great learning opportunity for students, but the ability to research first-hand how a riparian area operates.

Addressing the space taken up by Lot M illustrates one of many exciting initiatives directed at restoring and revitalizing Hamilton with people and planet in mind. In this case, renewal will be a small but powerful step to ensuring sustainable health and well-being for wildlife and human generations that follow.

Narina Jabari, Hamilton

Comments

Binkley's Pond, gone for parking

Jacob Binkley (1806-67), great grandson of Marx [Binkley], built the handsome stone house that still stands at 54 Sanders Blvd at the head of a ravine. The house was completed in 1847 and named Lakelet Vale, as it had a little spring-fed lake at the rear. Binkley's Pond, as it was known, was used for skating, fishing, and good times. It is now the Zone 6 parking lot at McMaster University on the west side of Cootes Drive. Loreen Jerome, The Way We Were "The House that Jacob Built" Ainslie Wood/Westdale Community Association of Resident Homeowners Inc. (AWWCA) http://www.awwca.ca/articles/ Skater's on Binkley's Pond circa 1917, now a McMaster parking lot

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A group of residents in the University Gardens neighbourhood are seeking improved connections for active transportation. The neighbourhood sits on a plateau above McMaster's west campus parking lots. A path through a wooded section between Grant Boulevard and McMaster's parking lot "P" is the shortest and most direct route that connects hikers, and commuters walking or cycling, but it is on the side of a hill that becomes treacherous in winter. At the bottom of the hill, a concrete bridge spans the narrow Ancaster Creek that is the dividing line between Hamilton's Ward 13 (Dundas) and Ward one's Ainslie Woods North neighbourhood. SIGN THE PETITION HERE Existing stairs were removed by the Hamilton Conservation Authority (HCA) with no plans for replacement. Area residents have started a petition to request a replacement set of stairs and will use the petition as support when they go to the HCA Board meeting in early June. The text of the petition reads: The Ham...

Design for nature not cars in McMaster west campus

Monday, January 20, 2020 Rethinking McMaster's West Campus Floodplain and Simple I really hope that the vision for west campus does look to rehabilitate the floodplain under McMaster Parking Lot M. In these times of global climate emergency, what better contrast than cars parked on top a coldwater wetland. One is a source of our current predicament, and the other is a part of the solution to mitigate the issues we face. Meanwhile: Trail to Trespass McMaster still has to come to terms with the fact they won't allow people currently parking in the west campus to use the perfectly lovely remnant of the former Royal Botanical Gardens nature trails to access campus. It's very odd that it was easier to get hundreds of parking spaces removed to create the required 30-metre buffer to the coldwater creek there than it is to get McMaster to stop blocking access to the trail. I'm hoping to open (another) conversation with McMaster about this trail. In the mean...

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