A funny thing happened on the way to the Gore this summer.

The Gore Park Promenade pilot project has reminded us that some of the most important things we can do as a city to help with renewal may be the simplest. No need for massive public spending, reimagining of who we are as a city, or political dogfights that create great theatre at city hall. Too often these result in very little progress.

Perhaps the ingredients for sustainable renewal are already around us. We often get so caught up in endless talk about planning and design for parts of our downtown that don’t work and forget to look at the areas that do work. Others may simply need a nudge in the right direction.

In Hamilton, we often get focused on the negative and start to characterize the personality of our city as something fixed in stone, despite our best effort at positive change. This kind of talk extends to Gore Park as it gets characterized as a place to be avoided, a place feared and misunderstood even by some who work here every day, let alone by those who boast that they haven’t been downtown in a decade.

This negative approach to change in our city exemplifies the most significant hurdle in front of us: the psychology of renewal. Before change can take root and accelerate, we have to collectively believe that we can have a different city, that downtown can be a place for everyone; safe, bustling, exciting, and inclusive.

Telling people “what could be” will only get you so far. Hamilton has had too many visions compromised, dreams dashed, and mistakes repeated. People need to experience true change to have the faith to reach a little further. That is why the revitalization of James North is a very important development and why many find Supercrawl not just a great event, but an inspiration.

This is also why the Gore Park Promenade pilot project this summer is so important. When September rolls around and the tables and chairs are put away, how will the pilot project be remembered? Will it be considered a success by decision-makers or simply some nice programming that cost money? More importantly, will we understand the most significant lesson from the project when budget time comes around and funding for next year’s edition is considered?

If there is one positive outcome from the Gore Park pilot that rises above the rest, it is the fact that for the first time in a long time, the Gore became a public space that reflected the full diversity of people who make the core their space each and every day.

It was able to draw the existing working population of the core out of the office towers and onto the street. There was no talk about the Gore being a place to be avoided, it was a place for all people that call the downtown home during the day.

Despite the persistent misconceptions about the people who make up downtown’s population, the reality is quite different. Research we have conducted has shown that more than 24,000 people work downtown and the majority of them are young women with above average incomes and education.

The predominant professions in the core are a mix between the public and private sector with the latter making up nearly 60 per cent of all jobs. The financial and legal professions are dominant and there are more jobs in creative industries than education and manufacturing combined. Speaking of education, there are over 20 schools and thousands of students in the downtown each day. And, for the first time in decades, plans for new private housing developments (two are currently under construction) will add hundreds of residential units for home buyers.

The facts are on the table. Like it or not, the core is changing.

Despite these demographics, our public spaces, the Gore included, rarely reflect this. However, for a couple of months this summer, things changed. Hamiltonians caught a glimpse of what our downtown is capable of being: a place for everyone; safe, bustling, exciting, and inclusive. The opportunity to experience true change in parts of the core that are so deeply maligned is the true value of the Gore Park project. We have started to change the psychology around renewal in Hamilton.

Here’s hoping this is just the beginning.

David Premi and Paul Shaker are principals with RethinkRenewal, a collaboration of planning and design professionals focusing on urban revitalization. They can be reached at info@rethinkrenewal.com