Art Crawl? Supercrawl? Now, councillor wants a Beach Crawl

You can swim in the water at Hamilton's Lake Ontario beaches, says Sam Merulla. He does it. Now he wants the city to organize one of Hamilton's famous crawls to improve the reputation of the waterfront, and toget everyone more comfortable with the concept.

The vast majority of our beach on Lake Ontario is always open for swimming, and it's accessible and healthy to do so.- Coun. Sam Merulla

The Ward 4 city councillor wants the city to start a Beach Crawl, an event with food trucks, art, vendors and entertainment to get people down to the Lake Ontario beach.

Why? Merulla says Hamilton's beaches have a bad reputation. And the beachfront that stretches alongLake Ontariois undervalued, he said.

There's a widespread belief that Lake Ontario where the city gets its drinking water from is undrinkable and unswimmable, Merulla said.He wants a crawl to boost itsreputation.

• Is it time to give up the dream of swimming in Hamilton Harbour?

"The vast majority of our beach on Lake Ontario is always open for swimming, and it's accessible and healthy to do so," he said.

"Primarily what I'd like to do is take a segment of the beach and have food trucks and music, and have a day where we celebrate our beaches."

The city's three Lake Ontario beaches Van Wagners, Beach Boulevard and Confederation Parkare currently listed as open for swimming on the city's beach monitoring site. In 2015, Van Wagners and Beach Boulevard were open the entire summer while Confederation Park was open 98 per cent of the time.

While the Lake Ontario side is open for swimming, the Hamilton Harbour side has some larger issues.

Randle Reef, for example, is 60 hectares of underwater contaminated settlement often citedas an impediment to the quality of the harbour. Construction has recently started on a metal box to contain the bulk of the toxic area.

Hamilton has othercrawls

BayfrontPark beachwas open just 22 percent of the time, and Pier 4just 46 per cent of the time.

Earliet this year, the city closedBayfront Beach, a man-made beach at Bayfront Park, for the rest of the year until it can decide whether it's healthy to keep it for swimming.

Hamilton already has a couple of crawls to its name, although none are organized by the city. During the warmer months, Art Crawl happens on James Street North on the second Friday of the month.

Supercrawl is a large annual music festival in September. On the third Friday of the month during summer months, Sidewalk Sounds happens on Concession Street.

Merulla will introduce the idea at a council meeting Wednesday. Matthew Green, Ward 3 councillor, is on his side.

"Anything that promotes our waterfront is a great idea," he said.