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 to get 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 beach front that stretches along Lake Ontario is 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 its reputation.

"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.

Bayfront Beach, on the Hamilton Harbour side of the beach strip, is closed to swimming for the rest of the year, and its future is uncertain. But the Ward 4 councillor says the city's Lake Ontario beaches are fine, and need an image boost. (File photo)

"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 Park — are 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 cited as 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 other crawls

Bayfront Park beachwas open just 22 per cent of the time, and Pier 4 just 46 per cent of the time.

Earliet this year, the city closed Bayfront 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.