Raise the Hammer

I wholeheartedly agree with your comments. I am a recent transplant from West Toronto to Central Hamilton. I purchased my first home in Hamilton due to the overwhelming cost of real estate anywhere near Toronto. I wanted an impressive character home, the likes of which you may find in High Park or Leaside, and found such a home, complete with Walnut Trim, solid oak staircases, usable attic, and bedrooms I could swing a cat in (if I so chose). I am two blocks south of the escarpment, 4 blocks from Gage Park, and two blocks from where the decency of Hamilton's former beauty sharply ends and desperation begins. I am hoping that this new city of mine turns around. It is so depressing and I will be gritting my teeth for the entire 5 years I have obligated myself to living in this place (here's hoping I get some compensation for pain and suffering reflected in the price of my home upon selling). That is, UNLESS I see some real action by City Hall that will inject some confidence into my West-Toronto-yearning veins.

It really is too bad that such a beautiful and old city, with all it has to offer by way of architecture and close proximity to almost anything in the Golden Horseshoe, has been allowed to deteriorate. I NEVER knew the beauty of it from the QEW, and feel strongly that the neighbourhood I bought into (St. Clair/Fairleigh Avenues, South)could be comparable to such places as are seen in the Kingsway or even Rosedale areas of my city of birth. Massive, and I do mean massive amounts of time, money, peppered with ingenuity and creativity could get Hamilton going again, but I don't expect that it will happen for at least 15 years AFTER they put the proper plan into place.

As it stands though, I have been tempted to shut my eyes while driving through the downtown area (I do my shopping at the Price Chopper at Barton & Gage - YIKES!). The entire area by Barton really is a scene out of a hard-luck movie. Despite having lived a mere 10 minutes from Parkdale prior to its rejuvenation for 15 years, it took my moving to Hamilton to witness my first Hooker/John transaction in plain view early one morning recently, about 8 blocks west and one block north of my neighbourhood. I have never seen so many massage parlors, as I have in downtown Hamilton, and SO MUCH APATHY by the long term residents and City Council.

It is a real shame.