Raise the Hammer

A-ha! So you don't like my poetry?! There is nothing like the internet for instant and honest feedback :)

I'm not sure why someone would get so worked up by my comments. They are honest observations. I'm not sore about leaving Hamilton, I'm sad that I had to leave. I didn't feel pushed out at all!

I stand by my observations. While I wish the best for Hamilton, and always have, I am constantly saddened by how many folks I meet who are ex-Hamiltonians by choice ('I couldn't wait to get out' etc). I was also struck by how many Hamiltonians I met when I lived there, who were not there by choice.

Of course Hamilton has things going for it. I agree that it has a real sense of community and spirit and identity that I don't sense in Toronto. These things are not trivial but they are not tangible either, and they are not practical. Hamilton is a hard place to live. Waiting one hour for a bus is hard. Walking with your toddlers alongside Main or King is hard. Commuting to TO every day because there is no work in town is hard.

I'm sure Hamilton is attracting a few romantics and die hard optimists and folks who are obviously more resiliant then myself but overall I suspect that most folks have little choice about staying there. We may define 'choice' in terms are people growing up there and 'not knowing anything different' - i.e. people who are too afraid to make a choice. What I'm talking about is TRUE choice. People who can live somewhere else and choose not to.

As for the Monty Python comments - I always found Hamilton to be like a northern city. A Sheffield or a Leeds maybe. That's one reason I moved (I'm from Leeds). Hamilton, when I lived there, wasn't always pretty but it was real. But when it came down to it I needed a regular bus service, a job close to home and lots of things to do. Hamilton didn't offer me that so I made my choice. This is not a rough judgement or a 'dig' - it's a reflection of what I've experienced and seen.

Until we're honest about how attractive Hamilton is to mobile residents we can't appreciate the full extent of what we need to do to fix it.

Cheers

Ben