Comment 64867

By Nord Blanc (anonymous) | Posted June 13, 2011 at 20:38:46

This "lost community" idea came into play a bit during the EM Pan Am play – and the snarky quips about the Hannon Tiger-Cats. You'd also find it in Aerotropolis talk, which might touch on Mount Hope. But like Flamborough and Stoney Creek, the amalgamation bug struck in 1974 and again in 2001, so while the history is there (in Flamborough’s case, dating back to French expeditions and English conquests in the mid-17th and mid-18th century), it's not as eagerly compiled, and when it is compiled, it's often regarded as folksy trivia by Hamiltonians. (Perhaps this will be redressed this summer after the Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society & Archives relocates temporarily to the Central Library's 4th Floor.)

And it's not just the historians drawing blanks. A lot of downtown boosters seem to feel lost outside the old, lower city. And the mountain geography doesn't help things, especially if you learned to drive post-amalgamation. East of Centennial Parkway is Stoney Creek/Saltfleet/Winona; West of Centennial Parkway is Hamilton – the east/west divide is marked by James, as it is in the lower city, with Upper Paradise and Upper Ottawa roughly the same distance to Upper James. (Wards 1-8 approximate the Old City.) And the old distinctions still have some heft to them. Despite the common topography, few Ancaster residents would consider themselves "West Mountain" and more than Dundas residents would think to describe themselves as "West Lower City". Admittedly, navigation is complicated, again, by the duplication of certain street names in amalgamater communities.

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