While KW definitely is undergoing a highrise boom a lot of it leaves much to be desired. Parts of it (Waterloo in particular) look like SimCity. It does have a feel like a new money city and the
tech boom has definitely helped it feel of more importance than it otherwise would.
As StEC stated, KW really took off with the ION light rail. Hamilton is going into 30 storey tower development mode
without the LRT built yet. To me, height is less important than creating a good public realm and adding hundreds of more residents (per building) to the core of the city. The Pier 8 redevelopment should have a showpiece ~45 storey tower right on the waterfront if all goes according to current plans.
Having been there last year, I do like the LRT and how Kitchener and Waterloo feel more connected. There were new or newer restaurants, bars, a speakeasy, barcade, interesting places to go.They also have a great regional museum w/historic village onsite. I give KW credit as it
feels cleaner and more upkept than Hamilton.
From an urban core perspective, compared to KW, Hamilton is ahead because it's almost always been a top 10 largest Canadian city from 1871 to today, most of that time as #5 or #6 largest. It just has a much larger city feel that KW does not. (my biggest Hamilton pet peeve is King and Main streets being 1 way)
Hamilton has a historic built environment and impressive historic residential housing stock that cities such as KW, Edmonton, Calgary never had. From dense street rows of working class housing to middle and upper income tree-lined streets of tightly packed brick housing to palatial, grand mansions (that would be cost prohibitive to replicate today), inner city
Hamilton is a really interesting place to go walking into the old city neighbourhoods. I love that the earliest Scottish merchants and inhabitants left Hamilton with a collection of residential/commercial stone buildings as well.
Neighbourhoods like Durand are very impressive with large houses and mansions built from the 1870s to 1920s.
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Hamilton also has the Niagara escarpment dividing the city in roughly half with many hiking trails and waterfalls, and Lakefront. Better proximity to Toronto, Niagara and Buffalo.
I'll take that over a river city any day
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List of largest Canadian cities by census 1871-2021
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ties_by_census