Quote:
Originally Posted by flar
Because it is surrounded by so much industry, this is certainly not a desirable neighbourhood. There are a couple of houses in Keith for sale under $70,000. I'm always somewhat surprised when I see the nice well maintained homes in this area. Some of them are literally across the street from huge factories and scrapyards. But I do like the tree cover in this neighbourhood, it looks nicer when the grass is green and the trees have leaves. It was probably a very pleasant working class neighbourhood when the Studebaker plant was open. I find Keith reminiscent of some Detroit neighbourhoods, it's a bit like the neighbourhood in the movie Gran Torino.
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That little enclave south of Mars Avenue/west of Wentworth Street probably still has potential, in fact there was a townhouse complex proposed on an empty lot on one of those streets I don't know what became of it however. What that area certainly lacks is amenities, hard to believe for an inner city neighbourhood. But I guess that's what happened in a lot of American city neighbourhoods, eventually not much left in them. I believe the HSR just started a route into that area, didn't they, or plans to. And the people fought to keep former Robert Land School as a community centre. So I guess there is some community spirit there and I guess it's a start for low income people to get into home ownership. The area north of the second set of tracks closer to Burlington Street is another story, I'm sure we can tell just by looking at it. Probably all of those houses should have been expropriated years ago when heavy industry went in. It seemed like it was done in a haphazard manner, some houses were and the rest were left. With heavy industry across the street and transport trucks barreling past it can't be a very fit place to live and ever will be. They probably should have zoned that for lighter industry to create a bit of a buffer to the neighbourhoods south, and the derelict houses would have been gone.
The old industrial buildings are magnificent forms of architecture. The Studebaker plant was Otis elevator after that, then I'm pretty sure Allan Candy used that building for a while too. Allan Candy was another Hamilton success story if I'm right. Pretty much all the Easter chocolate in the stores seemed to be made by them. Cadbury's of U.K. bought them out. I guess a lot of production is at the modern plant in Stoney Creek now. Then lastly, there was the failed movie studio proposal for the Studebaker plant.
Hopefully those buildings can be re-invented. Just look at the distillery district in Toronto, artists, cafes, shopping, etc. We're seeing that start to take root here in other places, like The Imperial Cotton Centre on Sherman North and other former industrial buildings. If something like that were proposed hopefully the city doesn't entangle it in red tape like The Pearl Factory and the former Westinghouse building.