Interesting Neighbourhoods, good and bad.

[megadude]

Sorry, not the right sub forum but the General one doesn't have much activity and I just decided I want to venture into the Hammer tomorrow.

I'm half hour away but rarely drive into and walk around in Hamilton proper. Been to Flamboro, Dundas and Ancaster plenty, but feel like doing some inner city exploring.

What are the nicest and grimiest 'hoods to see? It will mostly be driving through. A place like Hess Village I'll get out and walk, but I want to cover a few places and don't have a lot of time to explore by foot.

I'll be hitting up a few thrift shops and doing a short hike at a waterfall along the route. Not sure which falls yet as I don't want it to be out of the way. And I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for a half hour visit like I would have to for Spencer's Gorge.

I'll also have my kids with me so I can't do a lot of what I'd normally do if I were by myself. I would visit Dundurn Castle and the Military Museum but I saw the prices and figured it's not worth the expense for a family. The HMCS Haida I'd bring the family to but it's not open yet for the season.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I will also drive up or down the couple of fun access roads because they are super fun. And will stop at that one lookout for the kids to have a look.

Edit:
I don't need to do the beaches as we've already been there the past couple of years. And I think we'll visit the greenhouse at Gage Park.

[jonny24]

This probably heavily skewed from the two areas I lived in, but:

Very Nice, interesting to look at:

Durand, towards the base of the mountain. Lovely old Victorian houses. If you have time for a walk I'd start at the HAAA Grounds (Ticats history) then go towards the mountain, ending at Ravenscliffe for some mansions.

Also a nice walk that I used to do a lot was around St Clair then Cumberland and then up the Wentworth stairs.

Doing both of those, you'll see how neighbourhoods change quickly in a north-south direction, as the result of geography but also infrastructure. Cumberland is at the base of the mountain, but it's not "bougie" like elsewhere because of the railway there.

The whole lower city east of downtown is basically a two-axis gradient. North-south is generally Not-so-nice to Nice, and West to East is generally older to newer. I used to live just east of Sherman (So Edwardian, not Victorian), and just north of King i.e. still mostly brick houses, unlike north of Barton, but no more boulevard streets, like there is near/south of Main.

I'd highly recommend the Capitol Bar on King for craft beers and good (if eclectic offering) food if it's after 4pm, and Vintage Coffee just down the street if it's before 4pm.

If you're looking for "grimy"... Drive down King and Barton, east of downtown, it is really the commercial strips that look the roughest. All the side streets with houses have plenty of good to go with any bad. There's loads of alleys that make roaming the lower city on foot interesting.

Concession St along the mountain brow is decently mixed-use walkable urban, its actually bearable. All along the edge of the mountain is fairly nice neighbourhoods with the view, especially the east side along Mountain Brow Blvd which has some nice wide paths and trails down into the valley.

But the rest of the mountain is pretty... bland, fading out to suburban hell. Stay away from the new developments at Mud/Upper Red Hill if you don't wanna claw you eyes out.

Definitely stop at a lookout on one of the mountain accesses.

[HamiltonBoyInToronto]

Originally Posted by megadude

Sorry, not the right sub forum but the General one doesn't have much activity and I just decided I want to venture into the Hammer tomorrow.

I'm half hour away but rarely drive into and walk around in Hamilton proper. Been to Flamboro, Dundas and Ancaster plenty, but feel like doing some inner city exploring.

What are the nicest and grimiest 'hoods to see? It will mostly be driving through. A place like Hess Village I'll get out and walk, but I want to cover a few places and don't have a lot of time to explore by foot.

I'll be hitting up a few thrift shops and doing a short hike at a waterfall along the route. Not sure which falls yet as I don't want it to be out of the way. And I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for a half hour visit like I would have to for Spencer's Gorge.

I'll also have my kids with me so I can't do a lot of what I'd normally do if I were by myself. I would visit Dundurn Castle and the Military Museum but I saw the prices and figured it's not worth the expense for a family. The HMCS Haida I'd bring the family to but it's not open yet for the season.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I will also drive up or down the couple of fun access roads because they are super fun. And will stop at that one lookout for the kids to have a look.

Edit:
I don't need to do the beaches as we've already been there the past couple of years. And I think we'll visit the greenhouse at Gage Park.

Good
Delaware neighborhood by St. Clair and walk towards Gage Park and around Gage Park.
Ravenscliff neighborhood along Aberdeen
Bay St. north by the waterfront
Westdale
Locke St. and then along Homewood Ave.


Grimmy
Barton St. between Victoria and Sherman
Gage Ave North between Barton & Burlington
Main St East from Wellington to Sherman

[matt602]

Good: anywhere West of downtown, especially the Durand or Westdale neighborhoods.

Gritty: Barton, Cannon, Wilson, King or Main between James and Ottawa. Barton is probably the worst, especially between James and Sherman.

the rest of the city has pockets of gentrification and "wealthy" areas, mostly on Locke, James or Ottawa Street.

[megadude]

Some great suggestions. I knew stretches of Main and Barton were sketch from the couple of times I had driven them in the past 20 years, though the last time prior to today was probably a dozen years ago. But I have since then developed a keen interest in towns, villages and neighbourhoods. Fascinating to see.

I've seen plenty of blight in my travels but what really stood out for me was driving through the areas where heavy industry and residential blend. Have seen a few small scale examples in Ontario the past couple of years. In the Towns and Villages thread on the Canada forum I posted a diary about that last July after I did a tour of Eastern Ontario. Of course, Hamilton is on another level. Makes for some excellent gritty backdrops for film and TV. I definitely want to go back in the summer and go street by street.

Loved the mix of styles and ages for commercial and residential. I hate knowing there's so much vacancy in certain parts but I do find it visually interesting. As for the residential, like I posted about in the Entertainment thread in the Canada forum, it really is easy to spot Hamilton when TV or movies are filmed there as opposed to Toronto. You'd think they have very similar housing styles because of the proximity, but nope. And some of the streets were super narrow and had me wondering what would have happened if I came through after the huge snow dumps a few weeks ago. Like how did people park and how did people drive down the street? I picked up something for $5 at a house by Locke and Nelson. I had to park right on the corner of Nelson and I was worried I wasn't leaving enough room to pass for the next car.

The topography cannot go unmentioned. It's my favourite part about Hamilton. It's why when I made a pretend rally racing video several years ago of my dashcam footage, I chose to do it in Hamilton. Going up the access roads, the skyway, the roads outside the city like Sulphur Springs, etc. always make for fun drives. Today was my first time around Chedoke.

Didn't do around Westdale because I only had so much time and I'd already spent time there before like when I went to visit and party with someone at Mac a couple of decades ago. I also went to the Friends of the Aviary bird sanctuary a couple of times and have fished Cootes Paradise a few times. Will have to go back in the near future though. I recall seeing some gorgeous homes and streets.

Glad I got some more Hamilton out of my system because every time I cross over the skyway on my way to Niagara or the US, I always look over and say I need to over that way more often. I love going through Ancaster and Dundas for their gorgeous housing stock. Love the quirky housing along the beaches. But I don't spend enough time in the city, city. Hell, back in the day I used to go clubbing all the time. Like probably a total of at least 150 times. 90% of that was Downtown Toronto, coming from Brampton where I grew up. Of all those times, I went to Hess Village twice.

The thing is, I'm in Oakville and only half an hour away. Don't know why I haven't spent more time in Hamilton. Soon I'll have to venture in by myself and spend all day

By the way, are they going to fix the roads? Roads looked like they got hit by artillery barrages.

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by megadude

By the way, are they going to fix the roads? Roads looked like they got hit by artillery barrages.

They're slowly phasing in property tax increases to address it. Only a couple years into to trying to tackle the problem IIRC.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by jonny24

They're slowly phasing in property tax increases to address it. Only a couple years into to trying to tackle the problem IIRC.

To explain a bit more, a study identified that the City was spending $40 million a year on roads maintenance, but needs to spend about $150 million a year just to keep them from getting worse.

This was back in around 2017 or 2018. The last council started doing annual 0.5% tax increases which increased that spending by about $5 million a year, so a 22-year timeline to "stable" road funding. Obviously not enough.

The new council in 2022 changed it to 1% annual increases, or around $10 million a year.

The $150 million annual spend should be reached by the early 2030's now. The 2025 budget is at about $80 million in spending, I believe.

Still a long way to go but spending is steadily increasing on roads. The city just has an absolutely massive backlog.

The roads in red here are scheduled to be rebuilt in the next 4 years, for example:

[megadude]

Good to know. They need to get it over and done with. Last fall they started water main replacement in my neighbourhood. My street will be some time this year. Don’t know what it’s going to be like but will surely be a PITA.

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

To explain a bit more, a study identified that the City was spending $40 million a year on roads maintenance, but needs to spend about $150 million a year just to keep them from getting worse.

This was back in around 2017 or 2018. The last council started doing annual 0.5% tax increases which increased that spending by about $5 million a year, so a 22-year timeline to "stable" road funding. Obviously not enough.

The new council in 2022 changed it to 1% annual increases, or around $10 million a year.

The $150 million annual spend should be reached by the early 2030's now. The 2025 budget is at about $80 million in spending, I believe.

Still a long way to go but spending is steadily increasing on roads. The city just has an absolutely massive backlog.

The roads in red here are scheduled to be rebuilt in the next 4 years, for example: