Its great to see some Vancouver grit. It kinda grounds the city after seeing nothing but condo proposals on this site. I forgot Vancouver had this side to it. Now it feels more real to me.
Hamilton is...<snip>...probably the most American of any Canadian city in that respect.
It is, and yet, it isn't. One thing you notice about Hamilton is that the neighbourhoods have not been abandoned like in American cities. There are very few gap-toothed holes in the street walls, and you don't have whole blocks of streets burnt down or torn down.
For example, if this pic had been taken in an American city like Detroit or St. Louis or Pittsburgh:
only one or two of those buildings would still be left standing. If Hamilton has Canada's only real — grit in terms of its built form, then one can safely conclude that we aren't really all that "—." And if you're in southern Ontario, then a quick trip to Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo or Detroit will provide ample evidence to support that.
Like Graupner and Flar, I have a fascination with grit (witness my Walled City of Kowloon thread). Great idea for a thread. I used to comb the gritty areas of Montreal (esp. Pointe St. Charles, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Little Burgundy, Lachine, Lasalle, Verdun). I've always felt dismayed yet fascinated by the urban decay.
there were some great grit pics of downtown Niagara falls posted recently somewhere.
Here are pictures of one of the most decayed place in the world, the city of Asbestos, Qc.
During the 20th century, it was the boomtown of Asbestos.
There are several abandoned mines, factories, and such.
During the 50s, this area had close to 20 active mines and 30 processing factories.
This could be a good preview of how Fort McMurray will look like in 60 years.
All the following pictures are from a great website, www.worksongs.com.
Asbestos powder:
Asbestos tailings:
A modern, gigantic plant built in 2002 to convert asbestos tailings into magnesium, but closed in 2004 due to rising canadian dollar and low prices:
It is, and yet, it isn't. One thing you notice about Hamilton is that the neighbourhoods have not been abandoned like in American cities. There are very few gap-toothed holes in the street walls, and you don't have whole blocks of streets burnt down or torn down.
Yeah you just don't see that kind of mass residential abandonment in Canada, only in old mining towns up north. If Hamilton was on the other side of the border it would probably be like Buffalo and Detroit. I suspect one reason is that there's just nowhere else to go in Canada. You either head west or south looking for work, and Hamilton is nearly as south as you can get. And if you can't find work, there's welfare. In the States, unemployed workers have the whole sunbelt to choose from if they want to pack up and leave their city.
Or they could just move out into the unrestricted sprawl that makes up most of places like Buffalo or Detroit.
Here are some links to my gritty Hamilton photo threads:
The canadian part of Niagara is 10000 times better than the New York side. In fact, I thought the canadian side was great. On the opposite, in NY , you mostly have empty warehouses and such.
Abandoned house which was recently occupied by squatters.
Soon to be converted into luxury lofts.
Former rooming house that burnt down and is being renovated into apartments as we speak.
Former abandoned knife factory that is now a small brewery.
Former abandoned factory being converted to lofts. Today, construction is almost finished.
North-east of downtown....the rough part.
Back downtown, the Royal Hotel. A former rooming house ($300/month) that mysteriously was declared unsafe just after some condos were built across the street.
winnipeg ain't looking so bad anymore after a quick peek through this thread..
i find all this grit and decay quite fascinating as well - thanks for sharing the awesome pics everyone! i could look at this kinda stuff allllll day..
Halifax barely has any grit that i know of, the only area i can think of is Uniacke Square. If anyone Haligonians have pics please post them i only found one:
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) that building is long gone. Abandoned buildings in Halifax get torn down very quickly. Parts of the North End are not that great but the number of buildings that are actually abandoned is pretty small to begin with. The only major exception I can think of is Gottingen (that blue building was one block up or so).
A big part of the reason for this is probably the lack of manufacturing in Halifax. The "de-industrialization" process happening in the Midwest now happened in the Maritimes 80+ years ago.
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