Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce
^^Hamilton has qualities that other cities could only dream of: situated on a large body of water; surrounded by an escarpment. It's a poor man's Vancouver.
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Hamilton is a sleeper. The best description I ever heard was that it has a "very specific funkiness."
Having grown up in its shadow, and then having spent my teenage years and a few years of my adulthood there, and always having had family there, Hamilton is indelibly a part of my life. Which is why its "specific funkiness" thrills me almost as much as its many shortcomings tear me apart and make it essentially impossible for me to live there.
Because I take it too personally. Newcomers from Toronto with instant real estate wealth buying up lovely Victorian homes in Hamilton for a comparative song are perfect for the city because they don't have the baggage I do. For them t's all optimism and groovy Locke Street; rough-hewn and unpretentious people cheek-by-jowl with arty James Street North; an up-and-coming waterfront and a burgeoning restaurant scene with a palpable excitement to it.
But I got my heart broken by some silly girl, and then started noticing how just about every street in the city is only really any good on one side, while the opposite doesn't look right or match it, and then you've got streets like Wesanford Place which are really unforgivable so close to downtown, and then a new neighbour who apparently owned a bar started coming home at 2:30 am with a bevy of drunken slags to party it up in his outdoor hot tub with the cheesiest pop music imaginable blasting out of the speakers in his window...
I had to leave. But I still love the damn place.