Hammer Time
| What you loved and loathed last month
Response to “The New Hamiltonians,” Stuart Berman’s memoir about his reluctant move to Hamilton, was fierce from both diehard Torontonians justifying their decision to stay put (“I’d rather have acid poured in my eyes than move to Hamilton”) and recent defectors defending their decision to depart (“We did it, and our only regret is that we didn’t do it sooner”). Here are samples from both camps.
“The next time someone asks why I am moving my family from our Beaches semi to Burlington, I will hand them this article. I am a born and bred Torontonian, but like the author am fed up with bidding wars, traffic, and 6 a.m. Parks and Rec registration. Thanks Toronto Life—this article perfectly articulated why we’re outta here.”
—Karin Archer Myles, Facebook
“I was born in Hamilton, grew up in Niagara and moved to Toronto. I’m not rich and probably won’t buy a house in Toronto, but I wouldn’t leave this city. It has so much to offer! I’d rather raise one kid in a condo downtown than live in the Hammer.”
—Shaughnessy King, Facebook
“About a year ago I was kinda sorta eyeing the Hammer. The typical ‘I could sell my tired semi and get what?!’ thinking. So I started asking people who did the commute about it. The unanimous opinion? It’s soul destroying. Everyone hated it and the collateral damage it was doing to their lives. Instead of spending time in their new big backyards, they were catching up on all the errands they didn’t do during the week because they were sitting in traffic. One person had sold their Toronto house for a bigger one in Hamilton, realized their mistake and downsized to a condo to get back into the city.”
—runbionic, Reddit
“The author is not what I call a diehard Torontonian. A diehard Torontonian would live in a closet if it meant you got to live here.”
—Katherine Soler, Facebook
“This guy misses Toronto. You can almost hear him weeping for his old life as he was writing this.”
—Eric A Yule, Facebook
“Weird thought I had when I was reading this article is that I live quite near the author, and yet he and I experience hugely different standards of living. The downtown Hamilton neighbourhoods are becoming an odd mix of economic backgrounds ever since Torontonians decided they’d ‘settle’ for Hamilton’s charms. People realizing that Hamilton is not the shithole they imagined has upsides and down. On one hand, we’re proud of our city and it tickles us when people see why. But Hamilton is not your new plaything, Torontonians. It doesn’t belong to you, and it doesn’t belong to us. We belong to it!”
—Soycrates, Reddit
There was also plenty of unfettered contempt from long-time Hamiltonians who blame Torontonians for their escalating cost of living. It was mostly along the lines of “Gentrifying Toronto nitwits,” and “Honestly, get the F out of my city.” Plus, there was some passiveaggressive Toronto-bashing from former Torontonians who now want to staunch the flow of new Torontonians into their adopted city:
“As a recent Toronto transplant, who loves Hamilton more and more as I get to know it, how can I celebrate Hamilton without contributing to the ‘Torontofication’ of it? I completely understand the resistance to the influx of Torontonians (douchey Torontoness is why I left), but would love some constructive ideas of how to welcome and integrate people who moved here.”