Originally Posted by jordko

I disagree, I'm personally not a fan of Hamilton, but I live within 20 minutes of it. I visit Hamilton almost daily and I continuously find new places to visit. It all depends on what you like, I'm into outdoor sports, nature and photography and for me Hamilton has all that. For those into biking there are hundreds of trails, many that are by the water. There are also hundreds of waterfalls and forests to check out.

Definitely planning on checking out all the forests and waterfalls. I've only seen a few, and honestly Hamilton is so gorgeous!

Originally Posted by EasternHeat

The mountain

It's not a mountain :-)

you know, not all downtown is bad.

Locke street has some nice stuff (including a starbucks).

Avoid Jackson Square or the harbour area at night, but otherwise, it's actually OK.

A much earlier post on here asked to have a list of cool/interesting places to visit in Hamilton. Maybe going out and seeing some of Hamilton with a group of friends will help you see for yourself what Hamilton is like outside the 'Mcmaster Bubble' and then you can judge for yourself what you think of our city. (personally I love it!)

So here goes.....

Locke St South - AKA 'The antique district'. There are lots of cool shops/restaurants and they even have a yearly festival! http://www.lockestreetfestiv al.com/

James St. Art Crawl - SO MUCH FUN!... It happens the second Friday of every month all along Locke Street North (just past king). It's free and basically there are a bunch of art galleries open from ~7pm-11pm and you can walk in and out and talk to the local artists and see what they've got.

Waterfalls - we are 'the city of waterfalls'....

Farmer's Market - In Jackson Square mall. It's huge and there is tons of delicious food! Westdale (in the Subway/My Dog Joe's Parking lot) also has had some local produce stands open on Saturday mornings until 1pm throughout the summer. Hopefully they continue into the fall!

Harbourfront/Princess Point - Starting from Princess point you can bike or walk along the shoreline path to the Harbour. It's very nice, and the have lights all along the path if you want to go at night.
At the harbourfront they also have the discovery centre (http://www.pc.gc.ca/canada/decouvert...ry/index_e.asp) and dinner/dance boat cruises (http://www.hamiltonwaterfron t.com/hhcaboutus.php)!

Museums - Hamilton has a lot of museums and historical sites. Some museums are even free for Mac students this year!

Ivor Wynn - Watch our football team the Ticats play a game! (www.ticats.ca)


That's just a handful to get you started, I'm sure there is much more you can add... also check out Pop the Bubble (http://macpopthebubble.wordp ress.com/) for more events and contact the SCSN (Student Community Support Network) if you want to get involved volunteering with your community.

Originally Posted by ghjkghkghkgh

It's not a mountain :-)

well, okay, if you're going to get technical... LOL but to everyone who's anyone, it's the Hamilton 'Mountain' so may as well get used to it. ;o)

Originally Posted by soltintal

may as well get used to it.

nah. ;-)

I've lived in Hamilton for somewhere around ten years now. This is what I've found...
West of McMaster is a little bit more Hamilton and Dundas. The Hamilton Part is kind of boring, some restaurants (Boston Pizza), In Dundas there's old Dundas which has some good places to buy food, meat and coffee (yum). Otherwise old Dundas and most of Dundas is pretty rural, a little richer and mostly older so it makes for a quieter place.

Westdale is kind of boring, not a lot to do. Sorry, its just kind of meh to me, I've been around it too much. Weird Mix of Students and families.

Downtown is pretty wicked there are some areas to avoid, Mostly anywhere North (towards the lake) of King Street at night. The problem in Hamilton is that there's a lot of poverty (1 in 4 school kids go to school hungry). So while it may look really dangerous, it just has a lot of run down buildings and people who are out of luck. If you're not used to that it may put you off. That being said, I still would avoid walking around at night alone in a lot of places in the city. Take a bus at night or a cab if you can, better safe than sorry.

I don't go to the East end much, there are some highlights, textiles down Ottawa Street, Centre mall is renovating (On Barton between Ottawa and Kennilworth). They have a Zellers and a CTC. The main strip of downtown has some wicked cool thrift stores and a record store, if you're into that kind of thing its worth checking out.

Down on Augusta (Sp?) Street there are some good pubs, Hess has some good clubs.

The really far East end down the mountain is Stoney Creek, its pretty suburban with all the usual assortment of box stores you'd see anywhere in North America.

The mountain is pretty suburban the major attractions that I can think of are the Ancaster Meadowlands (West Mountain) which has again all of your box stores, a Chapters, Cinema, Best Buy, Staples, etc. Also on Upper Wentworth (middleish of the mountain) There's Limeridge Mall. It's pretty solid, and has almost all of the stores any other mall would have.
Hope that this has helped.

what are we, ****ing animals? show some respect for your host city, its not a zoo and anyone encouraging you to be afraid of it on these forums is a fool...I've lived here all my life, as long as you aren't patrolling the north or east ends (and nobody has any reason to go there anyway) the city is perfectly safe. just don't act like a moron and morons won't find you. If you think my city is grimy or unpleasant to live in perhaps you should continue your education somewhere more up to your standards. many people resent the snobby attitude of mac students towards hamilton dwellers, please don't add to the stereotype.

Originally Posted by collymolotov

perhaps you should continue your education somewhere more up to your standards.

If you wish to know why it is that many Hamilton dwellers that do likely enjoy their city so much, please see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

after considering such things as the peer city comparison on p. 4 of http://www.myhamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyre...n cidence.pdf

Hamilton is not a shining wonder of a city. It's got a lot of problems including a shrinking base of work and (as in that pdf) higher than average rates of cancer. If anyone likes it, more power to that individual, but it should be pretty obvious to see why many don't. Were I not more half way into my degree by the time I realized all the bad things about Hamilton, I would most certainly have left. In addition, in some areas McMaster is a decent enough school that someone could put up with Hamilton for four or five years to attend classes there --- albeit with a few complaints.

Does anyone know of any good printer ink refill places around Mac?

Originally Posted by Greco

Does anyone know of any good printer ink refill places around Mac?

I saw a shop on King, but cant remember the name. it's in Westdale on King. I'll take note of it tomorrow if I pass it.

Island Inkjet is the place in Westdale.

Originally Posted by collymolotov

what are we, ****ing animals? show some respect for your host city, its not a zoo and anyone encouraging you to be afraid of it on these forums is a fool...I've lived here all my life, as long as you aren't patrolling the north or east ends (and nobody has any reason to go there anyway) the city is perfectly safe. just don't act like a moron and morons won't find you. If you think my city is grimy or unpleasant to live in perhaps you should continue your education somewhere more up to your standards. many people resent the snobby attitude of mac students towards hamilton dwellers, please don't add to the stereotype.

Whoa!!!
Don't hold back, tell us what you REALLY think!