Originally Posted by soltintal

if i may put my "old fogey" 2 cents in... i believe you mean 19th century and for the record, back then the hamilton mountain was mainly farmland - not really practical for a university where access to it would have been difficult. hamilton as we know it now was originally a bunch of small towns and villages and a small city centre with farmland all around it. example - the community across from the University Plaza in Dundas is called "University Gardens" because it was a farm that supplied food to the university. hard to imagine now with houses all over it. (although the streets are still largely named after the family that lived there). as the population grew, the lower city gradually joined together and then eventually spread up the escarpment. putting it in that perspective - perhaps the location of McMaster makes a bit more sense?

I could be totally wrong about this, but didn't McMaster move to Hamilton in the 1920s or 30s? I know it was founded in the 19th century, in Toronto, but wasn't it first interest in Hamilton established in the early 20th century?

Originally Posted by sniderj

I could be totally wrong about this, but didn't McMaster move to Hamilton in the 1920s or 30s? I know it was founded in the 19th century, in Toronto, but wasn't it first interest in Hamilton established in the early 20th century?

oh you're probably right about that... i was mainly trying to point out the fact that the mountain and surrounding areas were still farms (even in the 20s and 30s) and somewhat impractical imo

Originally Posted by soltintal

oh you're probably right about that... i was mainly trying to point out the fact that the mountain and surrounding areas were still farms (even in the 20s and 30s) and somewhat impractical imo

Very fair. I don't think there's anything wrong with the location of McMaster anyway. It's not THAT close to downtown.

Also, I work at the John Sopinka Courthouse downtown, and I don't think it's nearly as bad as people hype it up to be. I mean, I've definitely seen some weird stuff going down, but that's no different than what goes on in Toronto or other densely populated areas.

Hamilton is no different than any other large city and I'm tired of the way people from other cities dump on us. People look at Hamiltonians differently, and even other Hamiltonians do it to Hamiltonians from "undesirable" parts of Hamilton.

Too many of those who live in Flamborough, Ancaster, and Glanbrook will tell you how awful Hamilton is, how it's dying, how we're all drug dealers, hookers and bums, and how we should just level the entire lower city.

Let's face it 20% of Hamilton is in poverty and probably more than half live in the lower city. They aren't bad people (mostly), there people who used to work in factories and got laid off, they're retirees who don't want to move from their old homes, and they're people failed by Hamilton's horrendous education system and general lack of settlement services for immigrants. But most of all, they're a product of a City (and formerly regional) council made up disproportionately of those from the suburbs who plant every affordable housing project, every long term care facility etc. in the old city and make sure to encourage mostly the growth of their fiefs rather than worry about the "doomed" downtown.