[Snowman]

One of the reasons that people think poorly of hamilton is that most cities are thought of based on the state of their downtown which is usually the life of the city. when you think of cities like toronto or new york (for those of us that arent from toronto), the first thing that comes to judge whether you want to visit the city is how the downtown is, and then you look to other features.

I come from further north where there is always an abudance of forested paths and trails, so that part of hamilton does not appeal to me. So what comes next to mind is what is there to do downtown and how is shopping. Well, there is the usual malls and strip malls that every city has so little special, and then the downtown is not the most pleasant place (my friend that visited didnt want to go back the second day). to me the best part of hamilton is the proximity to the states and to toronto, otherwise there is nothing that appeals to me here. this is why i would look for a job elsewhere first once im done school, and i would only look for summer jobs here because i have a 12 month lease and i pay for rent for the summer regardless if i stay or not

[julianface]

Originally Posted by micadjems

I feel like people from Mac don't know that the mountain, dundas, and ancaster exist. All very nice places, if you're not too fond of the downtown scene.

Based on golf links road I would not say ancaster is a nice place at all. Unless you like large parking lots, chain businesses and houses that look like every other house in a GTA suburb. That's just my biased opinion though, I just can't stand the placelessness of the small portion of Ancaster I've seen. The treeless big roaded unwalkable commercial pit just doesn't do it for me.

I think Westdale would probably be the nicest place to live in Hamilton it's just hard to see that now being a student.

p.s I don't mean to rip on people's hometown, to each their own. Heck part of the reason why I chose Mac was because I liked the character of downtown Hamilton and I'm sure not many would agree with me there

[Watoko]

Originally Posted by huzaifa47

Hey Hamza,

I was the convener/creator for this project this February/March so feel free to ask any follow up questions in this thread after reading the more detailed report here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/60674099/H...Saeed-YourCity (Question 6 &7 specifically) and just to elaborate the figures for the following questions were as follows:

Q6: Would you consider living in Hamilton and commuting to study or work after graduation

Yes: 21% Maybe: 39% No: 40%

Q7: Upon graduation, would you consider applying for job opportunities in Hamilton?

yes absolutely: 25%
Yes, but it wouldn't be the first place I look: 34%
Maybe: 17%
No, I would much rather look someplace else: 24%

We only got around 10 Minutes with the City Council today hence weren't able to elaborate in detail but essentially my theory is that a large part of the stigma associated with Hamilton as some users have said in this thread might be due to a misperception created by not having explored Hamilton. I've met many students for whom it took uptil their 4th/5th year to properly explore all that Hamilton has to offer, It doesn't inherently mean that upon experiencing Hamilton they will be automatically converted into not being enticed by their Hometowns or anywhere down the 403 towards Toronto but it's better than nothing.

But our asks from the city will have numerous direct and indirect benefits for McMaster Students in the upcoming years. For example Shuttle busses to Websters/Albion Falls, better promotion and deals for recreational activities within Hamilton will improve student experience away from our pockets.

Summer Jobs are also very integral to ensuring students experience Hamilton, if people work downtown or say Engineering Students in the Industrial Area then through commuting in the various areas of the city they will start to build that connection that doesn't exist if they have summer jobs in other cities. Both the Provincial and Federal Governments have funding allocated for summer job programs and other year round internship but the Municipal Government should be doing more to lobby for more funding.

At the end of the day, this city is in Transition away from an Industrial base towards a Knowledge Economy, however an active link with the University is Integral and the City hasn't taken much initiative to directly work with the MSU or for the large part University to entice students.
Among other rationales, A better Hamilton in a decade will mean a better student experience for future Students; interaction and satisfaction with the community has proven via research to exponentially improve student success at Universities(Somethin g our President Dr Patrick Deane outlined in his letter outlining a focus towards outside the classroom learning during his tenure)

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Twente in Netherlands for example were a similar situation with the collapse of their industry, however they leveraged their Universities towards building a better city. (They had some amazing programs where they purposely rezoned residential districts into say a dual creative/arts neighborhood and this other one where the Government Allocated space, funding and support for Startup technology firms which blossomed into their own industry)

I could probably go on for pages since this stuff is the topic of my honours thesis but I think I'm getting into the tl;dr area so I'll stop.

I read it all

[RyanC]

Originally Posted by Stefan H.

..

I come from further north where there is always an abudance of forested paths and trails, so that part of hamilton does not appeal to me. So what comes next to mind is what is there to do downtown and how is shopping. Well, there is the usual malls and strip malls that every city has so little special, and then the downtown is not the most pleasant place (my friend that visited didnt want to go back the second day). to me the best part of hamilton is the proximity to the states and to toronto, otherwise there is nothing that appeals to me here.

..

What exactly do you look for when you say 'special'? And why does the states or Toronto have an appeal? (i.e. what are their special features? apart from amusement parks)




My family and I occassionally go to the states, but all they really have is the same 'ol shopping kind of stuff.

I think the fact that Hamilton is close to many desireable destinations is a positive point in itself, not to mention the other positive aspects that many people miss...

[_Luu_]

Not sure what's the whole hoopla with Ancaster. Bunch of big-box stores and a majority of houses that all look the same. Kinda off-putting.