The picture isnt a tiger, it's just a big campus squirrel.

Give it tree fiddy and it will stop bothering you.

Originally Posted by bern

downtown hamilton is not anymore scary than Toronto or any other city. why do people think hamilton is such a death trap?

I've lived in Hamilton for 12 years (since age 10) and know downtown Hamilton like the back of my hand. I think I'm allowed to believe that it is in general, sketchier than Toronto for example.

BTW since when did I say it's scary? Since when did I say it's a death trap?

It's just that there are WAY more weird people in downtown Hamilton, but that doesn't necessarily mean they will hurt you. They just do some BIZARRE stuff LOL. And I used to take public transit a lot... that's another story all by itself.

well if you look back in the posts, you'll see that when i quoted you, that is something that you said. i didn't say you said it was a death trap, i simply asked why people think it is. some times i wonder what hamilton did to deserve this rep. poor hamilton.

I haven't spent a good amount of time in downtown Toronto, so I can't really compare. I do think Hamilton has more than it's share of crazies today.

For example, today at the bus stop, some guy in pajamas (at 12:30pm) came up to me and said "You are really gorgeous. Do you want a ride?" When I said no, he asked again. When I said no again, he asked "Why not, am I bugging you?" I ignored him and he said "Okay, you are really gorgeous. Byyyyeeee" and left. I didn't look up at him so he didn't even know what I looked like. It was so g*d damn creepy.

I come across people like this every other day. Maybe it's because I take public transit so much. I don't know, I have no problem with the general weirdness of some people (like the guy who stands by Jacson Square on a box and yells things about Jesus). But when they start talking to you .. it's scary.

Originally Posted by bern

well if you look back in the posts, you'll see that when i quoted you, that is something that you said. i didn't say you said it was a death trap, i simply asked why people think it is. some times i wonder what hamilton did to deserve this rep. poor hamilton.

Scary shit was sarcasm for "sketchy and weird". I have never avoided going downtown out of fear of anything (excluding if a tiger was actually on the loose).

It does have the reputation for a reason. Hamilton is one of the poorest cities in Ontario, and our politicians didn't care for the longest time.... After several years of lobbying by groups, there is FINALLY a Poverty Project going on which is trying to lower the number of homeless individuals, most of which are concentrated downtown.

A relative proportion of these homeless people have a multitude of psychological/psychiatric issues. Instead of helping them, we just leave them to fend for themselves. Many of them take public transit, which is not surprising.

Also, we do have an area on Barton street where prostitutes and hookers frequent. That's another problem that has to be dealt with. You don't want to walk there at 3 am, that's for sure.

Hamilton has so many issues to solve in the downtown area. We can't just ignore it and brush it off as similar to Toronto's downtown. Toronto is VASTLY different. We have a much smaller town and the buildings that are in our downtown area do not even compare to the millions of malls and CN tower. There hasn't been any improvement in our Hamilton core for a long time, it's just getting worse.

this is not a debate i'll be continuing after this, as it's quite stupid, however people who are homeless are not scary, sketchy or weird, they're not in a situation as good as ours, but to automatically classify them as such is ridiculous, whether mentally ill or not. also, yea hamilton is far from wealthy. it has the highest child poverty rate in the country, and it's been ignored for years, but once again, that does not make it scary, sketchy or weird. also, any major city has a street that, if you're on it at 3am, you'll be uncomfortable, whether because of prostitution or drug dealers maybe instead of the poor breaking into our BMWs, it's time for the rich to break out of them and do something about the problem. lets start by not calling scary, sketchy and weird. lets face it, the problem isn't the life circumstances of a few hundred people who are now on the streets in this city, it's the few hundred thousand people that are walking and driving right past them every day. philanthropy out the window, how about grace or love. compassion, caring, kindness, it doesn't take much to help out.. you don't even have to talk to them. there are plenty of peopel that will take your money, and do some good with it, for example the countless shelters and aid organizations in the city. anyway, thats enough of this off topic ruse. happy tiger hunting.

Bern, I think you're misunderstanding why people don't like downtown Hamilton. I don't think homeless people are "scary", but that doesn't mean downtown (which is full of homeless people) isn't scary. I do feel bad when I say there are weird/sketchy people downtown, because I don't mean it in a way that says "People who are mentally ill are scary". I know that's not true.
The fact is that there are dangerous people downtown. Yes, I know there are dangerous people everywhere. But from my experience and what I read in the paper, most of the scary/sketchy/dangerous stuff happens downtown. I don't think someone is wrong to avoid that part of town or say that it's scary/sketchy.

Homelessness, drugs, prostitutes, mobbers, etc. are all serious problems in downtown Hamilton. There's a reason you hear about those crimes and problems more in downtown than anywhere else in the city - because it happens more there. And I don't think there's anything wrong with someone saying that.

Aw, okay. You're just being all politically correct about it. Cheers.

=^= I'm in that video in the background standing at the bus stop.

Originally Posted by sniderj

lol. Here we go hating on downtown again. I can't speak for Oshawa personally, but I work in downtown Hamilton. I've seen sketchy stuff, but no more sketchy than what I see in downtown Toronto, or even Kitchener.

This made me laugh. Downtown Kitchener can be pure sketch sometimes.

Originally Posted by RoyK

=^= I'm in that video in the background standing at the bus stop.

LOL!!!...If you could go back in time...you could hold up a sign saying "This video is fake and gay"...wonder how that would pan out.

There's the same photo on the ticats homepage. I was actually there for another reason.

Oh and about downtown Hamilton, I'm there all the time and I'm a lifelong Hamiltonian. I have only ever had one sketchy incident. I had 4 the last time I was in downtown toronto. A lot of people look down on Hamiltonians because we are on the whole poorer than people from Ancaster, Dundas, Oakville etc. Even the people on the mountain look down on those who grew up in the inner city. I noticed this after I moved, even though my family was middle class, people gave you a look when they found out you used to go to an inner city school.

lol that reminds me of arthur

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrzH-kkE-SY

You guys laugh now, but just you watch. One day there will be a tiger terrorizing downtown Hamilton and no one will listen until it's too late.

That's why I always have a fun-pak of Frosted Flakes on me at all times.

On-topic: I sort of agree with Kathy. The homeless who talk to you downtown are kind of odd, but from what I've seen, they're harmless for the most part. The atmosphere just gets a little tense when the sun goes down because it's a little more difficult to distinguish between the safe strangers and the potentially dangerous ones. But then again, I'm not an attractive female so maybe that's why the homeless don't approach me as much. :(

...So I just realized that actually wasn't on-topic (considering the topic was initially about tigers), but it seemed more relevant than my first comment. =\

Edit: watching the Arthur vid now.

1. What did they do Arthur's voice? I swear he sounded older when I was watching the show.

2. How did Francine just dribble a basketball on sand?

3. "You really think someone would do that? Just go on the Internet and tell lies?"

lol, read the first post...did a who.is query and look who the site belongs to:

http://www.who.is/whois/phsb.ca/

Originally Posted by Entropy

You guys laugh now, but just you watch. One day there will be a tiger terrorizing downtown Hamilton and no one will listen until it's too late.

That's why I always have a fun-pak of Frosted Flakes on me at all times.

On-topic: I sort of agree with Kathy. The homeless who talk to you downtown are kind of odd, but from what I've seen, they're harmless for the most part. The atmosphere just gets a little tense when the sun goes down because it's a little more difficult to distinguish between the safe strangers and the potentially dangerous ones. But then again, I'm not an attractive female so maybe that's why the homeless don't approach me as much. :(

I become a very scary person at night myself =D that's why I guess nobody approaches me then [in downtown i mean ]