The lobsters of James St. North

Photographs by Ian Walker

Downtown Adventures in Hyperreality

By Simon Orpana
A short while ago, I was watching a new superhero movie at the Jackson Square cinemas. The film was set in an unspecified American city beset by violence: muggings, drug use and organized crime crop up regularly in the film, and the main hero is a nerd-turned-vigilante who becomes a celebrity after a [...]

Mulberry St. Coffeehouse – The far future pushing closer all the time

By Vanessa Sage

On its first day of opening, August 9th, 2010, I am sitting in the Mulberry Street Coffeehouse in the old Hotel Hamilton building. It is raining outside and buzzing in here. I’m drinking sugar and caffeine and wish I wasn’t since I’ve already had too much today. I see the reflection of a [...]

Local architecture is in the good hands of Shannon Kyles

By Kathy Bainas

Enthusiasm for architecture comes naturally to Shannon Kyles. Her father, Lloyd, and grandfather, J.D., were architects with their own firm in Hamilton—Kyles, Kyles & Garrett—and were responsible for, or participated in, the design and construction of local landmarks like the Pigott Building and Westdale High School.
Kyles began her career working with computers and [...]

Heart of the Hammer dishes up coffee & community

By Julie Gordon

The Heart of the Hammer Café on King Street East and Sherman opened in December 2009 and has become a popular gathering place in the community of South Stipeley. Part of the café’s success comes from owner Rebecca Doll’s commitment to providing the best quality coffee and food. More significantly, Heart of the [...]

A Letter to city council regarding the Pan Am Stadium

Dear Mayor Fred and members of Hamilton City Council,
Hamilton is at a crossroads in its history. You, our elected officials, have been given the driver’s seat on our behalf. The decisions you make will affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people for years – long after you all leave office. For this reason, [...]

A diverse wealth of stories

By Simon Orpana
Simon Orpana was so moved by our recent pieces on gentrification and neighbourhood renewal that he commented a few times on our website about his feelings on the subject. We’ve asked him to contribute his point of view to the discussion with a piece of his own.
I had the pleasure of living in [...]

Lost+Found Landscapes: Barton Reservoir

By John Terpstra
A giant serving dish, an oval wok, its interior surface lined with rocks, is balanced on the side of the escarpment. The rocks are flat but irregular, as though this scoop, this open palm of rough cobble is a portion of escarpment face laid flat as opposed to standing vertical.

Barton Reservoir is a [...]

One Way Traffic

This Hamilton Spectator front page was found during our recent building renovations. Read just how unpopular one-way conversion of our downtown streets was…it’s unreal that they actually went through with it!

Good Neighbours

This is part two in an ongoing series by Julie Gordon about neighbourhood renewal in Hamilton’s lower city.

By Julie Gordon
When my husband and I purchased a neglected inner city property last August we knew we had some work ahead of us, and we expected an economic return for our work, but we did not expect [...]