Moving from the east to the west....

This post originally appeared on OpenFile Hamilton, but I thought I'd repost it here as well - please let me know your thoughts.

This is it – this is the month that this former Torontonian officially became invested in Hamilton.

Since we arrived here in the winter, my husband and I have made it our goal to get to know our new home by becoming ingrained in the Hamilton culture in small ways. We joined the Art Gallery of Hamilton, a gym and go to as many events, festivals and restaurants as possible, trying to get a sense of what the city has to offer, and find our new favourite spots.

By invested, however, I mean that after six months or so of living, learning and experiencing Hamilton, I have now taken the plunge and become a property owner in the city.

When we moved to Hamilton from Toronto, we didn’t know much about the city, and needed to find a place to live pretty quickly. After looking at a few rental places, we settled on an apartment in the east end, not far from Gage Park, in a neighbourhood called Delta West.

Notwithstanding the fact that it was January, our first impression was that the area had a nice neighbourhood feel to it, there seemed to be a lot of pride of ownership and the neighbours were quick to say hello, and even help push our car out of a snowbank or two.

This part of town definitely has a lot going for it. Gage Park is a gorgeous green space, Ottawa Street and the new Centre Mall are not too far away and a lot of families have settled here.

Very quickly, however, the difficulties with walkability in this neighbourhood became apparent. For nearly the last decade, we had always lived in urban neighbourhoods (in Ontario and the UK) where nearly everything we needed on a daily basis – anything from the grocery store to the optometrist to the drugstore or coffee – was only a five or ten minute walk away. Until recently, we didn’t realize how essential this had become to our way of life.

As a one-car family in Hamilton, (a car which I rarely use, as I work from home), I often felt stranded in our new place, especially in the winter, with the only things to walk to being the convenience store and No Frills. Sure, the bus and taxis are readily available to take people wherever they want to go (and I did use them often), but there’s something to be said for heading out to the coffee shop for a break or taking a stroll to pick up something fresh for dinner.

With walkability at the top of our list of wants, we ended up putting down our permanent roots in the west end, with the shops and services of Locke Street or downtown now just a short walk away, and the hope that this will make all the difference to our quality of life in Hamilton.

This is not to say that a car will always be essential for those in the east end – I have every reason to think that my experience will not be the reality for much longer.

Things are constantly brewing on Ottawa Street, which seems to present the greatest potential for walkability for the neighbourhoods to the east of downtown, with new coffee shops and restaurants springing up regularly. It was also recently named one of the best streets in Canada.

Even closer to home, if the same type of amenities begin to move onto Main Street East, the residents of gorgeous south central and east neighbourhoods like Delta, St. Clair and Stinson will gain the opportunity that those in the west end have to shop local and stay out of the car more often – a concept which I’m sure is at the top of many people’s lists.

Patio season starts at Hess Village

A few weeks ago, we were greeted with a particularly sunny Friday afternoon. It was the first warm, sunny Friday of the season, so naturally, our minds drifted to patios.

Now, back in our former Toronto neighbourhood, we knew the patio options like the backs of our hands. No debate, we just headed up the street to one of three or so fave places. Hamilton is a different story - here we were, in the throes of this nice afternoon/evening, and no idea where to go to sit and enjoy a drink outside.

After some brief inquiries on Twitter, we found out that Hess Village was the place to go. Hess Village? The only thing I'd ever heard about this particular part of town was from my friend who went to McMaster for undergrad (you can see where this is going). Essentially, the only time she ever left campus was to party in Hess Village.

Well, that was not exactly the scene I was looking for on that particular day (or really ever these days!) but we headed off to Hess Village anyway, not really knowing what to expect.

To our surprise and delight, Hess Village (only about a block or two in size) was busy but not rowdy, and ideal. We settled on the Gown & Gavel patio, and sat down for a great dinner and drinks out in the sun. (This was also apparently voted best patio!)

Keep in mind that this was May (school was out!) I gather that September-April can be quite different in this area....

Hess Village is an interesting street - lots of eating/drinking options, obviously a desirable area for pubs/clubs and some other businesses as well. Our first thought was that a pedestrianized Hess Village (even one that is only pedestrianized on weekends) would be really cool - especially with the addition of street musicians or performers on busy evenings, for example.

I'm sure we'll be spending a few more warm, sunny afternoons there between now and August (but I'll be honest and say we likely won't be heading to Hess during the school year!)

We've also heard about a few other great patios to visit in the area - what's your fave summer patio in Hamilton?

Dundas, the rail trail and other exploits

One of the first things we'd heard about, before we even moved to Hamilton, was how pretty Dundas is - and the rail trail in particular. This was back in January, so given the temperature, we filed this away in our minds for another, warmer time. That time came up in May.

On a particularly nice day, we decided it was time to find out what this rail trail was all about. I don't think we quite realized exactly how massive it was. In doing a bit of research on the trail before heading out (basically to find out where to park), we discovered that it is 32km in length, and stretches all the way from Hamilton to Brantford.

We had just come from the gym, so decided that it might be wise to tackle only a small part of the trail that day, just a km or two - but that was enough to prove to us that this is a great way to spend a day, or even an hour. The part of the trail we were on was wide enough for people and bikes alike, surrounded by trees, farmers fields and even a house or two (as an aside, how cool would it be to live on the rail trail!)

How awesome to be able to get into nature so close to Hamilton, and only come across a few people along the path.

The only complaint I have about the rail trail (at least the part we were on) was the lack of shade, not ideal on a super sunny day, but that's just my opinion.

After we were done exploring the country around Dundas, we headed into the town itself. I don't really know what we were expecting, but we were instantly impressed by the charm of Dundas' main street - cafes, pubs, shops, basically what we consider to be an ideal, walkable old main street - touristy, yet still functional for those who live there. We've definitely got a few places earmarked for our return trip.

We heard there's a buskerfest in Dundas this weekend - a perfect opportunity to head back! I'll share my thoughts on this later!