Neighbourhood Rocks

What do you love about your neighbourhood?
One woman writes;


"We rural people have less garbage since we make our own compost and
supervise burning other materials in contained barrels on days that are
not windy.
We perfer to take care of our own needs.  We do have city garbage
pick-up and snow plowing but both were better handled in the days when
Glanbrook took care of those services themselves.  We do not want urban
amenities like busing, sidewalks, streetlights and sewers etc. Thus, we
should have our taxes lowered.
The one thing we truly miss now is seeing the starts to the north of us,
which are obliverated by the city lights, especially the fog lights on
Rymal Rd intersections.
We, and our neighbours moved to the country because we want to live in
the country.  I did hear one new neighbour, on a different road than
ours, say that he couldn't wait for development so that stores, banks
etc. would be closer to him.Well, if he didn't want to be away from
developed areas, he should not have moved to the country. We see
developers' signs saying: Live the country life.  Really! - If they
build their houses here, the will be NO country life. Developers should
be in-filling within the Hamilton city boundaries - not in the
amalgamated areas.  Everyone needs to eat.  Thus everyone needs farmers.
Those of us in this area who are not farmers do grown our own yearly
supply of fruits and vegetables on our large lots. Unlike sod farms, we
add nourishment to the soil, we don't deplete it."

Another writes;
I live in Ainslie Wood North. Things I like about this neighbourhood include heritage trees, close to Cootes (we see deer in our neighbourhood all the time), Rail Trail, McMaster (my husband can walk to work), character homes. Things I don't like: poor walkability; businesses nearby are not ones I frequent ( e.g. 3 paint stores, fast food chains), it's nice having the Fortinos nearby, but its set up for cars as you must walk through massive parking lot to get to front door; too many rental properties that are not well maintained.

A Gent writes about his North End home;
I feel that the North End rocks.
We have Bayfront, Pier 4, Pier 8, and Eastwood parks all within walking distance.
The waterfront trail is exceptional and connects the North End to Westdale.
Transit service could be improved as currently there is only one bus that travels sporadically through the area on Burlington St. Traffic can be heavy at times particularly on Burlington and James St. Our neighbourhood is also close enough to downtown that the Farmer's Market and Central Library are within relatively easy walking distance.

In terms of improvements there is currently numerous studies underway examining commerical, residential, recreational, and transportation development. There is strong pressure from our neighbourhood association to maintain the local feel by utilizing traffic calming measures and limiting large scale development.

The City of Hamilton is heavily focused on waterfront development. It is great to be by the water; the North End Rocks.

And again from a North Ender;
Our neighbourhood (the North End) is definitely walkable - to downtown and the West Harbour (trails and all). Buses are good. Bike paths non-existant (on city streets), but streets are calmer and smaller than above Main, so riding is ok. The kids walk to school and the library is close. We have awalking and biking trail by the water. And it's generally very quiet and very safe.

I do wish the air were cleaner here. Also, there's a suburban rogue attittute down here -they've embraced all the 'conveniences' and have little regard for the effect some behaviours have on others. The garbage on the street is noticable (especially today with this winter thaw!). I wish that there was much more of an urban forest here (more trees!). I wish folks didn't have so many cars and made their front yards into parking 'pads' to accomodate them, hence removing street parking and creating ugly front yards and less permeable ground for storm water to be absorbed into.
I wish there were more 'friendly' commercial venues right within a few blocks... I wish folks didn't use snow blowers or leaf blowers or burn in their backyards and even in their fireplaces, as it pollutes our local air. Idling is also quite prevelent, sigh.