Grey places

So, here I am in beautiful (just kidding about the beauty), downtown Hamilton, missing Maple in the County. Of course, by the time this column hits the big blue Times stands, I’ll be at home wondering why I let myself miss something as excitingly delicious as Maple weekend in Prince Edward. But, the City of Hamilton plays host to the annual “Older than Boston, Round the Bay Race” and I’ve been lured away from pulled pork, pancakes, sausage and kettle corn, for a second year with a promise of fine spring weather and the famous all-you-can-eat pasta dinner for Round the Bay runners and their entourage, the evening before the race. No, I’m not a runner but, I do have pasta in my “jeans.” And after another weekend in Hamilton (I spent a month there one weekend) I seriously believe this could be the last time I volunteer to accompany LOML on his Hamilton pilgrimage, only to miss the fun, food, friends and family that is “Maple in the County.” But, hey, standing in Copps Coliseum, waiting for LOML to finish, breathing in the essence of runner-mania, I guess I’m soaking up all the culture this industrial gem on the lake has to offer, if standing in a sports arena is all there is to culture. But according to Hamilton’s shiny, full colour destination marketing literature, there’s a lot of excitement going on beyond the factories, the shipping docks, Copps Coliseum and rail spurs. And, as I already know from last year’s experience, most of Hamilton’s softer side isn’t open in March and frankly, the downtown area just makes me want to go back to my hotel room, shower and get on the highway as quickly as possible. Even on a sunny, cold day in March, Hamilton is a grey, grey place fraught with fast food places, empty store fronts, oodles of panhandlers and those damn smoke stacks. I believe the word Hamilton means “grey depressing place” in some post-industrial-revolution language.

Seriously though, is there a comparison I should be formulating? Perhaps, Hamilton to Prince Edward County? Or, heck, Prince Edward County to Quinte West, as one of our world-wise, recently elected officials suggested during a creativity slash-and-budget-burn. I think not. While in Hamilton I miss the County and I don’t go to Quinte West unless I absolutely have to, but both are located smack-dab on the shores of Lake Ontario and are just a whizz, a phlegmy gasp and a rumble away from the highway. They are, after all, industrial manufacturing cities. Ain’t nothing of the sort going on here in the County and that’s not really a bad thing. At least I don’t think it’s a bad thing. While it can be said, having a healthy manufacturing industry is an economic bonus to the urban residents, the very idea of creative economics doesn’t even make a blip on the radar of places like Hamilton and Quinte West. Why would it? A creative industry/community is a much more difficult concept to grasp. It’s so artsy-fartsy. Creative industry, like manufacturing, is about geography (if landscape is, indeed, geography) and the creative industry is a lot about the preservation of the community and the enhancement of all kinds of experiences. Geographically speaking, Hamilton and Quinte West have been defined by their geographic proximity to heavy-duty transportation routes. When I look out the hotel window over the City of Hamilton I see, literally, hundreds of smoke stacks blocking the view of the water, even though the room is touted as having a “water view.” With the window open, there’s an un-lullaby-like rumble of trucks and cars on Highway 403 about two kilometres distant. It’s not a completely ugly place, Hamilton. Like Quinte West, it’s just mostly ugly. But, if you like the look of graffiti-covered warehouses, chainlink fences, shipping docks and acres of 53-foot transport trucks—give Quinte West and Hamilton a look-see. But, let’s don’t get all crazy and compare our apples to their shipping containers filled with apples.

We’re spoiled, here in the County. We’ve had about a decade of deliciousness in the evolution of our creative community’s development. And I’m not just talking about Maple weekend. Back in the 70s, when I realized I was going to be living here for more than a couple of years (a long time and not a good time), I bucked up and toughed it out, all the while thinking I’d head back to Toronto the day after I retired. By the time retirement hit, I knew I couldn’t leave. A creative renaissance was happening and they don’t happen very often. Truthfully, I couldn’t afford to go back to Toronto and honestly, I just didn’t want to get back to the drone. I’d learned to take a deep breath and had slowed my pace a bit. My camera wasn’t just for family vacations and holiday celebrations, it was okay to create art with it and a whole bunch of people understood me. Yup, by the time I retired, the County was on the edge of becoming a fabulous, exciting and creative community and I wanted to be a part of it because I felt like I’d found the perfect fit. Over the next 10 years, or so, things just kept getting better for just about everyone. More of our kids started thinking in terms of finishing their education and coming home to the County, because they wanted to be a part of the creativity. We get a lot of bang for our creative community buck. Today our kids can have their cake and eat it or bake it and decorate it and, what the H E double acting baking power, they can sell it, too.

Like a lot of communities in Ontario we’re by the water, but the County isn’t exactly a Great Lakes tanker-drop-theanchor- and-ship-some-steel kinda place. It’s more a “Wow, what a great lake, drop the anchor and sip some wine” kinda place. We’ve got great local food and drinks, fabulous views, wondrous galleries, festivals of renown and places to stay for a little while or the rest of your life. The County doesn’t need to be compared with Hamilton, any more than it needs to be compared with Quinte West. No matter how much wishing a councillor might do, the County will always be a place of abundance; just not urban abundance.

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca