Ah, Hamilton. The Hammer. Steel City. Oh, never mind, I see they have re-branded as “The City of Waterfalls”. I guess there are lots of waterfalls over The Mountain—that’s the local name for the Niagara Escarpment for those of you in the rest of the world—though sadly the best named one of those waterfalls is located across the municipal boundary to the east in Niagara Region.
I spent the first 24 years of my life in the city, growing up in the Westdale neighbourhood adjacent to MacMaster University. The proximity to that school and some quirks of geography meant it was more like growing up in a US-style college town, and as such I was somewhat unaware of the realities of much of the rest of the City as it went through the typical 1980’s rust-belt decline, but a monument to that time remains—more or less—and the Maple Leafs are visiting it today.