New paintings

Yay new paintings have been posted! Scroll down or click on the Paintings link at right to see a pantload of art. Some of these will be hanging (and available for sale) at Mixed Media for the month of August; a few won't be because, well, I'm keeping them...but if you're reeeeaaaally dying for portraits of Sean Burak, I'll see what we can work out. © All images Amy Kenny 2008. Not to be reproduced or used without explicit written permission from Amy Kenny.

Ward 2

Acrylic on canvas 16x16

The Good Rev

Acrylic on canvas 24x26

SOLD

Stinson Window

Acrylic on canvas 5x7

SOLD

Robyn Dell' Unto

Acrylic on canvas 20x24 SOLD

Popular Priced Electricians

Acrylic on canvas 20x36

Plaskett (DCMF)

Acrylic on canvas 16x16

Pigott Building

Acrylic on canvas 60x36

Movie Palace

Acrylic on canvas 70x48

SOLD

Mex-I-Can

Acrylic on canvas 18x24

Jeremy Fisher

Acrylic on canvas 24x20

Hank & Lily

Acrylic on canvas 48x48

Feist

Acrylic on canvas 20x24

Feist #2

Acrylic on canvas 12x14

SOLD

Diamond Auto

Acrylic on canvas 20x36

Charlton East

Acrylic on canvas 16x16

SOLD

Businessman Sean

Acrylic on canvas 16x16

Bushman Sean

Acrylic on canvas 16x16

Pop Goes the Hammer

Published in HMag: October 2008

Adam Kuhn can’t believe he just said “it’s cool to care,” but it’s true.

Kuhn, the manager of McMaster University’s Office of Community Service Leaning and Civic Engagement (OCSLCE), elaborates. “There’s a real push toward hiring ‘the Global Citizen,’” he says. Companies and organizations of all kinds want employees who have the skills to communicate, to explore, to engage and interact with the environment that surrounds them. That’s why Kuhn is heading up OCSLCE’s Pop the Bubble; a new initiative that aims to create global citizens at McMaster University. Pop hopes to develop a sense of lifelong civic engagement by introducing Mac students to the Hamilton that lies off-campus.

In 2005, Mohawk College took similar a step when the Language Studies faculty introduced an Active Citizenship elective that eventually became mandatory for all Mohawk students. “My hope is that it makes them aware of issues in their communities and the importance of being involved in addressing those issues,” says Active Citizenship coordinator Geoff Ondercin-Bourne. “I also hope it gives them the opportunity to network with people in the community who might be of assistance to them in their careers.” The syllabus focusses on media analysis, persuasive writing, community destination visits and community-based speakers.

The difference between Mohawk’s Active Citizenship class and McMaster’s Pop program is that Pop started with the students.

One of these students is Chryslyn Pais, a 5^th year McMaster student and volunteer coordinator with Pop. She says the campaign is something students have been asking for. The University provides them with so many amenities that they don’t ever need to leave the campus, let alone Westdale. Pop wants to break the barrier between students’ west Hamilton homebase and the rest of the city.

“We want students to realize that when they’re leaving for school, they’re not just coming to McMaster,” says Kuhn. “We want them to realize they’re coming to Hamilton.”

In Kuhn’s mind, one of the biggest barriers to this is the 403. “It’s a psychological thing, but it’s this dividing line between Westdale and downtown Hamilton,” he says.

One of the ways Pop is trying to eliminate this line is by helping students create a mental map of the entire city as soon as they arrive. During Welcome Week, Kuhn and Pais partnered with the McMaster Student Union (MSU) and the HSR to offer a short downtown bus tour to students and their parents. The fully guided tour took riders through the GO Station, around Gore Park, up King and back to campus.

“A lot of the parents were really appreciative of that,” says Pais. “Something as little as knowing that the two main streets downtown are one-way is a huge thing for someone who doesn’t know the city,” she says. “Hopefully the next time they visit Hamilton to take their kids out to dinner, they’ll feel more comfortable considering a restaurant downtown.”

Since Welcome Week, Pais and Kuhn have promoted the program in a few different ways. Flashy Pop promotional cards, featuring Ten Things to do Before you Graduate (hit the Farmers’ Market, attend Doors Open, or visit at least three of Hamilton’s 60 waterfalls) are circulating the campus. The plasma screens at Mac residence buildings, which rotate ads and events, feature Pop-sponsored Hamilton trivia questions to pique students’ interest in the city. Pop has a relationship with Volunteer Hamilton that allows them to access a database of volunteer opportunities for interested students. In late October, they hope to host a Pop the Bubble showcase in the atrium of the student centre. Potential invitees include the City of Hamilton, numerous BIA spokespeople and Tourism Hamilton.

Pais says they’re really excited to work with Tourism Hamilton and she thinks the feeling is mutual. Both stand to gain from the partnership. Pop gets expert, up-to-the-minute advice on events and attractions; Tourism Hamilton gets free of word-of-mouth advertising. “A lot of people only see Hamilton’s smokestacks as they drive over the Skyway,” says Pais. “There’s so much more than that...we want students to go home for the summer and tell people about it.”

Check www.macpopthebubble.wordpress.com for updated information on Pop-run events, ideas and interactive components including a post-your-own top ten to-do’s in Hamilton.

Morning Coffee

Linoleum block print on paper

Commuting

Published in HMag: June 2008 Everyone has heard the laundry list of reasons to leave the car in the driveway and use alternative transportation: the frustrations of traffic, the dangers of road rage, the rising cost of gasoline, adverse effects on the environment and our own physical health. Here’s what some of your fellow Hamiltonians are up to when it comes to commuting… The Hardcore Cyclist As the Coordinator of Hamilton’s Commuter Challenge, it’s no surprise that Cheryl de Boer is intensely committed to using her bicycle as her primary mode of transportation. Every morning, de Boer rides 9km from her Dundas home to her downtown Hamilton office. Altogether this commute guarantees her an hour of exercise each day. She arrives at work energized. She saves 100% on gas. She feels good about making a sustainable choice and is hopeful that her presence on the road encourages others to give cycling a shot. “The more of us there are out there, the more we get noticed, the safer we are and the more of an impact we have,” she says. While cyclists don’t make up the majority of commuters at any given workplace just yet, they are starting to influence some major transit decisions. Small but significant indicators include the York Blvd. bike lanes and a second successful year for VIA Rail’s Bike Train —a tourism-based initiative that put bike racks on certain trains running between Toronto and Niagara. GO Transit has also jumped on board with their recent decision to spend $225, 000 on bike racks for buses running the Hamilton/Toronto corridor and a $2.5 million contract that will see covered bike storage at select stations. The Driver Katy Leask had the ultimate in easy commuting experiences when she taught English in Himeji, Japan in 2005. Between biking and the city’s excellent transit system, she could travel between work and home quickly and easily. Sadly, the same has not been true since her return to Hamilton. A French teacher at a Burlington school, Leask spends a total of 50 minutes a day in her car. This is an improvement over last year, when she spent an average of two hours a day commuting to a school in Acton, but it’s still not ideal. Sure, the finances are a source of frustration but what weighs on her most are the hours she loses to driving. “I’m like a 5 year old in the car,” she says. “I’ve got books on CD, I eat sunflower seeds as an activity and, even though I totally disapprove of it due to distraction, I talk on my cell phone to keep from spacing out or getting tired…auto pilot is scary and a pretty common occurrence for commuters.” One of the things that may make it a little easier for people doing the Hamilton-Burlington run in the future is the current provincial plan to create a high occupancy vehicle lane on the QEW between Burlington and Oakville. After HOV lanes opened on sections of the 403 and 404 in 2005, studies found that almost all of the 400-series highways —many of which run through the Golden Horseshoe— have potential for achieving a minimum of 500 vehicles per lane during peak commuting hour. In response, Ontario has committed to more than 450km of HOV lanes in the next two decades. The Telecommuter Of course this won’t work for all jobs, but you could try talking your employer into a telecommute situation. Jon Clark, a mortgage specialist, commuted to an office in downtown Toronto for five years. He caught GO Transit’s sole 7am express for three years before he found a carpool buddy. Carpooling cut costs a bit but it still meant devoting 55 hours to a 40-hour work week. For a while, there was talk of making his position one that could be done by telecommute. After a year of waiting, Clark applied for an internal position where the work-from-home was a guarantee and a huge draw. Today, he takes the GO train into Toronto once every three weeks for monthly meetings with the rest of his telecommuting team. “Saving the commuting money and time is the big one,” Clark says. “There are also less auxiliary costs like coffee, snacks, lunches, group lottery tickets, casual Fridays, people's kid's hockey team fund-raisers, etc.” He does concede this set-up may not be ideal for people who can’t separate home life from work. When his company originally introduced the idea of telecommuting, a few of his colleagues resisted but all are now happily working from home offices. The Little Bit O’ Bike, Little Bit O’ Bus Rob Berger is a PhD candidate at McMaster University. He has relied on a bike/bus combo to get to Mac since he started his undergrad in 1999. From his house in Durand, McMaster is a 10-15 minute bike ride, not much longer than it would take in a car and, he emphasizes, much cheaper in terms of parking. When you count on your car to get around town you pay for it even after you’re done with the drive. Nowhere is this more true than at McMaster’s high-priced lots, where it’s cheaper to park on side streets and risk getting ticketed than it is to pay parking fees. So Berger bikes. When bad weather forces him off the road he takes transit, albeit grudgingly. “During the school year, the schedules seem to be a bit all over the place,” he says. “I’ll be standing at the King/Queen bus stop, late for work, and two or three buses will go by, full…In the evening, when night classes are done, it can also be tough to get a bus….if you miss one, it's another 30 minutes until the next.” Berger would not only like to see a more reliable and comfortable service, but increased service to areas off the Main/King corridor including Ancaster, Dundas and Stoney Creek. It may not happen before Berger graduates but solutions to this problem are already being talked about if not immediately taken care of. In 2007 MetroLinx promised $300 million for upgrades to Hamilton’s transit system. Feasibility studies are currently underway to decide whether light rail transit or bus rapid transit would best serve the corridors from Eastgate Mall to McMaster and the airport to the waterfront. Tips & Suggestions - Ask your employer about the possibility of installing bike racks –if it’s not in the budget, organize fundraising - If you’d like to run, cycle or walk to work, but don’t relish the idea of spending the day soaked in sweat, ask your employer about the possibility of onsite showers - Once you win that battle, push for a change room so you don’t have to get dressed in a tiny bathroom stall - Carpool! Benefits of increased carpooling include a shorter, less stressful commute, fuel conservation and increased air quality - If you can’t find a carpool buddy at your own workplace search the classifieds for people in a similar situation - If you’re nervous about being the lone cyclist on your morning route, ask around the workplace and see if anyone else is interested in starting a bike, run or walk “pool.” There’s safety in numbers and you’ll motivate each other to stick with it - Ask your employer if he/she is willing to subsidize a portion of bus passes for interested employees - As an employer, get rid of incentives like paid parking spots. Encourage alternative commuting by passing the cost of parking lot maintenance on those who choose to drive - Find out more about light rail and bus rapid transit –voice your opinion to city politicians - If you work in an office where most of your work is done via the internet and telephone talk to your employer about telecommute options - Do you pay for a pricey gym membership you don’t have the energy to use at the end of the day? Save money on training and transportation by turning your commute into a workout

From Survival to Sustainable: Hamilton's Music Scene

Published in HMag: November 2007 Musicians playing musical chairs is hardly a new thing. Indie artists like Matt Mays, Joel Plaskett, Wintersleep and Two Hours Traffic have long had a tightly-knit enclave out on the east coast. Toronto exalts bands like Broken Social Scene, Apostle of Hustle, Stars and Do Make Say Think for their constant collaboration and cross-pollination. Yet there’s something different—something uniquely Hamilton—about what’s currently happening with our city’s music scene. Tides ebb and flow. Seasons change. Scenes split. How do we sustain something so good? How do we preserve and promote Hamilton’s rare musical present so we can enjoy it in the future? “The fundamental thing for [sustainability] is a strong community,” says Andrew Eckart, one of the founders of Hamilton’s recently defunct indie label, Put On Your Drinking Cap Records. “The playing and writing are very strong [in Hamilton] but the amount of people out at shows seems to be a bit of a hindrance.” Eckart advocates a more underground approach including house shows and do-it yourself promotion. He suggests something that will engage the city’s student population and show them that there’s quality music being made beyond the gates of McMaster University, outside the halls of their high schools, somewhere other than on their iPods. This is an approach that’s already been adopted by a large and interconnected collection of local musicians, many of whom hail from McMaster University themselves. Charlemagne, Matt Paxton & the Mountain, the Surly Young Bucks, Ben Somer, The Sweet Homewreckers and Dan Griffin & the Regrets are just a handful of the bands postering the Mac campus and playing basement gigs in Westdale. You’d be forgiven for mixing, matching and mistaking members for one another not because so many of them are shaggy, plaid-clad musicians, but because they’re always pulling the old on-stage switcheroo. Yes, you recognize that bassist from the band you saw last week it’s just that he was playing keys then. Some say the marriage of so many like-minded musicians could hinder their overall progression by making everyone sound the same. Take Dan Griffin, Matt Paxton and Ben Somer for example. All three are singer-songwriters whose songs often feature pedal steel. The folky-guy-and-his-guitar trap is an easy one to fall into—especially when you frequently play with all the other guys-and-their-guitars in town—but each of these musicians stands on his own. Paxton whispers breathy Northern daydreams over a full-on backing band. Somer plays a stripped-down show, employing additional musicians sparingly (a technique that does well to highlight breezy, wide-open songs hinged on gorgeous turns of phrase). Griffin has solid arrangements, clever and nostalgic lyrics, strong vocals and a rocking live sound. Griffin’s brand of folk-rock is a perfect example of how all this musical mingling only diversifies Hamilton’s soundscape. His solo work is far from the rough-edged roots rock he plays with the Surly Young Bucks or the indie-rock he plays with Charlemagne, but both bands could take some credit for pushing his solo material beyond his bedroom door and out into the city. Before joining either band, Griffin played random open mic nights and wrote in his spare time. It wasn’t until he started playing keys for the Bucks that he was inspired to knuckle down and record his own songs, a move which resulted in 2006’s Stars and Satellites, as well as the creation of the Regrets, a backing band that pulls members from Griffin’s other side projects. Aaron Goldstein, a jack of many trades whose prowess on the pedal steel turned him into the steel city’s steel slut, is a regular player with a variety of bands including the Regrets, the Bucks, the Mountain and Ben Somer. He says he can absolutely attest to the positive effects of ensemble incest. It’s rare for a musician to be exclusively interested in one genre. Stepping outside your own projects allows you to indulge your love of other styles which helps you grow. “I’m always in learning mode,” he says. “I strive to learn something from absolutely everybody I play with. I think it would be foolish not to have that aspiration.” Griffin agrees. In the last couple years, all of these bands have enjoyed a marked increase in their levels of musicianship and professionalism. When they first came together, it was with varying degrees of experience and assurance. There was a certain anxiety and lack of confidence about playing live that seemed lessened by the experience of playing with people who were equally unsure. It’s easier to play with your friends. You have common goals. You know what you’re getting into in terms of personality and dynamics. It’s hard to take yourself too seriously when there are four other guys ready to rag on you for being a pompous ass. This is another part of what makes these bands so much fun to watch. Not only can you tell that they’re friends, you feel like they might be your friends. There’s a humility among Hamilton bands that you don’t find in places like Toronto. There’s less hipster self-awareness here, less scene in your face. Hamilton isn’t an uber-exclusive invites-only club. Even as an audience member, you’re part of it simply because you’re there. Being at a Bucks show and recognizing Mike DeAngelis as Charlemagne’s guitarist makes you feel like part of a larger community. “This is really important for any kind of sustainability, musical, artistic, environmental or otherwise,” says Eckart. “To remain a part of something, people need to feel as though their actions contribute, in some way, to the greater whole.” Eckart supports the overlap within the local music scene. In any environment where bands are feeding off one another’s energy, everyone stands to gain. A network provides support. It gives you word-of-mouth. It makes the job fun. It fosters a positive competitive spirit that pushes everyone forward. Where he does see a problem is in the crowd. Hamilton is a sore spot on the tour schedules of a lot of bands because of the empty floors and quarter-capacity bars. Are we a fickle city or an apathetic one? Yes, it’s up to the musicians themselves to entertain us, but it’s a cyclical science. It’s also up to music lovers to get out there and find the bands. “If the community in Hamilton can focus on fostering the communal environment then there is no stopping new artists from popping up and no stopping those already involved from becoming influential on a larger, dare I say, national scale,” says Eckart.

Inc. Settling Down but Still Shaking Things up

Published on Raisethehammer.org in November 2007

At 32 years of age, Hamilton Artists Inc. is finally ready to settle down, but don’t worry - that doesn’t mean they won’t continue to shake things up. The publicly-funded, member-run arts association has been a bit of a transient since its inception in 1976. Inc. couch-surfed the city’s streets for years, renting space on Bay, Barton, Vine and Colbourne, but this year, it’s growing up and setting up permanently in the former Jerry’s Man Shop at James and Cannon. When Jerry’s went on the market after closing down this past winter, Inc. immediately saw it for what it was - the perfect place to put down roots and promote their presence in the thriving James North arts community. Since Jerry’s carried a hefty price tag, Inc. turned to Hamilton City Council in the hopes of securing an early release of the $750,000 Future Fund grant for which they had been approved in September of 2006. When their request was denied, an anonymous buyer purchased the building in trust for the organization until Inc. could afford to buy the building back outright. Located at the very corner where James Street’s glut of galleries begins, Jerry’s serves as a gateway to Hamilton’s most vibrant arts hub and Inc. is the ideal sentinel. The Canadian Art Experience Inc. focuses on the Canadian artistic experience as seen through the eyes of emerging, established and aspiring artists. The organization aims to support and expose innovative and forward-thinking Canadian art. One of the ways they do this is by hosting regular workshops, events and talks on relevant topics including where artists can find grant information and how to write professional grant proposals. A nominal membership fee grants artists unlimited access to these events and gives them a voice when it comes to programming. Each year the organization receives more than 125 submissions from Canadian artists vying for one of the gallery’s six to eight main space shows. These exhibitions come in formats as varied as film, music, video and offsite installations. The only criteria is that the work must fulfill Inc.’s mandate of promoting contemporary work, bringing attention to new ideas, inspiring discussion and offering patrons something outside of the average art experience. In 2004, for example, BC-based artist Marianne Corless exhibited Further, a collection of iconic Canadian images made entirely from fur. It was a review board, comprised entirely of Inc. members, that decided to include this show in the year’s programming. Hands-On Experience This kind of hands-on experience is part of what makes Inc. such a fantastic training ground for upcoming artists. You can’t just walk into the Art Gallery of Hamilton and ask for a show. Even in the art world you need to go through the proper channels, cross your T’s and dot your I’s. The close-knit community at Inc. makes for a rich, practical learning environment. Sasha Klein, a third-year fine arts student at McMaster University, is currently on a co-op placement with Inc. Not only has her involvement with the organization given her a much better idea of how the local arts scene works, it’s taught her basic art industry protocol including how to submit proper proposals. It’s also given her marketable gallery skills. While most of her day-to-day work with Inc. is administrative, Klein was recently asked to curate her own small show for their front wall space. From the West was a collection of experimental art pieces by her fellow McMaster classmates. “Inc. affords artists who would not typically be able to show their work through commercial galleries an opportunity to show that work,” she says. “They’re more focused on community and at working hard to build the local arts scene.” A Critical Mass of Partnerships “Arts communities are very complex and Hamilton is also truly that,” says Donna Lee MacDonald, the administrative director and one of only three paid staff members at Inc. “I think what is happening in the arts, not only on James Street, but in the arts in the city in general is a critical mass of partnerships and the understanding that together we are a stronger more vital source of activity in the city.” Case in point is the current relationship between Inc. and the Threshold School of Building, which is helping with renovations to Jerry’s 7,000 square feet of retail space. Some of their more major projects include converting basement space into an apartment for a brand new artist-in-residence program and slicing the former clothing shop up into a large main gallery and a smaller members’ gallery. The remaining indoor space will be converted into offices while the outdoor courtyard behind the building will become a sculpture garden. Renovations are expected to cost over $1 million and the move will happen in three separate stages over the course of this coming year, but Inc. hopes to be operating completely out of Jerry’s by the fall of 2008.

The Royal Connaught

Published in HMag, March 2008

The Royal Connaught Hotel is a gritty-looking building with a gilded past. Is Harry Stinson, one of Toronto’s fallen former idols, the benevolent benefactor that this Hamilton hotel needs? When it was built in 1916, The Connaught was Hamilton’s premier hot spot, attracting high-profile guests and acting as a hub for social lives lived in the Golden Horseshoe. Boasting an opulent ballroom, elegant lodging and an old guard commitment to hospitality, it should have aged the way of the Empress, the Chateau Frontenac or the Royal York. Bouncing between owners for almost a century will take its toll on any old gal though. Almost every former owner – from Citicom to Joymarmon to Howard Johnson – has walked away from the Connaught a few million lighter. Even Canmac Hotels, a corporation known for pulling crumbling buildings back from the brink, gave up after two years and sent the Connaught into receivership in 2004. The hotel’s current owner is The Connaught Development Group, a consortium of local developers including Tony Battaglia and Joe Mancinelli. When they bought the building in 2005, it was with plans similar to Stinson’s – renovate and reopen it as a hotel/condo hybrid with boutique retail on the main floor. Plans never moved much past the early stages and the Connaught sat in reno-limbo for three years, gutted and glory-less under a faded green and white HoJo sign. This past February, when Stinson offered 9.5 million for the building, the Development Group, which originally paid 4.5 million for the building, agreed and a new buzz began. Would Stinson be the one to finally turn a derelict downtown building around? If so, it wouldn’t be the first time. Stinson was one of the masterminds behind the 1993 conversion of the Candy Factory Lofts on Toronto’s Queen Street West. Long before that stretch of the strip was the hipper-than-thou West Queen West it is today, it was simply a place you didn’t walk alone at night. Stinson supporters are optimistic that his vision for the Connaught will put a similar polish on an otherwise dull block of downtown, galvanizing Gore Park and the International Village just as Candy Lofts did to Queen. Stinson is of a similar mindset. He is confident that the Connaught could be the catalyst Hamilton needs. Once surrounding businesses feel that something significant is happening as far as retail and commercial ventures go, the quality of those ventures will change. Businesses, companies and individuals who were hesitant about investing in the core will want to get in before the rent goes up. Another of Stinson’s victories are the nearly full High Park Lofts in Roncesvalles. Ditto Toronto’s exclusive condo suites at 1 King West which, though they ended in a kind of personal failure (after a falling out with financier David Mirvish), proved wildly successful. The building maintains an exclusive image and high occupancy rates, both of which were in place before Stinson was forced to file for bankruptcy protection and step down, something that Hamilton architect John Mokrycke thinks is a little suspicious. Mokrycke was responsible for bringing Stinson to Hamilton in the first place. “When I heard [Stinson] was giving up on Toronto in favour of Stateside development, I thought, ‘no, he has to come to Hamilton.’” Mokryke said. “So I called him up.” The next day he was meeting Stinson for lunch at James North’s Acclamation Bar and guiding him on an all-day foot tour of the city. Shortly thereafter, Stinson was putting an offer on the Connaught, and touting a proposal Mokrycke is confident he’ll make good on. Stinson has an eye for this sort of thing; for waltzing into a city and seeing, in a single afternoon, what some diehard Hamiltonians have yet to realize. This vision is part of what draws comparisons between Stinson and Donald Trump, the American real estate mogul with the solid gold touch. In fact, the two had a friendly competition in 2007, when Stinson planned to trump Trump’s 57-storey International Hotel & Tower with his own 90-storey Sapphire Tower. Unfortunately, his touch proved only gold-plated. The plan was scrapped and the site sold due to height and shadow concerns. Perhaps in the Connaught, Stinson sees the opportunity to do what Toronto wouldn’t allow. Indeed, the rough renderings for the project paint an impressive picture – a tall skinny sliver of silver glass that stretches up the back of the Connaught, twice as high as any building on the Hamilton skyline – but it’s one that locals have seen before, with the Sapphire. In reality, Stinson says, the tower may be slightly shorter but he won’t settle for any less than 50 storeys. “We want it to be a nice bookend to the Century 21 building,” he said. “When people come along Main Street, they should focus on [those towers] as a gateway to the city.” The condos contained within will be two to four bedroom units with anywhere from 1,000-4,000 square feet and price tags rang from $300,000 to one million dollars. “The average builder is price-driven,” Stinson said. “We’re design driven. These are big apartments designed like homes. You will not be trading down by moving into these condos.” As for the existing Connaught, floors one through four will house a boutique hotel with less than 100 rooms. Floors five and up will be converted into what Stinson calls “efficiency suites”: fully furnished, one-bedroom condos that will be sold as secondary residences for out of towners, interns at Hamilton hospitals and lawyers who are fed up with ferrying back and forth between Ancaster offices and Hamilton’s downtown courthouse. A second loft building of six or seven storeys will run along Catharine Street, offering customizable condo space. Buyers will be able to purchase the condo shell for around $199,000 or pay a higher price for any combination of a veritable menu of options including drywall, exposed brick, open ceilings, and large versus small kitchens. There is some concern that Hamilton isn’t ready for large-scale real estate development like this. Chief among the arguments is the fact that condos often serve as an alternative to astronomically priced downtown housing. This is not the case in Hamilton, where detached, centrally located homes can still be found for less than $200,000. However, current trends seem to deflect this argument. On the opening day of Bay Street’s Core Lofts, the line of potential buyers wound from the building’s entrance, around Jackson Street to Caroline. Almost one-third of the 105 units sold that day. The remainder went within the next two months. Since then, Allenby Lofts, Stone Lofts, Margaret Street Lofts, Rebecca Lofts and Chateau Royale condos have also sold at a steady pace. “Hamilton is long overdue for a new and exciting large-scale condo project,” said Andrew Karpavicius, a real estate agent with Judy Marsales. “The only way to make downtown more prosperous is to get people living there. Their friends and family will see what our downtown has to offer and want to live there as well.” Of his own decision to live loft-style, Karpavicius cites simplicity. It’s a lifestyle choice. He doesn’t have the time to shovel snow, cut grass or tend to all the little things that pile up when you’re a homeowner, and he’s not the only one. The newly built Madison Lofts on the mountain filled quickly with aging baby-boomers who want the nest without the upkeep. Young couples and new professionals may prefer the price tag of a condo to a modestly priced house. When the McMaster Innovation Park on Longwood is up and running, CEO Zach Douglas estimates it will create upwards of 2,000 new jobs over the next decade. Hamilton real estate is already booming, the city is slowly filling and the Greenbelt limits the land available for new development. Eighty storeys of condo is a lot for a city that may just be warming up to the idea of loft living, but as Stinson said, you can’t expect results without taking the chance. Confidence is key. He gets daily phone calls from the media, asking whether or not he is serious about this deal. What are the plans? Is he really going through with them? Has he secured financing? “Do I have 9.5 million dollars in a briefcase, lying on my desk, that I just haven’t dropped off yet? No, I don’t. Am I confident that the financing will be in place by June [the closing date for the Connaught]? Yes I am,” he said. “Financing is a complete red herring in Hamilton. Hamilton is not a poor place. This city just needs a shot in the arm.” For a city that can only grow out so far, it seems the only way to go is up

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