Living in zone 2 - a Steel City in transition

On the street in Hamilton, Ontario

by Tarah Hodgkinson  

When we came back to Canada, we wanted to live somewhere affordable and close to work. But we also wanted to live in a city. I love city life. The different cultures of each neighbourhood, the density, the people, and the food options!

So, we chose Hamilton. It met all of our criteria. And importantly, the people felt real. I had lived in beautiful, but gentrified, cities like Vancouver and Brisbane. They were clean, beautiful, and had great amenities, but also expensive and exclusive.

Hamilton felt different. There were people from all walks of life here. It felt genuine. But Hamilton is also a city in transition. When we think about areas in transition, many criminologists or sociologists will be reminded of crime theories of social disorganization and concentric zones.

URBAN CRIME THEORY

In the early 1900s, criminologists Robert Park and Ernest Burgess outlined 5 concentric zones that made up city life in Chicago. These went from a zone surrounding the central business district (zone 1) all the way to the commuter zone in the wealthy suburbs (zone 5). Some zones, they said, were more vulnerable to crime.

Zone 2 neighbourhoods are in transition

Zone 2 was the zone in transition. This zone surrounded the central business district, and usually housed new immigrants or the poor as they could not afford to live anywhere but right beside the factories. When they made enough money, they would transition out of the area. This meant that there was very little cohesion and informal control in this zone, and as a result, this zone had the most crime.

Looking around Hamilton, the entire city feels like zone 2. Now, of course, there are areas that are beautiful and thriving. But having spoken to people working across the city, we’ve learned that Hamilton has fallen on hard times. COVID hit hard. People lost jobs and businesses. Poverty and homelessness are obvious and rampant. Mental health issues are evident everywhere. People here are struggling.

Hamilton feels like a Zone 2 city

Hamilton, like many of its struggling working-class city counterparts, is a manufacturing city.  The waterfront is lined with factories and 60% of the manufacturing is steel. But major employers like Stelco, have gone belly-up. And like Detroit and other manufacturing communities, Hamilton was hit hard by these major job losses.

SIGNS OF CHANGE

But there are also signs of change. Hamilton has been labeled Toronto’s “Brooklyn,” as many Torontonians are leaving the big city for more affordable housing (though it is still inaccessible to most people in the city) and funky and alternative places that support local art, food, and people (see Ottawa Street).

If there is one thing we’ve learned from places like Brooklyn though, the people of Hamilton are going to have to be careful to maintain an affordable and connected community. While it might seem easier to wait for external money to make Hamilton a suburb of Toronto, doing so would spell trouble for the people who live here now. Housing needs to stay affordable. Social services need to be improved for those who are struggling. 

As we have learned from working with folks from zones in transition around the world, one of the first steps down that path is by empowering neighbourhoods through methodologies like SafeGrowth. Like other zones in transition, Hamilton residents will need to take action to not only improve their community but also keep the things that make it great.  We can’t wait to see what happens next.