I was born and raised in the hammer.
First off, let me say this. Some of the most beautiful women i have EVER met are from Hamilton. I am also amazed at the number of people i meet living in Toronto who were born and raised in Hamilton like me, but came here to work and ended up emigrating.
Don't be too quick to judge on what all these Toronto 905 burbites have to say.
Hamilton has its good areas, depends what you want. I like to think of Hamilton as a diamond in the rough. They don't know what is right under their noses. The downtown core is a bit of a dump having been killed by transportation planners and an american mentality to flock to the burbs, but Hess Village is a very cool place to hang out. Also, Locke Street is kind of interesting, as is James North. Hess Village though is by far and away the coolest area. Don't know if the Gown and Gavel is still there or not, but I would imagine it is.
The mountain is kind of burbish, and basically a place to live.
The YMCA is very good too if you want to join a gym or something while you are there.
As far as strippers go, hmmmm, last time i was at a peeler club in Hamilton, it was still called Hanrahan's and it was a bit of a snake pit, though not as bad as I Don Knows. No really good peeler bars in Hamilton.
You will probably find that the people are pretty straight up for the most part, a little less prentious than Toronto, but it's still the mullet capital of Canada, so beware.
