Newsletter #109 - 🐴

Shape of the City: Chatham-Kent

I’m excited to do one of these again! Welcome back to North America! Welcome to Shape of the City: Chatham-Kent.

Chatham-Kent is a city of 111,000 located along the Thames and off the 401 between London and Windsor. I’ve visited Chatham-Kent on multiple occasions in my childhood and as an adult.

Before there was a Chatham-Kent, there was a city of Chatham (aka the Maple City), and 21 municipalities composing a County of Kent. Some small towns in the county include Ridgetown, Blenheim, Dresden, Wallaceburg, Thamesville, Bothwell, Wheatley, and Tilbury. And then there’s the dozen or so townships. And Kent completely surrounded Delaware Nation at Moraviantown.

Municipalities across Ontario had been pressured to restructure over the years, with the Peterson Liberals and the Rae-led NDP each overseeing a half of Simcoe County being restructured, and with the PCs in power by 1995, the pressure to merge was there more than ever before. The plan in Kent County was to have the City of Chatham surrounded by new, independent towns known as West Kent, North Kent, Wallaceburg, East Kent, and South Kent.

The temperature increased around the discourse of amalgamation talks, which had a role in Claude Johnson, the then-deputy reeve of Orford Township, dying of a heart attack during a County Council meeting.

Kent County ultimately was amalgamated, with Chatham joining it, into one Municipality of Chatham-Kent, effectively January 1, 1998. Chatham, Wallaceburg, North Kent, West Kent, South Kent, and East Kent would not be standalone municipalities, but were now constituencies of a city of 100,000.

William Erickson, the final mayor of Chatham, defeated former councillor Mary Lee to become the first mayor of the new city starting in 1998. He died in the middle of his second term, in 2001. Diane Gagner succeeded him and was elected to a full term in 2003. It was around that time that I first visited Chatham-Kent.

My first trips to Chatham-Kent were to a place outside of Dresden in what was then called Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It’s now known at the Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History.

Visits here are a great opportunity to learn about Black history not just in the area, but Canada in general. Several times throughout my last visit, the name of “North Buxton” was namedropped. I learned that it is a community southwest of Chatham that was originally established by freed slaves who came up via the Underground Railroad. There’s festivities every Labour Day long weekend known as the “Homecoming”. People come to the two communities around this time of year from all over Canada and the United States.

I went on my first solo road trip back in October 2021. I rented a hybrid car and zoomed along the rural roads of Elgin, Chatham-Kent, and Lambton County. Just as a little disclaimer: all road pictures I took were when the car was fully stopped and I was not in the car. I toured Chatham’s downtown on an empty pandemic October Sunday.

The former downtown mall had seen better days, anchored by a Sears. And now I hear it might be the next location of the City Hall?

The restaurant I went to didn’t have the greatest vibe. The people working in there were a bit surprised that anyone would come in. But good food though! The Airbnb I picked for the night was not my greatest decision. The place gave me the ick. It was a lesson: you get what you pay for, and $45 does not go a long way.

I got the hell out of dodge before it was 7:00 am and drove to a diner. It was a wonderful breakfast and a palate cleanser from my evening at the Airbnb. Next, I drove along county roads to reach Mitchell’s Bay. It was wonderful to be along the water even if the rain was coming down hard upon my face. I drove to Sarnia not long after that and went home. When I returned the car and went home, I got a call about the car I was about to buy. I began that day getting the hell out of dodge and I was now about to own a Dodge.

A few months after that, I aimlessly drove through Middlesex County. No real reason, I just wanted to see what the world was like beyond my usual day-to-day. I made it as far as Clachan, on the edge of Chatham-Kent.

Later that year, in September 2022, I did another solo road trip to Chatham-Kent, staying at a motel on Chatham’s east edge. I took my bike into downtown and hit up Sons of Kent and Pizza Tonite. I kept my bike in the motel room. I knew my car was safe, but what about my bike? I also noticed a dive bar along Grand Avenue East, which I felt I needed to check out the next time I was in town.

The next morning, I toured downtown with my bike, grabbing a quick breakfast and admiring the public art. I drove southward to Blenheim near the end of the morning and stumbled upon their fall market in the Talbot Trail Park.

In the afternoon, I visited Erieau and went to Bayside Brewing and ate lunch at a diner on the waterfront. I loved little places like these. The water sparkles, the beer flows, the sun shines. What more could anyone ask for?

I went up to Lambton County to complete that road trip, like my last one.

A favorite in my recent visits to Chatham-Kent is Yardie Vibez. It’s a Jamaican restaurant located on St. Clair Avenue between Downtown Chatham and its northern suburbs. Always get the jerk meatloaf.

I visited Maple City Bakery with Laura to get donuts over a year ago. We love ourselves a simple bakery.

I most recently visited Chatham-Kent several months back. The reaction from locals and people in the area often is along the lines of “out of all the places you want to visit, you chose here???” and city people usually tell me to “be safe” because apparently danger lurks in small towns.

But I recommend people visit Chatham-Kent. You might learn something, you might eat good, you might stumble upon something interesting, and you’re a stranger only once.

NEXT FRIDAY: How I’m getting on in the cold snap