In the city, you don’t have a Home Depot.
But you still need hardware. So you have real hardware stores. The kind that were around when I was a kid. One in our neighborhood, Clark Devon (since 1924!), has brass rods and square aluminium posts, a substantial locksmith department, among many other neat things. They even cut and thread pipe – I think Home Depot stopped doing that twenty-five years ago.
And they have the coolest hardware store sign ever:
![](http://blog.conradreynolds.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/image.1-1.jpg)
It even lights up at night:
![](http://blog.conradreynolds.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/image.2.jpg)
And last time I was there, I got to see the woman in front of me wrestle a 1×6 on and off the bus. Not something I would recommend during rush hour.