Long time lurker, first time poster. I just moved to Halifax for a job and I'm fascinated to see so many cranes in the downtown area. Real estate developments --> economic development --> bigger city...right? But more buildings may not tell the whole story.
I've noticed most of the new developments are condominiums. It seems that the ratio of residential to business developments is extremely one-sided (in favour of residential). Are these developers expecting a bump in Halifax's population? If so, how can they actually expect to attract people to their condos when there really isn't a whole lot planned in terms of things to do in the city itself? There was a discussion in the King's Wharf thread about that development having difficulty selling its rooms, and one theory was that there really wasn't a whole lot to do in the area yet. As a city planner, would it not be logical to expand the business sector before the residential sector? It seems Halifax is adopting the Chinese mentality, which led to
this.
I see charts like this:
And then I walk down Barrington St. in the middle of downtown and see a row of this:
In short, downtown Halifax sucks. With the historic buildings and prime location, one could almost imagine a Toronto's Queen St. West type feel with incessant crowds, plenty of neat 'hole in the wall' type establishments and ultimately, a great place for an afternoon of strolling and people watching. At current, downtown Halifax lacks the elegance and charm that many cities thrive on. Why? Perhaps it's part of a bigger issue.
So I ask you...what is Halifax's future? Is the city headed in the right direction? Can we expect to see an expansion of the city's economic sector in the near future, and to what extent?
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