Quote:
Originally Posted by Hali87
There are a lot of off-Peninsula areas that were separate villages before being annexed by the city in the 60s though. Spryfield, Armdale, Rockingham, Dutch Village were all separate from Halifax at one point in history. Of these, Spryfield is the most well-defined today and even that is fairly vague and doesn't have any agreed-upon boundaries. Armdale is an awkward checkerboard of modern subdivisions and historic neighbourhoods that are barely connected with each other at all. Dutch Village is now just a road, the neighbourhood renamed as Fairview at some point (ironically this is probably the most well-defined neighbourhood in the HRM of 2019). Rockingham is basically just part of the Clayton Park blob now. It's not common for people to refer to MSVU as being "in Rockingham" for example. There is also the Beechville-Lakeside-Timberlea corridor and I'm not as familiar with it but I believe it has a history of shifting boundaries while also probably starting out as villages outside of Halifax proper. And where exactly is "Bedford" now?
Richmond and Africville were also both separate from Halifax proper but neither of them exist anymore per se. We could rename the existing areas to reflect the history but very few if any of the original buildings remain, and unfortunately (for the sake of this exercise) much of what was Richmond is now the Hydrostone. The Kempt Road area was also part of Richmond I think.
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Good points, but I am left wondering whether distinct, well-defined boundaries like this actually serve any purpose other than to explain to somebody where you live.
Is there a function to defining boundaries of neighborhoods, or is it just a fun thing to talk about?
I mean, electoral boundaries have a function and are well-defined. City boundaries have a function and are well-defined. What is the function/benefit of having distinct boundaries on "the north end"?