Quote:
Originally Posted by Drybrain
HT really do seem prehistoric. I tried to find them on Twitter a while ago and they have no presence there, and apparently no community engagement at all, ioutside of their newsletter. So far behind the times—I think density bonusing would blow their minds.
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I think new outlets like Twitter, FB, all the publicly-available plans, construction webcams, etc. have helped in terms of generating broader interest in urban planning in Halifax and in terms of keeping people a little more informed about what's going on. Many people are interested in planning, but there is a lot of misinformation out there (it drives me crazy when I read factually incorrect statements like "there hasn't been a development downtown in 20 years") and up until recently a few voices (like the HT and Phil Pacey) were given a disproportionate weight while many others were excluded. 10 years ago, the approval process in Halifax felt purely like a tug-of-war between developers maximizing profits and BANANA types who had already settled in the South End and wanted to slam the door shut behind them. There was little broad consideration of what needed to be done to make the city more successful and liveable for all.
I like to think that SSP has played at least a small role in this as well.