[someone123]

Yeah, the "firetrap" argument isn't very convincing when there are so many other North American cities with such large stocks of similar heritage buildings. It is really just a question of priorities. Traditionally in Halifax heritage preservation has been given a relatively low priority or has been co-opted by special interest groups who wanted to preserve views or prevent the construction of new buildings. There has also been a big bias toward "quaint" buildings rather than the buildings that have the most impact on the city's character.

One of the big problems with the Roy redevelopment is that we don't really know what it will look like or what level of quality it will be built to. We don't really know when it will be demolished or how long it will take for a replacement building to go up. Starfish has done a lot of good downtown but they have also made some poor, insensitive decisions at times by painting over Morse's Teas and kicking tenants out of Barrington's largest storefront, leaving a gaping hole for years.

I dislike the whole idea of demolishing and rebuilding on heritage sites when there are so many empty lots. It may make sense from a property owner's perspective but it doesn't make sense from a city building perspective. Thankfully there are many other construction projects happening and most of them are on previously empty or underused lots.