Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith P.
Agreed. The idea of a museum scares me though. They are always a financial burden on govts and have very little attraction to the public at large.
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A museum is just one idea. Dartmouth used to have a very comprehensive museum which I feel covered the city's history quite well. I don't recall the old City of Halifax having any such museum, which I find a little odd given the rich history of the city and its significance to the development of Canada. I think the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic partially covers Halifax's history, but mostly the seafaring aspects (as would be expected).
I think Halifax deserves to have a museum which preserves and explains its history (for Halifax and Dartmouth) - IMHO it's a bit of a missing piece to not have one, and somewhat of a shame to not have a permanent home for all the artifacts that are now in storage. Yes, it's understood that public money would be involved, but you can't expect everything that provides some benefit to the public to be profit-generating.
That said, I think most of the city would agree with you, as there seems to be a general idea around here that using taxpayers money for anything is wasteful, and certainly there continues to be an attitude that we are still a small town and we don't deserve to have 'nice things' because they are 'frivolous'. If you read the comments at the bottom of that article, you will also see the typical attitude that it should be torn down because it's old still prevails (some things never change).
Regardless, I would hope that the building can be retained and used for something - anything - to avoid tearing down one of the few remaining decent stone buildings in Dartmouth. If this one can't be saved, I would offer the idea that nothing can, or will, be saved. And Dartmouth will continue to retain the 'Darkside' reputation that it has (unfairly IMHO) been given over the years.