[Halifax] The Maple | 72 m | 21 fl | Completed

[someone123]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

While you chose to live in Toronto because you craved the lifestyle of a major city, many of those who choose to live in Halifax choose to do so because they don't want that lifestyle.

I think it's easy to conflate the necessary characteristics of big cities in general with the particular characteristics of certain big cities. A lot of the lifestyle in Toronto exists because of planning decisions, geography, etc. Even if Halifax were the same size as Toronto it would be a different sort of city, and its liveability would depend on planning decisions as with Toronto.

I've read the arguments that more office space is needed downtown and then more residential (condos) buildings are needed to support the office buildings. This is based on an assumption that the people who work in these office buildings actually aspire to live downtown. From the many people I've known in the Halifax area, most prefer to live in a house with a backyard or bigger, and tend to live more "outdoorsey", for lack of a better term, lifestyles... something which a downtown condo cannot provide. I see this creating more traffic/transit/infrastructure woes rather than solving them.

It's hard to tell what people in the city do or don't want from talking to them because it's hard to get a sample of people that isn't biased. The gold standard for learning where people want to live is to look at demand for housing in those areas. Developers don't seem to have trouble filling residential buildings downtown right now. If they did they wouldn't be able to finance and build them.

Some people want tall buildings downtown but a lot of people want a vibrant downtown. One of the obstacles to vibrancy downtown is empty lots, and another one is a lack of retail demand to sustain businesses in storefronts along streets like Barrington. Adding more residents downtown helps with both of those problems while adding to the city's tax base and putting minimal strain on infrastructure.

Residents downtown do need more infrastructure but the correct way to look at that is as a tradeoff versus other kinds of development. The transportation infrastructure requirements of even large buildings like Fenwick are very small because car ownership is so low and so many trips are made on foot. Low-density subdivisions like Kingswood cost a lot more. I don't believe that downtown highrises are that bad for traffic. My suburb's gridlock is about the same as downtown Vancouver. You drive along at a snail's pace at rush hour in both places. The difference is that in downtown Vancouver you don't need a car if you live there, and even if you're driving distances are very short.

Besides, why must we concentrate on building up the downtown anyways when there are lots of areas a little more to the north

Development downtown and in the North End aren't mutually exclusive. There are lots of projects on the go for both areas. I don't think this is something anybody needs to worry about; the city just needs to put good planning regulations in place and then get out of the way and let people buy housing where they want to live.