Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
That could be nice but it's not really how things work. There was a good development opportunity in Dartmouth because of the cheap land and the lack of nearby housing. By having urban infill on both sides of the harbour I think there will be more overall than there would be if it were confined to Halifax, and there can be lower cost units in Dartmouth for people who could not otherwise afford to live so close to the city centre.
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Well that's one theory. But sometimes things can also be affected by critical mass, in which case if you have a lot of something (in this case residents) concentrated in a single area, it can have a snow ball effect. In other words, when hundreds of people move in, a few new stores/amenities can open up, and that can make living in the area more inviting, so that many hundreds more move in which can in turn support many more stores/amenities, etc. If the residents are spread across various nodes, there's not always a single area that has enough mass to attract the new stores/amenities to start the process.
Of course, there's really no way to know which theory is correct in Greater Halifax since there's no way to do a controlled experiment. We can look at the experiences of other cities, but there are always notable differences that may have effected the outcome.
In any case, there's so much vacant land in central Dartmouth, even if it didn't get a 30 story tower, there could be tons of inexpensive infill just using lowrises and midrises.
Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
I think Dartmouth will always have that "second city" bedroom community feel, but it's already a lot nicer than it used to be. I think some of the new development will have a big impact, particularly when it comes to building a pedestrian-friendly area with lots of amenities. It's never going to be a hugely exciting place but if it gets some more businesses like grocery stores and restaurants and ferry service is improved somewhat then it will be a pretty good spot.
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A lot of Dartmouth's issues is its awkward geography. All those lakes and hills etc. stop a strong urban grid from being created and cause a lot of areas to feel very isolated and marginal despite being fairly central. Also, the fact that neither bridge goes that close to downtown Dartmouth hurts a little as well. The traffic coming to/from Halifax is so spread out, so downtown Dartmouth can't gain a significant benefit from it. There's traffic from the ferry, but I'm pretty sure that terminal is a lot less busy than the bridge terminal which is in an area that's a total mess.
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