Quote:
Originally Posted by counterfactual
Anyone else follow this story?
Two European tourists recently wrote an "open letter" to a bunch of Canadian politicans / media outlets, about their recent trip across Canada, which included Halifax.
Their view? They had a great time and loved the people, but were shocked by the brutal car culture they encountered.
Story here: http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/danish-tourists-lament-canadian-car-culture
Funny, they single out Halifax, in particular, for our car-centered city centre:
I have to say, she's nailed it. We *do* have massive gigantic parking lots downtown, sitting, rotting, taking up space, for no good reason. Though much of these lots aren't an explicit result of car-centered policies (it's not like we've set these aside for parking), but an indirect result of car-centered policies-- that is, sprawl development is cheap and until recently, developing downtown expensive and uncertain, with limited upside due to height limits. So, we have parking lots, not liveable spaces.
Anyways, this should be raising some serious alarm bells in Halifax / Province, because tourism is a life blood industry here.
But instead, it'll probably just lead to a few shrugs from politicians and some snark from pundits, which has already begun-- stuff like "Never been prouder of Canada"!
But that's only because the truth hurts. |
It's interesting, but basically a lot of value being put on the opinions of 2 people. Thing is, many European countries are very small land-wise with relatively large populations, so their car-reduced society is basically a result of necessity that was brought upon by their situation over the years. It is reinforced nowadays by the high cost of vehicle ownership in Europe, high fuel cost being key as well.
Not trying to be critical of them, but they are only seeing things from one perspective.
While considered wrong by many today, the advent of the automobile opened up a degree of personal mobility that was unknown to the individual in the past. Planners and politicians everywhere bought into it and communities were planned with efficiency of automobile use being of high priority. Canada, a sparsely populated country with large land area was particularly well-suited to this type of travel, as it was the most efficient way to travel the distances involved to travel around our vast country.
It was only after the car culture grew to massive proportions that we collectively started to realize the downside: mainly pollution, traffic jams, use of energy resources, etc. Plus, of course, cities that are less friendly to those who choose to get around without a car.
Now things are turning around, as cities are being reconfigured for the preference of those who want to be car-free. More thought is going into designing cities to be nice places to live rather than by necessity to get around in your car. We in Canada are heading in the right direction but it's not going to happen overnight. It is a huge task to turn around the momentum of the past and very expensive to try to change it all overnight. I think the fact that we are discussing it now indicates that change is occurring.
Thus I think it is a little judgmental and unfair for these two visitors to expect Canada to be exactly like Europe. Not to mention making the generalization that everybody is obese, etc. They are not seeing the big picture, rather are viewing the country from their own narrow perspective, and then feeling the need to scold us for our wrongdoing.
There are a lot of ways to look at this, including taking into consideration the downside of countries that are so overpopulated that there is no longer a good balance of natural land, agriculture and populated urban areas. Or that this trend, if unchecked, will eventually only lead to a planet in the future that is polluted, stripped of its natural resources, and subject to food shortages and energy shortages, among many other things.
Regarding the amount of surface parking in Halifax, rather than complain about it, consider the following: this land is only being reserved for future development. Typically they only exist as parking facilities because the market is not in a place yet where it is viable to build on them. When that happens, the surface parking will only disappear to be replaced by gleaming tall buildings that you all crave so.
I don't think I'd be ready to set off alarm bells for tourism just yet, as I believe most people visit Nova Scotia to enjoy our history and natural treasures rather than to bask in the glow of our ultra-chic urban culture (though they can find a degree of that here as well, if they want to seek it out).
Just another perspective. Please discuss.
Prev
Linear Mode
