General Updates and News

[worldlyhaligonian]

Originally Posted by someone123

I would reserve judgement. There have been a few small projects that have looked like this and then turned out to be quite nice in the end. The Glubes townhouses are one example.

Those did turn out well. Let's wait and see!

[planarchy]

Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian

Those did turn out well. Let's wait and see!

It's the same people that did the building down the street with Music Nova Scotia/HFX Pop Explosion on ground floor. I have no doubt it will turn out well.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by someone123

I would reserve judgement. There have been a few small projects that have looked like this and then turned out to be quite nice in the end. The Glubes townhouses are one example.

The Glubes townhouses are decent. I wouldn't call them "quite nice," but that's because I was in one when it was on the market and found the interior finishes to be horrifying.... up until then, I thought they looked pretty great. The interiors have coloured the way I see the whole development I guess.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by planarchy

It's the same people that did the building down the street with Music Nova Scotia/HFX Pop Explosion on ground floor. I have no doubt it will turn out well.

I do like this building's interface with the street and overall scale - I'd be scared to own it though - all the exterior decks and balconies just say "I'm going to leak like a sieve" to me.

[IanWatson]

Last week the CH published a doom-and-gloom opinion piece ridiculously equating NS with Detroit. Drybrain had a good response in today's CH.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by IanWatson

Last week the CH published a doom-and-gloom opinion piece ridiculously equating NS with Detroit. Drybrain had a good response in today's CH.

Thanks. if you read it, bear this in mind: The first paragraph below each sub-head is a quote from the original (terrible) article. They should be italicized to make that obvious, but whoever posted it online didn't format it that way, so it reads bizarrely in parts. Kind of annoying, but I guess predictable. It's the Herald we're talking about here.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by IanWatson

Last week the CH published a doom-and-gloom opinion piece ridiculously equating NS with Detroit. Drybrain had a good response in today's CH.

Excellent article!

[Colin May]

Originally Posted by IanWatson

Last week the CH published a doom-and-gloom opinion piece ridiculously equating NS with Detroit. Drybrain had a good response in today's CH.

A city can go bust. A state/province cannot.
The original article was rubbish, a grotesque over hyped description of the problems we face.
The Detroit pension plan was a promise that could never be kept. The same can be said of many municipal and state pension plans in the USA.
Firefighters in NY insisted they alone should be responsible for rescuing people from the 9/11 rubble,'finding our brothers' etc. New York police and firefighter pensions are based on the gross earnings in the final year of employment, a ridiculous plan which leads to an actuarial nightmare when attempting to forecast future liabilities and the requisite funding.

The Detroit pension plan was an unfunded mess. I don't recall the details but a few years ago I read a considerable amount of documents relating to state and municipal pension and benefit plans in the USA.
Google is your friend if you really want to understand the financial mess in US jurisdictions where politicians have caved in to public sector employee demands.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2...ch-town-may-privatize-100-000-lifeguards

[someone123]

Great article.

The reason why Detroit's unemployment rate is low is that it does not count the people who have stopped looking for work.

Detroit's participation rate in the workforce is below 50%. Halifax's rate is just under 70%. Calgary is 73%.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by someone123

Great article.

The reason why Detroit's unemployment rate is low is that it does not count the people who have stopped looking for work.

Detroit's participation rate in the workforce is below 50%. Halifax's rate is just under 70%. Calgary is 73%.

I thought it might have to do both with that, and with the fact that American stats are collected differently than Canadian ones. Couldn't find any hard evidence but it's definitely what I assume.

In any case, Detroit's unemployment rate is now over 12 percent, which, tellingly, is the lowest its been since the recession. It was nearly 30 percent in 2008. The fact that it's fluctuated so wildly seems to indicate something weird is going on, statistically.

Would've been nice to have had more room to explore that, but I was limited to 700 words.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

I thought it might have to do both with that, and with the fact that American stats are collected differently than Canadian ones. Couldn't find any hard evidence but it's definitely what I assume.

There are definitely differences. I don't think the prison population is counted consistently between the two countries, for example, and the US has an unfortunately high prison population. I think the Canadian numbers might actually be the inflated ones compared to American numbers. It doesn't really matter though because the places are in such different ballparks.

Hopefully NS can break out of this cycle of negativity. It sounds like a fluffy thing to talk about, but I think it might have a significant impact on where people decide to live and start businesses. People think they get balanced assessments of different parts of Canada but there is a huge difference in slant from strongly negative in Atlantic Canada to strongly positive in the West.

My partner is from Alberta (Edmonton, more or less) and we have gone to visit Halifax a couple times. He thought it was dramatically different from what he expected based on its reputation, both in terms of the variety of stuff on offer there and the level of economic vibrancy. I think he'd be more inclined to move there than I'd be inclined to move back.

[beyeas]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Thanks. if you read it, bear this in mind: The first paragraph below each sub-head is a quote from the original (terrible) article. They should be italicized to make that obvious, but whoever posted it online didn't format it that way, so it reads bizarrely in parts. Kind of annoying, but I guess predictable. It's the Herald we're talking about here.

Great use of "hyperbolic alarmism". I laughed out loud when I read that.

[worldlyhaligonian]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

I thought it might have to do both with that, and with the fact that American stats are collected differently than Canadian ones. Couldn't find any hard evidence but it's definitely what I assume.

In any case, Detroit's unemployment rate is now over 12 percent, which, tellingly, is the lowest its been since the recession. It was nearly 30 percent in 2008. The fact that it's fluctuated so wildly seems to indicate something weird is going on, statistically.

Would've been nice to have had more room to explore that, but I was limited to 700 words.

I believe its called the "dark shadow of unemployment".

People aren't calculated unless they are actively searching for work, so it excludes those who have given up, the homeless, etc.

[counterfactual]

Originally Posted by IanWatson

Last week the CH published a doom-and-gloom opinion piece ridiculously equating NS with Detroit. Drybrain had a good response in today's CH.

Excellent piece.

[hoser111]

Community group loses bid for St. Patrick’s-Alexandra school

Top court rejects effort to appeal ruling allowing Jono to buy St. Pat’s-Alexandra site
North-end Halifax community groups have lost their fight for the St. Patrick’s-Alexandra School site.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the groups’ application to appeal a lower court decision that allows Jono Developments Ltd. to purchase the surplus municipal property.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/12...r-st.-patrick%E2%80%99s-alexandra-school

[hokus83]

Originally Posted by hoser111

Community group loses bid for St. Patrick’s-Alexandra school

Top court rejects effort to appeal ruling allowing Jono to buy St. Pat’s-Alexandra site
North-end Halifax community groups have lost their fight for the St. Patrick’s-Alexandra School site.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the groups’ application to appeal a lower court decision that allows Jono Developments Ltd. to purchase the surplus municipal property.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/12...r-st.-patrick%E2%80%99s-alexandra-school

Thank god

[Dmajackson]

WM Fares proposal for 836 Portland Street is going before Regional Council on Tuesday for initiation of the public consultation process. The smaller buildings will house 27'350 sq ft of commercial space and the larger building will house 92 residential units.


Halifax Developments Blog (rendering originally from "http://www.halifax.ca/council/agendasc/documents/150414ca1111.pdf")

Personally I would prefer to see the residential building fronting on Portland Hills Drive and leave more of the rear open as green space. The mixed-use and density aspects are good ideas and will help create a more walkable community for the Portland Hills Transit Terminal (which is just off of the rendering to the left).

[someone123]

The design of the larger building looks more modern and appealing to me than the norm for suburban areas, but the site planning seems average. The city really needs to modernize its suburban planning regulations. They encourage this type of layout.

[Drybrain]

Waye Mason will be putting forth a motion at council tomorrow, proposing that council again defer surplusing the Khyber, while the Khyber Arts Society, Neptune Theatre, architects David Garrett and Graeme Duffus, and some others put together a renovation plan for the building, as well as a long-term operating plan, which should all be ready by autumn for council consideration.

Ideally this will see the Khyber re-purposed and put to better use than before, presumably more open to the community and used as a civic arts hub. Much to the dismay of Keith, I'm sure, who will no longer be able to dismiss it as a NSCAD clubhouse or whatever.

I'll be completely shocked if this somehow gets torpedoed.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

I'll be completely shocked if this somehow gets torpedoed.

One can only hope that the enemies he has made on council team up to do just that.