Report on future of downtown Halifax from 2008 or so

[Keith P.]

The Marriott/Casino is on an island of sorts so it is not surprising they are a dead zone.

It would be easy to create a waterfront area that is attractive and welcoming and hopefully much less Disneyfied than what is now there. Whatever alignment of the roadway was chosen there would be ways to move pedestrians over or under it.

The removal of most heavy truck and commuter traffic on Barrington and Hollis would have made those streets far more desirable for either residential or retail use. In turn the historic buildings on those streets would have been attractive for sensitive renovation for those purposes instead of what happened - low-end retail at rents that let the buildings deteriorate and become candidates for demolition, or attempts at retail (Founders Square being the prime example) that were instant failures.