Bringing the population to 1 million

[Citizen_Bane]

There seems to be a broad assumption here that if this city were to double in size (an additional 500K citizens) that the peninsula would require more infrastructure both on the peninsula and to get on and off the peninsula. Let me suggest that even if the peninsula were to attract 100K of the new citizens the other 400k citizens could represent a larger more dense population off the peninsula. Could this mean a newer and perhaps bigger downtown developing somewhere other than on the peninsula? We have bylaws of course and guiding documents such as the Centre Plan to guide development but, given the city's reluctance to build viable transportation options relative to the peninsulas ie. traffic lanes and desirable transit options, developers may just continue the building boom at Larry Uteck and say to heck with the peninsula. Certainly you don't need massive bridges in the Larry Uteck area or in Burnside either for that matter. I don't think that we're in immediate danger of having 500K new citizens descend upon us but I do think there is some risk to our current downtown and that HRM should move sooner than later to build infrastructure that will guide where developers choose to build and citizens choose to live.