Quote:
Originally Posted by atbw
Whaat I would like to see is not so much satellite downtowns, but moreso density in the suburbs that allows for residents to do the things they would want to do in a day or week within their neighbourhood, on foot. This, instead of driving into the peninsula or all over their suburb.
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Absolutely. There’s no reason at all why Bedford shouldn’t be able to easily develop more of a “downtown” type main drag along the waterfront/Bedford Highway. The fact that it hasn’t kind of seems like a testament to a lack of vision.
The Dutch Village Road area also has potential to develop in this direction—I don’t know if there’s any intentional planning at the municipal level to accomplish this, but the organic growth is going that way (albeit in a mish-mashy way that could use more direction). It’s a little unfortunate that the street isn’t a bit farther out and more central within Fairview/Clayton Park.
Less obviously, the gridded, easily intensified nature of the eastern Dartmouth/Cole Harbour suburbs means there’s lots of potential there, especially adjacent to Main Street between NSCC Akerley and the 111, and maybe out on Cole Harbour Road. But that would also require a shift to more mass transit, etc., since any changes that reduce traffic flow would be challenging, given how the streets functions as traffic sewers. Would require some pretty significant zoning changes, as well, to transform them from a stroad into real city streets. Still, it’s doable with the existing street layouts, which is the biggest hurdle.
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