Downtown Halifax population growth

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by Colin May

Significant growth in foreign students since the 2011 Census, especially from wealthy Chinese students. Car dealerships will tell you the difference in sales from 2011. Student enrollment is much higher than in 2011 - paper factories are doing well on the peninsula. Population increase in HRM is significant off peninsula, ask any realtor. Today CBC carried an item nationally in which a woman from Toronto described why she moved to the Eastern Shore shortly after COVID was indentified and she certainly was not low income.

Absolutely growth is significant out of the core, but HRM is one of the few metropolitan areas in the country where growth has actually been centrally focused in the past five years. Most cities have seen strong growth right downtown, and then a lot of sprawl in distant suburbs, with less growth in non-downtown urban areas and close-in suburbs.

Halifax, however, has seen not just strong downtown growth, but big growth in the near-downtown "urban fringe" and the closest ring of suburbs just off the peninsula. Farther-out suburbs have seen proportionally less growth, so the picture really is of a city-region with growth happening centrally to a much greater degree than at the edges. That's really the opposite of the national picture recently. It's interesting. I don't necessarily know that I would have predicted it.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Halifax, however, has seen not just strong downtown growth, but big growth in the near-downtown "urban fringe" and the closest ring of suburbs just off the peninsula. Farther-out suburbs have seen proportionally less growth, so the picture really is of a city-region with growth happening centrally to a much greater degree than at the edges. That's really the opposite of the national picture recently. It's interesting. I don't necessarily know that I would have predicted it.

Around Canada there are certain types of neighbourhoods that tend to allow development and others that don't. Halifax follows the pattern I think but has an unusually high ratio of the development-friendly areas. These are former government lands, empty lots, low income mixed-use areas (for better or worse municipalities allow more development there while rich people tend to have a veto), former industrial lands, and so on. This reservoir was barely tapped in 2016-2021.

Metro Vancouver is about 5x the size of Halifax now but the historic pre-war core is nowhere near 5x larger geographically. It is the same with Calgary, which I am not even sure has a more extensive pre-war core at all even though the suburbs have grown far more. If you look at the Vancouver growth map sadly a lot of areas even with rapid transit nearby lost population because they allow almost no development (they're not "declining", they're ultra expensive, even though a lot of the buildings in these places are dumpy because the land value is far more important than improvements). It's quite similar to that one census tract at the far south end of the peninsula. The West End in Halifax is like that too, but it's covered up a bit due to some commercial areas allowing infill construction whereas the far South End does not have any.

[Colin May]

'Sprawl' is such a pejorative word.... Councillor Blackburn recently pointed to the growth in Sackville with the number of pupils at Sackville Heights Elementary reaching 533 in 2021 compared with 353 in 2019. The school is packed and she voted against the proposed agreement for development of Indigo shores. On our street : In 2011 there was 1 child on 2 blocks of Dahlia. Today there are 15 children, the eldest is 13.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by JHikka

It just sounds like maybe the city isn't for you, especially one getting bigger and accommodating more people of differing backgrounds and interests. Not everyone is going to be exactly like you in every possible way. The point of living in a city is being around and interacting with people of every possible background and persuasion - to dismiss most of them as others says more about the person than the environment, you know?

A city needs to be one that works, not one that pits one group against another for little to no actual benefit, especially when the one being targeted represents a vast majority of residents. It is one thing to be "accommodating" but quite another to say that the majority is somehow bad/dangerous/threatening to the tiny handful of those who want to ride their bicycles, and then, to add insult to injury, makes that majority pay for measures that make their lives more difficult.

[SouthPawLaw]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

A city needs to be one that works, not one that pits one group against another for little to no actual benefit, especially when the one being targeted represents a vast majority of residents. It is one thing to be "accommodating" but quite another to say that the majority is somehow bad/dangerous/threatening to the tiny handful of those who want to ride their bicycles, and then, to add insult to injury, makes that majority pay for measures that make their lives more difficult.

Maybe the fact that there are so many motorists, it's a symptom of a city already not working and putting one group above all other for far too long. Because you wouldn't believe what makes up the majority of traffic. Automobiles have been in our society for only 150 years, cities several thousands of years. You seem to circle around bicyclist a lot, as in it is starting to have conspiracy theory levels of vitriol and verve. I guess we all have our moon to howl at, but a lot of the bicycle infrastructure, like the urban boom in building, has been a long time coming and should have been implemented decades ago.

[Keith P.]

We already had bicycle infrastructure, called streets and roads. Perhaps the next big thing will be horse and ox-cart lanes for those who want to really go back in time beyond the Victorian bicycle.

[Haliguy]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

We already had bicycle infrastructure, called streets and roads. Perhaps the next big thing will be horse and ox-cart lanes for those who want to really go back in time beyond the Victorian bicycle.

Poor Keith doesn't understand why not everyone wants to live like him. Live in a suburban bubble, drive everywhere, and doesn't think you should have to walk more than 10 feet from his car to go anywhere...lol

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

A city needs to be one that works, not one that pits one group against another for little to no actual benefit, especially when the one being targeted represents a vast majority of residents.

There's a wide array of proof and literature that cars are inherently unhealthy for both those who drive them and those who live in areas inundated with them, especially in urban cores or along major throughfares. I'm sure you won't read it, or even consider it, but that's effectively the truth.

Originally Posted by Keith P

We already had bicycle infrastructure, called streets and roads.

Says someone who has surely never cycled on an urban road before. Cycling, especially in the winter, is incredibly dangerous on roads without dedicated bike lanes, because motorists don't really adjust how they drive for other users of the road. During winter conditions - narrower streets, icy conditions, etc., cyclists have to adjust to all of these conditions but many motorists do not, making a dangerous situation even more so.

Originally Posted by Haliguy

Poor Keith doesn't understand why not everyone wants to live like him.

What do you mean I can't park within a ten foot walk of the store I want to visit before leaving town again?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Haliguy

Poor Keith doesn't understand why not everyone wants to live like him. Live in a suburban bubble, drive everywhere, and doesn't think you should have to walk more than 10 feet from his car to go anywhere...lol

.

[SouthPawLaw]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

We already had bicycle infrastructure, called streets and roads. Perhaps the next big thing will be horse and ox-cart lanes for those who want to really go back in time beyond the Victorian bicycle.

Such a strawman logic... By your line of your thinking, automobiles should be restricted then to certain times of day, and to only certain streets to contain congestions, like in the time of Rome. The fact you are using a lot of supposition and not a lot of quantifiably data to back up your position Keith, you really are the old man yelling at a cloud. Making noise with only a self serving opinion, and making sure to point out to everyone why they are wrong because you are right.

Your commentary on the political boondoggle that is HRM is on point most times, but as to urban development and the study of cities, I please ask you read some Penalosa, Olmstead, or Garvin.

[Arrdeeharharharbour]

In defence of Keith, the ship has long since sailed on any resonable discussion on dedicated bike lanes vs., well, anything. And if covid has taught us anything we now know for certain that there are many who will put their individual wants ahead of what is scientifically proven to be better (more advantages) for the greater good. For what it's worth, I consider myself to be pro bike lane but, I don't want to find myself or anyone else stuck in an ambulance in a single lane traffic 'artery' on way to hospital.

[Keith P.]

Ah, I see the urban planning students and hobbyists are out again. The first spring-like day and they pop up like dandelions.

I hear Amsterdam is nice this time of year.

[SouthPawLaw]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Ah, I see the urban planning students and hobbyists are out again. The first spring-like day and they pop up like dandelions.

I hear Amsterdam is nice this time of year.

Far from, just someone who doesn't have a problem with opening up their understanding of the world around them. All I did was suggest some material so you can sound like you know what you are talking about.

I imagine so, I'm more partial to Barcelona myself.

[Colin May]

If you subscribe to the Globe and Mail here is what is taking place in major cities :
" A pandemic-driven exodus of young families out of Canada’s largest cities has depleted a core age group of workers from the already tight labour market, which experts say risks accelerating wage inflation in certain industries.

Leading the rush out of Canada’s big cities were children under 10 and millennials, or young families, Reuters analysis of official data shows, many who moved to smaller cities or rural areas in search of more space to live and work.

The drive-until-you-qualify trend has shifted mid-career workers – a key segment of the labour force – out of big cities, making it difficult to find established talent in sectors where in-person work is essential or preferred.

“That’s a whole sort of cohort of workers missing,” said Mike Moffatt, an economist and senior director of the Smart Prosperity Institute. “You’ve got the sort of entry level people, but that middle, people in their 30s and 40s, they’re moving out. Intraprovincial migration data from the federal government released last month shows 64,000 people left Greater Toronto for smaller locales within their own province from 2020 to 2021, while Greater Montreal lost 40,000, a sharp acceleration of an existing trend. Vancouver lost 12,000 people.

The rush was sparked by young families. Toronto lost some 15,00 children under 10 from 2020 to 2021, along with 21,000 adults between 25 and 44, the data shows. At the same time populations surged in smaller cities past Toronto’s outer suburbs.
Driving the shift was home price and type. Half of Toronto’s home sales are condos and the average price is $1.2 million. In smaller cities outside Greater Toronto, a typical home is detached and costs under $800,000.

Indeed, the race for space has led to faster price gains outside Toronto and its suburbs than within. " Article from Reuters.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...uld-fuel-wage/

[Haliguy]

Originally Posted by Colin May

If you subscribe to the Globe and Mail here is what is taking place in major cities :
" A pandemic-driven exodus of young families out of Canada’s largest cities has depleted a core age group of workers from the already tight labour market, which experts say risks accelerating wage inflation in certain industries.

Leading the rush out of Canada’s big cities were children under 10 and millennials, or young families, Reuters analysis of official data shows, many who moved to smaller cities or rural areas in search of more space to live and work.

The drive-until-you-qualify trend has shifted mid-career workers – a key segment of the labour force – out of big cities, making it difficult to find established talent in sectors where in-person work is essential or preferred.

“That’s a whole sort of cohort of workers missing,” said Mike Moffatt, an economist and senior director of the Smart Prosperity Institute. “You’ve got the sort of entry level people, but that middle, people in their 30s and 40s, they’re moving out. Intraprovincial migration data from the federal government released last month shows 64,000 people left Greater Toronto for smaller locales within their own province from 2020 to 2021, while Greater Montreal lost 40,000, a sharp acceleration of an existing trend. Vancouver lost 12,000 people.

The rush was sparked by young families. Toronto lost some 15,00 children under 10 from 2020 to 2021, along with 21,000 adults between 25 and 44, the data shows. At the same time populations surged in smaller cities past Toronto’s outer suburbs.
Driving the shift was home price and type. Half of Toronto’s home sales are condos and the average price is $1.2 million. In smaller cities outside Greater Toronto, a typical home is detached and costs under $800,000.

Indeed, the race for space has led to faster price gains outside Toronto and its suburbs than within. " Article from Reuters.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...uld-fuel-wage/

[OldDartmouthMark]

Hey, did you guys hear that Downtown Halifax's population growth is the highest in Canada?

Check out the link:
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/dail...g-b001-eng.htm