An interesting article from The Coast on
gentrification in the North End.
While I am excited to see the rate of incremental densification going on in the North End right now, and would argue that a redevelopment of St. Pat's-Alexandra could work a lot better than simply converting the existing building to community/institutional use, the article does raise some points that I find important.
A lot of the argument behind densification/redevelopment has been that adding more units will help keep housing prices in check. This does not actually seem to be how things have played out though. The units in new buildings are what I would think of a mid-priced (certainly out of my range for the forseeable future) and assessments on adjacent properties are being driven up simply by virtue of the new developments happening nearby. People
are being priced out of their neighbourhoods, and it seems that if the trend continues, it will be hard for an increasingly large number of people to be able to afford to live close to downtown. Can anything be done to ensure that housing near the downtown area remains affordable to those with below-average income? I'm sure there are many who think that nothing
should be done to ensure this, but I am very much in the other camp.
As far as I know, the province has not yet granted HRM the power to leverage affordable housing through density bonusing outside of the original HRMBD area, and even if/when it does, I am not sure how "affordable" has been defined. As mentioned in the article, and previously in this forum, a lot of the "affordable" rates are "affordable" relative to the rest of the building but can still be above average rent prices for the city overall.
Thoughts?
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