Quote:
Originally Posted by Jyeatbvg
In short, downtown Halifax sucks. With the historic buildings and prime location, one could almost imagine a Toronto's Queen St. West type feel with incessant crowds, plenty of neat 'hole in the wall' type establishments and ultimately, a great place for an afternoon of strolling and people watching. At current, downtown Halifax lacks the elegance and charm that many cities thrive on. Why?
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Because, I think, downtown is currently making up for years of stagnation with one very intense and prolonged burst of construction and revitalization, making it an awkward combination of run-down, under restoration, and revitalized. (For example, the picture you posted is of a building that has recently been renovated and where an oyster bar is going to open in a few weeks.)
I disagree that downtown "sucks," though it's definitely experiencing major growing pains. I'd also disagree that there's nothing to do. The quantity of downtown bars, restaurants, cultural institutions, and other amenities is second to none for a 400,000-person city (and many much larger ones) in Canada. Downtown Halifax in 2020 vs 2010 might be similar to Queen West in 2010 vs 2000 ("elegant" certainly wouldn't have been the word to come to mind in the latter case).
Finally, the trend back toward urban living took a few years longer to get to Halifax, but we're making up for it very rapidly, hence a lot of the intense construction activity in the city centre. I am starting to wonder when we're going to see a drop-off in developments and approvals though. Population growth is strong, and growth in the centre of the city is stronger still, but I nonetheless feel like it's getting pretty obvious that new construction is going to over-shoot demand.
I'm not too worried about that (I think property values will hold up fine) but it's not the healthiest way to develop. Disruption due to intense construction activity, and inconsistent, feast-or-famine employment in the development sector are only two concerns...