HALIFAX – Downtown Halifax and Dartmouth could both be better: that was the resounding message at a pair of public engagement sessions Saturday, as hundreds of residents discussed how to revitalize and make-over both downtowns.
The brainstorming sessions, called Downtown…I’m in, allowed residents to express their gripes and their ideas on how to improve the two downtowns.
Mayor Mike Savage said while great things are happening on both sides of the harbour, there’s lots of work that can be done to make them even better.
“What are we doing right? What are we doing wrong? What can we do better? What should we stop doing and what do we start doing,” he said.
Residents heard from guest speakers author Charles Montgomery and entrepreneur Mark Brand, then split into discussion groups to swap stories and suggestions.
Savage said the municipality needs to invest in its strengths, like arts and culture, entrepreneurship and the harbour.
“We’re getting development, which is good. I think we need to make sure we have people living, working, shopping and all those things in the downtown core.”
“Over the last three, four, five decades, things have moved away from the downtown. Now there’s a conscious effort to bring them downtown because it’s better. It’ s better for walkability and bikeability. It’s better I think for social equity. It’s good for the economy, good for the tax base.”
Ron Bryant has lived in downtown Dartmouth for 25 years. He said many people have moved to the outskirts of town but he is hopeful there will be movement back to the downtown core.
“There’s lots of things in downtown Dartmouth now with the new construction of condos and housing,” he said.
Heather Yule said she and her two young daughters specifically chose to live in downtown Dartmouth.
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“It’s the core, where our vibrancy is. We chose to live downtown so we could walk, live and play here,” she said.
But Yule had suggestions on how to improve the area.
“We would like to see more community gardens. We really enjoy the pizza oven in the Dartmouth Commons. We would also really like to see more investment in the connectedness around buses, ferries and walking trails in the city,” she said.
Public transit was a theme that appeared to pop up over and over again.
“There’s just not enough buses, not enough shelters,” said Ryan Greenwood, who was at the Halifax session.
“It would be nice to see more people powered transportation like bike lanes and better transit systems and less cars on the road.”
Greenwood has lived in Halifax for five years and said he has noticed a change.
“People have lost the love for the core of Halifax. I feel like that’s hurt the sense of community in Halifax. I think it would be nice to see more of a focus on downtown.”
Residents had a range of suggestions on how to bring more focus back to downtown.
Julie Leung is a university student and said downtown should be more pedestrian oriented.
“There’s a lot of traffic on Spring Garden Road. There should be more spaces for people to hang around on the street,” she said.
She also thinks downtown should be more price conscious.
“There’s a lot of expensive stores and as a student, I can’t afford that.”
Mayor Savage said he wants residents to feed off the energy from the engagement sessions and adds the municipality will do what it can to bring the heart of the city back to its core.
“We need to have a look at how our taxation system works in a downtown core. We need to make sure our development processes are aligned with economic growth, which means we’re giving people an answer as quickly as we possibly can about what we can do,” he said.
Feedback on Downtown…I’m In can be submitted here: http://shapeyourcityhalifax.ca/downtownimin
Here are some suggestions tweeted to Global News about how to improve the two downtowns:
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