I hope that the powers that be pay attention to Charles Landry’s talk on Tuesday. In the new Canadian edition of author and urban thinker Richard Florida‘s book Who’s Your City? , he sizes up the best places to live in Canada, depending on where you are in your life.
Guess what? We suck. We don’t rate in the Top Ten for Singles (20-29)—you’re better off in Iqaluit, which ranked #2—or for mid-career professionals (29-44), families or empty nesters (45-64). BUT we did get #10 for retirees (65+). Are we really surprised? Ask any young, creative person here whether they think they can stay and make a go of it. And I thought the poop-filled harbour solution was the stinkiest thing here.
According to an article by Florida in the Globe and Mail, which includes the top 10 lists:
Harnessing the full talent of everyone is the real key to sustainable prosperity. Those places that manage to harness this talent most thoroughly will emerge as the key success stories of the new century.
The most fundamental aspect of my work is the belief that every human being is creative. The real winners of the 21st century will do more than just provide an attractive climate for high-tech innovation, cutting-edge arts and entertainment (although that will help).
With a long history of openness and tolerance, of investing in people, of inclusiveness and social justice, Canada’s cities and regions are among those with the best opportunity to accomplish sustainable prosperity. But Canada will require a new kind of social compact – a “creative compact” that goes beyond the provisions of social insurance, health care, basic education and the like, which defined the twentieth century.
This new creative compact starts from two key principles: that all human beings have a fundamental right to use their full talents and creative abilities; and that in doing so they all have the right to self-expression, which is the basic building material of creative and productive endeavours. These rights are not the icing on the cake of prosperity and progress – they are the cake itself.
This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2009.
No doubt Halifax is a very conservative and reserved city. We could and should have so much to offer here. It will be interesting to see if the new Halifax by design has any positive impact in this regard.
I find that the problem with living in Halifax is that the city planners have to come up with a much different philosophy. The idea of neighbourhoods has to be re-thought. The idea of the downtown being a low rise area that only high end professionals and well-to-do retirees can live is archaic. The city is developing suburban areas lacking arts & culture where people have to head to Bayers Lake & Dartmouth Crossings on the weekend for supplies.