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The Coast | News, events, restaurants, concerts and Burger Week for Halifax, Nova Scotia
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What happened to Barrington?
The place is like a ghost town… but instead of tumbleweeds I see homeless people blowing in the wind. All the shops pulled out and closed. The street is now a 4×4 terrain of pavement and potholes. —Booington
This article appears in May 6-12, 2010.
35 Comments
Hah, you took ‘Barr’ and, haha, replaced it with ‘boo’!
That’s outrageous!
Did anyone else see that?
Hilarious.
I think they should permanently have that barrington street ocean from that Art night going. Maybe the scribble board too. Best the street looked in years!
Barrington street is absolutely depressing. It’s a street that has sooooo much promise, but since I’ve moved here, more and more has just disappeared.
I hear a Starbucks is supposed to open on the corner of Sackville/Barrington though where that Tim’s used to be. I don’t know why.
/agree
the freak is still there and my favourite book vendor
Starbucks sells for some stupid reason. I don’t drink coffee but even if I did paying $3 for it would convince me to switch to dollar store price Diet Coke.
There are a lot who go to SB for the same reason they go to Pete’s.
They’re in modest Halifax, and feel their way to upper class is borrowing against their mortgage to purchase coffee and, gasp! Fool the rest of us into their game of ‘class’.
Yeah, I totally forgot that ‘class’ was something poured into a paper cup nowadays.
Hahah, and a 5cent plastic bag
What I don’t get is what SGR is doing right that Barrington is doing wrong. More precisely, why hasn’t one learned from the success of the other?
Downtown just needs more people living there, then things can happen.
As Barrington Street is fairly straight we could position ten bums from SGR at one end and then roll a giant bowling ball down and crush them.
Actually if you read the Louis Reznick interview here:
http://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBites/archiv…
It really does answer many of the heavy questions head-on.
I think that it’s just that there’s a transition period, and many of the older, “traditional” retailers that were along Barrington couldn’t survive with the few loyal customers that were coming through the door. I mean, Carsand Mosher was a ghost town except for the odd NSCAD student getting the film developed from their high-priced digital camera or buying obscure film for their Russian Panoramic camera.
SGR survives because it will always be the “core” of downtown. No matter what, it will survive because that’s where the DBC will put it’s emphasis.
The only concern I have about SGR is that it seems Empire wants to seriously close down the Theatres in Park Lane. The service in that theatre has steadily declined, and movie availabilities have also declined.
pogue and random play are the only places I really frequented…
and they’re staying strong so i guess it isn’t that bad.
well, yeah, ok it is bad… but still.
just proves it could be worse.
How does a used book store last all these years when nothing else can?
they have cool books mr. blue
Agreed, we used to go in there 30 years ago and hangout and read comics. What I meant was they are obviously doing something right.
I think the lack of parking may have something to do with it.
Plus the last time drove down ‘Barren-ton’ I realized I hadn’t been shaken around like that since I was a baby…
you can all thank peter mckay for all this woe, that is now downtown nowhere. or if you prefer, halisucks.
Not every street can be “vibrant and active.” Just walk up one block to Argyle and you’ll be fine. Barrington will come back, I’m not too concerned.
118 Ave here in Edmonton used to be pretty shitty too but its really been coming along lately.
My favorite too, Painey. And Blue, Used bookstores always do well in bad times and B-St is the poster child for bad times. Most serious antiquarian book dealers also do a fair percentage of their business on-line so there’s always a cash flow, if if they start to resemble Fort Apache. So I’ve heard.
I like Basil Fawlty’s idea. I wonder if Halifax could turn it into a festival, like the running of the bulls. We could get major grocery stores to sponsor it, and maybe the shipyards could build the ball. We sure have plenty of bums, homeless, and beggars to spare in this city. If we ran out, we could import some from East Hastings in Vancouver.
yes, let’s import homeless people.. that makes a ton of sense.
and from the other side of the country, no less.
seb, you’re becoming more of a tool every day….
no, I take that back… even the most obscure tool is useful sometimes…
Nothin’s shakin’ on Shake Down Street, used to be the heart of town.
Even after they cleaned the scummy end of it up and got rid of the Lighthouse tavern…
You can thank the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, the “Save the View coalition” and other irrational obstructionist parties for Barrington’s current state. The difference between Barrington and SGR is that the latter has tonnes of apartment buildings in the area. Remember the condo building proposed for the old Texpark EMPTY LOT? The “Alexander” tower that was supposed to go up on another empty lot?
Dr. Fever, where’d you hear Empire wants to close the cinemas down? That makes my blood boil honestly…so I’ll need to bus 1 hour to buttfuck Bayers Lake to watch movies? Fuck off Empire, if the choice is between shelling out $7 for popcorn or sitting in my own home and “stealing” the films…well dont take me for a sucker
Support JWD books, I miss it dearly, nothing like that here in Toronto (and Sugar Mountain is totally inferior to Freak Lunchbox)
Gotta love the Lunchbox. The United bookstore has been there at least 35 years.
i think the freak and venus envy should merge…imagine the possibilities
Those cool pecker-pops that Alex was licking in the record store in Clockwork Orange? A kickline of crucified Jesuses? I’m so there.
singing in the rain takes on a whole new meaning, there is a jebus bookstore near them perhaps they could participate
Oh man, I went in there last summer. My nephew , the anarchist was having a birthday and I went in asking if they had any Pope Benedict pinatas. The response was, depending on your perspective, either thoroughly un-christian or christian with a vengeance. I’ll be finding my veritas, in vino, not on Barrington
well hello mr. frosty, i picked this thread to respond…where you be at these days?
hey hey hey what is up? bmf’s post weren’t rude or threatening please splain yourself maude
I’m guessing Push-pops would be a big seller.
Hey folks,
So, they way it works is the only posts that get pulled are things that are a) either obviously inappropriate, or b) posts that come to me in a violation notice. I will occasionally overrule a violation notice if the post is obviously, and unarguably, benign but in most cases I simply pull the offending message. In this case I received violation notices and pulled the message(s), but did not ban the user (BMF).
If BMF is serious about posting his beef he can do so as a legitimate Bitch, instead of hijacking others repeatedly as if it were spam. That said, Bitches are supposed to be truly anonymous for both the bitcher and the bitched, and in that case BMF’s message wouldn’t make the cut. In this case the issue may be better served by a letter to the editor.
I’m not just deleting posts willy-nilly. I actually have respect for this rag-tag clan of bitchers and lovers, and I’m hoping (probably naively) to win something of the same in return – I do however realize I am, at times, the ‘enemy’.
Mod. 4.0
P.S. As for the ‘Balls’ comment that was simply a mistake on my part. It did have a violation notice but was going to pass, until I hit the wrong button… No undo. oops & apologies.
Oh, and if you’ve sent in a Bitch or Love and it hasn’t been posted it’s probably because it wasn’t anonymous. Or was, but was filled with easily identifiable details. In those cases it’s out of my hands. If I can edit them slightly enough so it keeps the sentiment of the submitted post while obscuring the target I do, and will, but otherwise they find themselves on the cutting room floor…
Stay tuned for a Bitch about non-anonymous Bitches from yours truly one of these fine days to come…
merci maude, you have to wear many chapeaus…bmf is vewy angry