My friends keep sending me messages saying in a effect “when the fuck are you moving back to Halifax?” and I ussually say I have no freaking clue, I might visit, but it’s probably going to be many many many many years until I’ll ever move back to that cesspool. When ever I see commercials on TV, you probably never saw it, since anyone outside the maritimes doesnt give a fuck about Halifax… Well anyways the lady is like “I love Halifax!” when ever I see that commercial I just want to throw something at the TV. There’s some Halifax transplants here that share my magma like hatred for Halifax. I’ve been geting a long so much better since I moved away from there. You probably dont believe me. But oh well.
—Chris
This article appears in May 7-13, 2009.
You talking about that radio tv commercial? I know that commercial is fucking annoying, it’s like look at me strain my face muscles into a smile 24/7. How ’bout GTFO my tv.
I’m sure that there’s going to be a huge negative reaction slamming this bitcher (except from kay), and with good reason when he uses language like ‘cesspool’ to describe the city we all live in and most of us love.
I don’t understand why people can’t just say ‘I live where I live because I like it here’? Obviously not everyone is going to love Halifax, just like not everyone is going to love cities like Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, etc.
All cities everywhere have good and bad points to them, and depending upon who you are, they may or may not be your cup of tea.
Just live and let live.
The OP is just trying to get a rise out of us anyway. Let’s not give him the satisfaction.
To be perfectly honest, I’d move from this deadass, stagnant backwater burg tomorrow if I didn’t have a shitload of family and friends that I don’t want to leave. I have seen the downtown of this city go to ratshit over the last 30 years – if you don’t agree, walk down fucking Barrington Street and listen to the joyous rattle of Tim cups while surveying the empty, dirty buildings gasping from sheer neglect. I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to come back to a shitty health care system and a loser government at the helm who’ll just tax everyone to fucking death because they don’t know how to be accountable. As for that goddamn ad, it makes the bile spurt out of my throat like the Commons fountain.
I agree, I personally don’t like the city very much but I’ve got a good thing going on and have finally figured out the sidestreets to avoid rush-hour traffic to the places I need to go.
What gets me is that other commercial comparing a lame bachelor apartment in a Toronto high rise to ANYWHERE in NS. They point out the property costs you less but it costs about as much to purchase downtown Halifax, houses and condo’s alike (and nary a brick to be seen). They leave out the facts in that the price of gas, smokes, milk, bread, staples, you name it is more expensive here than in Ontario and the wages are also some of the lowest in the country.
Yeah, you’ll save on property tax and car insurance but you pay more in personal income tax here too so what’s so attractive about NS? It’s natural coastal beauty. I’ve been to each coast and a lot of provinces in between and you haven’t seen it if you haven’t seen it here.
The people could make all the difference. The whole province is sorta quaint if not backward. If the people were “friendly” as advertised or friendly at all we might have something to brag about. To find friendly Nova Scotians it seems you have to live in the sticks with them and NOT the HRM, which has all the big city problems without the big city population. Ever wonder why?
Sounds like life out there is pretty good if your writing and reading the coast. you might take that as a symptom of homsickness? that your still writing on and reading the online free halifax newspaper….. Don’t you have a new fancy western city LTWWB?
Rafiki your wisdom astounds us yet once again. This bitch is directed toward Haligonia and Haligonians. Why would such a post be relevant in any other city? You’re an idiot.
Halifax has its pros and cons just like every city. It has a natural beauty in summer, and the waterfront can be nice to hang out on. Halifax has lots of restaurants and lots of young people to keep things feeling somewhat energetic, sometimes. It has lots of parks, and some pretty nice natural areas close by. If you live pretty centrally on the Peninsula, it doesn’t seem like such a bad place.
It is also ridiculously filthy, incredibly poorly maintained, and its natural beauty is more than offset by the ugly, dirty, crumbling buildings, sidewalks, homes, and parks. Much of the city looks like a slum and feels desperate, hopeless. Barrington St. is a bombed out nightmare that won’t be saved by tacky 1980s office towers or by ridiculous Heritage loonies either. We don’t compromise and move on, we polarize then just let sit and rot while we squabble. We have long blank walls at street level on practically every new building that goes up, which means that most streets are just corridors for cars because there is no reason to walk down these streets.
We have an unimaginably slow and inefficient transit system, that is useless for anyone living in the suburbs, does nothing to help us get to those nice recreation areas on our outskirts. And since we keep building all these horrible business parks, we NEED to drive from our suburban wastelands to go buy pretty much anything because no stores are allowed in our neighborhoods.
Pssssssssh
And I have to agree that I’ve always felt this “friendly Maritimer” stereotype was just self-congratulatory bullshit too. Friendly means genuinely and consistently kind and welcoming, not “let’s be friendly to your face while we try to assess what you can do for us, then talk about about you behind your back because you make us feels insecure”.
There’s a pretty raw neediness that this so-called friendliness is based on.
That said, I know lots of great people here and wouldn’t trade (most of) my friends for anything. But I find genuine people few and far between.
kay, Your personal attacks reek of jelousy, are you still that frustrated by me? allow me to enlighten your yak brain kay, The bitch was abut how shitty halifax is and how now that the OP is gone he is not going to come back. Well then, now your gone and you seem to care an awfull lot about halifax if your on the coast, halifaxs free magazine. Why not let it go and enjoy your new glorious life out west? oh I know why, because your so bored your constantly checking back to halifax on the coast. “”NOTHING BUT NET””
I absolutely love it here! Born in Ontario, but consider myself a true Maritimer through and through. Nevermind I agree this OP is just trying to stir shit up. If you don’t like us and don ‘t care then you have some problems buddy cause you care enough to waste your time writing this post. Get a life!
I lived in Calgary during the 80’s. Their planning department decided ALL new communities would have at least one set of rent-controlled buildings. This meant the “slums” couldn’t be in any one area of the city (normally dictated by cost). Each of those new communities had an industrial area / plaza / mall that had everything… gas station, post office, McDonald’s er whatever AND Medical Clinics WITH x-ray facilities and pharmacy all in the same building. MOST communities also had at least one shopping center nearby with a grocery store. If you didn’t have to leave your burb to go to work there was really no reason to leave your burb at all… unless you want to party and even then, you’ll find a restaurant with VLT’s, karaoke, live entertainment, etc right there in your community (a quick stagger home). Calgary is a beautiful city and very clean given its population. We could learn from them.
How to get friendly.. I don’t know.. maybe get the adults to stop acting like racists and bullies long enough for their children to grow up kind? I don`t know.
Wow kay. lets all stay in our subburb and never intermingle again.
Don’t compaire Halifax to calgary when talking about Racism because you have no idea what you are talking about.
Try living on a reserve in alberta. see what fun that was in the ninety’s.
kay the pinciples that you outline are good ones, but i dunno if Calgary is a good example for comparison. i’ve never visited such a dull, lifeless, desert of a city. don’t people go outside there?
i think vancouver is a much, much more vibrant example of what a livable mid-sized city could be
(save the druggies on east hastings)
I kinda agree with Jammie’s friend comment, to a degree. People are friendly here, but it isn’t genuine. To actually genuinely meet people you have to have lived here your whole life, if not your more likely to befriend people, who likewise, aren’t originally from Halifax.
Now whose jealous, Rafiki? You’re right, native racism can be a problem in Calgary but it might have something to do with the number of white faces living on the reserves you mention… like ZERO. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be, right? So when those same Indians are bussed in to go to public schools they insist on their own religion class (in the case of catholic schools) segregating themselves so they stick together because they live together, travel together and learn together… Some of my best friends live on Sarcee reserve today. I grew up in Calgary and I am not a racist. Go figure.
Oh, and if you need an “event” to get over Canadian First Nations Peoples, Stephen Harper issued an apology on behalf of all Canadians just a little while. I was proud to see forward movement in our government. Let the people follow suit.
To be fair, 1fallingangels1, I think the people in any fairly insular small town are less open to newcomers than you get in big cities. It’s a product of having a long-standing group of friends and family that you grew up with, so perhaps less of a need to make new friendships.
I don’t think Maritimers are any less “nice” than people anywhere else – though I’d say definitely more passive-aggressive. I just don’t believe the hyped-up common idea that we’re so much “nicer” either. It’s a myth.
Heh. Apparently there are huge marketing campaigns in Ontario to bring people back to NS….when I visited family up there in Sept they told me about it when I mentioned the job situation….and they said the ad said there were TONS of jobs…I told them they’re ARE tons of jobs….at Mcdonalds, Subway, Superstore….
Halifax is DEAD. This city bores me to tears. There’s nothing to do here. Really. Blah. I’m moving next May once I’m done school.
That fake Conservative government apology? All the Aboriginals I spoke with refused to watch and/or acknowledge the apology. It was BS, just like the rest of Alberta.
Whether Mr Harper felt the apology in his heart or not, he speaks for ALL Canadians and as a matter of historical record. It’s done. Put it in your peace pipe and smoke it! Your hatred of whites might become cloud of smoke and just poofta disappear. You never know. Why don’t you try it?
Calgary is definitely no model to build a city after, and certainly a poor comparison to Halifax, it’s like comparing apples and oranges. Calgary is a relatively new, wealthy, prairie city, and Halifax is an economically repressed, old port city. Most of Halifax was long-built and starting to decline before Calgary was even a twinkle in a planner’s eye. Because Calgary is a young city, and most of it built during several economic booms, it’s an infrastructure nightmare. It’s suburban sprawl at it’s worst, with miles of cookie-cutter pink stucco housing developments as far as the eye can see.
Who cares if they all have a Walmart and a Safeway at the center of them? If you work in the downtown core, you’re looking at a 2hr commute in your gas-guzzling SUV to get to work everyday from your treeless suburban hell. Not to mention that the downtown core is as lifeless and uninviting as it gets. The city as a whole has no heart, no soul, and is FAR LESS friendly than Halifax by a long shot. Perhaps the 80s were a different story, Kay, but I lived there in the 00s, and it’s well on its way to its own decline.
I moved back to NS a couple of years ago, and maybe I’m still in the honeymoon stage, but I have a much greater appreciation for the Maritimes after being away for so long, and I truly enjoy Halifax, despite its many flaws.
Kay, it’s amusing that in your 4th post in this thread you claim “Some of my best friends live on Sarcee reserve today. I grew up in Calgary and I am not a racist. Go figure.”….yet reading a bit further down in your next post you’re telling someone to “Put it in your peace pipe and smoke it!”, which many people may construe to be a racist and offensive statement. So which statement is a true reflection of your beliefs? Your language/behaviour does not seem to be backing your first statement.
NGF is neither ugly NOR miserable, Kay…
…you on the other hand…
Define “Peace Pipe,” Jai and you’ll see there is NO racist intent AT ALL in that statement.
Calgary was born in 1905… a real modern wonder, eh? What’s been happening here over the past, oh… CENTURY, huh? It’s true Calgary suffered a boom that caused the urban sprawl and infrastructure problems but you’ll find only a reasonable percentage of people actually work in the downtown core and 90% of those who do park for free then take a single train all the way or, get this, ride their bikes ALL THE WAY on bike paths. I visited a few years ago and the population has become cold, like Toronto, so that part is sad because Calgary used to be a very friendly town (full of Easterners, go figure). Finally, the entertainment venues in Calgary, you’re right, are oranges compared to Halifax’s apples. I have many musician friends in Calgary and none of them have been so busy before earning a living off music as they are now. The whole city is involved with the Stampede. Electric Avenue is still rocking and Cowboys and the Ranchman’s are now considered smaller venues. I’m not sure where you were partying but you try and find a place to eat here in Hali after you’ve been to the bar then let’s talk ghost town.
And Kitty, someone who would slap your kid or point out a non existent mustache is neither pretty nor kind. Time to raise your standards.
good luck with that zzz, let’s us know how it goes LOL
not hard now that I know your Profile oid is 1072041
and that it’s not only tied to everything you post… but also shows up prior to your post so I can ignore the next few lines of the input stream.
ah to have a life without kay….
Kay, I have friends from Indian Brook and Membertou, other First Nations communities (reserves is actually an insensitive term; why not say ‘ghetto’?). You’re not the only person who knows some tontos here, and your remark was also insensitive.
Its people like you that walk up to Aboriginal elders and say something dumb like, “Hey, Chief!”
And PK is right: I am very far from fat/ugly/miserable. People like PK and I are actually quite attractive, happy and loveable 😀
Pk said “NGF is neither ugly NOR miserable, Kay…
…you on the other hand…”
If she hasn’t seen Kay in person calling her ugly is far from attractive. IMO
Electric Avenue is still rocking?!?! HA! If you consider a bunch of tourist traps and chain establishments rocking, then sure, okay.
Calgary wasn’t born in 1905, it was incorporated AS A TOWN in 1894, and even by 1906, it only had a population of about 12,000 people. It was basically still a frontier town until the first oil boom around 1911, and it wasn’t until several oil booms later, in the 60s-70s that Calgary even surpassed Halifax in population. So by comparison, considering Halifax was ‘born’ in 1749, Calgary is a very young city indeed. Not to mention that it’s long been an exceedingly wealthy city, while Halifax has been in decline for at least the last half-century.
Gee whiz, it’s really super that the oil-rich rednecks of Calgary can slap up a clusterfuck of hideous new buildings and are at least smart enough to leave a few strips of green space and bike paths in between the massive sprawl they call a city, but it’s absurd to compare their development with Halifax, a city whose land mass was mostly eaten up by the early 20th century, currently has one-third the population, and doesn’t have oil money flowing through its veins.
And seriously, Kay, if you consider that overblown carnival/yeehaw-fest they call the Stampede entertainment, then you’ve truly just affirmed my previous opinion of you. I met lots of self-righteous twits like you when I lived out west, it’s a shame some of them feel the need to relocate East….
I mostly agree with Nevermind. Halifax is not going to be for everyone. I personally love it. It has some downsides, but so has everywhere else I have lived.
As for the friendly comments, it’s too bad that so many people have had such negative experiences. No question there are bad apples in Halifax, but I have to say, the insincerity issues Jammie mentions are 10-fold greater in Toronto. I met a lot of great, down to earth folks in Ontario when I lived there, but I had never before encountered so many competitive, name-dropping, 5-year-planning, one-upping people in my life. Just relax already and have a beer. Good people overall, just very rat-racy.
I’m glad someone agrees with me. I thought I had some good points in there for once 🙂
To all the Halifax-bashers posting here: Find me the perfect city in Canada (or anywhere else fot that matter) and we’ll all move there together!
I’ll await your answers. On your mark, get set, GO!
Visit the Coca Cola stage, enter to win a dream home take a ride on the Ferris wheel and count the number of tourism dollars and jobs that hit Cow Town during Stampede week. Think again, meow. Even if you don’t have the rodeo sport in you, which is a world class show for what it is, and even if you don’t actually go down to the grounds the whole town is rockin’ with ‘yahoo friendly’. Everybody gets involved *clears throat* especially the Aboriginal community… some of the biggest stars perform every year… if that’s not entertainment then what is? Busker Days? hehe
oh, and about the “R” word… that chunk of land just on the edge of Calgary that’s known as “Sarcee Indian Reserve”… *sigh* never mind. oh, and to encourage the use of a peace pipe where racists are involved was metaphorical and used in the correct context. I’m not poking fun at the culture. I don’t try to be insensitive no matter how you twist my words.
Maybe the past how many years(?) of no Sunday shopping has contributed to the decline meow speaks of. Maybe NS SHOULD look to Calgary for ideas on how to stir economic growth and the job market with less government rather than more (privatizing liquor, privatizing registration and administration). The HST implementation of provincial tax adds more government to a system where less is more…
Do you see bike paths required in new housing developments around here? How about a planned allotment for NEW businesses to service those new developments? And rent-controlled housing in those developments? Such mandates would even serve green initiatives reducing people’s need to travel far for amenities.
I’m not saying Calgary is a perfect town or that one even exists but a lot of the good things they’ve done to keep the communities beautiful could serve this community very well.
Don’t have a perfect city for you NM, Hal suits my needs for now and indefinitely. I also lived in Calgary for a few years and have to agree with some of the posters here of how boring and lifeless it is. The downtown is a joke and is a ghost town after 5PM and it’s claim to fame for entertainment is country music and animal abusing rodeos. Yeah, that’s my kind of city…
Just thought I’d point out that if you click over to the LTWWL section right now, 2 of the first 3 Loves are about Halifax.
Just thought that was interesting…
Alberta tourisim don’t even know what Alberta looks like. Follow the link …
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11…
I loved alberta, lived there for years and still have some wonderful friends and memories BUT I do prefer here.
I was posted to Calgary in the mid 80s, I couldn’t wait to get the fuck out. What a fucking sterile city where the only thing that mattered was the almighty fucking dollar. And if you want Alberta’s worse without a doubt dull grey Edmonton. I’ve lived all across Canada and the only two places worth living in is Halifax and Victoria.
If you don’t like it here, take the 102 North past Truro, take the 104 West and keep on going. I promise we won’t miss you.
Gee willickers, y’all!! Them Calgary folks gots home lotteries, ferris wheels, and calf ropin’!!! OOOOH-WEEEE, don’t it just sound like the promised land! I even heard they gots them some pretty pink plastic houses, with Wallymarts far as the eye can see!! Well, by golly, colour me green with envy!!!
Seriously though, kay, since you’re already up on your high horse, why don’t you point it in the direction of Calgary and ride off into the sunset. Get along now, little doggy.
As for the rest of you fine bitchy folk, I’m off to the beautiful Annapolis Valley for the weekend. Try not to miss me too much, alright? 😉
Balls: Um. Kay hasn’t seen NGF in person either, yet proclaimed he’s fat, ugly and miserable…if that makes one unattractive then my assertion that she *is* ugly [synonym for unattractive] is in fact correct and your point is moot.
Also, I didn’t pay NGF to say I was attractive and awesome.
*Whew* Some serious emotions here! Here is my expat experience. I was born and raised in Victoria B.C. Most folks there are from somewhere else. Most of us could not wait to leave after graduation. (sound familiar?) The main employers in Victoria are government, geratric care, and tourism. Anywhere outside the city, it is Canadian buisness as usual…ever dwindling natural resources. I clearly remember being home for Christmas a few years ago, and tipping a few cold ones back with my best friend, who was also visiting family. We were bitching and whining about how horribly prices for food, gas, ferry etc had risen. About the poorly, and hastily planned expansion of suburbia. “Paved paradise and put up a parking lot” We bemoaned the fact that panhandlers had taken over the downtown core, the traffic had come unbearable, and malls and fast food had ruined the once quaint and historical landscape. Somewhere between “can you believe what they did to Mt. Doug park!?” and “if I get panhandled one more time!” a girl sitting next us interupted, and loudly and angrily queried, “well if you don’t like it here, why don’t you just go back to where ever it is you came from!?”The bartender slowly wiped his rag in front of her and quitely informed her..”um..they are from here.” After the laughter settled down, my friend sat back, paused for a moment, and replied, “I’ll bet you moved here from Ontario?” She glowered at all of us, spun on her heel and departed…common story back home. The grass always seems greener on the other side. I also lived in Calgary for about five years. Too big for me, but hey, each City has its problems, and most dealing with geography, industry, and taxes. I have lived small towns, huge cities, and everything in between. All have good and bad points. If you have not found them yet, then you have not looked hard enough. Sort of like people. You take the good with the bad. Finding a perfect balance boils down the individual personality of the resident. The one things I did notice over the years, is that now matter where you go, if there are Maritimers, they flock together for good times and reminicence. One would be hard pressed to hear songs about Smithers, Laduc, Nippising, or Gimli. Anywhere where there are more than three Maritimers, you will find a kitchen party. Where else can you here songs about towns like Mabou, Iona Jurric..sung all over the globe. I digress, this thread is supposed to be about Halifax sucking. Do not berate those who wish to leave, as that is the way of the world. Do you really want to live next to, work with, or interact with someone who is not happy? I don’t. Go, b e free, have fun out there.
P.S. I work at a local university, and the majority of the international students I poll, love it here, and are eager to tell me the differences between their hometowns, villages and countries, and here. Most want to stay…because of the people, lack of crime, scenery and culture. Mostly the people.
Flyingbrick, that was epic and touching. As someone who has previously lived outside of Boston, I can say that I love Halifax a million times more. Boston: one ‘word’ – meh. The crime rate was astronomical and there was way too much empty pride. The sports teams were (and still are) on fire though.
i have lived in many different cities and moved here about 13 years ago from toronto…it was weird at first..wow a lot of old white people but i like the pace and its very small so things are really close together though most of the people i’m close to aren’t from around here
I’ve lived and worked in every province except PEI. I’ve lived in big cities, small towns, and rural areas. In my experience, the friendliest place in the country is Newfoundland, hands down. Unfriendliest place, Alberta, also hands down. Quebec, to my surprise, was one of the friendliest places I’ve ever lived. Not Montreal. Montreal is second only to Alberta for unfriendliness. But the eastern townships of Quebec are amazing. The stories of hospitality I could tell would put the tales of Maritime hospitality to shame.
All in all, Nova Scotia is on the good side of average in terms of friendliness. Anyone who thinks it’s uncommonly sucky here probably hasn’t travelled much. I’m originally from Ontario, but I like it here. I find you get back what you put out.
I’m gonna retire in Newfoundland though 🙂
to the OP, if you don’t like it, then stay the Hell away. And to you piss ant people who hate the city, grow up and move. There are people here who love this city. So STFU and adjust.
kay you should get your husband to write a song about it, and get your son to do a 1080 mctwist and dedicate it to how racist nova scotia is.
This is such a stupid debate! I see my like or dislike for a certain place or group of people as being a result of MY VERY OWN BRAIN- a result of my own PERSONAL outlook- my own PERSONAL likes and dislikes, my own PERSONAL moral code, my own PERSONAL experiences. Lots of people say people in France are rude but that wasn’t my experience- I thought they seemed average, and in some instances really nice. Does that mean they are? Or aren’t?? Whose personal experience is more authentic, mine or the other person’s?
Haven’t seen the commercial but I like the fact that Halifax/Dartmouth is a shit-hole town. It keeps the real estate affordable, the yuppies here are a joke (they all have the stench of overextended credit), and it’s a great place to come and escape the modern world. Sort of like living in a place where they still point at airplanes!
I’m a born and raised Haligonian and have been living in Ontario/Quebec for the past 10 years. I’m moving back to Halifax soon and have mixed feelings about it. Honestly, if it weren’t for family I think I’d stay in ON/PQ. I miss the ocean but do not miss the weather, homogeneity, lack of food/restaurant choices, politicians, fruit flies, prices, poor real estate selection, mediocre schools, poor transit, swarmings and race issues.
I hate Toronto (due to the heat/pollution and difficulty getting out of the city) but it does have a few great and friendlier than Halifax neighborhoods. Montreal is an awesome city and Ottawa has lots to offer families and outdoorsy folks. Vancouver has its geography and I’ll admit there aren’t many places I’d rather not live than Calgary. So yes Halifax trumps any city East of Vancouver and West of London but that’s not too tough. Maybe I’ll feel better about it when I’m back but for the time being it’s pretty hard to come up with positive reasons other than salt water and family. Please convince me I’m wrong but the whole ‘friendly’ thing does not weigh heavily.
Doubtful, it’s obvious you’ve been away for a while. Right now in HRM, there is every type of restaurant imaginable, Mid-Eastern, a variety of Asian, Italian, Greek, Carribean, etc. Plus of course, DONAIRS, mmmmmmmm.
I was also kind of taken aback by the “lack of food/restaurant choices” made by doubtful. Isn’t there some kind of statistic about Halifax actually having the most restaurants per capita in Canada?
I’ve often remarked that, if anything, Halifax has too many restaurant choices and I have a hard time getting around to trying them all.
nevermind but what fun trying.
Definitely fun trying to hit them all. I’d put forward that Halifax can go toe-to-toe with any major city in Canada (or US) in the restaurant category. You don’t have to have the most expensive and ‘trendy’ restaurants to have good food, good atmosphere, and good selection.
Well Bro Tim and nevermind, I’m glad you’re positive about the restaurant options. It’s probably unfair of me to compare Halifax to Toronto and Montreal for food, especially given the population differences. Quebec has some amazing food though and even the small towns have hole-in-the walls that crush Halifax’s best. It’s true that there’s a good variety in HRM especially given its size, it just seems that there’s a deficit in the higher end/quality. You can’t (shouldn’t) eat donairs forever and I think I could exhaust metro’s finest in a week, maybe 2. In Montreal it would take a year or more and I’d be a poor bed ridden diabetic by the end. We had a terrible time finding anything open over the holidays in the HRM but I suppose it could be worse. On PEI if I remember correctly, the only place we could get a meal after 10pm was Swiss Chalet and we had to hustle, not-unlike my experiences in Calgary come to think of it. I’m glad Halifax is building the full-time market though, that’s a huge plus. We were at the Italian Market over the holidays and it seemed to have really gone downhill. Pete’s fruitique on the other hand seems to have really blossomed and despite the higher prices does offer a good selection. This is embarrassing but we’d recently ‘borrowed’ a menu from a particularly good place up the street in hopes of convincing someone to offer the same in Halifax. Bon appetit!
Well let’s see Montreal has over 4 times the population plus the suburbs than we do and Toronto about 10 times the population. Ya think that might have something to do with it. Now compare Halifax to comparable sized cities.
I know it seems unfair to compare, given the size differences but you have to live somewhere and if it’s Toronto or Montreal then at the end of the day, there’s much more choice, especially if you’re in the right neighborhoods. It’s not Halifax’s fault but it is a reality and something to consider when choosing where you’re going to spend the next 30 years, the same with all of my other concerns (in which I neglected to mention the remoteness of the city from all others). Yes there are lots of advantages to not living in a big city too, but it seems the longer I’m in one, the more I forget them…
You’re probably right that food-wise HRM does compare favorably to similarly sized cities in NA but it still seems like there’s room for improvement. It’s frustrating that pub-food/ fast-food still reigns supreme but I guess that goes with the whole bar/student scene.
I guess a comparison would be asking how many Haligonians would want to live in Cheticamp. It might be beautiful and friendly and they may have a few really nice things that make them better than most similarly sized places but would you want to live there for the rest of your life? Maybe, but probably not… Plus if the school is bad or there are 100 obnoxious drunks in town, your options are limited and you’re really far from anything better. Halifax is nowhere near that bad but presents similar dilemmas when ‘downsizing’.
I should add that I am happy that the harbour’s finally getting cleaned up and am proud that we compost even though I hate Drosophila melanogaster.
Doubtful, are you from Cheticamp?
BRoc: I wish…