I’m all for urban renewal but has anyone noticed the condo developments on Gottingen Street lately? Where are you going to stick the poor and disaffected this time? It’s only a matter of time before Uniacke square becomes a part of history much like Africville. Oh well, they’re just poor people….
—f*ck the rich
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2009.
I understand they require affordable housing…unfortunately the entire Halifax Peninsula is quickly becoming, less affordable to the lower income brackets. They are not guaranteed the right to live right downtown (which the peninsula will be in 10-15-20 years), there is Public Transit (sure it sucks but it will get you there…eventually) I know it may seem harsh to you but not only the Income-Assisted are being “pushed out” by the rate of progress in Halifax. It’s a fact of life everywhere else in the World, everybody just has to get used to it and move on.
Uniacke square, while it is a community in and of itself, also has more than it’s share of problems…wouldn’t a fresh startreboot in newly built affordable housing unit be a good thing??
It’s going to happen to alot of the NON-Historical buildings on the Peninsula…look at Vancouver and Toronto, it is an eventuality so please don’t scream discrimination or “Gentrification” when it is in fact badly needed progress and development…sure I would agree with you if it was ONLY happening in that area…but it’s not, Halifax is finally seeing the growth it needs to become relevant again.
There’s no requirement for affordable housing.
Agreed, It’s seems public housing in Halifax is in some of the best areas, real-estate wise… which makes no sense. Sadly I think even with the new housing, they’ll destroy that soon enough too…
…so let’s keep pushing the poor farther out….so far out that you can’t see them at all
I was driving across the new bridge over the weekend and thought what a shame that all those houses in Shannon Park were empty when the need for shelter is so pressing. I know they need fixing up, but with the economic stimulus announced surely some could be earmarked for this worthy cause?
My point exactly Cylon, these prime areas should be reserved for members of society who contribute tax dollars, not drain them…
LOGiC: you are joking right?
OP, did you consider that the money the city gets from the higher property taxes the condos can pull in might actually help the poor by providing more revenue for social housing and other social programs?
Halifax needs to grow, especially the downtown area. I hate to see a community destroyed in the process, but sometimes that happens. Maybe this will be just the impetus Uniacke square needs to come together as a community and show the city why they are worth preserving.
and if not joking where do you suggest these people live?
There are probably other areas of the HRM where the people in Uniacke could afford to live. If not, the city can also build new (maybe better) affordable housing somewhere.
I would be interested in seeing some statistics on that area with respect to employment rates, average income, crime, community programs etc. If the area is really threatened by development, it should be possible to find a solution that will protect the poor yet still encourage development.
Well known African Nova Scotian George Elliot Clarke believes people in Uniacke Square should be given the opportunity to buy the home they have been renting for decades. They can then have the freedom to not have to deal with HRM.
I agree with him. Use the sales proceeds to build more housing
With our awesome bus service I can just imagine how well sticking all of the po’ folks over in Shannon Park would go over. Think about it. Good idea though, it’d be like the Warsaw Ghetto, Peter Kelly Edition.
Round 2 – As I didn’t live here at the time and can only go on hearsay – wasn’t Gottingen Street THE street for smart houses and businesses’ years ago? Perhaps everything has gone full circle and the gentrification will return it to it’s fashinable past. I always felt badly for any tourist arriving in Halifax by car who drove across the bridge and first saw Gottingen Street
a post argues:
“OP, did you consider that the money the city gets from the higher property taxes the condos can pull in might actually help the poor by providing more revenue for social housing and other social programs?”
That’s the freakin problem.
Living here for 20 years, the only reason people are unfortunate and poor because they want to and our system allows them to be.
Why would a fucking person be on the food bank list for 20+ years?!!!!!
Why would anyone be on welfare for 15+ years?!!!
Noooo.. I don’t want my money, that I work my ass off for, to go to this kind of people.
Senile, yes. In-fact, Gottengin street was the spring garden road of the pre-halifax explosion era. After the halifax explosion, it was determined that it was too expensive to bring it back to that level and it was decided to turn it into a residential area, which later on became public housing (for some reason).
What kind of people would you want your hard earned money to go to?
perhaps part of the problem is that we lump all the poor together into un desirable neighbourhoods. perhaps gentrification is actually a positive thing. Lets spread the poor around a bit and intergrate our neighboorhoods.
“We” don’t lump the poor into neighbourhoods any more than we lump the middle class into the ‘burbs or the rich into the south end. People gravitate to others of similar status because that’s what they can afford.
The neighbourhoods might become undesirable because, with poverty come the other problems (e.g. crime) that often turn a poor neighbourhood undesirable.
In England, that’s what they do. After a few years you can have the option to buy the public housing unit you rent. It’s a great idea and would work well, here as well. I think what people forget is that people actually pay rent for those places, just like everyone else does for their rental unit. The only difference is, is that their rent has very little profit involved. What’s wrong with that? There are many reasons that people end up on welfare for 15 + years, one of them is that many people on social assistance have health issues. I have a friend with a child who has special needs. The child was just accepted into a program to help her develop better social skills, etc. Her mom has to bring her to the program and pick her up 4 days a week, as well as participate in some of the lessons. To do this she had to take leave from her job and is now receiving family benefits. She doesn’t have a choice. If more jobs were more flexible, then less people would be on welfare.
Here’s to gentrification! I could never understand the anti-gentrification camp. “Down with nice properties and more beauty! Down with people who have jobs and care about their neighbourhood!” Cripes
I think most of the main issues of gentrification is due to the displacement of people. Whoever pointed out here that it’s really strange to have a “poorer” area in the downtown region, they’re bang on the money. However, it’s not entirely a Halifax problem. Take a look at TO, they’ve got Jane and Finch. Winnipeg has it’s Native district. Vancouver has it’s east end. Most of the problem with “affordable housing” lies in the misconception that people need to live near the city centre. Rents in that area can’t be controlled mostly due to skyrocketing or plateauing property values. If you leave the downtown region though, you find a number of large, low-rent, or municipally subsidized housing. The Pubs (just off of Bayer’s Road) is a great example of this. There are also a number of municipally funded apartment buildings in Sackville. Remember, “gentrification” just doesn’t happen to poor people. The hardest hit from the effects of gentrification are the “working poor”. These are the people who contribute significant tax dollars, but thanks to the widening wage disparity of the middle class and the upper middle class (who by and large occupy the same area) cannot afford their homes any further because of significant increases in property taxes. Sure, we don’t want to focus on the erosion of the middle class, because it doesn’t seem it should be a problem. However, go talk to anyone who just lives outside the city or what used to middle class areas of the city (i.e.: Fairview, anywhere north of Quinpool) who bought their homes anywhere between 10-20 years ago. Their property values have increased probably as high as 80-100%, but their wages haven’t increased to match that increase in taxes, or debt load.
Shit, I’m not in a “poor” income bracket by any means and I can’t afford to live downtown. If I went on social assistance and sat on my ass all day and did nothing, then I would be. Figure that one out.
I don’t care if they build condos on Gottingen street. Perhaps moving in some higher income bracket folk might clean the place up a little (anyone who denies it’s a rough area of town because of the population base is kidding themselves). Let the people actually pulling their own weight get the prime real estate.
People bitch and complain when an area becomes dilapitated. Then when work is done to improve the areas they still bitch and complain. I haven’t heard anyone saying they are going to bulldoze Uniacke Square or tear down the manors. People complained no one wanted to live in this and other areas and now that there are (the area can’t be too bad if the “rich” are moving in) people willingly move into the area they’re still complaining.
Make up my military mind.
There going to push them into Spryfield, just wait and see. And to tell you the truth good ridance, I hate seeing drug dealers on the corner, plus the fact that many people are violently assaulted walking through that area at night.
The ‘buy your public rental’ scheme that Mr Clarke likes, was a feature in Britain (Mrs. Thatcher) and the price declined in proportion to the number of years of rental.
It’s the HCAP gang that goes around moaning about about ‘Gentrification’ which means they are ignorant of the history of that area of Halifax where the well to do once lived and then the middle class and then the working class.
Uniacke Square has many working families and they should have the right to buy their home at a discount. Megan Leslie, MP, should speak up on the issue; she’ll be surprised at the level of support.
Until the gangstas and other hoodlums are purged from the Square there will be no market value for any of those properties. Selling them to the current occupants will simply make the ghetto permanent.
Uniacke Square should be closed, the residents dispersed to other suitable areas, and the area bulldozed and redeveloped in an appropriate manner.
Any time I hear someone use the term “gentrification” these days I think of the HCAP criminals.
Gottigen… eeeewwwwwwww.
I feel dirty just popping to propeller every so often.
Just give em a gun (if they don’t have one already) and ship em to spryfield…
Anyone ever notice how even when it’s a sunny summer day it’s still dark and dreary on gottingen? especially in that section before you hit north. It’s fucking creepy.
Yes Keith, let’s make another Africville scenario. That’ll fix it.
Keith – HRM should test the market to see how many residents would buy a discounted property. Homw ownership brings social change, owners will do more to protect the property and the neighbourhood when they have ownership. I noticed one home where the owner took time and effort to plant and maintain a garden and walking home from work I would stop and talk to the lady about differnt plants and shrubs. Not long after a garden appeared next door and the next year another garden appeared. Peer pressure, subtle and effective.
Some of you seem to be confusing people with insects/rodents.
I really don’t see letting the people buy their rental homes as the solution to gentrification. If they all suddenly had the option to buy their own homes, they would of course, but then you know what would happen? The people who have tons of money to build condos would roll in, offer them double what they just paid, and then they’d all move somewhere cheaper, and the condo’s would go up without a hitch.
So in my opinion, let that happen, it can’t hurt to have more housing downtown for people willing to rent/buy it. It would bring the insane rents of the rest of downtown down a little, and lessen the amount of people needing to drive to work to get downtown.
The thing is, how many of the people in the low income housing downtown are working downtown? If these people were all working in the downtown core, they wouldn’t be needed low income housing. If they were out in sackville, what would they even need to go downtown for?
It’s also a good idea to make a couple of different places with low income housing, spread them out a bit so that the strain on resources is shared by different communities. It would also make for more incentive to get a job if your family was one of the few in the community living off the system When it’s your entire community, wheres the incentive to change?
People are stupid – give them the home, buy them out, get rid of them, good call and I vote for that!