“There’s a lot of quiet desperation in this neighbourhood,” says Kees Zwanenburg.
The priest of Holy Trinity Emmanuel church, Zwanenburg’s one of the most qualified to gauge the state of the souls who live in the north end of Dartmouth.
Just a stone’s throw from the church is Victoria Road, and across that busy thoroughfare is Pinecrest-Highfield Park. Bound by Victoria on the west, Highway 111 on the north and Albro Lake Road to the south, it’s an area that has long been in crisis. Packed with apartment buildings, the neighbourhood is a literal and figurative dead end.
Pinecrest-Highfield Park remains one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the city. Most homes are rented, people move frequently, incomes are near rock-bottom, a disproportionate percentage of families are led by single parents—mostly women—and there are high rates of government assistance. Many people live in shoddy housing.
And the police are there a lot.
Analysis of police call data by University of King’s College journalism students shows that seven percent of all police calls for serious incidents from 2005 to 2010 are to the area that includes Highfield-Pinecrest. Among the most common incidents: assaults; robberies; drug use; weapons and attempted suicides.
Donald MacLean, the outgoing East Division commander for the Halifax Regional Police Service, attributes many of the neighbourhood’s woes to the high-density apartments on Highfield Park and Pinecrest Drives. “What we see is the type of housing situation that contributes to the transient nature of the community, which probably plays a part in some of this.”
The apartments are the legacy of planning decisions that zoned the area for apartment buildings, first on the semi-urban Pinecrest and later in the brand-new community of Highfield Park, built starting in the 1980s on the site of a former naval radio base.
The result was cramming thousands of low- to middle-income people into the same area, a recipe for the area’s problems today.
Jean Hughes, former president of the Dartmouth Family Centre, attributes much of the neighbourhood’s problems to fast development of the Highfield Park Drive apartments.
“A lot of people compare north Dartmouth and Spryfield,” she says, referencing another of the city’s high-crime neighbourhoods. “But Spryfield is a different community in that it has a history.”
Spryfield is an old rural community that has transformed over the years. Though it faces its share of problems, community leaders and infrastructure have long been in place to accommodate residents. Highfield Park went from an empty field to a forest of apartments in less than a decade. “That area, that came out of nowhere,” says Hughes. “There was no history, no buildings existed, there was no one living there.”
Foster MacKenzie, former president of the Nova Scotia Association of Architects, says during Highfield Park’s development he predicted the neighbourhood would quickly turn into a high-density slum: “Start erecting these high-density housing units, four and five storeys, very close together with very few amenities and you start putting low- to middle-income families in those areas with lots of children, you’re going to end up with problems.”
In 1991 the former Dartmouth city council tabled a report that laid out a series of steps to save the neighbourhood. Among other things, the Pinecrest Highfield Park Neighbourhood Plan called for aggressive rezoning to allow privately owned family homes, a key step to improve the community.
Although rezoning was rolled out, walkways were built and various park and landscaping initiatives undertaken, the number of privately owned homes continued to drop. Apartments were never redeveloped and large corporate property management groups still dominate the landscape.
The plan also called for more space for small businesses to service the densely populated neighbourhood, but today Pincecrest-Highfield Park has little more than a small Sobeys, a couple corner stores, pizza joints and a pub.
“The absence of infrastructure is an indicator of a lack of diversity and opportunity,” says Grant Wanzel, a professor of urban planning and architecture at Dalhousie University. He says the design and development of the neighbourhood is central to why it has turned into a slum. “Highfield Park is a cul-de-sac; you can get in but you can’t get out. It sounds kind of funny [but] it’s not about symbolism; it’s about physical reality.”
Wanzel says much of the blame should be shouldered by government for neglecting a problem as it got worse, in one of the city’s most populous areas: “On a per capita basis there’s a pretty low level of municipal commitment to that neighbourhood.”
While it would be tempting to write off the area that many call The Dark Side, there is another side to Highfield-Pinecrest: a small band of community activists fighting the decades of neglect that have created a place where many fear to go out at night.
Zwanenburg, the priest, runs several outreach programs out of the basement of his small, white-painted, cinderblock church on Alfred Street. One is Youth United, which attracts up to 40 teenagers every Friday to play games, watch movies, eat and just hang out. “We’re not talking about saints,” he says of the adults who work with the kids. “We’re talking about regular ordinary people that show respect and affection and affirmation.”
“Most communities can learn from people up in this area,” says police constable Randy Wood. “It’s a very vibrant community that’s sometimes not portrayed properly.”
Wood is the community response officer for Dartmouth North, but he’s better known to residents by his nickname, “Uncle Randy.”
Wood’s job is to help residents any way he can. He doesn’t normally make arrests or detain people; his role is simply to assist the community however he sees fit. One Wednesday a month he ferries people from the local food bank to their apartments, via a police SUV filled with grocery bags.
A dispute with a neighbour, difficulties finding work or even a cat with diarrhea— all fall under Wood’s purview. “It’s not just Monday to Friday, eight to four, it’s whatever is required,” he says. “Sometimes that’s nights, sometimes that’s weekends.”
He’s reluctant to take time off for vacation because there isn’t another officer who can easily take over. Wood’s wife works in the Middle East, so although he doesn’t live in Dartmouth North, much of his life is there.
“Without sounding cliche or anything like that, he really is the heart and face of the police for a lot of people in that community,” says MacLean of Wood.
MacLean oversaw the Highfield Park area for the last five years and knows the challenges facing the community. The community response officer model was piloted in Highfield Park and its success led to implementation in other troubled Halifax areas.
MacLean says that while drugs, weapons and violent crime are prevalent in the area, it’s problematic to blanket it with that characterization because those crimes are committed by a small fraction of the population.
Most people just mind their own business.
Georgina Lee, 52, watched as the first apartments on Pinecrest Drive went up, and then the development of Highfield Park Drive. She moved to the neighbourhood with her infant son because, “It was cheaper rent than any place else.”
That’s still true—a two-bedroom apartment can be had for under $700, about the same for a room with a shared bath in Clayton Park West.
In her 33 years in Highfield-Pinecrest, Lee has held down a job and raised a child as a single parent. Her son Dean is now a high school teacher and a respected member of the community, an example to other young people growing up in the area. Once, when Lee’s coat was stolen from the community centre, all she had to do was spread word that the coat belonged to Dean’s mother and it was returned within the hour.
But while she sees all that is good in the neighbourhood, she has also seen the decline. “At one time, this neighbourhood, you could walk the street two, three, four o’clock in the morning and wouldn’t think twice about it,” she says. “But now you wouldn’t. By the time, nine, 10 o’clock comes, you’re not outside, because of the things going on in the area.”
She knows her neighbourhood is labelled as a slum. “And that’s the way it’s going to stay.”
But not if Sylvia Anthony has her way. Sometimes called “the mayor of Dartmouth North,” the 71-year-old is a tireless volunteering machine, emblematic of the passion many have towards the area, where she has spent her entire life.
Anthony is involved in—or president of—just about every community action group in Dartmouth North. She’s a member of Crime Stoppers, volunteers with MADD and the Halifax Regional Municipality, she’s the facilities manager at the Northbrook Community centre, a liaison with Capital Heath’s health and wellness committee, chairperson of Neighbourhood Watch.
She also started a community paper, the North Dartmouth Echo, seven years ago that focuses solely on good news stories from the area. She’s providing a bit of positive bi-monthly counter-spin. “I mean you can’t expect a community to be perfect. Nobody’s perfect, nothing’s perfect,” says Anthony. “You couldn’t find a better place to live in for resources, helping and caring individuals.”
The Echo strives to get the word out on all the new programs available in the community and profiles the achievements of individuals. The last issue featured a story on a local couple celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.
Dorris Buffet-MacDonald, the features writer, shows her copy to the people she profiles before it goes to print to make sure all parties agree with what she’s written—high treason at any other media outlet.
Anthony says the Echo also informs residents of the social programs available in the area, because many are often unaware. She says a grade six teacher at John MacNeil Elementary School is using the paper as a teaching tool to not only get kids reading, but to get them pride in their community.
“I believe that the children of today are the adults of tomorrow,” says Anthony. “That’s why our newspaper spends so much time in our schools.”
On a Friday in early spring back in the basement of the Holy Trinity Emmanuel church, dozens of young teenagers have come out for another night of Youth United. In the past they’ve gone out for bowling, swimming at the Sportsplex and for a night at the movies.
“We have a total enrolment of 48 kids now, which is pretty good seeing how the junior high only has 210 students,” says Jenifer Fitzsimmons, creator of Youth United. “If they form that pride in their community then they’ll help make it a better place and maybe people will stand up and listen.”
“At least we’re not out roaming the streets looking for something to do, or out at the mall by ourselves,” says Megan Vance, 15, who has come to the Friday night group since it started in September.
The group meetings provide her and her friends a place that shelters them from the crime and danger of the neighbourhood on a Friday night.
“We’re all here together, safe.”
Read more about the King’s investigation of police calls and take a multimedia tour of Highfield Park-Pinecrest at 902911.kingsjournalism.com. Also in the class are Ezra Black, Alex Boates, Schenley Brown, Andrei Dezsi, Corbett Hancey, Patrick Odell, Tim van der Kooi, Dane Butler and faculty advisor Fred Vallance-Jones.
This article appears in Apr 14-20, 2011.
Councillor Smith spends more time promoting and worrying about the Burnside industrial park and the commuters who work there than he does about the poor people in his constituency.
Even the NDP is obsessed with the middle-class.
Talk to Jerry Pye, he’ll give you an earful.
People call Dartmouth “The Dark Side” not Highfield/Pinecrest.
Expropriate and bulldoze.
Great, they have 1 cop doing some good there… what about the ones that leave bodies lying in the lobby of a building and tell the superintendents that it’s “not the responsibility of Police to clean up the mess”? True story.
Of course it’s not the Police’s problem, but leaving a pool of blood and god knows what else in a lobby where children live and not even suggesting what to do is pretty shitty.
As with all issues, unless they are thoroughly identified they cannot be sufficiently remedied and one of the writers did omit the entire truth in this human story. Infrastructure is the easy perp to see in the line -up. however it serves as a convenient distraction from the real issues here of slum- landlording , municipal (govt-police) apathy and class discrimination by those profiting from tenants here including Access Nova Scotia. This student received the entire legal brief that was submitted to Small Claims Court against the property manager for Oxford Properties/Omer Realty for gross negligence, bait and switch tactics etc. He also had grievances filed to then Minister Jennex about the incestuous corruption at the Residential Tenancy Board who have more in common with these landlords than tenants in this community. One officer was ‘disciplined’ but still works there.
Then we have a disturbingly discriminatory Dalhousie Legal Aid who cherry pick those tenants they deem worthy of their amatuer legal thoughts-they treat this office like their own private law firm.
As a tenant here that has been the deliberate target of the property manager I have had zero supports to assist me with the arduous task of representing myself legally while with multiple disabilities including brain injuries. On March 31 2011 before the SCC decision was in ink, this manager served me an eviction notice, retaliatory evictions are illegal in our province. I was threatened with civil action if I continued to call him corrupt, I stated I would counter file for all the injuries they committed. Days later I am served a sincerely written eviction notice.
It is now clear to me that responsible tenants are treated like garbage because we cost these landlords money and how dare we think we are entitled to safe, repaired places to live. I realize that they prefer criminals because they tend not to call for leaky faucets or drafty doors therefore save the business/ property owner much money.
WE should never forget this is not about housing, this is about making profits for property owners, Omers/Oxford are Ontario based. The student omitted that landlords here are enabled by Dept of Community Service and Metro Regional Housing Authority-Rental Supplement Program who fabricate inspection sheets then hang the tenant out to fight with the landlord who are making profits via vulnerable tenants-recipients living in deplorable conditions. In a manner, tax payers are making profits for these landlords and keeping this community unfit to live.
It is easy to blame the drug deala for rilla…lets hold those accountable who are breaking the law in broad daylight every day: Residential Tenancy Act-tenant and constitutional violations committed by public servants, elected officials, police and landlords/managers.
I would like to add that in my case the landlord is Oxford Properties and Omers Realty with property manager Kevin Russell-all info has been legally published in small claims court in several hundred pages of documentation-they own most of Highfield Park Drive. We also have Homburg and several other smaller indies owning building that have been allowed to be run down and breed contempt for their tenants and why not, they get a govt cheque monthly regardless. Tax payers need to own this by holding all those that have allowed this to happen, slum landlords can only exist when DCS/MRHA and ACCESS NS allow them to. One thing I have learned in the short time living here is many have all kinds to say but not prepared to do a dang thing about it. Because many in this community cannot fight for themselves or they have to fight by themselves, it is up to the rest of society to act in manner that reflects a civilized society.
OMERS Realty – the real estate arm of the Ontario unions, including CUPE.
Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. Nice to know that Ontario janitors,cops, garbage workers and other municipal workers are slum landlords to boost the income of their pension plan.
Can this be true ? Which buildings ?
For more information about Oxford Properties, a subsidiary of OMERS, and OMERS see :
http://www.omers.com/investments/Our_Inves…
Congrats to Kees Zwanenburg, Doris Buffet-Macdonald and everyone who is working along side of familes in the Pinecrest/Highfield Park area. I taught parenting classes in that community and met lots of dedicated parents whose main goal in life was to give their children every opportunity and wanted them to have happier lives than they did. I understand only too well what it is like to raise children alone and in poverty and to not know where to go for support. I will forever be grateful to those who helped me and my children during some very difficult times – especially those who provided healthy, fun, and educational programming for my kids. My children are now adults and are caring and responsible citizens who are giving back to their communities. In my opinion, empowering the poor is the highest and best work anyone can do and it results in unlimited benefits for all involved and for the wider community.
– Kathleen Higney
Many an elected official have done the ole ‘glide and slide’ in Dartmouth North because who else wants it……sadly they insult the residents here who are paying attention. The elected are clever though as every once in awhile they, including the copper, pass out free shirts and tickets to games just to keep the natives pacified…I found the article insulting in that did what NS is famous for-not addressing the real issue and turning the story into a hug-a-thon……the advocates in the story no doubt are doing a lot of work but it is reactionary….they are responding best they can to the symptoms of larger issues that go beyond architecture…
It is my understanding the auditor general is looking into issues of MRHA-RSP…he has no idea what they have been getting away with for years in their collusion with slumlandlords and class discrimination and degradation -they approve homes/units they would not let their own dying dogs live in….these public servants(housing-tenancy board/small claims) /police/elected/landlords know they will get away with it because those who do not live in the community could not give a fig newton about how the vulnerable are treated yet it is their tax dollars paying for this slow death of people in these communities.
Joe-ps. thanks for posting OMERS info….
http://www.oxfordproperties.com/corp/index… belongs to OMers, they legally go by either so I put both on the legal matters…they have most of the main drag then Homburg…you are right about OMERS-scary when you think all those making money from slumlandlording. Oxford is not what their website says it is….in fact the manager lied under oath saying The Park didnot have a negative reputation…ahem….the judge must have been confused…..oddly the day of this article the decision came in my mail but I will not read it til tomorrow.
I am not confused how our legal system is too much of wimp to do real enforcement of the law against slum/abusive/negligent landlords.Again it is ONLY our tenancy boards-small claims enabling slumlandlords in our province. But if a tenant does not pay one month they cannot rush you through the door fast enough… CLASS DISCRIMINATION is a human rights violation.
I’m one who has bought, fixed up, and sold, several homes in the Dartmouth North community. Ten years ago, when I started, new to the community, it felt exciting to be part of the improvement of the community. However, I’m continuously disappointed on the lack of action from our elected officials about Dartmouth North. From the councillors to the MLAs to the MP, there seems to be zero work being done in this community. All the major roads in the Highfield/Pinecrest area are designed so that you bypass the worst. I encourage you to take a drive through if you want to see what is our little Detroit.
I’d certainly like to know more about what the other commentors are saying about DCS/MRHA and their role in this situation. Just curious about the politics of it. Are our politicians enabling the continued depression in this area?
Even the private real estate development on the top of Trinity Drive is slow going. Is that because no one wants to drive through slummy neighbourhoods to get home?
While I appreciate the postitive comments about myself and other people who are working to make Dartmouth North a better place to live, slapping the label ‘Slum’ on Highfield Park, does a great disservice to many residents up there who work every day, live quiet and productive lives, and do actually live in quality apartment buildings. Alot of the residents up there are good family people, who live ordianary lives and are just trying to get by. I can only imagine what it must be like for them to pick up a paper and have their community called a ‘slum’. While there are alot of apt. bldgs close together, the upkeep of many is pretty good. While the crime stats may be high (combined Pinecrest and Highfield) we must remember that only a small segment of the population is involved. I have been in my friends apt. bldgs up in Highfield. They are not ‘slum dwellers’…They are electricians, nurses, etc. We will continue to work with what we’ve been given, see the best in everyone, and believe, that while much remains to be done, much has been accomplished.
I recently left this neighborhood due to the crime and the whole atmosphere. I also didn’t want my kids going to the schools. Not that too many others are GOOD, these schools in that are are war zones. There is a malaise in that area that I only otherwise get around Uniacke Square… unfortunately, people can take umbrage with the “slum’ moniker, but the fact is a rose by any other name… is still a slum. Beyond the senseless beatings and groups of punks wandering the area looking for a little fun (I say fun but I meant swarming), I was told that there are 3 to 5 gangs actively warring over the area. I only felt safe during a pouring rainstorm or a huge snowfall, cuz the punks don’t like that weather. I heard shots and screaming ALLLL summer and there was always some nimrod hanging around that Sobeys that looked like he was trying to decide if he could grab my groceries or my car keys.
Guyute-it is sad day when a family must move for their own safety especially when the DN is not that huge of an area…mister happy pappy police man cannot do all the good for the entire hood..note my sarcasm..I was on the DNCC board for 4 mos and never seen one hair of Mister Wood in the Hood…as soon as HRM took it over he is there all the time because big bro is watching now… he is like so many here including our elected officials, all of them-they are not doing any real work to have this community vibrant and safe-again you should not have to move b/c this geo-area should be manageable without much issue if there was meaningful intent to just that and this is the real issue-the covert and overt class discrimination that is epidemic through our province–it is mind over matter-they do not mind that poor folks dont matter…
sonflower-one does not need to be a nurse, electrician to be excluded from the term slum dwellers… one thing I have learned here is the apathy is overwhelming-the learned hopelessness is evident -people know that nefarious landlords/managers are all around here and that they have legal permission to be here because no one is doing a dang thing-it is like ‘they’ commit crimes every day in broad daylight but who cares..there are many tenants that b/c they are not nurses and are on social assistance they are treated like garbage everyday by landlords/police etc…I do not care what you do-welfare or nursing but if you are ignoring the issues and standing on the sidelines then you are part of the problem.
So many are afraid to take matters to formal hearings like police commissions or tenancy boards for fear of retaliation or evictions-it happened to me and where are my supports? The manager willnot get one consequence for doing a retaliatory eviction despite it being illegal.
I have live in HRM since the ’70s and when I moved here in the Park in 2009-2010 I was shocked that not only was nothing done but the community was allowed to deteriorate with impunity ..the HRM bus terminal is a disgrace and is unsafe to walk on because the cement is crumbling everywhere so while I agree words can be harmful so are these subtle messages from the HRM saying that you are unworthy of safe services like other communities..the boarded up buildings have been like that for years…..who has allowed this
Blitzen: DCS/MRHA-RSP have an obligation as a public service to act legally, constitutionally, responsibly and ethically with due diligence…the greatest perps of the vulnerable are DCS-MRHA-RSP who violate rules/policies/charters/Acts every day all day long because who cares….
DCS-MRHA pays a shelter allowance that goes to these landlords/managers and they know the units are not up to par or legally safe etc…the MRHA-RSP are to actually do inspections and they are done by unqualified public servants whose classism is appalling, they approve units that they would not live in themselves….Then when you call MRHA-RSP because your landlord is doing nothing about repairs/safety etc the voicemail says they do not deal with these issues and to go back to your landlord… DCS/MRHA/RSP by paying the rent regardless of program is giving consent to these slum/abusive landlords b/c they keep paying knowing the poor are a captive audience…
There is a clause in the MRHA-RSP that gives them permission to random inspect your unit for damages b/c it works from the class premise all poor folk are animals and uncivil-this wording is unconstitutional and discriminatory-no where does it say they will do random checks to make sure the landlords are complying with the Acts-DCS/MRHA colludes with constant violations to relevant Acts causing other ‘injuries’. Why are the public servants being paid when the tenant are forced to do all the work, tenants that are often vulnerable.
Then you get to the Tenancy Board and that is a slew of other corruption that has been allowed to breed because there is no monitoring, we have no accountability or an auditor general who behaves proactively. Our Ombudsman Office is as corrupt as those they are mandated to investigate. In my case I had to get the minister involved and the one guy was ‘disciplined’ but I was not allowed to know how…..public servants should be transparent…. and why is he still employed paid with your tax dollars after all the crimes/violations/bullying he committed..
……yes as I said blaming the infrastructure is the easy way out, it is the complacency of the non-poor, the corruption and incompetence of the public servant (elected/bureaucracy) and the overall classism of society that contribute to the slow death of Dartmouth North and its residents generation after generation…..there is zero excuses why DN is in the shape it is so I ask before folks call it slum etc ask what have you done to change that first and how have you played role to maintain its demise……
please note I post with my own name and take full responsibility for all that I post. G McIntyre
I heard some students from Kings College were writing a story about my community. I went into the corner store to pick up a copy of the Coast and what do I see “HRM’S WORST NEIGHBOURHOOD” I approach my neighbours in the store and ask “Did you see this?” “Do you know you live in HRM’S WORST NEIGHBOURHOOD?” We all began to laugh!!! I love my community. we say. There are really good people who live here. These headlines come from those who just don’t know about the kind, caring people who live in Dartmouth North. EVERY community has its uniqueness, its strengths, its weakness. STATISTICS will show what is strong in one area and what may not be so strong in another. These statistics then present opportunities for Media to keep promoting the weakness of a community. Statistics provide opportunities for students to come into a community with some weakness and do their school projects and promote again the weakness of a community. STATISTICS can also provide the opportunity for people to strengthen those areas in a community that are weak. 15,000 people live in Dartmouth North. Approximately 90% of those folks, like myself, love this community and will never leave. Approximately 10% are victims of the system, of crime, of those dead beat, slum landlords (who by the way, exist in every community). We, as ONE VOICE, can make a difference. We, 15,000 residents can begin to make a difference in the systems that are wearing down our neighbours, in the slum landlords who are the reason for people living in intolerable, inhumane situations. We can share the positive things that happen here, we can share the stories of kindness and goodness that I see on a daily basis. You can go to unitedwayhalifax.ca, Action for Neighbourhood Change and view 3 local documentaries made by local residents, sharing a history of this community, the positive things people have been doing “together” in this community and yes, you can hear what local residents think about Pincecrest.
I have lived in this community for 20 years! and Neighbours I believe that WE are the ones to make a differnce in statistics, in perception and in how the various systems treat us. If we can stop living with fear, with apathy and being complacent, we can stop being victims and begin being victors. We need to do it together. We need to be one voice. We have an election on the way. Instead of saying , those politicians aren’t going to do anything for me, they are all the same. Lets change a statistic. The one that says Dartmouth North has the lowest voter turn out rate in NOVA SCOTIA. Lets get those politicians to pay attention. Lets get out and vote If you don’t believe anyone on that ballot is going to help you, then did you know you can go to your polling station and say just that. You can reject your vote and it is still counted. We can begin that process of change – lets be heard! Lets come together and not allow these negative statistics and stories to continue to frame who people think we are
Loving here and never leaving
This article is absolutly ridiculous as well as simply inaccurate. I picked up the Coast this morning at my regular Highfield bus stop on my way to work, as I do any other regular day and seen the response to this article. I immediately looked up the original article when I got to work and was appalled. It literally made me sick to my stomach. I have been living in the Highfield/Pinecrest area for nearly 2 years with my boyfriend. We are both full time workers, And soon to be students working on futhering our positions in life. As if to call a neighborhood a “manufactured slum” isn’t bad enough, But did they even bother to really ask the people of the community how they felt? I don’t remember being asked my opinion? So no, They just assumed. Assuming does simple nothing more than to make an “Ass” out of yourself. And as a past tense respectable newspaper as yourself, I expected more from you. My story is that I moved to Primrose a year ago then later relocated to Highfield because I wanted a bigger place. Not because I am a single mother, Not because I am on social assistance, Not because I”m a trouble maker, Simple because I am a 20 year old female living with my boyfriend just starting out. I love it here, And if it counts for anything I’m originally from Waverley. I’ve had no problems in this area whats so ever, The people are always friendly and willing to help out in anyway possible. To say that it’s a dangerous place and that you can’t saftey walk the street at night is laughable. I mean, Can you really say that it’s a 100% safe to walk anywheres at 2-3 in the morning? Why are you walking outside at 3 in the morning in the first place if your not looking for trouble. This goes for any community so to pin point Pinecrest-Highfield is basically over looking your own community. I’m sure if I had went for a walk at 3am in Waverley I would have ran into some type of trouble as well. Intoxicated people not in there mind state, Or just plain old simple people out looking to stir up some drama. It’s 3am people? Let’s get serious. Pinecrest-Highfield is as normal as any other neighborhood, I can walk to get groceries, I can wait for the bus, I can even take the bus home. Really what I’m trying to get at is that this article is highly offensive, And I thought more or The Coast then to print something false as this. I’ve defenatly changed my opinion on this newspaper and I lost a lot of respect for it. It really did a awesome job at pointing fingers at the people of these communities. I think it was once said to not point your fingers at others, Especially when your hands aren’t that clean themselves. I mean really, To say that everyone who lives here is on social assistance, A single mother, Or a trouble maker just isn’t a true statement at all. And to say that you can ” Get in but you can’t get out” is an ignorent remark, There are plenty of university/college students as well as first time on there own couples/people who are living in this community simple because it’s got a place for you to stay, And it’s on the bus route to schools and jobs. My advice for you guys is to next time do your thorough research and interviewing before posting in your news paper something as inccorect as this article. – Kaitlyn Julien, Dartmouth NS
Kaitlyn, Obviously the article is not talking to or about you. It is talking about those who cannot get out because of socio-econo issues/dynamics that also apparently do not include you, they exclude you-because you are not effected by the issues does not mean they are not real for many people. …..
Maybe you didnot read the rest of the posts, I shared that I gave much legal info to one of the students and they chose to present the story in the way I find most unhelpful, inaccurate much like your comments- if people like you and them keep fluffing off what really is effecting a great number of folks/fams here then nothing will get done-why fix something that aint broke and according to you and all the other hug-a-thon members you are saying there are no issues- I just spent 2 years in tenancy/ courts proving otherwise….
Maybe YOU too should listen to others in the community????
Even the worse most violent communities have slices of good and warm and fuzzy….and while I think the students and their profs pussified out on this article as most journalists do in NS…..your position is as harmful and inaccurate in that you are the exception not the norm…your position is an insult to all those who have needlessly suffered in this community for generations…coming from safe white-washed Waverly….yeah not hard to see why you fluff and floss …….
This community needs lots of healing and remedies and supports and services……but according to you it does not…and that is a serious disconnect from reality, yours is a manufactured reality.
…And let’s not discuss how the Minister of Community Services adores sending in it’s CFPS workers to these homes to tear apart families, seize children and damage the lot of them for the rest of their lives. Very often simply because they can’t -afford- to buy ‘child-friendly’ things like Leapfrog toys, PS3s, or hugnormous television sets. Oh, and not to mention single-working mom who happens to come home to an impatiently waiting Social Worker who has a connitiption over a sink full of dishes. (Oh, yes, mom, you work, therefore, no legal aid for you. Bye bye kids! Remember the Minister wins more cases than they lose!)
Or, better still, how folks working in community services seem to seek out to make it more difficult to get every small thing for those disabled living here. Want a wheelchair? Well, you may have needed one for the past five years, but you’d better prove you still need it, because I’m SURE those legs’ll spontaneously heal… Medications? Well, you live in a slum, obviously, you’re looking to just get high, why should we give them to you? Because your kid’s sick? Better call CFPS, cause obviously you’re neglecting them for them to get sick..Whaddya mean it’s because we’re denying them their medication!! We’d never do that!!
Just another labelled community under assault by it’s own government, because you need a whipping boy.
10-chan – I would discuss your post with you but you said ‘lets not discuss it…..;) just teasing….great points and spot on…NS government creating bidness for government here then punish the poor for being poor…
Just an update…I read the small claims decision and the politest thing I can say is it begs to be appealed-(I legally won but still out of pocket and the classism is appalling)…… I have multiple disabilities/brain injury and also have to file against the sudden retaliatory eviction the property manager filed now that all his stunts have been submitted to the court-I cannot do either let alone both but I am forced to do this work…I have put calls/ emails into the courts to let me know if I can suspend the appeals a for few months so I can work on the eviction…no one got back to me..I asked MRHA to get involved no one got back to me..I asked my MLA to get involved he didnot get back to me..I asked that Jennex’s amendments to the Tenancy Act be put to legislative enactment-that was not done either…why are the poor working harder than public servants on UN and Constitutional Rights to housing and other necessities…..this is beyond shameful…but lets blame the building design shall we…
IF all the investigation done by the so called Journalists was to glance at the call sheet of how often police respond to report in a certain neighborhood. From that they determine this is the worst neighborhood.
I weep for any decent journalism to be conducted any time soon in this Province ! Seems to me they (the journalist students) are about as responsible as the US government sanctioned ‘press’ a group of toadies & ass kissers who wouldn’t report the truth about their countries Banksters & Government even if it was handed to them ! ! !
One or 2 problem person(s) or group(s) in an area of that size could be responsible for many of the calls . Seeing as there are several thousand people in that neighborhood painting all of them with a brush of single lazy welfare recipients is not just harsh, its inconsiderate to everyone & seems like a selfserving attempt to get attention for your story…even if the story is bullshit.
My girlfriend is a manager and I am a truck driver. We live in Highfield.
So you’re better than me is that what this article is saying?
Maybe I’ll go live in a bomb shelter and that will make me better than you.