Living City: A Critical Guide

[hfx_chris]

Anybody else watch The Nature of Things tonight on CBC? Tonight's documentary was called "Living City: A Critical Guide". Let me cut & paste the description from the website:

What's wrong with Canada's cities? What's right? Award-winning urban affairs columnist Christopher Hume takes a cross-country journey to explore the sustainability, viability and liveability of Canada's population centres.

Hume, a provocative urban critic and columnist for the Toronto Star, highlights the projects and passionate people who will shape urban life in Canada in the coming decade. But, travelling by train from Halifax to Vancouver, Hume also gives the viewer a firsthand look at what's wrong Canada's aging infrastructure, failing mass transportation and overall lack of political will.

Very well done. Unfortunately, I missed the first 20 minutes or so, so I missed Halifax. It's going to be re-broadcast next Thursday, Feb. 12 at 10pm eastern (so 11 our time, right?)

[Jonovision]

That sounds good, ill have to mark it on my calendar.

[LilZebra]

But, travelling by train from Halifax to Vancouver, Hume also gives the viewer a firsthand look at what's wrong Canada's aging infrastructure, failing mass transportation and overall lack of political will.

I wonder why he didn't interview anyone from TRUWinnipeg. We would have been able to provide some time for our take on Winnipeg's lack of good mass transit. :koko:

[Barrington south]

I've always been a avid follower of Christopher Hume and eagerly anticipated his weekly column in the Toronto Star while growing up in Toronto...Man, he is not afraid to speak the truth, he is very well informed and he has very good taste... I look forward to hearing what this man has to say about Hali...probably not very good considering his high standards

[Dmajackson]

I have a feeling Halifax is going to lose points in the political and infastructure categories.

We might get some props for transportation though. We do have MetroLink online, MetroX starting soon, and HarbourLink coming next year. :)

[someone123]

In practice Halifax stacks up extremely well against other cities nationally, even though it is much smaller than some of them.

The city is blessed with a hugely disproportionate amount of history and culture. It has excellent "bones" - a pedestrian-oriented street network, great old architecture, public spaces, topography/geography. It is already compact and interesting and has lots of room for growth and improvement. It attracts residents from across Canada.

The big problem is that it is a city that is content to sit on its laurels. It has lots of advantages, as mentioned, but it tends to use them as an excuse for being lazy rather than as a platform for accomplishing more. It's not going to become a huge metropolis at this point but it's still missing out on a number of things for no good reason other than a lack of political will. Why aren't there proposals for novel transit systems instead of defeatist staff reports about how other cities don't have service? Why does Barrington look like the main street of a small, depressed town? Why is the library a perennial issue that never moves forward?

[phrenic]

If you don't feel like waiting until the 12th, you can watch the whole show on the cbc website.

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2009/livingcity/video.html

[Phalanx]

If you don't feel like waiting until the 12th, you can watch the whole show on the cbc website.

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2009/livingcity/video.html

Thanks for the link. Watching as I type this. A couple of early observations... Halifax gets a really positive piece. The only bit of infrastructure or architecture that he really speaks about, though, is the non-existant New Farmers Market. This may say something about the city...

Also... not enough time spent on each city... maybe 5-10 minutes max. This would have made a great series with 30-60 (minus commercial time, of course) minutes devoted to each city.

[Dmajackson]

If you don't feel like waiting until the 12th, you can watch the whole show on the cbc website.

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2009/livingcity/video.html

Thanks for the link Phrenic. :)

I'm still watching the rest of the video but Halifax did get a great review. He was probably nice when he didn't mention politics in this town.

I just really hope the Farmer's Market get built this summer. This along with the Power Plant conversion could do wonders for the Seaport.

[Phalanx]

Thanks for the link Phrenic. :)

I'm still watching the rest of the video but Halifax did get a great review. He was probably nice when he didn't mention politics in this town...

Wait until he's in Vancouver and he's talking about 'all hell breaking loose' whenever someone proposes a tall building... you'll swear he's talking about Halifax.

[hfx_chris]

If you don't feel like waiting until the 12th, you can watch the whole show on the cbc website.

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2009/livingcity/video.html

Ah perfect, they must have just added that because it wasn't there when I visited the site last night. I'm going to watch the Halifax segment now.

[Spitfire75]

Thanks for the link. Interesting show, I actually learned some things.

[terrynorthend]

Great Video. Halifax was photographed beautifully. A funny contrast with the bright sun, then the drab overcast in Montreal. And yes, I laughed out loud at the "Tall buildings...hell breaks loose" comment.

Hume loved Halifax and Vancouver (although in the latter he warned of the danger of a "sameness" in urban design around the world, not unlike current suburban issues) and he tore into Toronto and Calgary. Sounds about right.

[Jonovision]

I watched this last night. It was really really good. And sort of speaks right to where I want my career to go. lol I'm glad they showed Halifax the way they did.

[Barrington south]

It would be cool if Hume came back to Hali in say 10 years time and commented on the development achievements...it is going to be far greater and of much higher quality than the previous 10 years. and If everything that is proposed for the next 3 years is built and the next 7 years after that had the same amount of development activity, in ten years time, Halifax could have a nice modern flair to what already exists... I'm definitely looking forward to some of the many proposals getting started

[Haliguy]

That was really well done.

[worldlyhaligonian]

Top notch, cheers for linking the video.

[Keith P.]

I was concerned at the start when Suzuki appeared but once he went away it was good.

[worldlyhaligonian]

I was concerned at the start when Suzuki appeared but once he went away it was good.

Yeah, he is always on a "holier than thou" tip... Suzuki does have some good ideas though.