Halifax Central Library | 27 m | 6 fl | Completed

[spaustin]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

That would only be partly true in our case. Queen Judith has assured that free parking will be provided for herself and her minions. As for the rest of us, we're on (or under) the bus.

Not any different than the current library. No where to park there either so what's the big deal? I don't think it's really necessary for our library to be providing Downtown parking. There is a lot in the area and Spring Garden is well served by transit.

[JET]

Originally Posted by spaustin

Not any different than the current library. No where to park there either so what's the big deal? I don't think it's really necessary for our library to be providing Downtown parking. There is a lot in the area and Spring Garden is well served by transit.

Once the lots in the area are developed we will not have lots of lots.

[kwajo]

Originally Posted by JET

Once the lots in the area are developed we will not have lots of lots.

Well good!

[beyeas]

Originally Posted by spaustin

Not any different than the current library. No where to park there either so what's the big deal? I don't think it's really necessary for our library to be providing Downtown parking. There is a lot in the area and Spring Garden is well served by transit.

I've never completely believed the "There is no place to park in downtown Halifax" argument.

I have never ever ever been in the Metropark and seen it full.

What people really seem to be complaining about is that they can't park within 10 feet of the store they want to go to and are afraid that their heart rate may get above 70 if they have to walk a block. Downtown Hali is bloody small, and there is really no place in the core that is not easily walkable from one of the municipal parking places. In every large city I have driven in, I have always had to park and then walk to where I wanted to go within the downtown core.

[someone123]

The funny/sad thing is that the distances you walk from parking in Bayers Lake can actually be similar. Some of the lots are as deep as 3 small blocks in downtown Halifax -- have a look in Google Maps. And if you want to go to multiple stores in Bayers Lake you've got to either walk much farther or park multiple times.

Most people who complain about parking do so because of a false sense of entitlement, not because they've actually thought about the issue and what would be best for the city. "Free parking" doesn't exist anywhere; in the areas where you don't pay for the stall itself you pay by having a hideous environment that forces you to drive 10 minutes to get to anything. The BLIP is a disaster of planning that takes forever to navigate through. Dartmouth Crossing is better but is so spread out that it's hard to imagine it being more efficient than spending 5-10 minutes walking downtown.

The "downtown is dead because there is no parking" argument doesn't even make sense. Dead areas have tons of parking available because there's no demand for land. Downtown Halifax has limited parking precisely because it is successful and therefore has people who want to park there.

The city should pretty much ignore the parking issue downtown aside from placing meters where it's not harmful. The meters should be priced at market rate -- a price where a small number tend to be empty at any given time. If parking is valuable developers will also naturally tend to include structured parking in new developments.

There's tons of structured parking in the Spring Garden Road area and we'll probably see more when the Clyde lots are developed. Residential infill and good transit services are of course the other side of all of this and make more sense than spending, for example, $12M or so to develop MetroPark (which actually cost the city more than the $13M BRT lines, $4M of which was paid for by the federal government iirc).

[pblaauw]

Parking lots can be good sometimes. Who knew?

Archeologists dig up mansion to reveal Halifax’s royal roots

[-Harlington-]

according to CTV news the Mi'kmaq are looking at the current library site for their new house of assembly .

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by -Harlington-

according to CTV news the Mi'kmaq are looking at the current library site for their new house of assembly .

Huh? Do they have a land claim on it?

I could think of few things worse for the street than this.

[halifaxboyns]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Huh? Do they have a land claim on it?

I could think of few things worse for the street than this.

It's not a land claim - they are negotiating to buy the old library to convert it to be their legislative assembly. It's an interesting idea...not sure how it would work though.

[cormiermax]

Wouldn't putting there new house of assembly on a reserve make more sense for something like that? Downtown Halifax seems like an odd location to me.

[gm_scott]

I still think retail would be perfect for this location. It could be a large store, bigger than most other stores on Spring Garden and act like an anchor for the street. I'm not sure what retailer would be good but I'm sure there would be a lot of interest in this site. It would certainly add a lot more to the street than this new idea.

[RyeJay]

Originally Posted by -Harlington-

according to CTV news the Mi'kmaq are looking at the current library site for their new house of assembly .

Hey! This is something rather significant culturally for the downtown. I am actually liking this, a lot. I wonder what any potentially renovation of this building would entail given this First Nations' context.

Exciting!

Whatever this site eventually gets used for, it's prime land.

[Haliguy]

I think this would be great!

[-Harlington-]

They said the reason for the location is that its a central location

Id think Millbrook might be more so but i dont mind this idea

at least its being put to good use, it might be good culturally

[cormiermax]

From what I heard in the news it sounds like it would mostly be administrative, rather than cultural. Something like this would be better suited at Millbrook, or at least another part of Halifax. I'm hoping this lot turns into retail, a Chapters would be nice.

[MonctonRad]

Hard to object to this without appearing racist, but I agree with other posters that perhaps it would have greater impact for the aboriginal community to locate this on a reserve (Eskasoni, Millbrook), or at least in a town with a significant aboriginal presence like Truro.

I like Cormiermax's idea of turning the building into a downtown Chapters (Indigo). With the nearby universities, the new central library and the general ambiencd of SGR, this would seem a better fit.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by cormiermax

Wouldn't putting there new house of assembly on a reserve make more sense for something like that? Downtown Halifax seems like an odd location to me.

I'm not sure what the reasoning would be for locating it here.

Perhaps it has to do with a cultural statement something to the effect of "we belong in the same spaces you do, and we exist outside the boundaries of reserves." I can understand the urge to have the house of assembly in the same realm as buildings like the courthouse, city hall, the library, etc.

Maybe I don't really get what the house of assembly does... I imagine it's some sort of governance/bureaucracy entity. Anyone know?

I don't think an inward-facing institutional building is the best thing for Spring Garden Rd. here.

[RyeJay]

Originally Posted by cormiermax

From what I heard in the news it sounds like it would mostly be administrative, rather than cultural. Something like this would be better suited at Millbrook, or at least another part of Halifax. I'm hoping this lot turns into retail, a Chapters would be nice.

...huh? No one said this was to be a museum-type building, where the public would literally learn about Mi'kmaq culture; of course a house of assembly is a governmental building.

Everyone is speaking culturally in the context of their presence in our downtown, adding variety to the kinds of persons here: and you know that.

[RyeJay]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Hard to object to this without appearing racist.

At least you're admitting it.

[RyeJay]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

perhaps it would have greater impact for the aboriginal community to locate this on a reserve (Eskasoni, Millbrook), or at least in a town with a significant aboriginal presence like Truro.

This would never fly in Truro--not even if the Mi'kmaq offered them new wooden sculptures.