Old Halifax

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by JET

Not correct Keith, many Africville residents did own their own properties and paid taxes:

"7.
What City is received in return for taxes paid on Africville properties?
The 1960 tax roll contains 39 assessments for the Africville area. The total tax levied on these 39 properties amounted to $1,598.68. The total taxes owing on properties assessed in the Africville area as at August 29, 1962 amounts to $6,392.24. Tax arrears in the Africville area are, therefore, approximately four times the 1962 tax levy. The services provided by the City for the Africville area fall into two main categories. These are:
Welfare
Schools
Other services are provided on a much more limited basis."
http://www.library.dal.ca/ebooks/afr...pendix%20D.pdf
Keith, since this is information from a City of Halifax official. I would hope that you would accept it, and not not perpetuate myths and revisionist versions of facts.
While parts of Africville may have been slum like, Halifax helped create and maintain it; charging taxes but not providing basic amenities like water and sewerage; pretty poor governance.

So they were charged taxes? They just didn't pay them.

[JET]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

So they were charged taxes? They just didn't pay them.

To repeat, many did own property, and did pay taxes, even though they received very little in services from the City. As with everywhere, some didn't pay the property tax, and the properties were seized and sometimes sold. Nothing particular about Africville, still happens today.

[ILoveHalifax]

I believe there were other places on the peninsula which did not have sewer and water at the time. For sure there were large areas of Halifax County just off the peninsula on well and sewer. If you look at the pictures, these few houses were quite a distance from the built up parts of the city.

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

So they were charged taxes? They just didn't pay them.

Source? Or is it just an assumption?

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Hali87

Source? Or is it just an assumption?

The quote states that tax arrears were 4 times as much as the tax levy.

[JET]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

The quote states that tax arrears were 4 times as much as the tax levy.

That is correct and not surprising in impoverished areas.

[Keith P.]

So that means they were not paying taxes. My point stands.

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

So that means they were not paying taxes. My point stands.

It means some of them weren't paying taxes, not that none of them were.

[Drybrain]

And we're talking about a community entirely comprised of a marginalized racial group (certainly at that time, at least) who had been there for about 150 years. Taxes are not the trump card in this situation. Taxation or not (and as has been said above, some properties did pay taxes to the city) the evictions were top-down civic macro-management, inspired less by a concern for the welfare of the people than by the value of the land for industry.

The eviction, and the way it was carried out, were wrong. No amount of sophistry about taxes will change that.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Taxation or not (and as has been said above, some properties did pay taxes to the city) the evictions were top-down civic macro-management, inspired less by a concern for the welfare of the people than by the value of the land for industry.

Yes, merely build a brand-new community for them nearby with the latest amenities of the time and give it to them for free. How horrible.

[JET]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Yes, merely build a brand-new community for them nearby with the latest amenities of the time and give it to them for free. How horrible.

I met a man recently who moved to uniacke square when it first opened. At the time it was probably a 'free' situation'. He probably went to post secondary school around the time that Keith and I did. I figure that he pays in taxes now, local and federal, more than Keith and I together.
It is horrible that people have tremendous difficulty getting out of poverty, either way is not an easy road.

[ILoveHalifax]

Originally Posted by JET

I met a man recently who moved to uniacke square when it first opened. At the time it was probably a 'free' situation'. He probably went to post secondary school around the time that Keith and I did. I figure that he pays in taxes now, local and federal, more than Keith and I together.
It is horrible that people have tremendous difficulty getting out of poverty, either way is not an easy road.

So if he is paying lots of taxes he must be making lots of money or have property of great value.

[Hali87]

To think that all it took was for an American formurer to innocently thank somebody for posting a picture of Africville, where his family lived. Result: this shitstorm.

Spoiler alert: nobody's going to change their minds. To some people, allocation of tax resources trumps social responsibility, to others, vice versa. Why have this argument again and again and again?

[W.Sobchak]

Question, does anybody have a pic of the corner of quinpool and robie before the holiday inn/atlantica was built?

I cannot seem to find one online.

[ILoveHalifax]

Originally Posted by W.Sobchak

Question, does anybody have a pic of the corner of quinpool and robie before the holiday inn/atlantica was built?

I cannot seem to find one online.

I don't have a picture but Reg Ryer had a service station on that corner for years. It was Esso, I believe

[W.Sobchak]

Thank ILH, now I have an idea of what to search for.

[W.Sobchak]

So in my trek through the wilds of the Internet jungle, I fell upon a website with the 1945 master plan for Halifax. I have to say that the city back then seemed to have a better idea with what the peninsula shoul grow into.

http://cargocollective.com/cause/194...ity-of-Halifax

[ILoveHalifax]

Originally Posted by W.Sobchak

So in my trek through the wilds of the Internet jungle, I fell upon a website with the 1945 master plan for Halifax. I have to say that the city back then seemed to have a better idea with what the peninsula shoul grow into.

http://cargocollective.com/cause/194...ity-of-Halifax

How interesting, I've been reading for a couple of hours. They talk a lot about our slums or blighted areas and discuss the standards in these areas.
It is amazing how there were plans way back then to grow the city and how some were completed and some never went any further. No Arm bridge but 2 harbor bridges.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by W.Sobchak

So in my trek through the wilds of the Internet jungle, I fell upon a website with the 1945 master plan for Halifax. I have to say that the city back then seemed to have a better idea with what the peninsula shoul grow into.

http://cargocollective.com/cause/194...ity-of-Halifax

Fascinating reading. The city authorities apparently were more far-sighted then than are ours today, considering this was done when Halifax was consumed with the war effort and the future was somewhat uncertain. Perhaps that allowed a degree of freedom to their deliberations that is not found today, where political correctness and the need to satisfy various special interests seems to slant their actions.

It is interesting that most of the recommendations seem quite sound. It is also interesting to note that, as is typical of Halifax, virtually none of them were implemented. The closest seems to have been the construction of the SGR memorial library, although even that was cheapened up considerably by deleting the recommended 2000-seat auditorium that would have served as an arts facility.

I found their comments on the street grid riveting. They identified then what I constantly rant about today - the antique and obsolete road network. They identified a great many solutions that are quite sensible, from the NW Arm bridge with supporting street improvements, a complete redevelopment of the ridiculously undersized North St-to-Chebucto Rd corridor for the then-proposed MacDonald Bridge, numerous logical fixes to existing street issues of the day, and a series of diagonal arteries from the waterfront area uphill to the center of the city to alleviate the steep grades. All of these ideas on the road network were brilliant, all would still be trememdously useful today, and I do not think a single one of them was ever implemented. Shameful.

Highly recommended reading.

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by W.Sobchak

So in my trek through the wilds of the Internet jungle, I fell upon a website with the 1945 master plan for Halifax. I have to say that the city back then seemed to have a better idea with what the peninsula shoul grow into.

http://cargocollective.com/cause/194...ity-of-Halifax

Very interesting. The simple sketch of the Northwest Arm bridge shows that a bridge was being considered almost 70 years ago. I don't think that a suspension bridge would be required though. Here is the sketch.

(source: http://issuu.com/brendancormier/docs...alifax_1945/80 )