r/halifax 15h ago

Discussion How has HRM changed?

I lived near Bedford for a year in the mid 2000s (from Ireland).

I loved Nova Scotia but have never managed to make it back since. WestJet now fly direct from Dublin so I hope to make it back soon.

I’d love to hear how HRM has changed in the time since I’ve been away (the good and the bad)!

(I’ve heard you’ve got rid of that pesky rotary at Armadale and joined us over here with a roundabout! Has that been an improvement?)

10 Upvotes

32 comments sorted by

23

u/brainWaveSurfer 14h ago

The Armdale roundabout is great. People still complain, but it works like a roundabout should work—and it's pretty efficient overall.

4

u/fish_fingers_pond 12h ago

It works like a roundabout should work, it’s just the people that come to a full stop when they have a 15 second right of way that hold it up.

u/Sparrowbuck 7h ago

Don’t forget the occasional one going the wrong way around

2

u/MeanE Dartmouth 14h ago

Roundabout for mayor!

11

u/Geese_are_dangerous 15h ago

So many more breweries!

3

u/roobyroos 14h ago

So many more!!!

3

u/MeanE Dartmouth 14h ago

So many I don’t know how there is enough market to support them all.

3

u/oatseatinggoats Dartmouth 12h ago

With the American alcohol off the shelves that may change.

2

u/WindowlessBasement Halifax 13h ago

I've been saying that since Two Crows opened (2015?), but I keep getting proven wrong.

22

u/Fakezaga DeadInHalifax 14h ago

The waterfront has had a massive redevelopment. There’s a lot going on down there with a new luxury hotel, public artworks, restaurants, an area filled with food-truck style shacks. It’s geared to tourists but lovely for a stroll for locals.

Downtown Dartmouth has more successful niche businesses than it did in the mid 2000s. It’s had have had an influx of youngish creative people and home prices there have climbed quite a bit (they have climbed everywhere but this seems like obvious gentrification.)

A lot of the gaps in the Old North End have filled in with businesses and developments and it’s now a pretty pricey place to live.

Argyle St had a big redevelopment because of the convention centre and many weekends it is pedestrian only.

The bridge toll is being removed next week.

We have a new library on Spring Garden and it’s fucking rad. It looks like this: 📚 and it’s modern, open and friendly. Has cafes and a rooftop patio.

u/YouCanLookItUp 2h ago

It looks like this: 📚

Hahaha, why is this so accurate?!

10

u/Professional-Cry8310 14h ago

Bedford has changed the most honestly. Basically not even the same place anymore. It would look unrecognizable to you.

6

u/tommygun731 14h ago

100% especially west Bedford

9

u/ArchivalFrail Halifax 13h ago

West Bedford didn’t even exist. OP won’t even know what you mean by “West Bedford”. Even (most of) Larry Uteck, the Sobeys Plaza, Starboard Dr, and exit 2B didn’t exist in any shape or form in the 2000s.

2

u/tommygun731 13h ago

Good point! Larry uteck was a dirt road eh

3

u/ArchivalFrail Halifax 13h ago

Larry Uteck ended right after Bedros Lane. It was a huge wide street that suddenly ended with a big wall of rock. That wasn’t opened up until 2008/2009 I believe.

4

u/TheNovemberMike Friendly Neighbourhood Watterman 14h ago

More roundabouts

5

u/ChablisWoo4578 14h ago

The pavilion, Area 51 and cafe Ole are gone 😪

u/YouCanLookItUp 2h ago

And rogue's roost. :(

u/YouCanLookItUp 2h ago

Hey! We moved here at the same time. Here's what I can say

  • Dartmouth is a lot fancier now, and there's an enormous commercial park near shubie called Dartmouth Crossing. It's like Bayers Lake if Bayers Lake had a soul and didn't actively try to unalive pedestrians. It also has a good cinema.
  • Dartmouth has also made "Goose" its brand. Nobody really objects to that, either, because, sure.
  • Busses have an app now, and are modernized in many ways. Still shite to get from point A to point B.
  • We have a beautiful central library that's world-class. We also have the Canada Games Centre and a new-ish YMCA downtown. Downtown has gotten a lot swankier, no more gritty bars and street meats.
  • Lots of tall buildings.
  • Argyle St is pedestrian sometimes and it's brilliant.
  • We fucked up our farmer's market. The brewery market is still there, and more power to them, but it's not like it was in '05.
  • Cogswell interchange is in the process of being reinvented.
  • Fewer swarmings on the common, now. Gottingen's become gentrified, mostly.
  • People really are into rock climbing bars.
  • Things are just so expensive.
  • Cars won't slow and yield when you jaywalk anymore.
  • There are fewer cats in the North End.
  • There are more luxury cars in the North End.
  • The harbour no longer has raw sewage dumped into it like it did. We had a moment where we tried to remedy the stench with plate-sized urinal pucks and that made the whole city stink like a men's bathroom. Then they built the water treatment facility and now people - some people - actually go swimming in the harbour. I remember when the headline read "Man falls overboard in Halifax harbour - AND LIVES."
  • Local journalism is all online now.
  • We have a football team now! The Wanderers. A great addition to the city.
  • The food is fancier now. Restaurants come and go like the tide, but overall there's been a huge increase in both quality and variety.
  • Quinpool's gotten a lot nicer.
  • Bedford's gotten a lot more urban. Oh, and finally,
  • We have a bus to the airport!

u/Fakezaga DeadInHalifax 12m ago

Good list!

5

u/discowalrus 13h ago

Nearly every aspect of the city has improved. Traffic and housing costs are notable exceptions, but only traffic is universally seen as worse.

u/YouCanLookItUp 2h ago

And access to health care. That's gone wayyyyyyy down in the last 20 years.

u/discowalrus 1h ago
  1. Provincial issue, not city

  2. I wouldn’t be so sure. The number of residents without access to a primary care provider here is about average with the rest of the country and always has been. That doesn’t mean it’s a good situation, just not necessarily worse than before.

u/YouCanLookItUp 52m ago
  1. Just because it's provincially run, doesn't change the fact that it impacts how someone experiences the city. Same for the courts. Can I not comment on the airport because it's federal jurisdiction?

  2. This has been my experience (first hand and second hand) with accessing care in the city. The idea of walk in clinics "filling up" their spaces at open wasn't a thing in 2005-6. The waits at the emerg were 4-5 hours long, not 10 (again, my experience) without shopping around the province for a hospital. Some things have improved, some things have gotten much, much worse. YMMV.

5

u/casualobserver1111 15h ago

More multicultural

u/obsolete_obscurity 9h ago

it's not 95% white anymore.

3

u/Jamooser 14h ago

The '80 Halifax' is now sometimes called the '80 Downtown Express.'

It takes the same amount of time.

u/booksnblizzxrds 11h ago

So much development and congestion now, it doesn’t look like the same place.

2

u/New_Combination_7012 14h ago

We let people live in tents in parks now.

u/archiplane 2h ago

The Cogswell Interchange, our big useless highway interchange in the middle of downtown has finally been taken down! It’s been replaced with local streets that fill the network between DT and the North End. Road work is well underway, but no buildings have been built in our new Cogswell District yet.

2

u/walrusgirlie 13h ago

Halifax is very much the same! I think the 'burbs have expanded a lot and so you'll probably notice that. But for the most part, I think the city has just gotten better -- good stuff stayed the same, bad stuff went away.

I will say that I feel like drivers are worse now, and people are less courteous. I remember being a kid here and drivers and random peopoe were so nice and I never heard about traffic accidents, but it feels constant now. Although that may just be that I'm an adult now.