quote:

---

Four years ago, residents of the Barrington Gate residential complex at the corner of Barrington and Blowers streets complained about the noise coming from The Blues Corner, a bar with loud music at the corner of Argyle and Blowers streets. The bar closed. Now, there are many more people living downtown. Developers are seeking to put multi-story housing wherever they can. Condominiums line the Lower Water Street near the Farmer’s Market and along Barrington Street south of the train station.

---

Gentrified, no. Gentrification mostly means not only favouring a return to city centres by affluent classes, but pushing poorer and working-class people out of central areas into others that are not as well served by public transport and urban amenities.

However it is important, in order to fight urban sprawl, to make urban life more pleasant for families with children and for older people, not just young rocker-types who appreciate noisy bars. That is a nuisance issue, it is quite different from the fact that Halifax (and Montreal, where I live) are busy working ports and that is part of their appeal and the focus of their histories as well as their current economies.

quote:

---

There’s lots of choice, and the downtown should be encouraged to be as brash and lively as it can be.

---

I saw a pretty good movie in one of my women's studies courses, all about how gentrification was changing a neighbourhood in downtown Toronto - darn, was it Sherbourne and Gerrard? Can't remember. That doesn't sound quite right. But anyhow, the point being, this used to be a run-down area with prostitutes and drug dealers, etc. And then people started buying up the houses, the neighbourhood started to become "gentrified" and then neighbourhood associations full of people who got such prime real estate at such a steal BECAUSE of all the crack-whores and drug dealers in the area started agitating for a "clean up the streets" thing. They wanted more cops, more harassment of the hookers, etc. So where are these people supposed to go?

I used to live over a bar. I actually didn't mind it too much. I knew what I was getting into when I rented the place. It was one of the best little pubs in Kingston, and I would have hated to see it shut down or scaled back because of noise violations. Life happens around you, you know?

After several years now of living in suburbia where nothing ever happens except for the cars buzzing by on their way to work, and the grass on the lawns growing, I wouldn't mind living in a vibrant, urban neighbourhood again.

quote:

---

... prime real estate at such a steal BECAUSE of all the crack-whores and drug dealers in the area ... So where are these people supposed to go?

---

Good question, but

quote:

---

Of course, I probably wouldn't appreciate crack dealers approaching my son.

---

In Paris, where rents tend to be very high (but where there is a fair bit of public housing, even in the city centre, not just the suburbs) there are subsidised studios where artists can live and work. Not enough, but at least artists are seen as making a valuable contribution to the community and recognised that they don't always have steady employment.

Moreover, he is talking about a neighbourhood where there are a lot of "down-and-outs", or "lumpen elements". Often gentrification is the bane of neighbourhoods (like the Plateau in Montreal) that were simply run-down and working-class, not centres for prostitution and drugs.

quote:

---

Poor and working-class parents don't want their children hit upon by crack dealers any more than yuppies do.

---

quote:

---

Poor and working-class parents don't want their children hit upon by crack dealers any more than yuppies do.

---

Exactly. In all my rambling, I didn't make that clear. I guess as a working class person, if I wanted to own a house I would have to buy it in a poorer neighbourhood, or a neighbourhood with lots of different zoning around me, including stores, bars, etc. Which I would actually LOVE. But at the same time, even though I can only afford a house in a poorer section, that doesn't mean I want my son growing up with crack dealers on every corner of his neighbourhood.

Regent Park in an interesting place to look at (particularly since I grew up there and have roots there. *g*) It was Canada's first housing project, in an attempt to get rid of the slums of the original Cabbagetown. Well with decades of poor management, planning etc. Regent Park is not in a much better position than it was 50 years ago. That said, beneath the surface of the drug addicts and prostitutes, there is a vibrant community. Agencies bridge a lot of the gaps between the multitudes of immigrant families there, people work and organise and are active in their community. Most of the residents are not involved in criminal activity, but because of lack of political clout, outside stigma, and a really crappy police service, criminals have a place to run around with little intervention.

I owe my activist life to growing up in Regent, working with my teachers who taught me about apartheid in Park school (now Nelson Mandela Park School). I learned how to fight, I learned how to work with people from various cultures, I learned how to appreciate people different than me. I met my partner there, I met some of my lifelong friends whom I consider more family than anything there.

Now the problem is "re-development" which I fear is a nice cushy word for gentrification of Regent. Certainly, the building and property need to be bulldozed and new safe ones need to be put up. Apparently, they're trying to mix the community, with what I believe is private housing. The current residents will have to move of course, and a portion of their moving fees will be paid. Maybe I'm just super paranoid, but this reeks of gentrification to me. I think of how much that land can appreciate and that developers, politicians and various other greedy sobs would sing and dance to any tune to get support from the residents and city, but in the end, I feel they're just going to be screwed...

If they take a block of farm land, for suburban development they can't devote it soley to those in the six figure income bracket, but also have to plan affordable housing for working class incomes and people on fixed incomes.

The renewal of old urban centers should follow the same lines.

I got into it with some hippie-craftsmen -- that an other business brought me into contact with -- who were into buying and renovating houses in Fernwood, Fairfield, and then of couple places in OakBay. We did really good quality work; they taught me a lot, and we were pretty fast, too. Bing, bang, boom. No suites though. Strictly rez.

But ONLY if new low-income housing is also built, to house the people displaced by the demolition of their former residences. Either the government should require that the developer construct it, or the government should build its own subsidized housing.

But of course we all know that's not going to happen. Imagine, guaranteeing that most your citizens have access to a roof over their heads and a safe place to sleep. What a radical concept.

[ 21 March 2003: Message edited by: Andy Social ]

quote:

---

There's a lot of interest in Regent Park these days. It would be great to see it become co-ops, like Alexandra Park did.

---

[ 21 March 2003: Message edited by: Andy Social ]