One Vision for HRM's Community Centres

Maybe quality of life is the key ingredient propelling a vision of what our city should be. Those places where the knowledge economy wants to focus have human resources and are wonderful places to live in with regard to the environment, education, bike routes, arts and culture.

The argument since the Industrial Revolution has always been that people follow jobs, that jobs bring taxes, etc. One thing the media does report on is the new versus the old economy. The new economy locates where people want to be and participate in the life of the community.

Maybe we can aspire to that kind of community. Quality of life comes first and jobs follow.

The quality of life vision implies the idea of a multi-centered city. There are perhaps 10-12 centres in growth corridors, connected by transit, with people wanting to be close to them.

Our region is poised at the point where we could be this, as there hasn't been the over-investment in one place like the highly dense central cities elsewhere. Maybe having been bypassed is an advantage.

Competition for business location doesn't need to exist anymore. In the highest use expectation for the central city, every landowner expects the highest density to happen on their property, even though they know it can't happen everywhere.

We are not sure that office space is the highest and best use any longer. Maybe the immediate future of downtown is as a vibrant place, rather than holding onto the dream that our property will get the 50-story building, and that we should hold on until the market catches up.

Parking is seen as the best "holding on". What the owner is holding on for is so elusive that it may never happen. We need to convince owners that holding on is useless.

We should identify growth corridors where growth should happen, where centres might happen. Centres are not just commercial strips, but a mix of uses with local services and shopping, working and living places in them. These nodes could serve as gathering places for people in the region.

We need to develop a way of connecting the centres by public transit once we know where they should be. We can reduce traffic flows and bottlenecks by decentralizing jobs.

Public transit only works when going from one walking environment to another is easy. What if we conceive of the nodes as walking environments, then maybe transit would work.

We need to connect centres along the coast as well as inland, perhaps by the rail system. We cannot hold onto just rail, but need to look at ferries and a sophisticated bus system, as in Curitiba, Brazil.

This notion of a "region of many centres" requires lots of thought and discussion. Maybe we could be a model of a new kind of city in the new economy.We need to create a vision and a city that holds us here, because we want to be here.

Centres would need a new idea of public infrastructure, which we've forgotten about. We need to re-invent what public infrastructure is all about; e.g. parks on best rather than cheapest land, a support system for new small businesses and individuals with new ideas.

Such a vision could lead to sense of excitement and purpose in the region. Cities in England are already doing this.

Atlantic Planners Institute

This page and all contents are produced by the Atlantic Planners Institute, an affiliate of the Canadian Institute of Planners.

This document was last modified on March 17, 2000.