Richards, Patricia Mae "Neighbourhood Revitalization and The Old Northern Suburb"

Inner city neighbourhoods in Canada have undergone a series of changes in Canadian history. Recent studies (1960-1980) reveal that many older inner city neighbourhoods are being revitalized and housing higher income groups.

The Old Northern Suburb, an inner city neighbourhood in Halifax, Nova Scotia is showing some signs of the changes that are being experienced in inner city neighbourhoods in Canada and the United States.

The objective of this thesis is to examine some of the factors affecting an inner city neighbourhood in Halifax, Nova Scotia called the Old Northern Suburb. The role that a Federal Government program - the Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program (R.R.A.P.) - has played in neighbourhood revitalization is of particular interest. Recent studies, census data, a questionnaire, and interviews are used to examine the factors affecting inner city neighbourhood revitalization in part of this area.

The results of the study show that the old Northern Suburb is beginniing to experience changes occurring in many inner city neighbourhoods in Canada and the United States. However, the questionnaire shows there is not an influx of high income professionals moving into the neighbourhood at this time. There is not an invasion by a homogenous middle income group but rather a flow of low and moderate income renters coupled with a slow invasion of higher moderate income buyers.

The Old Northern Suburb offers many attractive characteristics - low initial cost of residential real estate, a central location adjacent to the strongest commercial and retail center east of Quebec and the second largest contiguous area of recreational open space in the City of Halifax, the Commons. This is a mixed neighbourhood with a large social housing presence and hence it may not attract many people with high or potentially high earnings. It could become an area of choice for moderate income owners looking for inner city convenience. The thesis concludes that the area will not likely become one of the "finest residential" areas in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This area may be in the initial stage of neighbourhood revitalizaion.

The role that R.R.A.P. played in influencing the changes that are occurring in the old Northern Suburb appears small. The thesis concludes that recent changes would probably have occured irrespective of R.R.A.P.'s influence.

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This document was last modified on February 14, 2001.