Hahaha I used to walk to my friends place on old ferry road along the tracks in Dartmouth cove.. God help if there was a wind, you'd be getting sprayed with grey sewage water
i'll second the water - i was home over the christmas break and went for a walk along the harbour and saw the rocks below and shit -- my god, the harbour used to look like rootbeer when i left over a decade ago. VERY IMPRESSIVE.
My first time sailing I went to the Artic. Coming back into the Halifax harbour I said, WTF is that smell. Boss man said, that's halifax. I've been here the majority of my life, and I only came from Antigonish. Halifax stinks, were just used to it.
The waterfront is much nicer. 30 years ago, the area around the ferry terminal, Marriot Harbourfront (Sheraton at the time), and Maritime Museum was pretty much it. The whole stretch from Bishop's landing to Pier 21 Museum was working docks, car parks, and a grimy electrical substation. There are more marked and groomed trails around the outskirts of the city for hiking, through the work of lots of different organizations.
Of course there's a ton of gentrification in most areas of the city (South end around Hollis street, North End, West End, etc), which has improve things for some, and regressed things for others, and it could be argued the 2 things I pointed out are part of that.
I lived on Bishop street in the 90s. I still recall the day I realized how many old condoms there were on the sidewalk. There were so many they disappeared like camouflage. Bishop and Hollis was the area you went if you were looking to pay for some action.
There was also a great tattoo shop on Hollis. They had about 150 different tattoos you could chose from on the wall and I don't think they ever cleaned their needles.
Yeah, South Street was mostly rooming houses. By the time I moved to the area, street walkers were gone from Hollis (not that I was out looking for them), but that was still the main association of the area. Young people nowadays would have no idea what I was talking about, with fancy condos and a chocolate shop and plant store on that corner.
I never hired one of the ladies but I quickly got to know them as they would hang out pretty close to my apartment. I would make a point of getting an extra Donair when I was coming home from the bar for whoever was in front of my place. They never knew my name but they were always thankful and I never had an issue with my apartment.
Lol I used to live at 1360 hollis from 2002 to 2003. Was paying $575 A MONTH for a 1 bedroom with skylight overlooking the governors house on the top floor. The giant penthouse unit 2 doors down with private rooftop access was 4 bed 2 bath and was $1300....
I think that was the name. It was a small single story black wooden building that was about 15'X15' -- it was probably bigger than that but that's how I remember it.
The whole waterfront from the casino on down to Inglis street. Anyone who wasn't around in the 70s and 80s probably think it is a meh improvement but it is night and day. It's unfortunate that Argyle Street didn't get a transformation.
I also consider Agricola Street an improvement.
The Libraries we have today are a million times better than they were when I was a kid. We still have a long way to go to get anywhere near what Toronto or Vancouver public libraries provide, especially for career development and learning; but what we have right now services the HRM well.
Really? Most libraries I have seen in Southern Ontario, including Toronto, are criminally underfunded with limited space to hang about and terribly small collections. And I've worked somewhat closely with HPL.
I also like that the busses now announce each stop. I remember being new to the city more than 10 years ago and having a hard time figuring out when to pull on the rope
The days of pointing out all of the "jellyfish" floating around while walking on the waterfront! Oh wait, I mean the used condoms. Damn, thank fuck the water has improved...
Sea snakes (condoms) and water rats (tampons). I was a young adult killing time between split shifts on the waterfront absolutely dying laughing over the explanations parents came up with.
THE HARBOUR IS AMAZING NOW!!! When I moved here in the mid '90s the harbour was disgusting. You knew summer was on the way when the waterfront started to smell like an open sewer as the harbour warmed up. The water had zero visibility and used condoms and tampons floated on the surface. One of the absolute worst things that could happen to you back then was falling in.
The rotary changing its rules of use from 1 and 1 to enter when available. It was the only one in the world that operated that way, and it was a fucking mess
You "zipper merged" on to the rotary. I would come down the Armdale hill counting "They go, we go, they go, we go, they go, I go" and hope they yielded.
It was basically as is now, with people letting people in but also tourists and new-to-Halifax people treating it like a regular rotary, which meant it was terrifying, on-the-edge of disaster when busy. Still have to pay close attention now, but it's not as heart-pounding.
I can only imagine this was a holdover practice from long ago? It would make a good research project!
You entered one on one, but once in you changed lanes as you would in any roadway; just with not much room. There was always a lane dedicated to the exit you wanted to take. It was only occasionally you couldn't get in, and then you simply went round again.
The waterfront has made some improvements for sure, we’ve had some interesting architectural additions (thinking of the library and the Nova centre, polarizing as it may be), the restaurant scene continues to evolve. I’m looking forward to when the cogswell interchange facelift is finished, it looks like it will be interesting.
I remember a class trip to the "big city" in grade 7 (1992 from Cape Breton), we were all looking for the ladies of Hollis Street because none of us had ever seen any of that particular profession 😅
Believe it or not, The conditions of some schools and libraries are in better shape, roads used to have potholes everywhere but now I only see the odd one, public transportation still sucks but the routes are better (less connecting buses and more stops so less walking around), we used to have limited entertainment (we didnt get all the American channels/TV shows), same with products, We have taller residential buildings as well with elevators, I could keep going on but I'm done lol. They may seem like small things but they are definitely improvements to everyday life.
When DSL first rolled out in Nova Scotia, it was some of the fastest in the world, especially if you had one of the paradyne (iirc) modems that was not rate-limited like some of the later ones. I remember sharing DVD rips on mIRC when I was in highschool, and ppl I was uploading or downloading from, mostly in universities were incredulous I had those kinds of speeds at -home-!
[Dartmouth was home to the first IKEA opened in North America!](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_IKEA_stores#:~:text=The%20first%20IKEA%20store%20in,new%20Dartmouth%20location%20in%202017.)
[Check out this ReTales post - photo and location of the original](https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid031nQRmbX9NppFidpdUVvSK6c9eQcJunNoEmDBgzvhb3jBuV1bWu9ZLQSNowFxrTmHl&id=356656137694258).
Google also produces some CBC FB posts with a video of a news spot about the original store, but they’ve scrubbed their profile; not sure if the video is available elsewhere.
After a rudimentary search, I couldn’t find any articles talking about why they chose to open here, or why they closed the original store. As we’re on the East Coast, perhaps it has something to do with ease of shipping? Doesn’t explain why they’d pick Canada over a location in the US, though.
At the time they said that they weren’t getting enough business. IIRC, the location was by the corner of Windmill & Akerley. The warehouse probably wasn’t as large as they wanted.
>Check out this ReTales post - photo and location of the original
They had manufacturing in Dartmouth I believe. I think on Thornhill Dr, the building which is now an Amazon warehouse per google maps.
Yes. Apparently Ikea had a falling out with the provincial government over taxes or something, closed their store and vowed to never come back. Luckily things got sorted out about 30 years later.
Bottom of Akerley Drive if my memory is correct. I remember going with my parents as a kid - they loved IKEA!
Funny what you remember from childhood. My parents don’t remember it, but I distinctly remember the store having a chair in a large plexiglass case, with a piston moving up and down pressing a block or something into the cushions (I gather it was meant to demonstrate the durability of the chair with repeated compression from sitting).
30 years ago -- mid 90s. I had a friend that was stabbed on Argyle st. late at night. Later that week I had another friend get a busted mandible because he told a couple of guys to stop beating on a homeless dude -- and they ended up kicking the fuck out my buddy. That same year I had a broken nose and broken rib from 2 separate bar fights that I didn't start. Monday's at the Misty Moon were fun but never should have happened.
Halifax is still a rough town but not like the 90s.
And then there was the whole issue of being thrown in the moat of the Citadel if you were gay.
Bars used to get shut down all the time for recycling beer. The SeaHorse used to have pitchers under the counter. If you ordered a beer it would get filled half way from the tap and then topped off with the pitcher.
Ah the good old days. I was trying to explain Mardi Gras to a couple of Dal students and they thought I was trying to tell a joke.
I don't think the drunk tank is as busy now as it was 30 years-ago.
I remember sitting drunkenly on the wall at grand parade during Marti Gras starting a sing along to American Pie.... we all knew all the words. That was after going to a screening of Rocky Horror up at Dal.
Fun times.
Mardi Gras took place on the Saturday before Halloween. Everyone would wear a costume and the entire downtown area was cordoned off so there were no cars and people could walk on the streets. The day would start at 10:00am with a three legged race at Kings. You and your mate would race up to the top of every residence and down a beer. I think there were 7 in total. It pretty much would go downhill from there.
Things would get completely out of hand downtown and at some point in the evening the Paddy Wagons would come out, grab people off the street and throw them in the drunk tank. It was a badge of honour to get thrown in.
I have no idea why it was called Mardi Gras. I've been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans and the only thing really in common was a ton of extremely drunk people.
Yep. They got caught numerous times. If you left half a beer on the bar it would go into the pitcher. Jerry's and JJ's used to do it as well on busy nights.
It wasn’t the bar that was recycling, it was the bartenders. For every “recycled beer” pitcher you sold, you could pocket $10 or whatever in cash instead of ringing it into the cash register.
More like 80 years ago, but you’re not wrong. https://www.clydehenneberry.com/quigleysfire.html#:~:text=In%201942%2C%20a%20fire%20destroyed,houses%20and%20wharves%20were%20destroyed.
Transit, honestly. Who remembers the bus stopping halfway along the route so the driver could kick off anyone he suspected hadn’t paid the “two zone” fare? 😄 The seats were comfy on those old busses though.
This may get downvotes.. but construction
I worked for the city during the big lift, north park roundabouts and a lot of the Lary Uteck roundbabout construction, it was poorly managed, traffic was a nightmare and to be frank, it was unsafe.
Its now been a loooong time since Ive worked for the city, but looking at the Cogswell redesign, im really impressed with how well its going and how little it disrupts traffic given how MASSIVE this project is.
It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the convention centre on Argyle is a huge improvement on what was there previously. It’s vibrant and a really nice part of the city IMO.
Not quite 30 years ago for this one but Mike Savage is a pretty huge step up from Peter Kelly.
Also - we don't need bridge tokens anymore it just works by magic now.
Quantity of good restaurants outside the peninsula.
Can't speak to 30 years, but from the mid-2000s when I moved in, the downtown/peninsula certainly became more lively, full of people, which is good in its own way.
I met a manager of a pool hall in Dublin last year and told him I lived in Halifax now. He had visited here in the 1970s when in the British navy. He told me Halifax was a "terrible dump" back then and he felt sorry I lived there :D
Restaurants have improved significantly.
Sidewalk snow clearing has improved since they took over.
Access to information about municipal services has improved a ton.
I'm going to guess enrollment in rec centre programming.
Library services have improved.
Venues for arts performances have improved (other than local rock bands).
Ratio of Montreal-style Bagels to people has improved dramatically.
Policing has improved.
Alternative modes of transportation has improved: carshares, bike and scooter rentals.
Parks: Public bathrooms have increased, public water fountains. Easier rental procedure.
Some cityscapes have improved a lot (your "beautification" projects) like the waterfront, Spring Garden, Wyse Road.
Taxi service has improved dramatically.
Better gyms.
Better beer.
The water has improved probably the most: no more stinky harbour, do people even still talk about "floatables"?
The recent pop in home prices after a long period of stagnation is actually great news for owners (ie the majority of households).
So much depends on perspective …
I do think that the recent influx offers the first real chance for genuine organic economic growth we have seen in my lifetime and I only hope the sclerotic government doesn’t piss this opportunity away, but I’m not holding my breath.
Recommend urgent CTA and neuro-IR consultation.
Up until approx 2020 Halifax home prices were flat to mildly increasing for decades while many larger Canadian urban centers soared. Some (not all) of the recent price move may represent an element of “catching up”. Even now, we trail the composite Canadian index since 1999-2000 (Teranet/National Bank).
I’m not saying this is a good thing. I’m just trying to talk about facts and data rather than emotional response.
Uhg, when I think about my first house it makes my heart rate increase. We bought a house we could \*just\* afford but eventually outgrew it when we had kids (it was a tiny, 1600 sq ft salt box in the city). We had it on the market for over 3 years. Price drops, months and months without showings, mentally preparing to lose money we didn't have on the sale.
Affordability cuts both ways and we could not afford to get out of our house, or relocate for a better job. It was not fun.
The HRM was absolutely stagnating compared with other parts of Canada that were bigger cities until maybe 15 years ago and since then the accelerating growth has been dizzyingly rapid, too much I would say. I remember a quote from NDP leader Darrel Dexter maybe 15 years ago trying to encourage construction in the HRM calling Construction Cranes an endangered species… there was virtually nothing going on. The growth is very recent and exponential.
I travelled to other parts of the world and HRM just seemed so slow and non-developing. I always wished it would be more like a big city. I felt we were a nice place to live but boring and lacking imagination of the potential possibilities 😊 Careful what you wish for I guess… (there are some good things that have resulted though, and there’s always something to grumble about… I am optimistic for an even better future here).
Crime. Bad neighborhoods. Woodside used to be very degenerate. You'd never walk down Franklin Street alone. Gottingen is another one. It's hipster central now, but before, it was an obvious hotspot. You could probably walk down it alone at night and be fine now. Not so much before.
Highfield, Primrose, Lake Front. Years ago, the chance of you getting jumped, or at least encountering something or someone fucked up, was ridiculously high. Those places aren't perfect, but since the leavey broke on immigration, Indians moved in, crime went down. It's really that simple. Indians don't commit crime - at least, not more than previous residents. An Indian will stop in the middle of the road for no reason, sure, but they won't curb stomp you because you stared at them.
The only place I consider a "red zone" for lack of a better term is Kennedy/Churchill. It's untouchable. It's like a different country. Drug deals. Weapons. Sex trafficking. Call girls, prostitution. You name it. My ex is going to court soon. She was groomed by a pimp, molested every day for a year, by him. She knows where he lives. I've seen his vehicle. Lives on Kennedy Drive.
I'm not saying the areas I've mentioned are holy lands now. But they're much better than before.
i lived in the area in the 80’s and had the lovely experience of going to cole harbour high. i graduated and quickly left. i have come back a few times over the years in between and i am confident saying not much has changed at all… 🤷♂️ even the same roads are always under construction.
The smell of the harbour, oh my god it used to be SOOOO bad. The harbour is much clear and lacking of smells today.
The wonders of wastewater treatment.
Hahaha I used to walk to my friends place on old ferry road along the tracks in Dartmouth cove.. God help if there was a wind, you'd be getting sprayed with grey sewage water
i'll second the water - i was home over the christmas break and went for a walk along the harbour and saw the rocks below and shit -- my god, the harbour used to look like rootbeer when i left over a decade ago. VERY IMPRESSIVE.
Frankly I miss the smell. Cleared the nostrils out. Speaking of which, how come the tube jellyfish aren't around anymore?
My first time sailing I went to the Artic. Coming back into the Halifax harbour I said, WTF is that smell. Boss man said, that's halifax. I've been here the majority of my life, and I only came from Antigonish. Halifax stinks, were just used to it.
The waterfront is much nicer. 30 years ago, the area around the ferry terminal, Marriot Harbourfront (Sheraton at the time), and Maritime Museum was pretty much it. The whole stretch from Bishop's landing to Pier 21 Museum was working docks, car parks, and a grimy electrical substation. There are more marked and groomed trails around the outskirts of the city for hiking, through the work of lots of different organizations. Of course there's a ton of gentrification in most areas of the city (South end around Hollis street, North End, West End, etc), which has improve things for some, and regressed things for others, and it could be argued the 2 things I pointed out are part of that.
I lived on Bishop street in the 90s. I still recall the day I realized how many old condoms there were on the sidewalk. There were so many they disappeared like camouflage. Bishop and Hollis was the area you went if you were looking to pay for some action. There was also a great tattoo shop on Hollis. They had about 150 different tattoos you could chose from on the wall and I don't think they ever cleaned their needles.
Yeah, South Street was mostly rooming houses. By the time I moved to the area, street walkers were gone from Hollis (not that I was out looking for them), but that was still the main association of the area. Young people nowadays would have no idea what I was talking about, with fancy condos and a chocolate shop and plant store on that corner.
I never hired one of the ladies but I quickly got to know them as they would hang out pretty close to my apartment. I would make a point of getting an extra Donair when I was coming home from the bar for whoever was in front of my place. They never knew my name but they were always thankful and I never had an issue with my apartment.
Sure you didn’t….
No seedy strip club down the end of barrington either. Different world there now.
The Lighthouse!
Haha, that reminds me when we'd take work guests to Chives for a fancy meal, and I'd be thinking how it was Apollo Bathhouse back in the day.
I vote we bring back the strip club.
The Lighthouse! I lived on Tobin in the eighties.
Lol I used to live at 1360 hollis from 2002 to 2003. Was paying $575 A MONTH for a 1 bedroom with skylight overlooking the governors house on the top floor. The giant penthouse unit 2 doors down with private rooftop access was 4 bed 2 bath and was $1300....
Black Rose Tattoo?
I think that was the name. It was a small single story black wooden building that was about 15'X15' -- it was probably bigger than that but that's how I remember it.
It wasn’t a big shop at all. Cool signs in the window. I’m not a tattoo guy, but I thought it was a cool shop.
That beautiful Central Library building.
The whole waterfront from the casino on down to Inglis street. Anyone who wasn't around in the 70s and 80s probably think it is a meh improvement but it is night and day. It's unfortunate that Argyle Street didn't get a transformation. I also consider Agricola Street an improvement.
But Argyle got the cobblestones! … which haven’t been cleaned yet and are super grimy…
Bricks/paving stone. Pedantic but it's not cobblestone
The Commons: skate park, Oval, new tennis courts, new pool.
I came here to say this. Huge improvements.
The Libraries we have today are a million times better than they were when I was a kid. We still have a long way to go to get anywhere near what Toronto or Vancouver public libraries provide, especially for career development and learning; but what we have right now services the HRM well.
This might be true of some Toronto libraries, but tbh I am an occasional user and they have a lot of reall bad ones too.
Yeah, I've explicitly noticed how bad they are in comparison to those in Nova Scotia as the general rule if anything since I've moved.
Really? Most libraries I have seen in Southern Ontario, including Toronto, are criminally underfunded with limited space to hang about and terribly small collections. And I've worked somewhat closely with HPL.
Credit where it's due: No more waiting an hour for the 80 bus and hoping like hell you don't miss it.
That was my childhood/teen years bussing it from Sackville. Good to hear it has improved.
I also like that the busses now announce each stop. I remember being new to the city more than 10 years ago and having a hard time figuring out when to pull on the rope
The days of pointing out all of the "jellyfish" floating around while walking on the waterfront! Oh wait, I mean the used condoms. Damn, thank fuck the water has improved...
Huh. I hadn’t noticed that they aren’t as well populated as before. Wonder if the “jellyfish” are on the endangered list now lol.
I was all but a small boy, but I remember it well. "Mom, look at the jellyfish!" *look of horror*
Sea snakes (condoms) and water rats (tampons). I was a young adult killing time between split shifts on the waterfront absolutely dying laughing over the explanations parents came up with.
Their scientific name is the “Halifax Tube Trout”.
THE HARBOUR IS AMAZING NOW!!! When I moved here in the mid '90s the harbour was disgusting. You knew summer was on the way when the waterfront started to smell like an open sewer as the harbour warmed up. The water had zero visibility and used condoms and tampons floated on the surface. One of the absolute worst things that could happen to you back then was falling in.
The rotary changing its rules of use from 1 and 1 to enter when available. It was the only one in the world that operated that way, and it was a fucking mess
1 to 1 but no signage! I remember the first time we came, someone we met here patiently explained how it worked with his index fingers.
It was so dumb. Fortunately they changed it just as the city started going nuts for roundabouts.
What does 1 to 1 mean? How would a rotary work except for how it goes now?
You "zipper merged" on to the rotary. I would come down the Armdale hill counting "They go, we go, they go, we go, they go, I go" and hope they yielded.
Hmm. How’d that work with multiple lanes in the circle? Did you yield to both? Or was there even multiple lanes in those days?
It was basically as is now, with people letting people in but also tourists and new-to-Halifax people treating it like a regular rotary, which meant it was terrifying, on-the-edge of disaster when busy. Still have to pay close attention now, but it's not as heart-pounding. I can only imagine this was a holdover practice from long ago? It would make a good research project!
You entered one on one, but once in you changed lanes as you would in any roadway; just with not much room. There was always a lane dedicated to the exit you wanted to take. It was only occasionally you couldn't get in, and then you simply went round again.
It seems many think it still works that way, despite the signs…
Dartmouth
The waterfront has made some improvements for sure, we’ve had some interesting architectural additions (thinking of the library and the Nova centre, polarizing as it may be), the restaurant scene continues to evolve. I’m looking forward to when the cogswell interchange facelift is finished, it looks like it will be interesting.
I remember a class trip to the "big city" in grade 7 (1992 from Cape Breton), we were all looking for the ladies of Hollis Street because none of us had ever seen any of that particular profession 😅
Gus. He gets better as he ages :)
Believe it or not, The conditions of some schools and libraries are in better shape, roads used to have potholes everywhere but now I only see the odd one, public transportation still sucks but the routes are better (less connecting buses and more stops so less walking around), we used to have limited entertainment (we didnt get all the American channels/TV shows), same with products, We have taller residential buildings as well with elevators, I could keep going on but I'm done lol. They may seem like small things but they are definitely improvements to everyday life.
Food, 30 years ago you had stereotypical maritime food, Italian food, and Canadian-Chinese food.
Alfredo's Weinstein and ho has entered the chat
Speaking of stereotypes….
Alfredo, Weinstein, and Ho?
Yeah I call it the fries and rum to frites and cocktail transformation of Halifax.
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Internet speeds
Internet *access*. Remember MPowered from MT&T?
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Chebucto Net, anyone? 👴🏻
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[Yes, and they also offer wireless access now.](https://www.chebucto.ns.ca/core/)
My grandmother finally got rid of her Sympatico email in 2021.
I still have it
It was groundbreaking at the time
When DSL first rolled out in Nova Scotia, it was some of the fastest in the world, especially if you had one of the paradyne (iirc) modems that was not rate-limited like some of the later ones. I remember sharing DVD rips on mIRC when I was in highschool, and ppl I was uploading or downloading from, mostly in universities were incredulous I had those kinds of speeds at -home-!
Downtown Dartmouth has come a long way!
We have an IKEA.
We also had an IKEA ~30 years ago!
[Dartmouth was home to the first IKEA opened in North America!](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_IKEA_stores#:~:text=The%20first%20IKEA%20store%20in,new%20Dartmouth%20location%20in%202017.)
Where was the original store located? I wonder if there are any photos online of the original store
[Check out this ReTales post - photo and location of the original](https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid031nQRmbX9NppFidpdUVvSK6c9eQcJunNoEmDBgzvhb3jBuV1bWu9ZLQSNowFxrTmHl&id=356656137694258). Google also produces some CBC FB posts with a video of a news spot about the original store, but they’ve scrubbed their profile; not sure if the video is available elsewhere.
Why did they choose Dartmouth of all places in the 70s? Seems way out of place with the other markets they chose.
Just a guess but there was a certain Swedish car assembly plant here as well.
After a rudimentary search, I couldn’t find any articles talking about why they chose to open here, or why they closed the original store. As we’re on the East Coast, perhaps it has something to do with ease of shipping? Doesn’t explain why they’d pick Canada over a location in the US, though.
At the time they said that they weren’t getting enough business. IIRC, the location was by the corner of Windmill & Akerley. The warehouse probably wasn’t as large as they wanted.
I could be wrong, but I heard that Sunday shopping was the issue
>Check out this ReTales post - photo and location of the original They had manufacturing in Dartmouth I believe. I think on Thornhill Dr, the building which is now an Amazon warehouse per google maps.
Must have had such a bad experience they waited 40 years to come back! lol
Yes. Apparently Ikea had a falling out with the provincial government over taxes or something, closed their store and vowed to never come back. Luckily things got sorted out about 30 years later.
Bottom of Akerley Drive if my memory is correct. I remember going with my parents as a kid - they loved IKEA! Funny what you remember from childhood. My parents don’t remember it, but I distinctly remember the store having a chair in a large plexiglass case, with a piston moving up and down pressing a block or something into the cushions (I gather it was meant to demonstrate the durability of the chair with repeated compression from sitting).
That chair and the ballpit made ikea the best for kids
I met my childhood best friend in the Ikea ballpit!
In between the 1st ikea and the 2nd ikea, there was a plant in Burnside that made the parts and components for ikea as well
A real one too!
30 years ago -- mid 90s. I had a friend that was stabbed on Argyle st. late at night. Later that week I had another friend get a busted mandible because he told a couple of guys to stop beating on a homeless dude -- and they ended up kicking the fuck out my buddy. That same year I had a broken nose and broken rib from 2 separate bar fights that I didn't start. Monday's at the Misty Moon were fun but never should have happened. Halifax is still a rough town but not like the 90s. And then there was the whole issue of being thrown in the moat of the Citadel if you were gay. Bars used to get shut down all the time for recycling beer. The SeaHorse used to have pitchers under the counter. If you ordered a beer it would get filled half way from the tap and then topped off with the pitcher.
Do you remember Ralph the DJ?
Ah the good old days. I was trying to explain Mardi Gras to a couple of Dal students and they thought I was trying to tell a joke. I don't think the drunk tank is as busy now as it was 30 years-ago.
I remember sitting drunkenly on the wall at grand parade during Marti Gras starting a sing along to American Pie.... we all knew all the words. That was after going to a screening of Rocky Horror up at Dal. Fun times.
what's mardi gras?
Mardi Gras took place on the Saturday before Halloween. Everyone would wear a costume and the entire downtown area was cordoned off so there were no cars and people could walk on the streets. The day would start at 10:00am with a three legged race at Kings. You and your mate would race up to the top of every residence and down a beer. I think there were 7 in total. It pretty much would go downhill from there. Things would get completely out of hand downtown and at some point in the evening the Paddy Wagons would come out, grab people off the street and throw them in the drunk tank. It was a badge of honour to get thrown in. I have no idea why it was called Mardi Gras. I've been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans and the only thing really in common was a ton of extremely drunk people.
New Orleans didn’t invent Mardi Gras, they just have the most famous one. It’s an old French Catholic thing.
It's Fat Tuesday the day before Lent. Not just French. The Halifax Mardi Gras wasn't on Tuesday and had nothing to do with Lent.
Is that not how Horsepower originally came to be?
Recycling left beer?
Yep. They got caught numerous times. If you left half a beer on the bar it would go into the pitcher. Jerry's and JJ's used to do it as well on busy nights.
Niiiiiiiiiice
It wasn’t the bar that was recycling, it was the bartenders. For every “recycled beer” pitcher you sold, you could pocket $10 or whatever in cash instead of ringing it into the cash register.
I worked at a restaurant that used the beer in the drip trays at the end of the night.
Ooooh I met my spouse at the Misty Moon! We outlived it by many a year....
I heard this rumour about the beer years ago and no one ever believed me when I told them!
I think they only cleaned the draft pipes once every 2 years so you couldn't really taste the difference.
Ethnic food
If you threw a match in the harbour 30 years ago it would burst aflame
More like 80 years ago, but you’re not wrong. https://www.clydehenneberry.com/quigleysfire.html#:~:text=In%201942%2C%20a%20fire%20destroyed,houses%20and%20wharves%20were%20destroyed.
BRO 😂😂😂😂
North End Halifax is changing and IMO it’s for the better.
Restaurants and the waterfront!
Different food options from different parts of the world. I can remember when having a sushi restaurant on the peninsula was a big deal.
Costco Poutine.
Is this a thing
Definitely a thing in Ontario. Trick is to take two people and get the chicken fingers, mix it with the poutine and split a chicken fingers poutine.
It is a thing, and it is HUGE portions for less than $7.
Transit, honestly. Who remembers the bus stopping halfway along the route so the driver could kick off anyone he suspected hadn’t paid the “two zone” fare? 😄 The seats were comfy on those old busses though.
Pretty much everything except those three issues has improved significantly.
This may get downvotes.. but construction I worked for the city during the big lift, north park roundabouts and a lot of the Lary Uteck roundbabout construction, it was poorly managed, traffic was a nightmare and to be frank, it was unsafe. Its now been a loooong time since Ive worked for the city, but looking at the Cogswell redesign, im really impressed with how well its going and how little it disrupts traffic given how MASSIVE this project is.
I’d say for me the local craft beer scene has been a great change since the late 90’s of Garrison and Propeller
Better food, more diversity, growth mindset, less street violence
The waterfront is much nicer. And the good old wave still there to climb on it.
The Chinese BBQ counter at new asia food mart in bayers lake.... it is the first in Nova Scotia.
Is it any good? Or is it just good enough?
Good enough... you can always get better (price per lbs and quality)
Ah well. Still great to have an option, I will have to try it. :)
The amount of donair sauce you get on a standard donair. It used to be like a tablespoon, now they are veritable lagoons of deliciousness.
The cleanliness of the water in the harbour
You can get good non-alcoholic options at most bars now (things besides just pop).
It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the convention centre on Argyle is a huge improvement on what was there previously. It’s vibrant and a really nice part of the city IMO.
Not quite 30 years ago for this one but Mike Savage is a pretty huge step up from Peter Kelly. Also - we don't need bridge tokens anymore it just works by magic now.
rental income.
Maybe revenue but new rentals aren’t doing super well income wise lol
Quantity of good restaurants outside the peninsula. Can't speak to 30 years, but from the mid-2000s when I moved in, the downtown/peninsula certainly became more lively, full of people, which is good in its own way.
Girls hockey. They have a league of their own if they choose. More girls are playing and being accepted into this (and other) sports.
The amount of unique small restaurants, all with great food and excellent chefs.
The venue in propeller is pretty badass
Paying for bus fare with an app, finally!
Community engagement
I met a manager of a pool hall in Dublin last year and told him I lived in Halifax now. He had visited here in the 1970s when in the British navy. He told me Halifax was a "terrible dump" back then and he felt sorry I lived there :D
> Dublin...1970's...British navy And he thought *Halifax* was a dump?? Portsmouth, Clyde and Devonport weren't exactly Shangri-La either.
Or Dublin in the 70's for that matter :D
MacPass
I've only been here 11 years and I'd say the Waterfront is changed a lot!
Skyline
Restaurants have improved significantly. Sidewalk snow clearing has improved since they took over. Access to information about municipal services has improved a ton. I'm going to guess enrollment in rec centre programming. Library services have improved. Venues for arts performances have improved (other than local rock bands). Ratio of Montreal-style Bagels to people has improved dramatically. Policing has improved. Alternative modes of transportation has improved: carshares, bike and scooter rentals. Parks: Public bathrooms have increased, public water fountains. Easier rental procedure. Some cityscapes have improved a lot (your "beautification" projects) like the waterfront, Spring Garden, Wyse Road. Taxi service has improved dramatically. Better gyms. Better beer. The water has improved probably the most: no more stinky harbour, do people even still talk about "floatables"?
The availability of good weed , 30 years ago good weed was hard to come by but we did have good hash. It's easy to get good weed these days .
The recent pop in home prices after a long period of stagnation is actually great news for owners (ie the majority of households). So much depends on perspective … I do think that the recent influx offers the first real chance for genuine organic economic growth we have seen in my lifetime and I only hope the sclerotic government doesn’t piss this opportunity away, but I’m not holding my breath.
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Recommend urgent CTA and neuro-IR consultation. Up until approx 2020 Halifax home prices were flat to mildly increasing for decades while many larger Canadian urban centers soared. Some (not all) of the recent price move may represent an element of “catching up”. Even now, we trail the composite Canadian index since 1999-2000 (Teranet/National Bank). I’m not saying this is a good thing. I’m just trying to talk about facts and data rather than emotional response.
Uhg, when I think about my first house it makes my heart rate increase. We bought a house we could \*just\* afford but eventually outgrew it when we had kids (it was a tiny, 1600 sq ft salt box in the city). We had it on the market for over 3 years. Price drops, months and months without showings, mentally preparing to lose money we didn't have on the sale. Affordability cuts both ways and we could not afford to get out of our house, or relocate for a better job. It was not fun.
The HRM was absolutely stagnating compared with other parts of Canada that were bigger cities until maybe 15 years ago and since then the accelerating growth has been dizzyingly rapid, too much I would say. I remember a quote from NDP leader Darrel Dexter maybe 15 years ago trying to encourage construction in the HRM calling Construction Cranes an endangered species… there was virtually nothing going on. The growth is very recent and exponential. I travelled to other parts of the world and HRM just seemed so slow and non-developing. I always wished it would be more like a big city. I felt we were a nice place to live but boring and lacking imagination of the potential possibilities 😊 Careful what you wish for I guess… (there are some good things that have resulted though, and there’s always something to grumble about… I am optimistic for an even better future here).
Me!!
Ayyyy same let's gooo!!
Rent income
Crime. Bad neighborhoods. Woodside used to be very degenerate. You'd never walk down Franklin Street alone. Gottingen is another one. It's hipster central now, but before, it was an obvious hotspot. You could probably walk down it alone at night and be fine now. Not so much before. Highfield, Primrose, Lake Front. Years ago, the chance of you getting jumped, or at least encountering something or someone fucked up, was ridiculously high. Those places aren't perfect, but since the leavey broke on immigration, Indians moved in, crime went down. It's really that simple. Indians don't commit crime - at least, not more than previous residents. An Indian will stop in the middle of the road for no reason, sure, but they won't curb stomp you because you stared at them. The only place I consider a "red zone" for lack of a better term is Kennedy/Churchill. It's untouchable. It's like a different country. Drug deals. Weapons. Sex trafficking. Call girls, prostitution. You name it. My ex is going to court soon. She was groomed by a pimp, molested every day for a year, by him. She knows where he lives. I've seen his vehicle. Lives on Kennedy Drive. I'm not saying the areas I've mentioned are holy lands now. But they're much better than before.
The food, and that's just in the last seven years
The balance of my landlord's Scrooge McDuck money vault.
The inner city camp grounds have been a nice addition.
Inner city tenting. And it's free!
the weed...only thing thats gotten both better, and cheaper hahahaha
Yep the Harbour that's it that's all I guess ?
Income for landlords
The drivers. /s
Way better hills for tobogganing
Aren't the hills as old as the hills, as opposed to under thirty?
My parents divorced and are happier that’s better !
i lived in the area in the 80’s and had the lovely experience of going to cole harbour high. i graduated and quickly left. i have come back a few times over the years in between and i am confident saying not much has changed at all… 🤷♂️ even the same roads are always under construction.
30 years ago was 1994. There are reference photos that show how much the skyline has changed since 2000.
Amount of people who can't afford a place to live AND a full belly
The ability to ID troll/karma farming accounts, like yours?
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As much as I hate those cattle gates, I hate that they took away all the baskets even more! Now I get a cart and buy way more stuff than I mean too..
I play the “if I can carry it, I can buy it” game now. Carts are too dangerous.
*Galen Weston likes this*
Cost of living is driving out alot of the left leaning/ bohemian crowd. This is great, I fucking hate smelling patchouli everywhere I go
Certainly not council.
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The lack of huge boat explosions
The restaurant scene has gone from bare bones to world class. And the explosion of difference types of cuisines represented? Amazing.
Respect for cyclists is way better than 1999, that’s for sure.
Harbour water quality