The Price of Progress: When Towers Replace Communities

“I've seen the towers and the damage done.”
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Apologies to Neil Young.
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The importance of place and community.
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When I was growing up, I spent a fair amount of time at the Shannon Park pool, competing on the Sharks swim team. We were always the underdogs; not having the fundraising ability of teams like the Crusaders, but we were kids and adults dealt with that. We only cared that there were sliced oranges and dry towels between laps and try-outs.

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I was brought back to that time last week when I accepted an invitation from the Ocean Breeze Tenants' association to see what was happening to my old swimming grounds. The only thing left of Shannon Park is the school, and soon there will be nothing left of the Ocean Breeze community. Ocean Breeze is the old Wallace Heights military housing now on the far edge of District 5, and, up until recently, housed folks in an affordable community of 400 units.

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HR Council has rezoned the area and the community is being destroyed to build two luxury towers which will be far out of reach of any of the current residents.

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Meeting and listening to folks that are looking homelessness square in the eye is a sobering and humbling experience.

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What do you say to a multi-generational family that will have to split up to try to find accommodations?

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How do you tell a kid that “Sorry we need Toronto-worthy towers, so you need to make new friends somewhere else”?

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When Sam Austin and I were speaking to the Downtown Dartmouth Association, he defended his actions by saying that Ocean Breeze is just a “bunch of old townhouses”. When I went up, I saw a true community of mutual aid, and places that people call home.

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No one can honestly argue that HRM doesn’t need density to provide good quality homes to every resident, but looking at the mural on the side of one of the homes being destroyed, I don’t understand this blind rush to displace the most vulnerable amongst to chase these developments.

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Shannon Park has just been announced as the site of a major affordable housing initiative, so I am at a loss to understanding why HR Council could not have waited to rezone Ocean Breeze until the current residents of Ocean Breeze had secure housing.

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Maybe HR council is like the addict in the above Neil Young lyric, always chasing that ‘high’ of shiny new towers?

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“I've seen the needle and the damage done
A little part of it in everyone
But every junkie's like a settin' sun.”