working harbour

The Halifax harbour is an actual working harbour, which is interesting from an urban planning perspective. They're beginning to have more pressure for land in the downtown core, and a lot of the peninsula is taken up with land uses that aren't particularly attractive or useful for downtown yuppies (e.g. berths for container ships, shipyards, naval bases, army bases). But, on the other hand, it's all a part of the city's heritage and economy, and they probably pay more taxes than residential buildings. (Although, you don't even want to know what property tax will be for our new condo - they estimate it'll be $2400 annually. For comparison, my parent's brand new house in Kamloops on a 50x180 foot lot has property taxes of about $2900.) Anyways, here's some shots of both the tourist-friendly and not areas...


Pier 21 is located in the blue circle, and has the cruise ship docking area right behind it. All of the tourists head north from that area. The numbered piers continue south from that point, and the working piers are in the red circle. Train tracks run approximately along the grey line. (South of the train tracks is a beautiful residential neighbourhood.)