Published September 13, 2007.Grow Up, Halifax

After being away for 4 years and returning to Halifax, I feel like I've grown up a bit, and I was hoping Halifax would have done the same. In some ways it has, but in some ways, we're still the laughing stock of other Canadian "cities"-here are three of my biggest pet peeves about the best thing east of Montreal:

1. Sushi. Why can I get $12-$20 all you can eat sushi ANYWHERE in Toronto, Montreal, etc, but to get three pieces of tuna and a shitty California roll here, I have to pay almost $15. I get supply and demand, and yes, those places have a lot of demand, but aren't we "Canada's Ocean Playground"? Should we have more SUPPLY? Don't even get me started on the Thai food here, either. $14 for noodles in curry is baffling.

2. Shopping. If I hear one more person sing the praises of Dartmouth Crossing, I'll vomit. Wow. You got Mexx. Congrats. Try getting some shite you can't get at every single fucking mall in the city. Get an H&M and then tell me how great Old Navy is. And we all love to bitch about "big box" stores, but holy shit, we have EVERY big box store EXCEPT the only one that doesn't (completely) suck, which is Ikea. We have a gagillion students who need cheap furniture to eat their overpriced sushi on. COME ON.

3. Public Transit. I know we're never going to have a Sky Train or a Subway, but for the love of god, keep a couple busses running all night. If you had the 7, the 1 and the 80 running all night, imagine how fucking convenient that would be. Every other "major" city has all night busses when regular transit shuts down. And considering taxis seem to cost twice as much here as anywhere else I've lived, it would be a great benefit to those of us who love this province, but can't find a damn job that pays more than 8 bucks an hour.

Unemployed with too much time on my hands.