Present Day
Today, North Preston is a prosperous community having a high home-ownership rate, a stable population, and the community's ability to resist urban sprawl such as that occurring in other Black Nova Scotian settlements. The community also has a higher average income at $33,233 a year, compared with the average of $31,795 for Nova Scotia. Despite that, however, the community remains relatively isolated from the rest of Halifax, in its rural setting. Some contemporary issues include a higher percent of lone parent families, higher unemployment rates for those aged 15–24 and a recent surge in gun crime. The Prestons have slightly more lone parent families at 19.8 percent, compared to Nova Scotia's average of 16.9 percent.
An annual community festival and parade occurs every July, on a community event called North Preston Day. The event has been taking place every year on July 4. Many members of the community attend; the event is free and many special guests from outside of the community attend. In 2010, television personality Debbie Travis made a guest appearance to film part of her upcoming show All for One, which will air on CBC.
North Preston is served by a large elementary school, Nelson Whynder Elementary School. The community is also home to several community buildings, several churches, a day care, a medical centre, a volunteer fire department and several local businesses. The church has been the spiritual centre of the community of North Preston for over 150 years.
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Famous quotes containing the words present and/or day:
“We see past time in a telescope and present time in a microscope. Hence the apparent enormities of the present.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)