Is this the Coast's attempt at a coy Betteridge-bait headline? Any headline that asks a question is almost always "no," and of course that is the answer here. The Nova Centre is not cursed, hexed, or suffering bad luck. God doesn't hate the project. Nobody forgot to knock on wood back before it got started. Nor does the Nova Centre rest on an ancient burial ground, or have a shattered mirror in the basement. The workers haven't been walking under ladders this whole time.
It's just been poorly managed. Some projects are managed well, and end up delivering the full scope on schedule and on budget. This is not one of those projects. This is the other kind. The window for finishing the Nova Centre while saving any kind of face, avoiding an indelible "boondoggle" label, is closing fast.
Can't wait to learn more about what is going on behind the scenes.
So many intelligent people. To me what is most interesting is seeing how diverse (and sometimes conflicting) their personal "pie-in-the-sky" solutions are.
This is the realization of a dream. Since Beyond Gravity closed in 2005, the only options for indoor climbing in Halifax are Ground Zero in Burnside, the Rock Court at Dalhousie, and the wall at the CFB Halifax. They're all fine gyms, but for peninsula dwellers both CFB and RC have barriers (cost and access) and GZ requires a car or lengthy bus ride (as did Beyond Gravity in Bayer's Lake).
The bouldering in and around Halifax is world class. Rock climbers are a friendly, mobile athletic community. We as a province could do much more to advertise or support this potential tourism resource, instead leaving volunteers and Climb Nova Scotia to fill in the gaps.
This new gym is going to make a lot of people very, very happy.
I must respectfully disagree. I know little about the handling of the memorial artifacts, which may or may not be receiving their due respect. However I feel the city should feel no shame in choosing not to memorialize our war dead at the new library site.
Veterans deserve our due respect, but simply carrying the name over belittles the original memorial. The memorial library was destined to be named as such from conception. To turn the name of the central library on its head mid-stream would stink of pandering and afterthought. Everything has a lifespan, including memorials. Plenty of history gets erased by time, while some history we are stuck with and would prefer not to be. To design a hyper-modern site such as this, and to have saddled it with the responsibility of memorializing our war dead, would have changed the soul of this new building. I suspect it would have resulted in a far tamer or perhaps more solemn structure, befitting a memorial. I wouldn't trade it, and many other Haligonians would agree with me.
I don't suggest a false choice here - memorial vs. modernity. But you can bet that some veterans advocacy groups would have seen the new design as inappropriate. I think the 21st century Halifax deserves its own memorial to replace the library - if the grand parade memorial is unsuitable, or if the author suggests that memorials are discrete, and will need "topping up" now that the library is closing. The naming of the new central library is not a disgrace.
How can an article like this overlook the impact of mandatory helmet laws on overall ridership numbers? It cannot be denied that there are people who will not ride a bike specifically because they do not like helmets (for whatever reason). I have met them, spoken to them, and Mikael Colville-Andersen has been hammering this point for years. They exist. Those potential riders are off the road for fear of getting a ticket, meaning the overall number of riders on the street is decreased.
More cyclists on the road = more driver awareness and expectation of cyclists in traffic = a safer road for everyone. In addition to infrastructure, the best thing for improving cycle safety is more cyclists.
Helmets may protect individual riders from serious head injury, but mandatory helmet laws keep casual riders from getting on a bike in the first place. They might take a car for a short trip instead, worsening the problem and undermining the benefits of increased ridership that everyone agrees are a good thing.
That is fantastic news. As one of the coveted "young professionals" the city is so bananas about, I want enjoy the new library as a space to work. Now I won't want to leave.
Recent Comments
It's just been poorly managed. Some projects are managed well, and end up delivering the full scope on schedule and on budget. This is not one of those projects. This is the other kind. The window for finishing the Nova Centre while saving any kind of face, avoiding an indelible "boondoggle" label, is closing fast.
Can't wait to learn more about what is going on behind the scenes.
More parking! Less parking!
Great read.
The bouldering in and around Halifax is world class. Rock climbers are a friendly, mobile athletic community. We as a province could do much more to advertise or support this potential tourism resource, instead leaving volunteers and Climb Nova Scotia to fill in the gaps.
This new gym is going to make a lot of people very, very happy.
Veterans deserve our due respect, but simply carrying the name over belittles the original memorial. The memorial library was destined to be named as such from conception. To turn the name of the central library on its head mid-stream would stink of pandering and afterthought. Everything has a lifespan, including memorials. Plenty of history gets erased by time, while some history we are stuck with and would prefer not to be. To design a hyper-modern site such as this, and to have saddled it with the responsibility of memorializing our war dead, would have changed the soul of this new building. I suspect it would have resulted in a far tamer or perhaps more solemn structure, befitting a memorial. I wouldn't trade it, and many other Haligonians would agree with me.
I don't suggest a false choice here - memorial vs. modernity. But you can bet that some veterans advocacy groups would have seen the new design as inappropriate. I think the 21st century Halifax deserves its own memorial to replace the library - if the grand parade memorial is unsuitable, or if the author suggests that memorials are discrete, and will need "topping up" now that the library is closing. The naming of the new central library is not a disgrace.
More cyclists on the road = more driver awareness and expectation of cyclists in traffic = a safer road for everyone. In addition to infrastructure, the best thing for improving cycle safety is more cyclists.
Helmets may protect individual riders from serious head injury, but mandatory helmet laws keep casual riders from getting on a bike in the first place. They might take a car for a short trip instead, worsening the problem and undermining the benefits of increased ridership that everyone agrees are a good thing.