You know her name
So great to hear Rehtaeh's voice ("How I got my name," Voice of the City by Rehtaeh Parsons, November 20). Bittersweet to read her hopes and wishes knowing how she was senselessly robbed of them by three boys who don't know the difference between "fun" and "assault." —posted by dalspot at thecoast.ca
Thanks to The Coast for publishing her name and honouring a beautiful spirit. So many of us are grateful. In her death she has catalyzed enormous awareness. May it catapult society out of neanderthal attitudes and actions that caused her death. —posted by Jane Moody
This is just such a horribly sad story. I knew Rehtaeh, as a child. She was turing into a lovely and interesting girl. It is a tragedy that this poor girl had to die so young, and that her family and friends suffer and will continue to do so. —posted by Andrea Simpson Myllymaki
Such a sad ending to such a beautiful soul. We must remember her and never let her be forgotten. Rehtaeh Parsons is her name. Soar high with the angels sweet girl, you were too good for this cruel world. Our society needs to change. The victims need to be heard, not the perps. —posted by Bessi
The cost of free parking
I recently walked along Ahern Avenue at around 6:45am and noticed something unusual. Not only a few, but many of the cars parked there had a lone occupant sitting behind the wheel—tapping their fingers, listening to the radio or simply staring straight ahead. It later occurred to me that these early risers were drawn to compete to park along this stretch for a very specific reason: it is centrally located and free, all day long.
A different scene can be found a few blocks away. Along Robie Street near Jubilee Road, the two-hour street parking zone is generally packed on weekdays from morning to evening, especially the stretches closest to the hospitals. Understandably, street parking in this area is attractive to hospital visitors, but it is also used by employees of Capital Health who manage to leave work at regular intervals to move their cars and avoid tickets. Not long ago, a homeowner on Robie Street awoke to find his driveway (shared with next-door neighbours) fully blocked. A parking enforcement official responded quickly to a phone call but the offending driver arrived to move his car in time to avoid a ticket. He apologized and explained that this was his first mistake in years of parking on this block.
Back on Ahern, city council approved a pay parking scheme in June 2011. At that time city officials announced that the parking machines would cost $70,000 to install and would generate $135,000 dollars annually in revenue. Three years later...maybe these machines will appear any day now. Meanwhile, down the street, a major project that intends to improve the flow of traffic around the Common is nearing completion.
At the hospitals and other major institutional employers on the Peninsula, parking needs expand unabated, and are at capacity or unaffordable in some instances, forcing many to resort to street parking. Clearly the Ahern situation, both the status quo free-for-all and the eventual pay system, and the two-hour shuffle are unsustainable. But as traffic engineers facilitate smoother (and inevitably faster—a dangerous proposition) flows, the number of cars on our streets continues to rise. Attention to transit and active transportation infrastructure—large-scale, sustained, even revolutionary—has never been more urgent. —Lachlan Barber, Halifax
Pole position
The proposed changes to the temporary sign bylaw have some problems, including requiring a "date posted" stamp on posters, and requiring posterers to take down their posters five days after the event has happened ("Hang your posters high," The City story by Hilary Beaumont, November 20). Other than that it's a step in the right direction.
If HRM insists that a poster is still my property after I put it up, then I should be able to have the poster vigilantes charged with destruction of property, one count per poster destroyed. Additionally, if preventing postering is a violation of charter rights, poster vigilantes should be charged accordingly. —posted by Sean MacGillivray
