Halifax’s supply of heritage protected houses is one home bigger. The house, at 6215 Coburg Road, across the street from Dalhousie University’s Howe Hall residence, received Registered Heritage Status from Halifax Regional Council last Tuesday. The status puts guidelines on what can be changed about the property, and also incentivizes restoration with HRM’s renovation matching […]
Caora McKenna
Caora was City Editor at The Coast, where she wrote about everything from city hall to police and housing issues. She started with The Coast in 2017, when she was the publication’s Copy Editor.
Posted inNews + Opinion
Accessible taxis should be a bit more accessible by fall
Halifax Regional Council is finally doing something concrete about the dismal situation for folks who use mobility devices and want a little spontaneity in their lives. This week it voted to include the procurement of an on-demand accessible transportation service in this year’s upcoming budget. The plan is to subsidize a fleet of accessible taxis […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Video report: Catch up on Halifax Regional Council’s Feb 23 meeting
Halifax Regional Council talked accessible taxis, heritage designation for a house on Coburg Road, the Navigator Street Outreach program and boulevard gardens at its regular Tuesday, February 23 meeting. Plus people from parks and rec and Discover Halifax came to council to unveil the city’s new Integrated Tourism Master Plan. How to keep up with […]
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Halifax council not interested in defunding police
This week Halfiax’s budget committee voted on the police budget, but talks about how HRM spends its money on policing have been buzzing for more than a year–since El Jones’s presentation on defunding the police to the Board of Police Commissioners in January 2020, to a global movement demanding the police and prison industrial complexes […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Rent for a one-bedroom up 20 percent from last year 😢
The latest Canada-wide report from rental housing advertiser Rentals.ca bears the bad news everyone already knew–renting in Halifax is still a shit deal. The majority of Halifax units included in the Rentals.ca report are in downtown Halifax, the west end and Clayton Park, but the report does have data spanning the whole of HRM. Of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax police force blows IT security, then lies about it
If Halifax Regional Police’s information organization skills were a desk, that desk would be piled high with mismatched papers and zero-context sticky notes. There’d be a bunch of mugs, each with a crusting ring of mold forming at different heights of abandonment, and three cell phones—one encrypted, one broken and one that primarily uses Facebook […]
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Halifax Regional Council to consider saving Sir Sanford Fleming cottage
Lately, Halifax Regional Council has had a knack for turning any agenda item into an excuse to talk about traffic. This week, it was the report on HRM’s COVID-19 Mobility Response Plan that spun the record on the dire need for traffic calming measures all across the municipality. The mobility response plan was put in […]
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Leadership shakeup at Irving Shipbuilding makes waves
A 2005 New York Times article by Christopher Drew begins setting an ominous scene: “Blood was everywhere. Sailors lay sprawled across the floor, several of them unconscious, others simply dazed. Even the captain was asking, ‘What just happened?’ All anyone knew for sure was that the nuclear-powered attack submarine had slammed head-on into something solid and […]
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Halifax’s vacancy rate slinked up in 2020, but the reality for renters hardly got any better
The annual CMHC rental housing report just came out, and one of its key numbers, the vacancy rate, will proceed to be tossed around for the next year when folks are talking about the housing crisis. But what does it even mean? And where do we go from here? First, the TLDR: The overall vacancy […]
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Convention Centre can’t be a shelter and waste contracts won’t get living wage requirement
Halifax Regional Council’s second meeting of 2021 was a light one. There was talk about waste management, Shannon Park and by-law amendments near Dunbrack and Willett. Get caught up on everything that happened here: Or Catch up on everything else that happened at council this week by checking out The Coast’s Instagram highlight (click here […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
NS expanding parking lot capacity at Crystal Crescent Beach
Halifax’s beloved beaches—whose role in the identity of this place became crystal clear during the early days of strict COVID-19 lockdowns—are a finite and fabulous resource. Those with access to cars load up the cooler, lather on the sunscreen, bring an extra layer just in case the sun goes away, and head to where the […]
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It’s go time for skating and skate rentals at Halifax’s beloved Oval
Halifax’s most-reliable sheet of ice opens this week—to the delight of thousands of Haligonians who will venture onto its pristine crisp surface to skate counter-clockwise, alternating with and against the wind, in the Halifax Common this winter. The oval’s skate rental program was initially going to be cancelled this year but in a turn of […]
