Michael Fleury

Neighbourhoods were pitted against each other last week in a media-created turf war over swimming pools—specifically, when and where a new 50-metre competitive pool should be built. The city had hired a consultant to hash out the issues and make a recommendation. The “hashing out” part boiled down to examining what it would take to […]

After spending almost three-and-a-half years plugging away for team Coast (and, by proxy, team Halifax), we’re formally giving up our post as news editor and moving on to smoggier pastures. The uber-capable Tim Bousquet will be taking over in the New Year. Happy holidays, Halifax, and all the best for 2008. We miss ya’ already.

Residents along Chebucto Road will enjoy an extra dose of seasonal stress in the coming weeks—especially those in danger of losing their homes to the city. They’ll be waiting for HRM staffers to make them an offer on their properties, which, according to the city’s manager of traffic and transportation services Dave McCusker, won’t come […]

Downtown councillor and Coast-reader-favourite Dawn Sloane completed an after-dark safety audit of the Common this week. (New rule: Every public official charged with protecting public safety downtown should have to tour the Common at night. As of today, it’s mandatory. Agreed? Great.) Sloane, with a handful of other city staffers, gamboled around the Common at […]

A bit of Halifax-centric provincial legislation is up for its third reading today in the legislature—an amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act. And Darcy Harvey, for one, isn’t happy about it. If passed, Bill 7 will make it illegal—or, even more illegal—for anyone to approach a vehicle to offer or sell goods and services. Although […]

Now, a brief but exhaustively researched timeline of successful public art projects in Halifax, including all notable projects of the past quarter-century: The Wave is unveiled on the Halifax Waterfront: 1988. There is much grafitti tagging and climbing. Many children summit The Wave. Some children fall and hurt themselves. The more intelligent, coordinated children do […]

Another quick update, as council lends some attention to something that actually needs attention: Barrington Street—or, as we call it around the office, Urine Alley. With all those empty storefronts, there’s been so much public peeing! It’s the secret shameful symptom of abandoned buildings. Put that in your urban planning forums and address it. In […]

A quick update on the Chebucto Community Net’s wireless project: This week, after working through some technical tomfoolery, the Chebucto peeps started testing new software that will manage and stabilize their wireless nodes—basically, the user-hosted, on-the-ground radio antennas that will pass a wireless signal along the ground, originating from Fenwick Tower. If you’re around Fenwick […]

Watch closely: We’re about to cram three crucially important city projects into one digestible blurb. And, we’ll make it engaging. Tabloidy, even. First up: COGSWELL INTERCHANGE TO BE DEMOLISHED! …That is, if the downtown portion of HRM by Design has its way. Last night, staff presented their Preferred Downtown Scenario at the World Trade and […]

Oh, the things we say when on the phone with Rene Angelil. We found ourselves asking strange questions of Celine Dion’s husband/manager; unfamiliar questions; questions that sounded, even as they passed our lips, utterly foreign to us; righteous, indignant questions, like, “Isn’t this an unfair punishment for Celine Dion’s loyal fans in Halifax?” Who is […]

And finally, as a nod to the long-suffering jocks, who must constantly put up with our arty indie, alt-weekly-y, skinny-jeaned, Chuck Taylored hipster-quirk nonsense: your day has come. Thursday night. The Halifax Rainmen. The Boston Blizzard. The Metro Centre. The American Basketball Association. Sources confirm, it’s about to get all crazy up in hurr. Even […]

The Chebucto Road saga comes to head next week, provided council pulls heads out of their collective—hey, hey! Connaught-Quinpool councillor and 2008 mayoral candidate Sheila Fougere presented a 3,000-name petition to council on Tuesday night, on behalf of the Chebucto Neighbourhood Association. The petition asks council to delay the road-widening project by one year while […]