Halifax council has rescinded its December 13 decision to sell the former St. Pat’s-Alexandra school on Maitland Street to developer Joe Metlege. The vote means the old school won’t be torn down and replaced with condos—at least, not yet. But the issue is by no means resolved. North end community members were upset by the […]
Tim Bousquet
Posted inNews + Opinion
Two If By Sea’s new location is going strong
I stopped by Two If By Sea‘s new Historic Properties (1869 Upper Water Street, 492-4600) location this morning, just to see how things are going. I ordered coffee and a muffin and sat down to twiddle with my new iPhone. As I watched, I was struck that the cafe was busy, but few people were […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
How to build a better mayor
The Coast’s first issue in January is traditionally devoted to the topic of “”How to fix the city.” A sort of New Year’s resolution for a better Halifax, in past editions we’ve identified lots of things that were broken around town—falling down buildings, highway ramps that go to nowhere, window shade-less washrooms at City Hall, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Trade secrets
Chronicle-Herald provincial reporter David Jackson should be congratulated for his article published last week that lays out more mendacity on the part of Trade Centre Limited. See, in September Jackson got word that somebody was conducting a public opinion poll about the proposed convention centre. The way Jackson heard it at the time, the questions […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Canada’s other mayors
Vancouver – Gregor Robertson Organic farmer becomes mayor of huge city. Biggest controversies are an unpaid transit ticket and calling fucking hacks “fucking hacks.” Generally left of centre, Robertson scored points for Olympics, lost points for riots. Edmonton – Stephen Mandel Mandel has established himself as the darling of the not-batshit-insane wing of the Alberta […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Answer the damn question
I hate bullshit. And I hate bullshit even more when it’s coming out of the mouth of a politician in response to my questions. It’s insulting, really: the politician thinks avoiding the gist of a question and simply repeating talking points will serve as an answer. In other words, the politician thinks we’re stupid. Readers […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
How to build a better mayor
In today’s paper, the theme of our annual “Fix the city” issue is “Build a better mayor.” It can be found here.
Posted inFood + Drink
Getting home
Transit Metro Transit deserves major kudos for its New Year’s Eve service, which is completely free after 8:30pm and has extended hours, with some buses running as late as 2:30am. The ferry continues to run every half-hour well past midnight; the last boat leaves Dartmouth at 1:30am, then departs back to Dartmouth from Halifax at […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The Coast takes a week off
The Coast office is closed this week, and there will be no paper Thursday. The website, too, will be mostly idle, unless there’s some big event (tsunami, earthquake, concert) that pulls one or more of us out of holiday. There’s some chance I’ll write a blog post here or there, as well. We’ll all be […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Africville redux
The award of the federal shipbuilding contract to Halifax’s Irving yard was announced at around 5pm on October 19. By 7pm that evening I received the first press release from a local realtor extolling the possibilities for profit from the decision. Over the next few days dozens more rolled in: “Now is the time to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
UARB gives suburban voters more power than urban voters
The Utility and Review Board this morning released its decision about HRM’s new electoral boundaries. The board mostly agreed with city staff’s recommended Scenario 1 — Revised, with these major exceptions: Cole Harbour was completely reformulated to be its own district, rather than split between three adjoining districts. Upper Sackville was broken off as its […]