Next year’s municipal elections mean Halifax is getting a new city council, and possibly a new mayor. What do you think that council/mayor needs to do to improve Halifax? Is the city perfect as it is, so your advice is for council to do change as little as possible? Or are there things that need […]
Tim Bousquet
Posted inNews + Opinion
Occupy Nova Scotia schedules events
Occupy Nova Scotia hasn’t gone away. The group has two events planned for this weekend. First is rally for the group itself, Saturday, 3pm at Grand Parade. Second is a rally Sunday, at 1pm, at Cornwallis Baptist Church, where the group and non-profits in the area will by rallying against the city’s decision to give […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
City solar water heating program takes next step
Halifax is one step closer to implementing a city program to bring solar water heating systems to hundreds of houses annually in the HRM. The plan calls for the city to finance and oversee the technical installations of the systems, so as to not burden homeowners with those complexities. The homeowners would then pay for […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Hydrostone exempted from north end business district
In the 1970s, residents and businesses around the northern stretches of what was then Gottingen Street petitioned the city to change the name of the street to Novalea Drive. The change was made to disassociate the Hydrostone area from the black business district and social housing project on the more southerly reaches of Gottingen Street, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Babylady returns, only to be re-catnapped
Babylady was on Gottingen Street this morning, attempting to get into Alteregos Coffee Shop (2193 Gottingen Street, 431-3170). But, his stay in his old haunts was short-lived, as people on the street are saying he has already returned to Dartmouth. The backstory: Babylady is a cat. Eighteen pounds worth of a cat, and male. He […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Mayor Peter Kelly touted incorrect Rolling Stones attendance figures
Just 39,875 people attended the 2006 Rolling Stones concert on the Halifax Common, far fewer than the “near 50,000 people” figure Halifax mayor Peter Kelly used to gain support for more Common concerts. The Rolling Stones attendance figure was revealed in a 2007 letter from Barb Stegemann, then the communications manager at Trade Centre Limited, […]
Posted inLifestyle
A world of pain
[iamge-1] When The Coast started planning this year’s Give Guide, we got a bit of feedback about its deliberately local focus. “What about international charities?” more than a few people asked, pointing out that a little change goes a long way in the developing world and that poverty in Canada, while bad, doesn’t have the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
How Halifax city hall screws up: secrecy, lack of clear processes and the pathetic search for civic validation
At its Tuesday meeting, Halifax council tackled a couple of high-profile issues—naming rights to The Oval and the quest for a new stadium. I was there as usual, but my recent investigation of the city’s concert scandal, published Monday night, was still weighing on my thoughts, so I was viewing the proceedings through that lens. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
How Halifax’s concert scandal played out
Last spring, Halifax’s now-infamous “concert scandal” broke when city staffer Cathie O’Toole revealed that mayor Peter Kelly and the city’s deputy CAO, Wayne Anstey, had improperly extended millions of dollars in loans to concert promoter Harold MacKay’s firm, Power Promotional Events, and that the last two of those loans, totalling $400,000, were not repaid. Anstey […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Peter Kelly ‘s laughable claim that he wants less secrecy
Peter Kelly’s press release yesterday, which called for an “overhaul” of the way city council meets in secret, was met with a round of laughter, disbelief and ridicule. “You know,” said Chronicle-Herald editor Dan Leger on Twitter, “I’ve been in this business almost 35 years, and that might be the strangest, most surreal [news release] […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Peter Kelly says– get this!– he wants less secrecy
Peter Kelly just issued the following press release: Mayor wants overhaul of in-camera (November 29, 2011) Halifax – Mayor Peter Kelly today called on Council and HRM staff to change the way business is conducted so that in-camera meetings become the exception, rather than the rule. “As elected officials, we are responsible to residents and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax paid for Shrek’s appearance at Christmas tree lighting
I just received the city’s budget for last weekend’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony. It is: Expenses Promotions: 12,800 Production: 4,750 Security: 2,760 Transportation: 520 Entertainment: 19,100 Elecricat, Streets & Roads, City staff: 1,650 Tents, stage heater, fencing: 1,770 Tree install, trimming, removal: 3,500 Fireworks: 3,150 Total: $50,000 Revenue HRM: 30,000 Corporate Sponsors: 20,000 Total: $50,000 […]