It’s only July and already summer seems a little hotter, a little muggier, a little longer than usual. There’s a sense of impending doom hanging in the air, as if just around the next corner is a catalogue of cataclysm: disastrous changes in climate, resource depletion and wars, a breakdown in the social order. Americans […]
Tim Bousquet
Posted inNews + Opinion
Provincial authorities refuse to intervene in wilderness debate
Provincial authorities have sent a clear message about their priorities: They’ll intervene in city affairs to frustrate transit improvement, but when it comes to the city approving the bulldozing of 2,000 acres of wilderness, hey, no problem. Last month, premier Darrell Dexter expressed “concerns” with HRM’s plans for the expanded Bridge Terminal, an important link […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
No bridge toll relief for Metro Transit
The Halifax-Dartmouth Bridge Commission wants to increase tolls on the Macdonald and McKay bridges. An application to the Utility and Review Board, which regulates bridge tolls, asks that fares for cars be increased from 75 cents to one dollar, with MacPasses increased from 60 to 80 cents. The higher rates will help pay the $137 […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Birch Cove Lakes-Blue Mountain wilderness threatened by development
A high-powered and high-dollared political battle in City Hall is playing out largely unnoticed by local media. At stake are potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in suburban development and the future of a proposed wilderness park celebrated as an unparallelled urban gem by environmentalists. Over the past few years wilderness advocates have successfully convinced […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Heads in the sand
I’m both surprised and elated at the response to my Twitter live-blogging of the Herring Cove Road bike lane issue, and the comments on the vote tally I posted early today. It’s heartening that so many people are so concerned about bike infrastructure issues. (If you’re not familiar with the issue, see here.) The actual […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Herring Cove Road bike lanes nixed by Halifax council
Halifax council Tuesday voted 13-9 against placing bike lanes on Herring Cove Road in Spryfield. The road is scheduled for a $1.2 million repaving project from Old Sambro Road to Hartlen Avenue, and the present four car lanes are considered excessive for the 18,000 cars a day using them. So the city’s traffic division recommended […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
How councillors voted on Herring Cove bike lanes
Here’s how Halifax councillors voted last night on the Herring Cove Road bike lanes. A “yes”‘ vote was against the bike lanes: Yes: Adams Dalrymple Hum Johns Karsten Kelly Lund McCluskey Rankin Russell Smith Streatch Wile No: Barkhouse Fisher Harvey Hendsbee Nicoll Outhit Sloane Uteck Watts Did not cast vote: Blumenthal Absent: Mosher
Posted inNews + Opinion
Barrington Street poised for major makeover
So much for Barrington Street as urban wasteland: Fully nine properties on the street have applied for funding to help rebuild building facades. And city staff is recommending that Halifax council provide the building owners with $200,000 in grant money and just over a million dollars in tax credits to make the renovations become reality. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Charter duplicity
On November 24, 2008, the Nova Scotia legislature debated Bill 179, which, if passed, would give the Halifax Regional Municipality its own charter, giving HRM powers that other cities and towns in the province don’t have. No longer would the city have to ask the province for permission every time the city needed to undertake […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Darell Dexter approved moving Bridge Terminal onto Dartmouth Common land in 1995
Premier Darrell Dexter says he has problems with HRM’s plans for expanding the Bridge Terminal on Dartmouth Common land, so I wondered what his past stance on the issue has been. I stopped by the municipal archives this morning to find out. Dexter sat on the old city of Dartmouth’s city council from 1994 through […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Firefighter says Halifax Fire Department inventory list is inaccurate
Updated below. The master inventory list at the Halifax Fire Department includes fire gear recorded as being issued to firefighters but which was never received by them, says a formal complaint filed with the city’s auditor general. The missing gear is potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, implies the complaint. The complaint was filed […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Sewage plant misses spring deadline for being fully operational
Yesterday was the first day of summer, which means that the Halifax Water Commission has missed its long-announced target of having the failed Halifax sewage plant up and running and fully operational by spring. All along, Water Commission manager Carl Yates has said he expected to meet the timeline. Commissioning a sewage plant is no […]
