The new Graffiti Management Plan is pathetic for a bunch of reasons. I go into some of those reasons in today’s UpFront column; I’m going to test another one of them right here. I think the city’s stated response times to graffiti complaints, slow as they may be, are still too fast for the city […]
City
Posted inNews + Opinion
Ill communication
Urban planning. Civic engagement. Public consultation. All perfectly good words that, when combined, become very unappealing concepts very quickly—especially in Halifax. At least, that seems to be the problem facing HRMbyDESIGN, a broad planning project that aims to direct growth and development in the city. This week, HRMbyDESIGN will begin its second phase of public […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Blah blah the good old days blah whippersnappers blah blah kids today blah
I’ve always had this problem with buying bitchy electronics that never work exactly as they are supposed to. Though it’s annoying at first, once I’ve got all the quirks figured out it’s kind of cool because my little mass-produced whateverthehell isn’t exactly the same as that guy’s similar mass-produced whateverthehell. So I’ve got this ipod […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Give a goat
Some suggestions of how to spend your Chrismas money this year and years to come. The idea of giving a goat really pleases me:http://www.oxfamunwrapped.ca/
Posted inNews + Opinion
This band deserves a million dollars
Autumn Storm is going to tear you a new one, and you’re going to like it. They are Haligonian high school students, and if you had their chops when you were in high school, you wouldn’t be sitting around twiddling your thumbs right now. Sorry to be so harsh, I am just really taken with […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Dancing vs. Ice Cream
The kids were safe at last night’s giant non-school high school dance – and the teachers at the schools that banned dances are safe, too. They won’t have to worry about being blinded by all that crazy close dancing, and they don’t have to try to stop it. When I was student teacher, I had […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Sign here
Search Halifax on one of several online petition sites operating today and some interesting windows into the state of the city’s soul and its democracy emerge. One asks for signatures to help “Bring Dances Back to Halifax, 2006/07.” Last month, St. Patrick’s High School on Quinpool Road, for example, banned school dances, citing teachers’ stress […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Flattery, Clooney-style
Methinks the folks at Esquire might have a Coast subscription. Don’t you think? All Coast covers designed and lettered by Kate O’Connor between November 2005 and October 2006.
Posted inNews + Opinion
The best excuse ever
Thanks to all the Coasters, writers and readers, for making the mistake of writing my name down. I am humbled, as well I should be. Wanted to get out to the ceremony, but on short notice there was no way for me to get out of a visit from the in-laws. You’ve all been there, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
almost midwifery
Really happy to read that we’re getting closer to midwifery legislation, but I’m afraid that it won’t go far enough, or that there will be some other issue. After all, it’s the mercury retrograde and you’re not supposed to sign major papers during that time. And we’ve been close many times before. I learned a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Loan soldiers
A former street beggar borrows $100 and buys a cow, and she now earns enough to feed her children by selling milk door-to-door. A tenant farmer borrows $500 and buys the land he’s worked for decades; the money he used to pay in rent he now uses to build a house. A peasant borrows $20 […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Violence in the streets
Halifax, we need to talk. Mayor Peter Kelly is hosting a violence summit in the wake of Damon Crooks’s murder, with invitees including representatives from the police, downtown businesses and the tourism industry. Mayor Kelly told me he’s heard from over 300 people since Crooks, a US Navy sailor, was stabbed on Argyle Street early […]
