Start the decline
Ron Scott is correct, but does not go sufficiently far ("Ocean notion," Reply All, March 2). This may be simplistic but greenhouse gasses (mostly carbon dioxide) started to exceed the ability of global systems to absorb it shortly after WWII.
Therefore in order to reverse that situation, we must reduce current human activity to a level prior to this era. —G. Boyce, Dartmouth
The heights
You might not know it, but HRM council is one step closer to approving a mega-lithic money-maker tower for APL (George Armoyen) next to the Central and North Common at Robie and Quinpool.
This is disappointing because it's against what 99 percent of citizens who spoke at public meetings or who wrote to the mayor, staff and community council members wanted. The likely date for the next move, an amendment approval, is March 21's council meeting.
To help you grasp how out of scale 20 storeys would be: It's twice as high as what is currently at the corner and five storeys higher than what is presently permitted. It's two floors taller than the convention centre.
Besides being bad for the neighbourhood and bad for the Common, approval will give the developer millions of dollars in bonus profit with extra floors and luxury views to rent and sell.
It also sets a bad precedent for the other developers chomping at the heels of staff and council to get break rules and get the go ahead with their proposed projects for 12-, 13-, 14-, 16-, 20-, 25-, 26- and 30-storeys on or next to the Halifax Common.
So if you care about protecting green space, stopping shadows on the Oval and preventing wicked winds there and everywhere else in the neighbourhood please write to the mayor and council and tell them not to approve either 20 or 29 storeys at the Willow Tree.
Tell them we want a livable city, not shady deals! Voice your opinion by emailing [email protected]. —Peggy Cameron, Halifax
Data about data
I'm just writing in response to a piece written by Alexander Quon, "Atlantic Canada's Islamophobia" (The City, March 2). It's an interesting piece, and as someone with one of the groups that worked to make sure that the submissions to the National Security consultation were released publicly, I'm glad to see Mr. Quon using the data to produce articles.
I just wanted to flag something for clarification, though. The data released so far is only the first of two data sets, containing responses from September 8 to November 4, 2016.
The government has yet to release the responses sent in between November 5 and December 15 (the end of the consultation). The government has said that there were some 59,000 responses total, and this first dataset contains only 12,166 responses (2,425 via the online form and 9,741 by email). Meaning we still haven't seen the vast majority of responses.
I don't think this means Mr. Quon shouldn't have analyzed the data already released, but especially given the small sample size of this first release of data, readers may be interested to know that there's a lot more on the way.
Thanks again to The Coast for covering this, and I look forward to your future coverage as more responses are released—and when the government shares its analysis, whatever form that may take (report, press release or legislation). —Tim
Corrections
Due to an error made during editing, last week's article "What the fuck does Jesse Brown know?" by Parker Donham misstated King's journalism instructor Terra Tailleur's first name as "Tara."
Also from last week, the "Street checks and balances" cover story by Jacob Boon incorrectly said quarterly surveys by Halifax police will be conducted by CRA at an annual cost of $17,000. As pointed out by HRP, all details about the surveys have yet to be finalized and a contract has not been awarded.
The Coast offers its sincere regrets for these errors.