Is the mostly black neighbourhood of Cherry Brook part of the mostly white community of Cole Harbour? The residents of Cherry Brook think so, but City Hall thinks otherwise. In 2007, that disagreement resulting in a Utilities and Review Board ruling in the residents favour, and a council decision Tuesday threatens a repeat UARB hearing in coming months.
At issue is a complex bureaucratic process called the District Boundary Review, a requirement that the city periodically draw the lines of electoral and council districts such that “communities of interest” are collected in the same district, but also such that the districts are roughly—to within 10 percent—of the same size.
The problem is that Cole Habrour’s population has boomed beyond 10 percent larger than the average. So City Hall has again suggested that Cherry Brook be taken away from the district and added to the adjoining East Dartmouth district.
That proposal brought a notable response from Dartmouth councillors Gloria McCluskey and Bill Karsten. “They were in the Cole Harbour district, they were taken out,” said Mcluskey of the Cherry Brook residents. “They went to the UARB, fought the case, spent their money, the UARB put them back in the Cole Harbour district. Now we’ve taken them out again.”
“These folks have fought for two terms, believing they’re part of Cole Harbour,” said Karsten. “I truly do not believe the UARB can support taking [Cherry Brook out of Cole Harbour].”
McCluskey and Karsten clearly put Cole Harbour councillor Lorelei Nicoll on the defensive, and hinted at the deep racial issues at the heart of the discussion. “All the residents in Cole Harbour are a community of interest,” said Nicoll. “To include Cherry Brook, at the expense of lopping off another part of Cole Harbour to bring it into [the 10 percent variation from the average], I really can’t support that because then there’s the community of interest being lopped off again.”
In the end, council approved the plan, including taking Cherry Brook out of Cole Harbour. The matter will go before the UARB in the spring.
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2010.
I like how councillor Nicoll made it sound like every other part of the district of Cole Harbour, with the exception of Cherry Brook, is something that can be considered to be “inherently” part of “Cole Harbour”.
Has she even looked at the map of her district? It’s got a mish-mash of neighbourhoods in there that never used to be considered to be Cole Harbour, and 40 or more years ago most of them were trees anyway. It’s pretty rich for her to describe all of them – with the exception of Cherry Brook – as somehow being innately “Cole Harbour”. My ass.
No racial issues here, unless you regard one group of black people not wanting to be lumped in with another group of black people as ‘racial’.
The black people from Cherry Brook have been very outspoken in their wish to remain in the Westphal-Cole Harbour district, the same district they were in prior to amalgamation.
As one gentleman pointed out last time or the time before, they have nothing in common with the Prestons and for many years they had raised money for and been part of the Westphal volunteer fire department and other community activities in the Westphal area.
Before jumping to a race based conclusion it is better to talk with the people who wish to stay within their traditional community of interest.
Ms Nicoll understands the issue as did her 2 predecessors Harry McInroy and Ron Cooper.
She quite rightly does not believe people in Cole Harbour should be cast out of their community of interest to satisfy the +/-!0% population figure.
Unless Ms Nicoll made other race based comments I suggest you withdraw the insinuation.