Keep the oval. That message is coming through loud and clear from the 1,000-plus (some days over 2,000) people skating on the Common skating oval.
The original plan was for the oval to be open to the public before and after the Canada Games in February, but then dismantled in March. There are six refrigeration units powering the oval—the city bought three, the Canada Games organization the other three. After the Games, one of the city’s units would be used to replace aging equipment in the Spryfield Arena, and the other two would be used as outside pads—either singularly or together in a location to be determined.
But the tremendous public response to the oval has caught everyone off guard, and we should respond to that response by making the oval a permanent fixture, right where it is.
Sure, it’ll cost money, but a lot less than we thought. Rather than a projected cost of $1.2 million, the city’s three reefers cost just $300,000—$900,000 underbudget—-more than enough to buy the other three units and a seventh for Spryfield.
Operating and maintaining the oval is pegged at $110,000 per season, and something like 150,000 person-days will be spent at the oval this winter—less than $1 per visit. Compare that to one-day megaconcert events that brought maybe 10,000 people to the Common, costing the city $100,000 per concert, plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in hidden provincial costs ($600,000 for Paul McCartney) plus the disruption of the Common for weeks at a time—all for the private profit of one promoter who closed down shop owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to local businesses.
And the intangible benefits of the oval are immense: the health benefits alone probably pay for themselves; people are happily, excitedly coming downtown for fun; winter has suddenly lost some the perpetual gloom that hangs over this town; and the Common has been reclaimed at night—it is now a safe destination as hundreds of people become the eyes and ears of shared community.
Yes, there are other costs. We’ll lose one ball field; but why should the Common be the exclusive domain of a single sport? And the worry that skating is only a winter sport can be set aside—we think nothing of employing summertime lifeguards for our lakes and beaches, but more to the point, asphalt can be placed under the oval so that when it’s too warm to make ice, it can be an in-line skating destination.
There are also environmental costs—those refrigeration units use a lot of power. But a city that is willing to pony up $6 million a year for a convention centre catering to GHG-spewing jet-setting businessmen from afar is in no position to begrudge a relatively puny carbon footprint to its own citizens hoping to have some fun.
The bureaucratic momentum is for the refrigeration units to be divided up, but we need to stress: a smaller outdoor pad is not equivalent to the long-track oval now in place. The long track is appealing in ways that a pad is not: older and inexperienced skaters are finding the less-cluttered long track safer, and it’s more family-friendly than a small pad would be; there’s a particular joy in the long skate, like that found on the Rideau Canal; and with only four other permanent long-track rinks in Canada, Halifax could become a centre for speed skating. (Full disclosure: I have a family member who is a speed skater.)
The success of the oval is that it is almost completely unprogrammed; besides a few hours set aside for speed skating and schools, it’s a come-one, come-all destination. There are no entry fees or group association requirements; no politicians grandstanding. It is truly people power that has made the oval such a wonderful delight.
And it will be people power that saves it. Left to its own devices, the city will probably continue with plans to dismantle the oval in March. The only way that won’t happen is if hundreds and hundreds of regular people barrage their city councillors and respectfully insist that they move to keep the oval. Find a full list of councillors and their phone numbers at thecoast.ca/councillors, and make those calls today.
This article appears in Jan 6-12, 2011.
Well articulated. I support keeping the oval as a place for outdoor activity, and also for what it adds to our city. There is a positive energy on that track that is remarkable. It will be a major coup for Halifax if we can convince city officials to keep it open.
In theory I support the oval as it is great exercise for our community and brings neighbours together. As far as keeping it permanently, I think we should reserve decision on that until maybe the middle to end of January.
Quoted numbers of 1000-2000 per day are easily achieved over a 2 week period at Christmas time when no kids are in school and the entire population is basically off work. Waiting until we have a stretch when we are all back to work and in school before making a decision on the oval makes more sense to me. Will people still want to make their way there on a cold winter evening after working all day? maybe.
I am hoping we will have a surface of some type but one that is based on a decision arrived at with realistic data.
Great article, Tim. That something like this is available in our city is fantastic. We’ve set up a petition to let the city know how many people are behind the oval.
http://savetheoval.ca
I haven’t had the chance to get on the oval yet – but from the overwhelming response, I can see it being something I support. I can’t wait to have the chance to skate on it, and I think it’s a great way to get families and individuals outside and exercising. The potential impact on the health of our city outweighs the other costs, in my opinion. I can’t think of a better way to use the commons.
I live on Cornwallis St and I’ve watched the whole process with trepidation, knowing the construction to revert the ground to ball-diamond/concert facility was going to be even more horrible than watching the oval get built. I was out of province when the oval opened, and I am still waiting to get back to have my chance to skate on it, but having gotten skates for Christmas I am pretty excited…
I’d like to see an outdoor, foot-traffic accessible ice pad remain in the downtown Halifax area… I just don’t think it should come at the expense of 1/4 of the available green space on the Commons UNLESS it is a multi-purpose space, i.e. a dog park in summer or something like that.
Based on the quality of ice at a sea-level oval that receives a great deal of rainfall, I doubt that this will serve in future as a facility for speed skaters. That said, I am a huge fan of the oval, or at least of some sort of smaller public rink on the common, becoming a permanent fixture of our winter landscape. All of our neighbors with kids have been to the oval multiple times since it opened, and, if something like this still exists next winter, I will take my daughter there as well (she is only 11 months old right now). Having grown up out west (the cold, flat part, not Vancouver or Vancouver Island) where outdoor rinks are found in many neighborhoods, I can say that such a facility would be a benefit to the entire community’s physical and mental health. In the land of ice hockey and the home of Sydney Crosby, if you build it, they will come. This would be public money well spent.
What needs to be LOST is pretentious art-directors at the Coast who insist on using black-and-white photographs!
As it appears that climate-change is destroying the Nova Scotian winter, the Oval may be our only chance to skate outdoors any more. I hope we keep it, despite the obvious cost. Don’t forget to factor in lower health care costs from getting Haligonians off our lazy backsides!
I still miss skating on lakes though. I hope we get a serious freeze-up soon!
Wow Tim, you really hit the nail on the head. The Oval is a BLAST. Spoke to a guy who was on skates for the first time in 25 years, and he was grinning from ear to ear. No worries about checking ice thickness reports; no issues with ice-hardened snow on ice surface; easily accessible by bus; gets us off our soft butts!
And finally, SO good to see the Commons used for something other than summer sports.
Tim, you were SO close to writing a happy, positive article without any backhanded slaps at the Commons concerts. If the oval is a good idea, it’s a good idea (which it is). It doesn’t have to be a good idea compared to something you dislike.
Nice to see petitions and editorials in support of something though!
Just make sure HRM keeps it FREE.
We have skated on the Oval 5 times including taking 2 grandchildren for their first skate ever – it is a great experience and a great addition to Halifax. Thanks for the editorial and thanks to the people who’ve set up a petition- http://savetheoval.ca/sign-the-petition/. It will be important to keep it free and to make it useable for activities other times of the year. A running track and in line skating track are good possibilities, volleyball and others may work as well.
Brian Gifford
I think it’s an excellent, brilliant idea to keep this oval, and I don’t even live IN Halifax! I could see it as being a real tourist attraction, too, especially with some creative utilization in non-winter months. What that would be, I leave to minds like yours, but cheering you on from afar…
i just wish they’d listened years ago and put the rink downtown (where local business could benefit from the added foot traffic) in parade square, where it would be as much fun to sit and watch as it would be to skate. the commons doesn’t have sufficient parking facilities for hundreds of cars, and everything other creature comfort has to be custom built or trucked in. great idea. bad spot.
i like outdoor skating as much as the next citizen, and i love that it’s been as successful as it has been. however, i worry about the commons. when we allow them to start putting fences around everything and continuously shrinking the common green space of halifax (especially land that is supposed to remain untouched), we’ll wake up one day to find it all gone. is that what we really want? i’d rather see the mayor have to park a few blocks from city hall than lose a quarter of the commons to fences. i’d rather see coffee shops downtown filled with people carrying skates than a temporary shack built on the commons that only keeps the staff warm. i’d rather see public money spent to draw people someplace where their presence is needed and welcomed, as opposed to someplace where even more public money needs to be spent to accommodate them should it be successful beyond expectations.
Where’s all the griping about it disrupting the Commons space?
I was at the public meeting when this was announced. There were reasonable concerns about taking up such a large amount of Commons space, but everyone was assured that it was temporary, so nobody made a big deal out of it. Of course, now that it has happened, it’s pretty popular, which is great, so now they are talking about keeping it. But where is due process? Is this really the best place? What are the factors? Sure, I really like that there’s lots of people on the Commons in winter, but I don’t like the fact that they are blaring crappy commercial radio at everybody who visits the Commons just to get outside. THAT is something that I will vigourously fight; the corporatization of the sound of the Commons on the Public dime is just so insidious because most people will say it is no big deal to listen to music. Meanwhile all the kids are getting brainwashed into listening to crap music and stupid ads without any choice in the matter at all because it’s so friggin’ loud.
So I am ok with the oval as long as we can stop being captive to the commercial radio.
I feel that no matter if it stays or goes, it is yet another example of how Kelly and his crew don’t actually know how to plan anything and just pick the low hanging fruit, regardless of the worms.
WHAT …Political types having a Knee Jerk Reaction to something they’ve done which is popular ! But was NEVER thought out in the first place
This has never happened before .. L O L O L O L O L O L O L O L O L
sorry could contain myself !
Like several other posters, I think the oval is a great idea – in theory. There’s no doubt that providing a facility that allows for outdoor winter recreation is a great idea. However, I’m a little skeptical of the projected numbers. All of these estimates are based on a very small time frame, during which a good many people have been on holiday, and we’ve enjoyed fairly consistent weather. How much use will the oval get once everyone is back to work/school? What are the costs/maintenance issues related to the large amount of rainy/slushy weather we tend to see here in Halifax? And while I’m on the topic of weather, has anyone else noticed that when they built the oval, they created a nice sunken area for it to sit in? If you’re at all familiar with how soggy the Common gets, it’s not hard to imagine that area becoming a giant muck hole the other 3 seasons, so how will that be addressed?
Which brings me to my next point: what happens to that space the other 3 seasons? I’m frankly a little aghast that Tim is so quick to suggest asphalt as a solution. Considering the Common is the only green space of considerable size in the downtown area, do we really want to cover a quarter of it with asphalt?? And do the fences remain too? Because as someone who lives two blocks from the Common and walks through it multiple times daily, I’m already finding the whole thing rather obtrusive. And don’t even get me started on the blaring commercial radio that now echoes through the neighbourhood.
I think the idea of a central public skating area is wonderful, but I don’t like that this issue has already become a sort of “you’re either with us or against us” situation. Before we go rushing in and appropriating shared green space, it would be nice to know all the facts and weigh the concerns, because the Common is supposed to belong to all of us.
The current costs to operate the oval are not HRM taxpayer costs. They are Canada Games costs. This article is missing the costs of electricity to run the facility. This is hardly a cost that can be dismissed since it will vary with the weather and how long the oval is operated and how often it is used.
There also seems to be an expectation that there should be no costs to skate the oval and no costs to rent skates. The oval MUST be operated on a break-even cost structure. I don’t see the need to drive this city further into fiscal trouble by providing a taxpayer funded rideau canal wannabe.
Also we are losing two ball fields and a field hockey pitch, not just one ball field. Plus all of the associated green space in between. For a permanent oval, we are trading common space which can’t be used for its intended purpose in the summer. And it is yet another structure to be added to the commons, which is continually being eaten away by new structures. Wether it is equipment sheds for concert electrical equipment, an expanded hospital or new high schools. I am dismayed that the commons green space continually seems to be treated as a vacant lot that is the first target to expand onto instead of the historic green space that should be preserved within an growing urban city.
We need neither concerts on the commons nor a canada games oval. The city is facing a $14 million funding gap already (see: See: http://www.halifax.ca/mediaroom/pressrelea…).
The HRM taxpayer need less spending, not more. This is purely a novelty right now and an expensive one that we cannot afford. If the public wants a permanent outdoor skating rink it needs to be built for that in the proper location within the city and operated so that it doesn’t cost HRM money we do not have. It is a poor idea in its current form.
Joe Williams said “we are losing two ball fields and a field hockey pitch, not just one ball field. … For a permanent oval, we are trading common space which can’t be used for its intended purpose in the summer.”
I’m pretty sure when the original 95 hectares was set aside in 1763 , no one had baseball or field hockey in mind. There didn’t exist a skateboard park, a wading pool, a playground, paved roads running through it or anything else that came before them which are of interest to only a select few respectively.
Costs aside, a skaing oval is just one other thing. There are baseball diaminds all over the city. There are additional parks which I argue are far more appealing than the common.
The Oval is a hit with so many people actively using the Oval. I would like my tax money going to this rather than the convention centre. There’s not a lot of recreational opportunities in the winter in the HRM compared to other cities – so let’s hope Mayor Kelly and council start to provide more. They say we are fat – so give us more recreation. If you build it, we will come.
It’s not a matter of just “keeping” the oval. This is a temporary facility constructed on a temporary sand substrate. It’s like a cardboard box fort that a kid builds in his backyard. It won’t last. It needs to be rebuilt properly. Too bad it wasn’t built properly the first time.
Out here in Enfeild ,there is a small rink that is out doors, is flooded & when freezing temperatures hit, you see people using it. if the ice is too thin, all that happens if you fall through , is your feet get wet.
Why not put something along the same lines in town. Flood it when we get freezing temperatures you have cheap ice…do you all really believe 6 -8000 people will be showing up to skate there….if there’s a 5 or 10 dollar fee ?
If you do, I’ve got some sweet swamp land for sale, its only a bit damp !
I am a big proponent of keeping the commons as common, not commercial space, and am fully behind the skating oval.
My problem with it is that it was not designed to be a permanent structure both in terms of location (i.e. can it be oriented in a different way to reduce its impact on other recreation space? Can it be built somewhere on the commons that will make it easier to establish semi-permanent support facilities? If it is going to have a separate summer/spring/fall use then is its current location ideal for that use too?) and in terms of being a permanent recreational facility designed to be used by the general public from December to February (or whenever). As other commentors have pointed out, its built on top of an inadaquate foundation for long term use.
This whole story just points out what bums me out so much about Halifax: since no one planned ahead the city managed to stumble onto something great, but now making it permanent is either going to be difficult or overly expensive due to the lack of planning.
Let’s keep the oval, but let’s spend some money up front to do it right rather than deal with the term costs of doing it wrong.
Man, I can’t wait to travel to Halifax (a 2-day journey) to skate at the Oval. Keep it, guys! Bringing the community together in the winter to skate for free is much more in keeping with the idea of the Common than a practice place for baseball teams.
I am a transplanted Haligonian currently working outside the province. I was home over the holidays and fell in love with the oval and the collective experience it bought about. It was winter in slushy Halifax! But we, the people, were skating on the commons. I don’t mean to oversell it but it was pretty great. That is, after all, what the commons ought to be for. For everyone. And I have to say, my experience skating over the holidays was part in parcel of my decision to get the heck of dodge and come back home. That said, I heard the almost instant clamourings to keep the oval and had mixed feelings. I worried about the environmental costs; whether our city councillors would be able to manage a permenant fixture in an economically efficient way; and, finally, whether this was all maybe just a bit of a, admittedly beautiful, fad? The author of this editorial, however, presents persuasive arguments in favour of keeping the oval. So ah heck – why be a wet blanket? Yes to the oval!
the Oval would not be 900,000 under budget if it was not in the budget in the first dang place….there are several positives to the Oval but lets have the intelligent long term discussion now and take it to referendum/ consultation in communities- I mean a real one.