To the editor,
I want to add my concerns over the recent appropriation of the Commons on both the Dartmouth and Halifax sides of the harbour.
I applaud the recent actions of Dartmouth High students and other community members for defending the Dartmouth Commons, which are again facing piecemeal diminishment.
In Halifax, the KISS and McCartney concerts are so recent that the damage to the Halifax Common is yet to be determined. Let us hope the damage is reparable, if not immediately, then in less than a year. I took a look Sunday morning, post-KISS, and there appears to be a great deal of so-called remediation to do. (Remediation is corporate/state doublespeak for significant environmental damage that they say they are aware of and willing to discuss repairing.)
Now is the test of the commitment of the promoters and supporters of these events to the local environment, the Commons and the obvious next steps. Few community activists I know are confident that the Commons will be quickly returned to full public access. There appear to be several large sections of grass that have gone missing---understandable given the amount of heavy equipment.
There are other appropriate sites for concerts of this type, like the underutilized Exhibition Park. Most cities have such a place and they actually use them for concerts. Organizationally, Metro Transit's shuttle buses would probably find it easier to go there than to the central Commons.
If the local movers and shakers decide to continue using the Commons as an entertainment venue then they should at least have the guts to change the name---it's no longer a Commons. —Paul Shreenan, Green Party of Canada, Dartmouth Cole-Harbour
