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
This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2009.
Grammar Paul me son! It is The ‘Common’. No ‘s’ is needed. The Common land has been shortened to simply “The Common”. One can argue that The City of Halifax has so chopped up the original Common that we have a number of pieces of the Common to be found from Cunard Street south to beyond the Children’s hospital. And it is ‘The Friends of the Common’ that asks you to join them in defending these pieces of the Common.
A good letter – grammar be damned!
Alan Ruffman
dear Alan
all halicentral folks call it the Commons…not the Common…grammer is one thing, calling it what it is called is another…
I agree with Paul on this one. These open air concerts are becoming more popular all the time. I think that a natural ampitheatre should be constructed, where they could have some permanent things in place such as fences to direct traffic and towers to mount sound equipment, etc… Also parking in downtown halifax for these types of events is an absolute nightmare. I think a good spot would be near the new Dartmouth Crossing area. There is a lot of land to construct this facility and a parking facility to go with it. The area has many exits and entrances and their are a few divided highways to come-and-go easily. Technically this facility would be in Dartmouth and not Halifax, but there is not really any other land in and around halifax to have these events, therefore the outskirts are becoming the only answer. And really it is not very far from Halifax.