Patience is a virtue—just ask any Halifax skater, biker or blader who’s been waiting for the new skatepark being constructed on the Halifax Common. After what must have been a tantalizing summer of watching the park gradually take shape, the $500,000 project is finally near completion.
“I’d say by the middle of October, people will be riding it,” says Halifax Skatepark Coalition member (and devoted skate-mom) Jacquie Thillaye.
The build has taken a bit longer than expected, say Thillaye—but for what she hopes are the right reasons.
“We’ve had a guy on-site from , the skatepark design company in Vancouver, that we brought on almost two months ago,” she says. “ doing a great job and they’re hard working guys, but they’ve never done this kind of a build before.”
Making the park meet specific skatepark design standards has taken a bit more time, and demanded a close attention to detail. As a result, although the park may well be rideable before the winter, the official grand opening ceremony has been pushed back from October 14 until next spring.
“We decided that we didn’t want those guys rushing for an event deadline—we’d rather them taking their time and making sure they’re being done like it should be,” says Thillaye. “But, we’ll do a big blast sendoff in the spring. The good side about pushing it back is that we’ll have even more time to plan it. We’ll have pro riders come out, music, the mayor and councillors—we’ll do it properly.”
Signs of the times
If you live in Halifax and you happen to own a car, or have a friend who owns a car, or have a parent or sibling who owns a car, one of these two scenarios probably applies to you: either no one in your immediate car-owning company has recently received a parking ticket for a timed violation, and you’re therefore unaware that the fine for such an infraction has recently jumped from $15 to $50, or, someone you know has recently received a $50 dollar parking ticket…and they’re pissed.
Councillor Sue Uteck says she has received dozens of angry phone calls for her constituents asking for the rational behind the increase—an answer that, for the moment, Uteck doesn’t have.
“This is a provincial regulation that we’re forced to comply with, but we weren’t involved in this decision—we’re just responding to it,” she says.
“It’s ridiculous. That’s a huge increase. It’s bad for students, it discouraging for people who might want to park downtown, visitors…and we still haven’t heard the reasoning behind it.”
Jerry Blackwood is a manager of revenue for the city. He’s been communicating with the province about the increase, and working towards a solution that would potentially lower the $50 fine.
“The new legislation generally applies to obeying a street sign, and so we’re trying to do is get a separate regulation set up for a timed parking lot,” he says. “Having said that, we can’t charge a reduced fine right now. We have to charge the minimum fine set by the Motor Vehicle Act.”
Blackwood also points out that there is a timed parking problem to be dealt with in Halifax—the city writes roughly 325 tickets for timed parking violations per week.
In the meantime, Blackwood recommends that any comments or questions about the fine be directed to Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Affairs.
Comments of questions? Email: mikef@thecoast.ca
This article appears in Sep 21-27, 2006.