In the beginning Two weeks. Remember when the pandemic was supposed to last two weeks? Now, it’s been almost two years since we “buckled down,” stocked up on toilet paper and cloth masks, and first locked down due to COVID-19. Now, 22 months after the virus first reared its ugly head in Nova Scotia, we’re […]
City Hall
Posted inNews + Opinion
Original bronze bells are coming back to Halifax City Hall after a silent century
Bells will be ringing again from City Hall this weekend, after roughly 100 years of silence. Two bronze bells are scheduled to be installed tomorrow (Saturday, October 30) in the bell tower on top of Halifax City Hall, and their chimes will be heard for the first time downtown at Grand Parade Square in the […]
Posted inArts + Music
HRM seeks African Nova Scotian artist to design panel about Black Methodist church
The Halifax Regional Municipality is seeking an African Nova Scotian artist to help create an interpretive panel that will reflect on a 19th century Black Methodist church that once stood on Gottingen Street. The chosen artist will create a rendering of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, which opened in 1846 and was demolished around […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax repainting BLM mural without community involvement
Last summer, in the wake of George Floyd’s violent and public murder by a Minneapolis police officer (and the pent-up anger from many, many similar events over the years) Black Lives Matter became a continent-wide movement. Here in Halifax, after rallies held on Spring Garden Road, in front of the police station and elsewhere, city […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Transit updates, parking promises and something that was Yarmouth’s idea first
H alifax Transit gave a third-quarter key indicator report, noting that there’s been just under 10,000 transit passes given out through the department of community services’ pilot project, and over 1,000 of those have been given to children. And Dave Reage, director of Halifax Transit, says they’ve been working towards the goal of having Access-A-Bus […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
New bike lanes coming to Hollis Street
Halifax is finally getting a protected bike lane on Hollis Street. The transportation standing committee is recommending that Halifax Regional Council approve adding 2.8km of bike lanes to multiple streets downtown–the first being Hollis. Cycling commuters will be able to spin freely from the Cogswell Interchange all the way down to where Hollis Street wraps […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council approves 2019-20 budget
City council approved $163 million in capital spending and $793.7 million municipal expenditures in the budget for 2019-2020 this week. The city’s been shaking up the budget process for over five years, and this year’s parking lot of shopping expenses was the latest attempt to make the process more effective. Tuesday’s meeting was more ceremonial […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Soon it’ll be easier to ignore each other on public transit
Council’s work to get more wifi in more places gets a nudge after approving a public transit wifi pilot project, and looking into rejigging the locations of some public wifi locations. The approved pilot project will outfit 20 buses with wifi for 12 months and report back with a plan for wifi hotspots at three […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Parkland in a pinch
Both the municipality and the province have been steadily acquiring additional land to incorporate into parks. The Nova Scotia Nature Trust is working to secure more parkland in the Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area, just outside Halifax. It encompasses a 100-acre waterfront property along Frederick Lake. The Nature Trust was worried the private owner would […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council to vote on spending surplus money to keep tax bill down
O n Friday, council will decide how it’s going to pay for the grocery list of parked expenses approved for next fiscal year. At the last budget meeting, council hacked the list of $7,118,400 parking lot items almost in half, approving $3,704,100 worth of additional department expenses. The parking lot process, which aims to help […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Part of Sir Sanford Fleming Park up for sale
Last week, some HRM staff and members of the public were surprised to learn a section of a long-time public park is not actually owned by the municipality. Sir Sanford Fleming Park, the home of Dingle Tower, was donated to the city by Sir Fleming himself. The park includes a beach and picnic area on […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Street check report delayed until March
The much-anticipated report on Halifax police street checks will have to wait a little while longer. Jeff Overmars, spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, says the report will be released March 27. That’s two months after the public was expecting to see a copy, and over two years since data collected on the […]