[Image-1] About six months after he was elected to Halifax council, the city upgraded a major intersection at University Avenue and Robie Street in Waye Mason’s district. It was, according to Mason, “a beautiful piece of engineering which solved a bunch of problems.” But the reaction on the street was not so pretty. “People flipped […]
Halifax
Bus ticket monopoly is a hassle for retailers and riders
[Image-1] Public retailers want to make money for the city by selling bus tickets, but HRM keeps telling them “no.” Michele Gerard has been trying to stock Halifax Transit tickets at her store for four years now. The owner of Morris Street’s Atlantic News says she calls the city every year, hoping they’ve changed their […]
Forensic lab closure a blow to justice
[Image-1] Halifax’s RCMP forensic lab is closing in March—a move that will either make our clogged justice system more efficient, or delay it further. Forensic labs in Regina and Winnipeg already closed in March 2014, and the Halifax lab will be the final closure of the nationwide consolidation process. Local crime investigators will now ship […]
How to fix the city 2015
Criticism, as Winston Churchill said, may not be agreeable but it is necessary. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. Yet every time some persnickety pundit highlights a civic flaw they’re dismissed as putting the “No” in “Nova Scotia.” It’s ironic, how negatively many folks view negative thinking. Quite juvenile, as well, to […]
What do you think needs to be fixed?
[Image-1] We reached out to public figures, community leaders and business owners to find out how they would fix the city. Some edited responses were printed in this week’s issue, but below are the full replies we received. “More use of our wonderful harbour. We should have extended hours on our downtown ferry, with more […]
Impounded dogs are at the mercy of slow-moving courts
[Image-1] CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Bastarache visited her dog at Wyndenfog. All visits with Chomper took place at Homeward Bound. Wyndenfog was also incorrectly identified as a pound. It is in fact a boarding kennel. The Coast has removed these references and apologizes for the errors. Chomper was seized by […]
Women are half of Halifax, so make some room
[Image-1] I don’t know many Haligonian women who don’t have a story. A story where they define how this city, supposedly so friendly, can turn on them. I know I have a few. Sometimes I ferociously list them off when people talk about how gender violence is a thing of the past. But that’s not […]
The top stories of 2014
[Image-1] JANUARY Halifax Rainmen coach Craig Hodges is denied entry to North Korea after being invited by Dennis Rodman. “Polar vortex” enters our vocabularies. Mike Savage joins Mayors for Peace. Justin Bieber surrenders to Toronto Police on assault charges. FEBRUARY The Ivany Report is released. Canada wins gold in hockey at the Winter Olympics. Saint […]
Present sense: local gift ideas
1 The BFF The rad, and radical, creations of Taylor Made come from the hands of Anna Taylor, who aims to “empower, encourage and softly redefine norms” with her work. She freehand embroiders great things like Not Sorry, Feel No Shame and Fuck This Shit onto hand-dyed fabrics, and you can find her work at […]
Unni Simensen
Founder and former chef, Scanway Catering It was back in 1980 when Unni Simensen opened Scanway Catering. “Everybody called me Mr. Simensen,” she says, laughing. “There weren’t too many women.” Simensen has always been a perfectionist, even when it made things difficult. “I had to get a few things sent from the market in Boston […]
Amber MacLean
Manager and server Morris East, 620 Nine Mile Drive A lot of people say that the secret ingredient to any great recipe is love, but for Jennie Dobbs and her Morris East restaurants, the secret to greatness just might to be Amber MacLean. With a decade of experience as a server under her belt, MacLean […]
Ami Goto
Owner and chef Dharma Sushi, 1476 Argyle Street Ami Goto was hired as a server at Dharma Sushi five days after she arrived from Japan in 1998. It was her first foray into restaurant life and, in the beginning, just a way to pay her bills. Flash forward a few years and her boss, Hideki […]

