Time to say thanks to convention centre doubters

I’m guessing you won’t find Philip Pacey, Beverly Miller, or the Save the View Coalition on developer Joe Ramia’s Christmas card list this year. But they should be on ours—and perhaps his too. Last week’s city council vote approving a memorandum of agreement between HRM and the province to build the new convention centre was […]

Back to the future in figuring our future

Is it time for another “Encounter on the Urban Environment”? In late February 1970, Nova Scotia’s Voluntary Planning Board invited a dozen disparate international experts—a black community leader, an industrialist, a labour leader, a journalist, an economist, an urban planner, etc.—to come to Halifax for a week-long “experiment utterly new to the western hemisphere.” […]

Peter Kelly's stadium dream our nightmare…

The stadium is dead. Long live the dream. But let’s keep it a dream instead of the reality turning into a taxpayers’ nightmare. A brief history is in order. Peter Kelly, our in-search-of-a-legacy-to-match-his-longevity mayor, has long been eager to have the city to erect an expensive new stadium, most recently—and urgently—in the faint hope we […]

Time to make transit an essential service… no, really

It’s time to make transit an essential service. By that, I don’t—necessarily—mean it’s time to take away bus drivers’ right to strike. What I do mean is that, however the current labour dispute ends, it’s long past time city council made transit a can’t-live-without service. And not just for those who, because they can’t afford […]

Goodbye Peter, hello future

Peter Kelly’s final mayoralty meltdown announcement last week was not triggered by any of the many mis-governance issues that should have long since ended his political career. Ironically, the mayor was ultimately hoist on the petard of his own sloppy-and-perhaps-worse handling of the estate of a friend, a private matter unrelated to his duties as […]

Progress? Who's whining now?

On Wednesday, local radio personality Bobby Mac launched a new Facebook group “for those of us who are tired of those whining people who don’t want any progress in this great city of Halifax.” Its name? SCREW THE VIEW!! By Saturday morning, STV had 163 members. “We are tired of the groups that stop progress […]

The stadium… moving right along

The good news: there are public consultations. The bad news: those consultations are happening late, and only after the central question has already been answered. “Is a stadium a good idea for HRM?” demands the white-letters-on-red-bristolboard-styled poster on the home page of the Stadium Consultation web page. But the actual questions we are now being […]

Remembering the Citadel (hotel)

Last week, SilverBirch Hotels, the Vancouver-based company that owns the Citadel Halifax hotel, announced plans to flatten it. The company intends to replace the venerable downtown landmark with a $60-million, triple-tower, hotel-apartment complex it says will generate “a lot more” street-level activity in the northern downtown while conforming to HRM by Design—and legislation protecting views […]

Stadium? Another $2 million… Oops…

The news it was news to HRM Councilor Steve Streatch is hardly comforting. If Halifax becomes one of the host cities for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup (limited edition/no major games), it turns out we won’t just be on the hook for a $60-million stadium to hold the games. There’ll also be a $2-million […]

Let the (Convention Centre) Summer Games begin

Metro reporter Alex Boutilier’s scoop last week that costs for the new convention centre have increased sent local, provincial and federal politicians scurrying about like ants on a hot summer day, but to less positive result. No one was able—or, more to the point, willing—to confirm what Alex’s source had told him. And no […]