Michelle Dolbec has one of those storybook too-good-to-be true stories about why she moved to Nova Scotia. She was living in Ottawa, then got married and took a sailing trip with her husband. “We sailed into St. Margaret’s Bay on our honeymoon, and decided we wanted to stay here,” she told a group of people...
The Cogswell redesign’s transit failure
The newly passed Integrated Mobility Plan calls for a transit priority corridor on Barrington Street, but the Cogswell redesign plan doesn't include it. Why not? Blame planners who design for the status quo.
The Cogswell Lands plans have toured around the city for the past two weeks in an effort to get some public input on the greenspaces that will be part of the plan. (Not where the greenspaces are, mind you, but what might go in them. You can check out the plans and weigh in online...
United Way poverty report: “the system needs to change”
The irony, the report points out, is that most of those who live in poverty are actually employed, but 28 per cent earn well below a living wage. Their poverty — are you listening, Mr. Premier? — costs the province $1.5–2.2-billion a year.
Halifax’s United Way has done it again. Traditionally, the do-good organization has been best known for turning your $5.4 million in yearly giving into a gamut of good grants to an alphabet soup of good-doing local organizations — from the Adsum Association for Women & Children to the Youth Voices of Nova Scotia Society —...
Examineradio 154: Convention centre problems? Halifax, you were warned!
Urban studies prof Heywood Sanders, an expert on convention centres, weighs in on ours. Sanders came to Halifax in November 2010 to warn city councillors against approving the deal for the convention centre: In response to a question of clarification by Councillor Rankin, Dr. Sanders explained that if the base assumption of number of events […]
The largest residential development ever proposed for Saint Margaret’s Bay leaves community struggling to define itself
Bill Brooks stands on the deck of the new St. Margaret’s Bay Community Enterprise Centre and points past two parking lots, a vet clinic and a small strip mall across the road — to the spot where Joe Arab proposes building a 112-unit development. “It’s going to go over there,” he says. “Behind there. I...
Densely calculated density
In return for "public benefits" — affordable housing units, public art, and the like — the city trades "density bonuses" that allow developers to build higher and bigger than planning rules would otherwise allow. But a study shows that on just six big developments downtown, the city lost a potential $8 million in public benefits because it low-balled calculations.
If public meetings to discuss the municipality’s Centre Plan were episodes of Sesame Street, they would be “brought to you by the number 15.” The Centre Plan would chart development for the next 15 years. But that same number keeps getting raised in pointed questions from citizens who want to know why there’s a 15-year...
The new convention centre is already a financial disaster for the city
The city expected to have a $1.8 million deficit on its Halifax Convention Centre account this year, but that figure has nearly doubled — to $3.5 million. And a revised analysis of the account shows that what had been a projected $5.89 million surplus after 10 years is now a $17.78 million deficit. That's a swing of $23.67 million. Worse still, even that forecast relies on rosy assumptions.
The city expected to have a $1.8 million deficit on its Halifax Convention Centre account this year, but that figure has nearly doubled — to $3.5 million. And a revised analysis of the account (above) shows that what had been a projected $5.89 million surplus after 10 years is now a $17.78 million deficit. That’s a […]
Transit passes coming for 16,800 people on income assistance, but for some, this means already paltry incomes will go down
The province and the city are cooperating on a plan that will put transit passes into the hands of 16,800 people with some of the lowest incomes in Halifax. That’s great news. The potential deal includes everyone within range of a bus stop receiving income assistance, including those currently disqualified from the city’s Low Income...
Sam Austin makes case for extended ferry service
Regional council to decide Wednesday on ferry and rural transit funding.
On Wednesday, Halifax council will discuss its “parking lot” budget items — about $2.6 million in additional costs or programs that city staff have not included in department budgets, but that councillors felt should be considered for the 2018-19 budget. Two items on the list will impact the future of the publicly funded transit network,...
The Centre Plan, affordable housing, and the Willow Tree
Affordable housing, anyone? After nearly two years of promising to do something about it, the City’s draft Centre Plan being discussed at a series of public meetings and online could actually deliver some of the 5,000 units promised by 2021. That is, if — and it’s a big IF — HRM regional council approves and...
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