News
1. Stop the Johannesburgization of Halifax’s north end
Yesterday, I should’ve been working on two large research projects, or finishing up a crime story that seems to have been missed by the rest of the media, but instead I walked around the north end taking photos and sitting in Julien’s writing. The result is a photo essay on what I’m calling the Johannesburgization of Halifax — the proliferation of sidewalk walls in new developments.
I probably should’ve included the wall along the St. Lawrence Place apartments on Dutch Village Road, which I noted back in 2014:
I’m ambivalent about the building, but street side wall & parking lot are planning failures. pic.twitter.com/GQReR1B7oH
— Tim Bousquet (@Tim_Bousquet) March 16, 2014
2. Ship of Theseus
“Eight years after the refit was announced, Nova Scotia taxpayers finally know the official cost of rebuilding the Bluenose II: $24 million,” reports Jean Laroche for the CBC:
That’s about $10 million more than the original estimate.
The Nova Scotia government has broken down the $24,289,855 price tag:
• Capital funding for the rebuild: $21,151,565.
• Costs related to a legal settlement with the Lunenburg Shipbuilding Alliance: $2,030,000.
• Hydraulic steering system retrofitted to manage steel rudder: $592,425.
• Replacing steel rudder with wooden one: $515,865.
3. Crime
“All but one province in Canada’s Maritimes saw a drop-off in incidents of police-reported crime in 2016, according to newly released data from Statistics Canada,” reports Alexander Quon for Global:
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island all reported a decrease in department’s Crime Severity Index (CSI), at -2 per cent, -3 per cent and -3 per cent, respectively.
4. Wilderness
“Nova Scotia is stalling on the province’s plan to create protected areas, says a new report,” reports Chris Lambie for Local Xpress:
Four years back, it approved a plan to create more than 200 new protected areas totalling a quarter of a million hectares. About half of them remain unprotected.
5. Pedestrian struck
A police release from yesterday:
On July 22, at 11:55 p.m., police responded to a vehicle/pedestrian collision that occurred in the 400 block of Herring Cove Road. A car travelling outbound on Herring Cove Road struck a man as he was crossing the street. The man was transported to hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.
The 65-year old male pedestrian was issued a summary offence ticket under Section 125(5) of the Motor Vehicle Act for pedestrian crossing roadway outside of crosswalk zone failing to yield to traffic.
6. White pants, pink shirt
I’m not one to talk… I mean, I have like three shirts. But while the focus has been on Justin Trudeau’s Pride Parade socks, what about the rest of the Pride outfit?
Toronto Pride, 2016:
Halifax Pride parade, 2017:
Before the parade, a “slightly sleepy” Trudeau woke up in his hotel room, put on the Pride outfit, and had a Skype interview with The West Wing Weekly podcast:
On the next @WestWingWeekly: we discuss the episode where Donna becomes a Canadian. For help, we turned to…Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau. pic.twitter.com/LkC3HbpFQr
— The West Wing Weekly (@WestWingWeekly) July 22, 2017
To be fair, in the 2016 Vancouver Pride parade, Trudeau switched out the pink shirt for an identically styled teal shirt:
h/t @buote
7. Portuguese man-of-war
“A creature nicknamed the ‘floating terror’ and feared for its painful and potentially deadly sting has been showing up on beaches in Nova Scotia,” reports Anjuli Patil for the CBC:
In the past week, one Portuguese man-of-war has washed up at Crystal Crescent Beach in the Halifax area.
[…]
[Masters Biology student Bethany] Nordstrom, who is working on a study of predator-prey dynamics of leatherback sea turtles and jellyfish in Atlantic Canadian waters, said there have been three confirmed sightings of Portuguese man-of-wars in Nova Scotia this summer.
Although the colourful creatures look harmless, beachgoers should be wary of their sting, which can be deadly for some.
“In rare cases they have been known to be fatal when they’ve stung people but it’s usually because somebody has an allergic reaction or doesn’t react well to the sting,” she said.
8. Pumpkin
“Pumpkin the great white shark has been hanging out in the Minas Basin,” reports Chris Lambie for Local Xpress:
The 300-kilogram shark, which was tagged with a transmitter off Cape Cod last summer, showed up on underwater receivers Saturday near Cheverie, where Kings-Hants MP Scott Brison was planning his annual barbecue that took place Sunday. Data from receivers shows the 2.7-metre-long shark also swam near Bramber, Kempt Shore, Avonport and the mouth of the Avon River.
“She was over visiting Scotty before his big old picnic,” said Darren Porter, a local fisherman who regularly checks the receivers in the area as part of a study being conducted for a tidal power company.
Pumpkin is likely feeding on seals, Porter said.
“There are quite a few seals around that area right now,” he said.
Porter, who fishes from a dory, isn’t particularly worried about Pumpkin’s presence. “I just don’t get in the water. But in my boat I’m fine.”
“In my boat I’m fine”?!?!?!? Porter must have missed this important oceanographic documentary on great white sharks:
Government
City
Tuesday
Halifax & West Community Council (Tuesday, 6pm, City Hall) — mostly the Western Common will be discussed.
Wednesday
Heritage Advisory Committee (Wednesday, 3pm, City Hall) — the committee will consider “substantial alterations” to the historically registered Finntigh Mara on the Northwest Arm and the Cornwallis Baptist Church.
Western Common Advisory Committee (Wednesday, 6:30pm, Prospect Road Community Centre) — here’s the agenda.
Province
No public meetings in July.
On campus
Dalhousie
Tuesday
Computer Science Meets Healthcare: Health Informatics in Saudi Arabia (Tuesday, 11:30am, Room 430, Goldberg Computer Science Building) — Riyad Alshammari, of King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, will speak.
Wednesday
It’s Not Just Beer (Wednesday, 4pm, Room 170, Collaborative Health Education Building) — Katherine Strynatka, PhD candidate in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, will speak on “Using Yeast as a Tool for Drug Discovery.”
In the harbour
People are asking me about the superyacht tied up to the boardwalk. It’s the Sycara V, which is being leased out by the yacht brokerage firm Burgess because it hasn’t been able to sell the thing. It can carry up to 12 passengers. “The interior design has a Fifth Avenue penthouse feel, and flexibility in usage of the yacht was one of the main design goals. Notable features include a gym and private massage room on the sun deck, an elevator and a beach club.” You too can rent it, for only €585,000 a week.
6am: Oceanex Sanderling, ro-ro container, arrives at Pier 41 from St. John’s
6am: Themis, car carrier, arrives at Pier 31 from Southampton, England
6:45am: Sea Princess, cruise ship with up to 2,417 passengers, arrives at Pier 22 from Reykjavik, Iceland
2:30pm: Themis, car carrier, moves from Pier 31 to Autoport
8:30pm: Sea Princess, cruise ship, sails from Pier 22 for New York
Footnotes
I’ve got nothing.
Thanks Tim for not doing an Icarus report on this, the day of my trans-Atlantic flight. You’ve been steadily shitting me up more and more over the past few months. I’m sure it will be fine, thousands of planes fly everywhere every day without things going wrong. It’ll be fine. Just don’t think about it.
Re: protected ares
The real power in Nova Scotia’s government is the shadowy cadre of mandarins who play a never ending game of “yes minister” with whatever government has the Chamber. The bureaucratic culture is solidly linked to resource extraction and exploitation. They have solidly resisted the protection of lands for natural conservation in the belief that the only economic value there is comes from the earth, forest or ocean. The Natural Resources department exists to facilitate not conserve.
I see in the CH that Ryer Lobsters can no longer sell lobsters to the public that are intended to be eaten onsite at the picnic tables Ryer provided. The reason is that it is felt by the Provincial authority that Ryer must have public washrooms, potable water supply and an onsite sewage system. But when one looks at what mobile food purveyors have, there is not much difference… except maybe that most do not provide picnic tables, eh?
Perhaps Ryer should invest and park a van onsite and put the lobster cooking vat inside it… then it would be no different than all the other mobile food trucks out there.
In the mean time, at the height of our tourist season, one of the pleasures afforded to tourists visiting the Peggy’s Cove area and local residents is now halted for an indefinite period. Halted not for reported nor really critical health issues, but for reasons borne in Red Tape.
At the risk of sounding pedantic, I must point out that “Canada’s Maritimes” are by definition, NS, NB and PEI; to include NFLD/Labrador, you need to style it as the Atlantic Provinces. The Global story you link to gets it right (seems you’ve misquoted their headline).
I just cut the quote short. The next line:
“Newfoundland and Labrador was the only province in the region to report an increase of 6 per cent.”
The problem is “Canada’s Maritimes”. Should read “Atlantic Canada.”
The blue ketch at the Maritime Museum wharf is the Mandango 3. While the Sycara V can be chartered at the ungodly price of $850K per week, the Mandango is a steal at a mere 1/4 million per week!