Archives /// February, 2012
October 1st, 2009
Spacing Atlantic coming soon
By Spacing Atlantic // 2 Comments
Spacing magazine is happy to announce the launch of Spacing Atlantic, a new blog about the urban landscape in Halifax and other east coast cities. Spacing Atlantic is the third city-specific blog added to Spacing's lineup joining Spacing Toronto and Spacing Montreal.
photo by Steve Minor
October 5th, 2009
Welcome to Spacing Atlantic!
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
Welcome to Spacing Atlantic, a blog dedicated to engaging with the urban environments of Canada's Atlantic provinces. From St. John's to Charlottetown, Miramichi to Halifax, Fredericton to Sydney and Truro to Saint John, our eclectic group of contributors will connect you to the issues and urban spaces we care deeply about while providing a forum for discussion and debate.
Like our sister blogs in Toronto and Montreal, Spacing Atlantic will look at the state of public spaces, transit, cycling, city hall, community development, urban design, green spaces, infrastructure, public art and countless ...
Monday’s headlines
By Jake Schabas // 1 Comment
Each morning, Spacing will scan the local newspapers and media for relevant articles of interest to our readers. Put on the coffee, fix yourself a bowl of cereal and settle down to an already-gathered collection of current news stories from around the Atlantic provinces.
CITY HALL
• HRM - Zoning out on Quinpool [ The Coast ]
• ST. JOHN'S - The perfect candidate [ The Telegram ]
• HRM - Fisher wins East Dartmouth [ The Coast ]
• TRURO - Vote will delay news on federal funds for civic centre [ Truro Daily News ]
• HRM - Catfights ...
October 6th, 2009
Pocket plants in Halifax
By Jake Schabas // 2 Comments
HALIFAX - Pocket plants seem to be taking Canadian cities by storm. When I first blogged about (poster) pocket plants in Toronto, rumour had it that something similar had also been spotted in Halifax. Well, the rumours are true: they can be found on North Street just west of Windsor.
While they might not be quite as attention-grabbing as their Toronto counterparts, these wire-meshed pocket plants seem far more likely to attain some longevity by making it through the winter. Each pocket holds far more soil and a hardier plant seems to be growing ...
October 7th, 2009
Google street view comes to HRM
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
HRM - Today Google street view went live for cities all over Canada, including for all of the Halifax Regional Municipality and beyond. Coverage includes all of the peninsula, Dartmouth, Cole Harbour, Eastern Passage, Bedford, Lower Sackville, Spryfield, Brookside, Greenwood Heights, Yankeetown, and the list goes on.
Surprisingly, those enterprising folks from Google made it all the way down to Peggy's Cove and as far west as Chester. Going east you see Lawrencetown, Musquodoboit Harbour, and if you turn onto Highway 357, you will eventually go as far as Old Guysborough ...
October 8th, 2009
Dal Bike Centre coasts onto campus
By Emma Feltes // 1 Comment
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Peter Rogers fixing up a bicycle at the new bike centre in the Studley gym, 6185 South St"][/caption]
HALIFAX - Earlier this afternoon I had the gleeful experience of coasting smoothly onto campus and straight into a crowd of fellow bicycle geeks. It was the launch of the Dal Bike Centre, a new initiative co-coordinated by Clean Nova Scotia, the Office of Sustainability, and the Department of Athletics and Recreational Services. Located in a former office in the Studley campus gym, folks are invited to drop in and ...
October 9th, 2009
Friday’s headlines
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
Each morning, Spacing will scan the local newspapers and media for relevant articles of interest to our readers. Put on the coffee, fix yourself a bowl of cereal and settle down to an already-gathered collection of current news stories from around the Atlantic provinces.
CITY HALL
• TRURO - Truro town council briefs [ Truro Daily News ]
• HRM - HRM smoking ban should be broader [ Chronicle-Herald ]
• FREDERICTON - Councillors want recyclables pickup extended to those in apartment buildings [ Daily Gleaner ]
• MIRAMICHI - City will re-tender insurance [ Leader ]
• HRM - Smoking ...
The future of the Dartmouth Common
By Jake Schabas // 1 Comment
DARTMOUTH - On Monday night, HRM held a public meeting with community members over the master plan to transform the Dartmouth Common [PDF] into a "gateway" to Dartmouth. While the mission statements and overarching goals pointed towards creating places where "we will experience both the commonplace and the ordinary," the real controversy was over the placement of the new Bus Terminal, currently in the parking lot to the north of the Sportsplex.
Before raising the ire of the many people who attended the meeting and passionately argued over the many places where the new Bus Terminal should go by putting in my own two cents, there's plenty of other content in the Master Plan to go over whose benefits should be seen as self-evident.
First, there were four plans put forward, the major difference between them being that in the first two plans, the bus terminal runs alongside Nantucket Ave. and in the third and fourth plans, the terminal has been rotated 90 degrees and connects Nantucket to Thistle St. All four master plan options call for the elimination of the majority of the Urban Wilderness part of the Common.
Ignoring master plan option one (p.9 of plan), which is practically identical to option two (p.10) except that it proposes replacing almost all green space north of Thistle (aside from Mt. Herman Cemetery) with an ocean of surface parking, the only radical change proposed would be to put a regulation-sized soccer field where the baseball diamond currently is on the southern side of Thistle.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Dartmouth Common Master Plan Option 4"][/caption]
Options three (p.11) and four (p.12, pictured above) propose far more radical, progressive changes; ones not limited to the well-being of the recreational aspects Common but that concern the entire area and drastically transform the suburban Wyse-Nantucket intersection into a far more urban, downtown streetscape. Both options call for a five or six storey "urban block" to be built at the corner where the Scotiabank is currently located, with storefronts on the ground level and offices up above.
October 14th, 2009
Better bus shelter design in downtown Saint John
By Jake Schabas // 4 Comments
SAINT JOHN - I spent my thanksgiving with a friend's family in Saint John, giving me the chance to do a good deal of walking around town. One thing that struck me was the elegantly designed bus shelters surrounding King Square, City Hall and the Loyalist Burying Ground downtown. Made of wrought-iron, these bus shelters are the nicest I have seen anywhere in Canada. Although I only saw them downtown, I'm told they can be found all over Saint John, and not just in the places most visited by tourists, a sign that aesthetic considerations have been taken into account by City Hall when it comes to streetscapes and urban design.
October 15th, 2009
Thursday’s headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
Each morning, Spacing will scan the local newspapers and media for relevant articles of interest to our readers. Put on the coffee, fix yourself a bowl of cereal and settle down to an already-gathered collection of current news stories from around the Atlantic provinces.
CITY HALL
PARADISE, NFLD - He was Canada's Youngest Mayor, Now he must Fight for Paradise [ Globe & Mail ]
MIRAMICHI - Trial Starts Over Graffiti on Now Demolished Duke Street House [ Leader ]
SAINT JOHN - Council Goes Back to Basics [ Telegraph-Journal ]
URBAN GREENS
NOVA SCOTIA - Monster Turbines Gear up to Harness ...
October 16th, 2009
From barriers to opportunity in downtown Dartmouth
By Jason Pelley // 7 Comments
The Halifax Harbour has become a barrier to part a of the downtown core: geographic, political and psychological. This barrier has become division; and Dartmouth an estranged sister. However, Dartmouth has considerable desirable atrributes that should be recognized and embraced for the benefit of HRM as a whole. In order to do this these barriers must be reframed as opportunities.
October 17th, 2009
Walk, Don’t Walk, Scramble?
By Joshua Biggley // 3 Comments
CHARLOTTETOWN - The macabre dance of pedestrians and automobiles is a time honoured tradition. Ever since Bridget Driscol was killed by a car in 1896, the deadly duo of auto and intersection has struck fear into the hearts of traffic planners and pedestrians everywhere. The reality is, of course, that traffic planning is as much art as it is science, which is why Charlottetown is revisiting the idea of a pedestrian scramble.
The intersection of Grafton and Queen street, bordered by the Confederation Centre of the Arts and Confederation Court Mall, and down the street from both city hall and the provincial legislature, is stirring up controversy with the possible return of its pedestrian scramble. Also known as a Barnes' Dance, a scramble was introduced in Toronto last year at the corner of Yonge and Dundas. Beautifully documented in a time-lapse sequence by photoblogger Sam Javanrouh on Spacing Atlantic's sister site, Spacing Toronto, the scramble belays its more common title and suggests a more graceful choreography. Henry A. Barnes, often incorrectly credited with inventing the scramble, even to the extent of it bearing his name, said, at a September 1951 conference, "...a downtown shopper needed a four-leaf clover, a voodoo charm, and a St. Christopher's medal to make it in one piece from one curbstone to the other."
From the Vaults: The Capitol Theatre
By Lauren Oostveen // 6 Comments
Before the Maritime Centre opened its doors in 1977, the corner of Barrington St. and Spring Garden Rd. was home to the Capitol Theatre, which was demolished in 1974 to make room for the office tower.
October 18th, 2009
Atlantic snapshots
By The Photographers // 1 Comment
Throughout each week, Spacing Atlantic will feature the work of photographers capturing the sights and scenes of urban spaces around Atlantic Canada.
Halifax Grain Elevators and Silos
black & white film
Justin Tomchuk
A unique angle on a familiar Halifax landmark.
October 19th, 2009
4 Days Thinking Forward Halifax :: Sustained by Design
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // 2 Comments
HALIFAX - Around the world, books, videos, events, articles, reports, leaders are talking about the power of design to reshape economies, improve public services and add to our quality of life. We got to thinking, why not here?
At the 4 Days of Thinking Forward Halifax -- between October 21 and 24 -- international leaders in social innovation, the green economy, public participation, and sustainable design will be in Halifax to do more than just one-off presentations. They will submerse themselves in the Halifax community to explore how participatory design can help this lively region in its transition to sustainability.
Visiting innovators include headliner John Thackara, global lecturer and design critic, Peter MacLeod of MASS LBP – experts in reinventing public engagement, and Uffe Elbaek founder of Danish Kaospilot School that creates positive societal change through professional and personal growth. Thackara describes his role in Halifax as a "Hubble Telescope turned backwards - the idea being that it often takes an outsider to help grassroots people and groups, who are the acorns of a sustainable future, become better known or visible in their own backyard."
Monday’s headlines
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
Every Monday and Thursday morning, Spacing will scan the local newspapers and media for relevant articles of interest to our readers. Put on the coffee, fix yourself a bowl of cereal and settle down to an already-gathered collection of current news stories from around the Atlantic provinces.
CITY HALL
FREDERICTON - City reveals winning bids for plowing, sanding and salting work [ Daily Gleaner ]
SAINT JOHN - City likely on the hook for more than fair share of road repairs [ Telegraph-Journal ]
MONTAGUE, PEI - 'For the sake of the town, I think we need a new face for ...
Streets at your feet
By Monika Warzecha // 4 Comments
HALIFAX - As soon as I moved to Halifax from Toronto, I immediately noticed how street names are often carved into the sidewalks of intersections.
It makes the city seem more pedestrian-oriented. People in cars wouldn’t be able to read the foot-level signage.
Some of the sidewalk names even have dates next to them. I haven’t noticed any recent dates – I saw a few from the late 70s to the mid-90s. I'd be disappointed to learn that the etchings have fallen out of practice. The names add charm to unlikely spaces.
photos by ...
Spacing Atlantic launch party
By Spacing Atlantic // No Comments
Spacing Atlantic is close to officially launching -- on Wednesday, October 28th the blog's editors and contributors will be throwing a party at the Eye Level Gallery in Halifax! Come out to this free event to have a few drinks, meet people interested in city issues, and support the east coast's newest blog. You'll also be able to grab copies of Spacing's Toronto-based magazine, buy some cool Halifax-themed buttons, and take part in a few fun activities.
ATTENTION FIRST TIME READERS:
Spacing Atlantic is still in beta-mode, which means there will be some ...
October 20th, 2009
The Art of Public Art
By Joshua Biggley // 1 Comment
CHARLOTTETOWN -- Public art is not quite as taboo as politics or religion, but the inclusion of art in the public space, ostensibly approved by some level of government, has been known to be a divisive issue across Canada. Take, for example, Dennis Oppenheim's sculpture “Device to Root Out Evil” which was the source of debate at Stanford, eventually finding a home in Vancouver, only to be uprooted and moved to the Calgary's Ramsay neighbourhood in September 2008. ...
Events Guide: Public talk with bicycle coordinator of Portland, Oregon
By Spacing Atlantic // 2 Comments
Cities across North America are implementing new cycling networks at a rapid rate. Portland, Oregon (pop. 576 000) has been at the forefront for making cycling safer and more convenient in the city. The results speak for themselves: currently 8% of Portlanders are cycling to and from work each day. That number has doubled since 2005.
The Halifax Cycling Coalition is please to host a public talk by Roger Geller, Portland’s Bicycle Coordinator who has been with their Bureau of Transportation since July, 1994 and is currently working on the city's bikeway ...
Atlantic snapshots
By The Photographers // 5 Comments
Throughout each week, Spacing Atlantic will feature the work of photographers capturing the sights and scenes of urban spaces around Atlantic Canada.
St. John's, Newfoundland
Hugh Pouliot
Could be any east coast city, really.
October 21st, 2009
Nocturne: Hidden views and humans at the parkade
By Alison Creba // No Comments
HALIFAX - Last Saturday’s crisp October night saw people take to the streets to explore the city for its annual Nocturne event. With open doors, and outdoor installations, the event turned the city inside out. Introducing new artists and their interdisciplinary work, the event also presented opportunities to experience urban architecture as new artistic landscapes. Among the many impactful pieces, wide-eyed wanderers took bold steps participating in Jesse Walker's Parkade Project. The project set in the multi-level parking garage at Blowers and Granville Street, sought to lower the heart rate, and reclaim humanity in a building designed for cars.
The project began with a precession where participants filed into the stairwell led in rhythmic two-by-two steps by a pea-coat clad Howard Beye. Each pair of steps was interspliced with erratic tapping patterns made by other facilitators on the metal railings. The echoing tapping sounds were indecipherable in origin and constantly changing - unpracticed cues to march. As participants ascended the zigzag stairwell, they exchanged silent communicative looks. These quiet conversations, coupled with the mass march, questioned the space itself. Discussions wondered: how far to the top? How far down did the stairwell go? Was the tapping coming from the bottom, top, both? How many steps could one tackle with each beat? What accounted for the inconsistent flow?
Events Guide: 4 Days: Sustained by Design ‘unconference’
By Spacing Atlantic // No Comments
Beginning tonight, international leaders in social innovation, the green economy, public participation, and sustainable design will be in Halifax to do more than just one-off presentations. They will submerse themselves in the Halifax community to explore how participatory design can help this lively region in its transition to sustainability.
Visiting innovators include headliner John Thackara, global lecturer and design critic, Peter MacLeod of MASS LBP – experts in reinventing public engagement, and Uffe Elbaek founder of Danish Kaospilot School that creates positive societal change through professional and personal growth. Thackara describes his role in Halifax ...
World Wide Wednesday: Urban golf, a snowless city and 1 million trees
By Matthew Blackett // No Comments
Each week Spacing focuses on blogs and web sites from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues in Toronto.
• On the topic of "play" in the city, Pruned Blog also features a great post about the potential and symbolism behind the sport of urban golf where players "tee off on the street, sidewalks, alleys or on top of buildings".
• Check out urlesque.com for a ...
Preserving the past in Halifax
By Lawrence Plug // No Comments
HALIFAX - It's not uncommon to encounter contrasts of old versus new, bleak versus shiny, defensiveness versus forward-thinking-ness. That is particularly the case in Halifax, which enjoys a vibrant present as well as a rich and not always happy history. I was reminded of that on a single day last week.
First, I tried to visit the World War II observation posts and gun batteries at York Redoubt historic park near Fergusons Cove. Besides being a pleasant walk, this is usually a great spot to view the entrance to Halifax harbour -- which is also why antisubmarine nets were stretched from here to McNabs Island 65 or so years ago, protecting the harbour from the U-boats that plied Canada's east coast, torpedoing naval and merchant ships. You can't get to the WWII location now, though. Parks Canada has cordoned it off because it is sufficiently decayed and unmaintained that it might be a risk to park visitors.
October 22nd, 2009
Thursday’s headlines
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
HALIFAX LIBRARY AND OTHER NEWS
HALIFAX - Downtown Halifax shuttle plan scrapped [ Chronicle-Herald ]
MONCTON - Downtown Moncton needs icon [ Times & Transcript ]
HALIFAX - Halifax Common land loss will be outlined [ Coast ]
MONCTON - Metro safest city in Atlantic Canada [ Times & Transcript ]
FREDERICTON - Make way for Matt Stairs Way [ Daily Gleaner ]
HALIFAX - Library project will force jazz festival tent to relocate [ Chronicle-Herald ]
CHARLOTTETOWN - National report praises city's bike lane [ Guardian ]
HALIFAX - Politics aside, new library project is crucial [ Chronicle-Herald ]
SAINT ...
From the Vaults: Spring Garden Road Memorial Library
By Lauren Oostveen // 3 Comments
Excitement is building for a new central library for Halifax. The new central library will replace the Spring Garden Road Memorial Library, which was built in 1951 as a memorial to Halifax's WWI and WWII casualties.
Spacing Atlantic launch party Oct 28th
By Spacing Atlantic // No Comments
Spacing Atlantic is close to officially launching -- on Wednesday, October 28th the blog's editors and contributors will be throwing a party at the Eye Level Gallery in Halifax! Come out to this free event to have a few drinks, meet people interested in city issues, and support the east coast's newest blog. You'll also be able to grab copies of Spacing's Toronto-based magazine, buy some cool Halifax-themed buttons, and take part in a few fun activities.
ATTENTION FIRST TIME READERS:
Spacing Atlantic is still in beta-mode, which means there will be some technical glitches and ...
October 23rd, 2009
Atlantic snapshots
By The Photographers // No Comments
Sackville, New Brunswick
Blake Morin
When red brick and touches of green and yellow paint bring life to the street...
What’s in a Name: Gottingen to Novalea
By Veronica Simmonds // 5 Comments
Spaces and faces are much the same - both have names that, when used properly, can get you places. Knowing someone’s name is really half the battle in getting to know them, it gives you a little insight into their character, gets you thinking about what their parents are all about and most importantly allows you to get their attention from far away.
In much the same way, knowing the name of a street is the first step in getting to understand the city you live in. Once you know the name of a street you can call a cab to it, write a letter to it but most importantly you can start musing about who gave it that name and why.
Every Tuesday this past summer I would walk a herd of 4-6 year olds from the George Dixon Centre to the Needham Recreation Centre to go swimming. On this walk I was always puzzled that after the intersection at Young Street, the name of Gottingen Street changed to Novalea Drive. I found this to be a bit bizarre as there is no perceptible change in the road, direction or otherwise. Upon further investigation I have found that these street names share a complex past.
October 25th, 2009
Atlantic snapshots
By The Photographers // No Comments
Throughout each week, Spacing Atlantic will feature the work of photographers capturing the sights and scenes of urban spaces around Atlantic Canada.
Halifax waterfront
Lawrence Plug
Those towers really loom over the water at night.
October 26th, 2009
Another kind of crosswalk
By Jake Schabas // 5 Comments
SAINT JOHN - Besides admiring the beautifully designed bus shelters, while visiting Saint John over thanksgiving weekend I spent a lot of time moving around the city by foot, and what caught my attention were some of their crosswalks. Rather than the standard solid block lines found in most cities (Halifax, Toronto, Montreal, etc.), some of Saint John's crosswalks were stenciled brick patterns.
While these are pretty gimmicky-looking, and are clearly calling out for tourists--many were strategically placed near the landing docks and on the most historical streets; see photo below-- they do raise the interesting question of what kind of public art we allow on the streets. Joshua Biggley dug into the politics of art in public spaces in his last post on Charlottetown, showing how municipally approved art often cause controversy because it ostensibly symbolizes the approval of the greater public. Yet what about the kind of art that we passively accept on our streets, and is allowed precisely because it doesn't challenge anything or push any boundaries?
October 27th, 2009
Atlantic snapshots
By The Photographers // No Comments
Moncton, New Brunswick
Blake Michel Morin
Signs of life behind a building.
October 28th, 2009
Wednesday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
Every Monday (well, except for today .. today is Wednesday) and Thursday morning, Spacing will scan the local newspapers and media for articles to Atlantic cities. Put on the coffee, fix yourself a bowl of cereal and settle down to an already-gathered collection of current news stories from around the east coast.
CITY HALL
HALIFAX - New central library funded [The Coast]
FREDERICTON - Friendship centre gets boost [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Metro Transit report gets rough ride from councillors [Metro News]
HALIFAX - The whims of bylaw enforcement [The Coast]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
WENTWORTH - Wentworth residents not convinced that narrower is ...
Discovering Charlottetown: Victoria Row
By Joshua Biggley // 1 Comment
CHARLOTTETOWN - Nestled behind the Confederation Centre of the Arts is a 200m stretch of early 20th century buildings, the type of mixed use treasures that are being recreated throughout North America in an attempt to echo our European roots through New Urbanism. When I first discovered Victoria Row, as this stretch of Richmond Street is known, it was in its pre-tourism state. This one-way lane was lined with restaurant patios and boutiques, all under the shadow the 1960's era arts and entertainment centre that dominates the downtown core.
Though still recovering from the post-winter stresses, I could sense the potential of this little side-street, for in it I saw the creation of the Holy Grail of pedestrian culture -- a pedestrian mall! The pedestrian mall is a magical place where vehicles are excluded while pedestrians and cyclists reclaim the space between the curbs as their own. Though I did not know it at the time, Victoria Row makes a seasonal transformation from one-way side street to pedestrian haven, complete with an open-mic style bandstand and middle of the road water fountain.
Spacing Atlantic launch party tonight!
By Spacing Atlantic // 3 Comments
Spacing Atlantic is close to officially launching -- tonight! The blog's editors and contributors will be throwing a party at the Eye Level Gallery in Halifax. Come out to this free event to have a few drinks, meet people interested in city issues, and support the east coast's newest blog. You'll also be able to grab copies of Spacing's Toronto-based magazine, buy some cool Halifax-themed buttons, and take part in a few fun activities. We'll also have some Halifax-themed buttons for sale!
RSVP: tell us if you're coming at our Facebook event listing.
Paying the price for public transit
By Alex Boutilier // 2 Comments
HALIFAX - The Metro Transit Strategic Plan was discussed in Halifax Regional Council for the first time yesterday, but the controversy has been with us for almost a week now.
Why is the report, which offers recommendations for improving/enhancing public transportation in the HRM, controversial? Mostly due to the ways it recommends paying for such improvements.
First, a little background: the Metro Transit Five-Year Strategic Operations Plan [ PDF ], an independent report published by IBI group, was commissioned by HRM in September of last year. It was meant to offer a five-year plan to integrate Metro Transit into the Regional Municipality Planning Strategy (MPS) [ PDF ], which was adopted by city council in 2006.
Because Metro Transit had adopted its first five-year Transit Strategy in 2002, it was not integrated into 2006’s MPS. However, Metro Transit saw a significant increase in service levels and ridership during its first five-year plan, and so city council deemed it necessary to work towards a new five-year plan that met those demands, while working public transportation into the MPS.
Hence, the Metro Transit Strategic Plan. Now; on to the controversy.
October 29th, 2009
New thinking at Pecha Kucha
By Lizzy Hill // No Comments
HALIFAX - Imagine an alternate Halifax. Beautiful people sprawl happily in urban parks, eating thick, locally produced sandwiches. When they've had enough fresh air, they head home to energy-efficient glass towers. Imagine a “shimmering blue harbour” or “a fragrant and swimmable harbour with no unsettling warm spots.”
Capital District's Urban Design Project manager Andy Filmore shared his dream journey Friday night to a packed Garrison Brewery full of urban visionaries, eclectic personalities and those with an interest in sustainability. Filmore participated in Pecha Kucha Night—part of last week's 4 Days' “unconference.” Pecha Kucha literally means “chit chat” in Japanese, but much more than chit chat transpired.
Each Pecha Kucha participant focused on a topic loosely related to design or sustainability, discussing 20 slides for 20 seconds each. Sarah Craig urged Halifax to build a school like Ursula Franklin Academy, which espouses values of diversity and community service; Jonathan Mckeever applied mathematical formulas to areas of life, such as square dancing; and Adam Foster Collins' discussed his socially-conscious design project, Threads of Peru.
Hot dogging it on Fenwick
By Anna Duckworth // 6 Comments
HALIFAX -- Some 24 odd months ago construction began on Fenwick Street in Halifax’ South End, the site has fast evolved into a fantasyland for every four-year-old boy – excavators, diggers and dynamite littered the street.
But when workers discovered an unexpected underground river during the early phases of construction, everything stopped.
Here we are, two years later, and my front yard is still a 40-foot canyon. My house still shakes on a daily basis from the dynamite blasts. And my neighbours are still pissed off.
But I’m not. In fact, the workers are threatening to be finished the roadwork by Christmas. And I don’t feel too good about it. I have a routine. Each day I throw the door open. I toss my compost. And I mount my bike to greet the same group of workers out front.
From the Vaults: Grand Parade
By Lauren Oostveen // No Comments
Halifax's Grand Parade has long been seen as the heart of the city. It is one of the oldest places in Halifax, having been mapped out in 1749.
Spacing Atlantic launch party: an afterword
By Matthew Blackett // 3 Comments
HALIFAX -- Last night at the Eye Level Gallery in Halifax, the editors of Spacing launched our newest adventure: Spacing Atlantic!
Spacing Atlantic is the third blog added to our lineup, joining sister blogs Spacing Toronto and Spacing Montreal. The Atlantic blog will cover urban landscape issues in cities across the east coast from St. John's to Fredericton, Moncton to Charlottetown, Saint John to Sydney.
Our launch party attracted over 150 people. Most of the people I talked to expressed a great deal of excitement that Spacing could help further the discussion about a variety of public space issues that are slightly off the local radar, especially from a political standpoint (read the post about Halifax's transit plan debate to get an idea). As publisher of Spacing, I'm quite excited to learn about the challenges east coast cities face as they become more aware of the benefits of progressive urban design (the debate about the scramble intersection in Charlottetown is a perfect example).
LINKS: The Coast has nice review of the event, you can check out the photos of the event on our Flickr account, or see some of our favourites after the "continue reading" link. Many thanks to Dan Mattison of clickproductions.ca for his photographic skills.
October 30th, 2009
Friday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // 1 Comment
Every Monday (well, except for today .. today is Friday) and Thursday morning, Spacing will scan the local newspapers and media for articles to Atlantic cities. Put on the coffee, fix yourself a bowl of cereal and settle down to an already-gathered collection of current news stories from around the east coast.
CITY HALL
HALIFAX - Council sticks to secret appointments [the Coast]
SUMMERSIDE - Summerside ditch policy 'unfair', 'illegal', residents claim [The Guardian]
URBAN GREEN
HALIFAX - Halifax group off to transit seminar [Chronicle Herald]
KENTVILLE - Environmentalists want tighter biosolids rules [Chronicle Herald]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Survey finds Islanders willing to ...
Critical Mask – A Hallowe’en Ride
By Mark Lamovsek // 4 Comments
Co-written by Anna Duckworth and Mark Lamovsek
HALIFAX - Tonight is the much-anticipated Hallowe’en Critical Mass ride. And hopefully the beginning of a new chapter for the Halifax ride.
Critical Mass is an international monthly celebration of bikes and bike culture. In Halifax, cyclists gather at Victoria Park on the last Friday of every month to cruise around the city.
For most, Critical Mass is a chance to cycle safely, experience strength in numbers and celebrate life on bikes.
Despite Critical Mass’ generally celebratory and peaceful nature, it’s garnered some negative ...
October 31st, 2009
Portland: a glimpse of what Halifax could be
By Vince Vining // No Comments
HALIFAX - Roger Geller, the City Bicycle Coordinator of Portland, Oregon paid a visit to Halifax on the weekend of October 24th. Portland has long been revered for its well above-average bicycle ridership (eight times more than Halifax). It’s a city where cyclists are more than just tolerated, but encouraged to be a dominant presence within the city’s traffic. Restaurants and businesses beg the city to remove their store-front parking, and replace it with massive bike corrals for the leagues of cyclists who arrive to buy coffee, pet supplies, or iPods. It’s a city that has increased its number of dedicated cyclists by exposing the inherent joy of a community where cycling is not only important, but also necessary. Mr. Geller comes from a city that Halifax could be.
The question is: how did Portland get to be the way it is? According to Geller, it comes down to one simple statement he stands firmly behind: “Build it and they will come.”
Previous to 1995, Portland looked like an average North American city — lots of suburbs, bike-unfriendly bridges, steep hills in the city centre, and not a whole lot of cyclists.
Sound familiar?
Within 15 years, the citizens of Portland made it the city it is today. How? They set up a city which cyclists could enjoy. The first step was to enact a policy declaring Portland a city where people would choose to bike rather than drive.
November 2nd, 2009
Monday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
Every Monday and Thursday morning, Spacing will scan the local newspapers and media for articles to Atlantic cities. Put on the coffee, fix yourself a bowl of cereal and settle down to an already-gathered collection of current news stories from around the east coast.
CITY HALL
HALIFAX - How councillors voted on making appointments in public [The Coast]
HALIFAX - HRM council’s agenda may go public sooner [Chronicle Herald]
SAINT JOHN - Council will talk trash at special meeting today [Telegraph Journal]
INFRASTRUCTURE
SYDNEY - Explosion destroys house in Whitney Pier [Cape Breton Post]
NEW WATERFORD - Operation Lifesaver conducts train safety ...
November 3rd, 2009
Atlantic snapshots
By The Photographers // 4 Comments
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Lawrence Plug
The navy meets waterfront design.
Spacing Atlantic Charlottetown meet-up
By Joshua Biggley // No Comments
Since most Islanders couldn't make the official Spacing Atlantic launch party last week, we've decided to get together on our own for a little meet, greet and nefarious plotting. So, if you happen to be a PEI-based writer, photographer, artist, or you simply want to have a say in the urban policies of Charlottetown and other PEI communities, come on down to the Eco-PEI offices (also the Sierra Club of Canada offices) and join in the discussion.
Who: Writers, photographers, artists and the simply curious
What: Spacing Atlantic Charlottetown Meet-up
When: Wednesday, November ...
November 4th, 2009
World Wide Wednesday: Jaywalking, pedestrian scrambles and the world’s cheapest home
By Matthew Blackett // No Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
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• Londoners got their first "X crossing" this week at Oxford Circle, one of the city's busiest downtown intersections. For Torontonians who want to compare, BBC News ...
November 5th, 2009
Thursday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
Every Monday and Thursday morning, Spacing will scan the local newspapers and media for articles to Atlantic cities. Put on the coffee, fix yourself a bowl of cereal and settle down to an already-gathered collection of current news stories from around the east coast.
URBAN GREEN
HALIFAX - Transit plan: not perfect, but necessary [The Coast]
NOVA SCOTIA - N.S. looking to speed up schedule to bring renewable energy online [Metro News]
TRURO - Smoking banned from town-owned playgrounds [Truro Daily News]
NEW DEVELOPMENT
DEBERT - Diefenbunker now a data centre [Truro Daily News]
SAINT JOHN - Victoria Square gets shot in ...
A downtown shuttle named Desire
By Alex Boutilier // No Comments
The plan was simple – a free downtown shuttle service, similar to Metro Transit’s FRED (Free Rides Everywhere Downtown) service, which would run year-long for city residents. Two buses would begin at the ferry terminal on the waterfront; one would go north, the other south. And public transit users would rejoice.
Ah, plans. We sure make a lot of them! But this particular one was not included in the Metro Transit Strategic Plan, the suggested five-year strategy aiming to improve public transit in the HRM.
This surprised downtown councillor Dawn Sloane. “I’m quite upset ... quite furious, actually,” she told the Chronicle Herald.
She should be – the service has been talked about for years. According to the Herald, Sloane’s been telling constituents the shuttle was a go, and that the province has already committed two buses.
Why was the shuttle service not included in the Strategic Plan? And why did this surprise councillor Sloane? It may have something to do with Metro Transit’s Five Year Capital Plan. Released last year, the capital plan read like a wish list for city councillors – pretty much every city councillor – including such items as the $27-million fast ferry (italics to emphasize speed), massive service expansion, rural express routes, and yes, a free downtown shuttle.
The list was so extensive, it caused one Halifax-based journalist to suggest it had been written by three guys in a pub, on a bar napkin – “they basically just threw whatever any politician was talking about into the plan.”
Unsurprisingly, council loved the Capital Plan and voted in its favour. It’s hard to vote against something for everyone, assuming you want to get re-elected.
I ‘heart’ Halifax
By Jacob Ritchie // 5 Comments
At last week’s launch party the Spacing Atlantic street team gave guests the opportunity to identify their own personal “heart of the city” on a 3m x 3m map of the urban area surrounding Halifax harbor. Eighty two people in attendance took the opportunity to stick a sticker and rep the spot they felt best represented the cultural, social, commercial, or traditional centre of the city.
The spacing editors gave me a copy of the map earlier this week and I have taken the opportunity to perform a bit of basic analysis on the placements we all choose. As a refresher, here is the whole map as it looked at the end of the night (each red dot is a unique estimation of the heart of the city).
November 6th, 2009
Atlantic snapshots
By The Photographers // No Comments
Saint John, New Brunswick
Shawn Micallef
Sun swept in Saint John.
From the Vaults: Sydney
By Lauren Oostveen // 3 Comments
Sydney was founded in 1785, and named after Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney. From 1784 to 1820, Sydney was the capital of the British colony of Cape Breton Island. Industrial development around Sydney began to take shape in the late 1820s.
November 7th, 2009
Share a ride, make more friends
By Anna Duckworth // 8 Comments
Co-written by Rachel Caroline Derrah and Anna Duckworth.
NOVA SCOTIA - Consider this: you've got somewhere to be. But you've got no means to get there. You plan ahead and solicit a drive from someone else. It’s carpooling.
Now, let's say you don't have time on your side. You start walking and en route you solicit a drive from a passing car. This negotiation happens in public. It’s hitchhiking.
Let’s get this straight then, the law struggles with the context in which we negotiate shared transportation, but not the actual act of sharing a ride.
Welcome to Nova Scotia – a small province that boasts almost no means to move from one community to the next. Outside the fortunate few who own cars, Nova Scotians are bound to their backyards by the absence of alternative transportation and infrastructure.
November 8th, 2009
Atlantic snapshots
By The Photographers // No Comments
MacDonald Bridge, Halifax
Jen Polegatto
Bridged by fog.
November 9th, 2009
Monday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
Every weekday morning, Spacing will scan the local newspapers and media for articles to Atlantic cities. Put on the coffee, fix yourself a bowl of cereal and settle down to an already-gathered collection of current news stories from around the east coast.
CITY HALL
NOVA SCOTIA - Ottawa, province team up to complete Highway 125 twinning [Metro]
TRURO - Pilot project being set up for garbage collection in cottage country [Truro Daily News]
NOVA SCOTIA - N.S. Liberal leader says trust fund money should go to community organization [Metro]
SYDNEY - Councillors host meeting about water concerns [Cape Breton Post]
URBAN GREEN
HALIFAX ...
Re-reading Marginal Road: alternative histories of the Halifax pier
By Hugh Pouliot // 4 Comments
[caption id="attachment_992" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Photo courtesy of the Pier 21 Research Centre"][/caption]
HALIFAX - In 2007, Pier 21, the gateway to Canada for over a million people between 1928 and 1971, was publicly voted one of the Seven Wonders of Canada on the CBC. It was cited as ‘intrinsically linked to Canada’s multicultural identity’, and a celebrated national icon which draws tens of thousands of visitors each year. Yet for all of the ‘history’ that the site – piers 19 to 23 and the Immigration Annex – embodies, there actually seems to be a great deal of history missing.
Construction of the Halifax Ocean Terminals began in 1917, and finished in 1928. However, the sheds were designed as facilities for the reception and transfer of cargo, not people. Debate in the 1920s between government, immigration, and commercial officials as to whether these cold, dark, and primitive structures were really suitable for the welcoming of trans-Atlantic migrants is evidence of divergent attitudes and practices towards immigration and immigrants in Halifax.
Certainly, commercial interests dictated policy on the Halifax waterfront. Steven Schwinghamer, Pier 21's research coordinator, remarks, ''railway companies would frequently be making announcements on behalf of Immigration,'' including where – and subsequently how – the immigration office would operate. Immigration was moved from the more spacious and hospitable Pier 2 in the North End to Pier 21, a freight shed, in 1928 apparently due to pressure from shipping and railway companies.
This week’s Spacing Radio features 4 Days conference
By Spacing Atlantic // No Comments
EDITOR'S NOTE: Some Spacing Atlantic readers may not be aware of this, but Spacing hosts a bi-weekly podcast called Spacing Radio (you can subscribe to the show via iTunes or follow the links on the right sidebar). It has primarily been focused on Toronto, but the last few episodes have seen us cover other cities, which we will continue to do. This episode has a feature on Halifax's recent 4 Days conference.
This episode of Spacing Radio challenges listeners to think about public ...
November 10th, 2009
Tuesday’s headlines
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
CITY HALL
DIEPPE - Dieppe eyes sign law [ Times & Transcript ]
ST. JOHN'S - $1.5M operating grant approved for SJSE [ Telegram ]
SAINT JOHN - Deciding Saint John's future [ Telegraph-Journal ]
TRURO - Conservatives win back riding [ Daily News ]
SAINT JOHN - A new project done the old way [ Telegraph-Journal ]
URBAN GREEN
SACKVILLE - Sackville river spill comes at worst possible time, wildlife group says [ Metro ]
FREDERICTON - Council eyes green technology for rink [ The Daily Gleaner ]
SACKVILLE - Community saddened by vandalism [ Chronicle-Herald ]
ROTHESAY - Walking ...
Atlantic snapshots
By The Photographers // 2 Comments
Saint John, New Brunswick
Jake Schabas
An overpass built for...convicted pedestrians. The crime? Wanting to cross the highway on foot.
Beyond 4Days: Thackara’s thoughts, cardboard city, and “human energy”
By Emma Feltes // No Comments
[caption id="attachment_1036" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="photo by Click Productions"][/caption]
HALIFAX - Whether or not you were able to attend October's 4Days "unconference" in Halifax, there's a second chance to feast your ears on the sound of innovative city planning and region-specific design solutions. The most recent episode of Spacing Radio includes clips of 4Days keynote speaker, John Thackara, inspiring reflection on some of the themes brought out at the symposium, and begging the question, what next?
Here's a mini retrospective of the "wake" at Hollis & Morris, where Thackara's declaration, complemented by Spacing's cardboard city activity (a throwback to the Planning and Design Centre's 2008 Nocturne event) both spoke to the incredible energy and ingenuity possessed by the Halifax community. The challenge now is how to keep that energy working for us.
Events Guide: Planning for the Future with an ICSP
By Joshua Biggley // 1 Comment
CHARLOTTETOWN - When the federal government introduced the Intergrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP) as a requirement to access the Gas Tax Fund (GTF) it jump-started the planning departments of countless cities across Canada to examine their long-term development plans. Of course, the ICSP process is not meant to be an economic stimulus package, but a comprehensive framework outlining the social, economic, environmental and cultural sustainability of the community. This planning process is intended to give citizen and government stakeholders a common vision for the future, a veritable litmus test ...
November 11th, 2009
World Wide Wednesday: Berlin Wall tribute
By Matthew Blackett // 1 Comment
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
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This past Monday marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall--one of the defining moments of the 20th century, reunifying Berlin and symbolizing for many the collapse ...
Wetland street furniture design in Sackville
By Blake Michel Morin // 1 Comment
SACKVILLE, NB - On a recent trip to Sackville, Moncton-based Spacing photographer Blake Michel Morin spotted a few interesting examples of wetland-influenced street design. They include a duck-inspired bench, an alley way wetland wall mural and a cattail garbage bin.
November 12th, 2009
Thursday’s headlines
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
CITY HALL
CHARLOTTETOWN - Stop burning garbage in fireplace, councillor says [ Guardian ]
HRM - Municipality wants more time to get plants up to snuff [ Chronicle-Herald ]
FREDERICTON - City still working on policy [ Daily Gleaner ]
HRM - Johns new deputy mayor [ Chronicle-Herald ]
ROTHESAY - Mayor in dark over grant formula [ Telegraph-Journal ]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
DARTMOUTH - Museum society to get waterfront building [ Chronicle-Herald ]
SAINT JOHN - Crane cranks a lot of necks on busy uptown street [Telegraph-Journal]
HRM - Wind opinions sought [ Chronicle-Herald ]
SAINT JOHN - North Ender Doin' ...
Council votes to “receive” transit plan
By Alex Boutilier // No Comments
HALIFAX - The Metro Transit Strategic Plan – yes, that strategic plan – was “received” by Halifax Regional Council on Tuesday, but the reception was far from a warm one.
Councillors debated the plan – an independent report commissioned by city hall in 2008 with a $285,000 price tag – for over two hours on Tuesday, before finally voting to “receive” the plan. Receiving the plan means: staff can now seriously get down to work, looking at the various recommendations and figuring out ways and costs of implementing those recommendations.
It also means council is in no way – financially, politically, spiritually – required to take any action once staff returns with that information this coming January. Nor are they bound to the recommendations contained in the report whatsoever.
The debate was a lively one, kicking off with downtown Councillor Dawn Sloane’s lament that a free downtown shuttle was not included in the Strategic Plan. You’ll recall that such a shuttle service – providing free rides across the completely walkable, minuscule Halifax downtown area – was advocated by HRMbyDesign.
Then came Councillor Barry Dalrymple (Waverley-Fall River-Beaverbank) making the perfectly (politically) logical argument that Metro Transit doesn’t even service his constituency, so why should he etc etc etc. He also made a quip about one time when he and his sons drove by five busses on the same route with 2 people or less on them. Where was this route? Nobody seemed to know. His exact words: “I won’t mention the route, but...”
State of Disrepair: Documenting the demise of the public payphone
By Jessica Walker // 7 Comments
[caption id="attachment_873" align="alignnone" width="625" caption="A concrete slab remains on the corner of Chebucto and Windsor, where a pay phone used to be."][/caption]
HALIFAX – It's been almost a year since I first started thinking about payphones.
Back then I spoke with an urban planner who was working on a redesign for a major downtown Halifax street; he casually mentioned that they might not be including payphones in their new plans. While they ultimately decided against this idea, I was shocked to think that we, as a city and a society, were at such a point.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="624" caption="This phone's proximity to the North End's upscale Hydrostone Market doesn't keep vandals away, with graffiti all over the phone's inner cabin and exterior."][/caption]
Now that cellphones permeate our culture, what role does the public payphone play in 21st century Canada? What does it mean for our city when phone companies begin taking away payphones or leaving them vandalized or in an unusable condition? And who is most affected by these choices?
While out taking photos for this article, I was approached by a passer-by asking if I was documenting "the demise of the payphone." I guess I am.
November 13th, 2009
Friday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
Every weekday morning, Spacing will scan the local newspapers and media for articles to Atlantic cities. Put on the coffee, fix yourself a bowl of cereal and settle down to an already-gathered collection of current news stories from around the east coast.
TRANSPORTATION
FREDERICTON - Bus routes could be cut [Daily Gleaner]
SAINT JOHN - New bike trails to be one of a kind [Telegraph Journal]
FREDERICTON - City plans trail upgrade [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Critical Mass confusion [the Coast]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
FREDERICTON - Province stays charge against local developer [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Possible respite for Victorian hotel [the Coast]
SYDNEY ...
Turning sewage into gold: Marsh creek renewal and watershed banking
By Lindsay Bird // No Comments
SAINT JOHN - The east side of Saint John is ruled by three things: the refinery, retail and rain. Every time a big storm rolls in, businesses and basements get soaked. And the problem is only getting worse.
That’s because this sprawling side of the city is built on top of its largest urban watershed — Marsh Creek. It’s a 4100-hectare patch of wetlands, but it’s a far cry from looking like a Ducks Unlimited commercial.
That’s because Saint John flushes 16 million litres of raw sewage into its harbour every day, with Marsh Creek a major dumping ground. “Whatever disease you want — it’s there,” says Colin Forsythe, a community wetlands coordinator with the Atlantic Coastal Action Program.
That's where his organization steps in. The Saint John chapter is proposing to rejuvenate the area, with dreams beyond a new Costco and its discounted vats of mixed nuts.
Take me to the plaza: The King street tannery
By Giovanni Paquin // 2 Comments
Co-written by Andrew Matheson and Giovanni Paquin
Take me to the Plaza
I gravitate to the people hangin around
with their cigarettes and coffee in their hands
at the centre of the town
take me there...
- Jonathan Richman
FREDERICTON - Fredericton, a “city” of some 50,000, is the provincial capital of New Brunswick and has been the place we call home for a little more than a year (Giovanni) and six months (Andrew) respectively. As expats from Montreal and Toronto, we’ve definitely had to adjust to the change of pace in lifestyle in the city, but for the most part it’s been a positive experience.
Fredericton has a relatively vibrant downtown filled with clusters of public buildings (Provincial Legislature, Lord Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton Playhouse, City Hall), boutique shops, cafes and some not-so-aesthetically pleasing office buildings. For the most part, the downtown is a walkable place, but it also has a tendency to cater to cars in order to survive, which often results in overlooking some of the more obvious opportunities to develop great public spaces. One such example includes “the Tannery”.
November 16th, 2009
Monday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
Every weekday morning, Spacing will scan the local newspapers and media for articles to Atlantic cities. Put on the coffee, fix yourself a bowl of cereal and settle down to an already-gathered collection of current news stories from around the east coast.
CITY HALL
SAINT JOHN - Mayor hates new tax law [Telegraph-Journal]
CHARLOTTETOWN - City councillor calls for photo ID in municipal elections [Guardian]
SAINT JOHN - Closing in on new city manager [ Telegraph-Journal]
SAINT JOHN - Cheap loan helps municipality save money [Telegraph-Journal]
CIVIC PRIDE
FREDERICTON - Affordable Housing Day to be marked [Daily Gleaner]
CORNER BROOK - You ...
Atlantic snapshots
By The Photographers // No Comments
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Lawrence Plug
Another way to tell the cold weather's here.
Losing a Landmark: Hollis & Morris
By Katie McKay // 2 Comments
HALIFAX - On the southeast corner of Hollis Street and Morris Street, in the South End of Halifax, a historically-significant set of buildings characterize the area. During the 200+ years that it has stood on this storied site, it has housed a hotel, an all-boys private boarding school, a rooming house, a rumoured brothel, and in recent years, an affordable place to live downtown on a month-to-month lease.
Although some people have referred to the dilapidated grey building as an eyesore, even an ‘urban blight’ - there are many who regard this landmark with fondness. Differences of opinion aside, the building itself is as unique as they come. Every apartment is different from the last, equipped with century-old sinks, clawfoot tubs, brick and marble fireplaces, loft spaces, weathered wooden floors, grandiose arched doorways and quirky crawl spaces. Not to mention its most recognizable feature; the wrap-around verandah which serves as the focal point of interaction between the street and the building.
photographs by Scott Munn
A Wander in Time
By Crystal Melville // No Comments
HALIFAX - Interdisciplinary artist Eryn Foster organizes public walks in Point Pleasant Park titled Wanders in the Yonder. You may have seen her beautiful posters shimmering behind storefront glass or tucked on arts bulletins. Fosters' Wanders in the Yonder is the product of the new Artist-in-residency program in Point Pleasant Park sponsored by the Halifax Regional Municipality. Since October, Foster has been utilizing her residency project to do further research on the art of walking.
Walking is not new to Foster; she has been walking around the Maritimes since 2007, when she first initiated her art project New Canadian Pilgrimages. Like her New Canadian Pilgrimages project, Fosters' wanderings through the park are unmapped and flow with the consciousness and collective movements of whoever participates in the performance. The overall idea to Fosters’ walks is to wander; to not set out on an etched out path and to not talk about the current performance of wandering. When participants are done walking, they wander off without telling anyone. But the group does talk! In fact, Foster records the sounds from the walk, park and human chatter, for an undetermined archive project. Foster has been applying her performance research at conferences like Walk21 in Barcelona, Spain or at other artist residencies, such as the one at Centre for Art Tapes in Halifax, NS (learn more about what Foster worked on at her Artist Talk on December 5th at 1pm at Point Pleasant Lodge).
November 17th, 2009
Tuesday’s headlines
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
CITY HALL
MONCTON - Moncton adds miles to sidewalk plow plan [Times & Transcript]
SAINT JOHN - City pledges to improve snow removal [Telegraph-Journal]
DIEPPE - Dieppe stores await sign law [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - No property tax cut guarantees [Times & Transcript]
MONCTON - Protestors visit council over causeway gates [Times & Transcript]
OTHER NEWS
BEAVER DAM - Subdivision may loose sewage system [Daily Gleaner]
NEW BRUNSWICK - Study links industrial areas with higher cancer rates [Daily Gleaner]
DARTMOUTH - Developer undeterred, will build 3rd tower [Chronicle-Herald]
Breaking News: Draft Dartmouth Common Master Plan released for further public input
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
DARTMOUTH - Early last October, I attended the public consultation meeting for Dartmouth Common Master Plan proposals. Yesterday, HRM released the consolidated plans that took into account the community consultation feedback they received at that meeting. Now the planners at CBCL Limited have provided one more window for public feedback on the updated plan [ PDF ] where they are accepting emails and phone calls with community members' comments and criticisms until November 29th.
To give a little background, the Dartmouth Common Master Plan is Dartmouth's version of HRMbyDesign. The plans are not limited to preserving green space, but include relocating and expanding the Metro Transit Bridge Terminal, renovating and extending the Sportsplex, potentially creating an "urban edge"—mixed use commercial-residential buildings along the corner of Nantucket and Wyse—and in the long term, reclaiming the waterfront as a connected part of the Common. In short, the plan looks to completely transform the entire area and will govern much of Dartmouth's future development for at least the next 25 years.
Events Guide: HRM training opportunities on developing community facilities
By Emma Feltes // No Comments
HRM - Do you envision a community where public art mobilizes civic engagement? Where skate parks give way to nature trails, which give way to playgrounds? Where the local community centre bustles with a diversity of community members?
Don't we all? HRM doesn't suffer from a shortage of creative ideas for neighbourhood improvements (remember that whole "human energy" concept we've been harping on?) — the key question is their effective execution. The fear of being bogged down in funding folly and logistical labyrinths is enough to deter even the most ...
Bridging the bike lane gap
By Brian Zurek // 1 Comment
HALIFAX - The historic streets of Halifax—the narrow downtown streets, the more-than-four-street intersections, the super steep streets—predate the automobile by 150 years, and although in the last 100 years they may have belonged to the cars and trucks, in the next 100 years they may not. Sometimes, however, it seems like there is no end in sight for the automobile, with HRM's car-centric existence fueling the way the city sounds, the way it feels, and the way it behaves. Hello Bayers Lake Shopping Center! Good day Dartmouth Crossing!
But imagine the city, our busy, crowded streets, designed for transportation alternatives, for cycling, say. What might Halifax look like?
For starters, I doubt very much that there would continue to exist a bicycle path that resembles the MacDonald Bridge bicycle on-ramp. Let me explain: What downtown Halifax lost to the Cogswell interchange, I would argue that the cycling community has lost in the MacDonald Bridge bike path. Cyclists who cross the MacDonald Bridge by bike know the problem, but for those who don't, imagine a peaceful ride across the MacDonald bridge on your very own urban bike path. Nice hey? Now imagine that you are forced to descend four stories and then ascend those same four stories before you can access/exit the Halifax side of the bridge.
Welcome to Halifax’s MacDonald Bridge Bike Path.
Cultivating citizen creativity
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // 2 Comments
Photo Credit: CLICK Productions
HALIFAX - My bookshelf is a graveyard for ideas. Pages covered in visions for the future from some community meeting, somewhere, sometime ago. One must wonder (maybe that one is just me, a design nerd) what the heck is the point? To pull ideas for the future from people's minds, to start building momentum and hope - then to let it fizzle out leaving nothing more than text on a shelf.
Really though, who has time to read the masses of documents around us, let alone take action on their recommendations? This is a snag in the way we approach community planning - as a standard checklist. It lacks the creative edge we common people need to spark our imaginations, to see something differently, to motivate us to act.
Creativity has become something we think a select group of people 'do', not a seed within us that, if cultivated, can improve our daily lives. Forget the documents - what we really need is a forum to connect with each other over our common goals, to be creative, and move forward together. This actually becomes urgent when we think about peak oil, climate change, and the limited time we have to really set ourselves on a "right path."
Many examples of this forward-thinking-and-actually-acting exist everywhere, but I am here in Halifax, so I will highlight a couple instances I have been involved with in my own 'backyard.'
November 18th, 2009
Events Guide: Atlantic Eco-Expo
By Spacing Atlantic // No Comments
HALIFAX - The first ever sustainable business exhibition in Atlantic Canada is taking place this weekend, where businesses, governments and non-profit organizations will come together to share fresh new ideas, promote economic development, build a stronger community and encourage sustainable solutions.
There will be guest speakers, cooking demonstrations, a fashion show and a silent auction to raise awareness for sustainable initiatives going on in Atlantic Canada. Exhibitors include the Ecology Action Centre, the Halifax Cycling Coalition, the Clean Air Foundation, the Dalhousie Sustainability Coalition, FEED Nova Scotia, the Sierra Club of Nova ...
World Wide Wednesday: Architecture in Manhattan, L.A.’s new subways, and South Korea’s man-made city
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• Public transit got a big boost in Los Angeles last week as the city unveiled 8 new subway stations as part of the city's "Gold Line extension". The ...
A view worth saving?
By Lizzy Hill // 8 Comments
HALIFAX - Halifax is deadlocked in yet another polarized development debate. Pro-heritage people oppose the proposed World Trade and Convention Centre, on the grounds that it would ruin the old-world feeling of our city, while many in the business community dismiss heritage folk as naive sticks in the mud.
The municipal government, under HRMbyDesign, has approved the development of two new skyscrapers downtown. The Hardman Group developers proposed to tear down the unsightly Cogswell Interchange and somehow “reunite” the north end with the south end by putting a couple sky-scarpers between the communities, but the deal was awarded to Rank Inc. Rank plan to build two glass towers, standing at 18 and 14 stories each on the blocks spanning the former Halifax Herald and Midtown Tavern buildings. Aside from housing the World Trade and Convention Centre, Rank's plans include a 600-car-parking garage, residential units, office space and a hotel. The buildings will be taller than Citadel Hill and block the view to George's Island from the top of the hill. Concerned citizens won't know the full details of the plan, including how much the project will cost taxpayers, until February.
Not everyone's thrilled. The Coalition to Save The View from Citadel Hill, spearheaded by Peggy Cameron and Beverly Miller, is petitioning Premier Darrell Dexter in hopes that he won't give the development the final go ahead. The coalition gained recognition by circulating leaflets featuring alarming images of somber-black boxes blocking our skyline, warning citizens that their view was “going, going, gone.” Rank's own mock-ups feature shimmering-glass buildings, reflecting the surrounding blue sky. It's probably safe to assume the aesthetic reality lies somewhere in the middle.
November 19th, 2009
Thursday’s headlines
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
CITY HALL
RIVERVIEW - Riverview town council continues to battle budget [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Mayor pledges off-the-cuff speech tonight [Daily Gleaner]
ST. JOHN'S - Toll booth idea turfed [Telegram]
HRM - Council's secret 'public meeting' on tax reform [The Coast]
SUSSEX - Councillor suggests town enlist services of watch dog at park [Telegraph-Journal]
FREDERICTON - Councillor objects to non-profits' advertising banners on pedway [Daily Gleaner]
SAINT JOHN - Should Saint John declare bankruptcy? [Telegraph-Journal]
INFRASTRUCTURE
HALIFAX - Library design spat [The Coast]
HRM - $39-million ice bill [The Coast]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Province considering three more roundabouts [Guardian]
HRM - ...
Atlantic snapshots
By The Photographers // 1 Comment
Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia
Hugh Pouliot
Long past its prime.
November 20th, 2009
Friday’s headlines
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
CITY HALL
FREDERICTON - Mayor says lower tax rate not in the cards [Daily Gleaner]
HRM - Halifax council awaits report on city's top staffer [Chronicle-Herald]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HALIFAX - Fenwick tower 'unrecognizable' under development plan [CBC]
MONCTON - Dominion public building to be repaired [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Barrington area still waiting to happen [Chronicle-Herald]
DARTMOUTH - Museum secures a new home [NewsNet]
FREDERICTON - Station facelift starts [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Developer promises 'landmark' project for Fenwick 2.0 [Metro]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Developer set to deliver on hotel [Guardian]
HALIFAX - Loosing the look of Halifax [Chronicle-Herald]
DARTMOUTH - ...
New uses for the old library
By Alex Boutilier // No Comments
HALIFAX - A group of 15-odd people interested in the future of the Spring Garden Memorial Library building shuffled into a multi-purpose room in the Bloomfield Centre on Tuesday, hoping to share their views on how best to use the soon-to-be-bookless space.
The library, built as a memorial for Canada’s war dead in 1951, will eventually transfer its tomes to a new central library, to be built across the road on Queen Street. But while the new library’s future seems certain, the use of the old building appears anything but.
Councillor Dawn Sloane, who oversaw Tuesday’s meeting, wants to see the building used as a multi-use archive/museum/civics space to provide “proper storage for the archive collection, public accessibility to the collection, (while retaining the) monument building in (the) monument district.”
“We’ve been here since 1749, we do have a history,” said Sloane. “Showing a sense of pride in place, and getting people to take pride in their city is something that we need to do. I think you heard that around that table tonight.”
While there seemed to be a consensus among those in attendance that the building would be ideal, at least location wise, for a civics-oriented museum space, there were some concerns about working with a building that is not in the best shape – it’s 58 years old, and has had mold, heating and cooling problems in the past.
Sloane admits the building’s condition – as well as the cost of renovations – will be obstacles, but wants more information, including a feasibility study. “We know that (the building) is hot in the summer and cold in the winter,” she said. “And we have to figure that out. Is it because of the addition that was added on in the 70’s that might have changed the way the building breathes? We’re not sure. But that’s why I want to get those kind of reports.”
Concerns were also raised at the meeting about trying to do too much with too little space, how best to honour the building's heritage as a war memorial, and its suitability to house museum pieces.
A new façade for Fenwick
By Emma Feltes // 12 Comments
HALIFAX - Plans revealed at a public consultation last night promise a landmark change in the Halifax landscape. Fenwick tower is getting all dolled up. If all goes according to plan, the building will be turned into luxury apartments within the next couple of years. The former Dalhousie residence will be cloaked in a lavish glass shell, shielding Haligonians from the building's grim, oppressive concrete appearance. The glass exoskeleton will add about 11 metres to the building's girth, flanked by an additional 8-storey and 10-storey building, with street-level restaurants and boutiques.
Happy new ...
November 23rd, 2009
Monday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
FREDERICTON - Councillor wants to crack down on unsightly premises [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - How do you solve a problem like graffiti? [Metro]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Turn the corner - HHPEI reducing ecological footprint [The Guardian]
RICHIBUCTO - St. Paul's is re-opened following restoration [Times & Transcript]
INFRASTRUCTURE
QUISPAMSIS - Town will revel corporate sponsor for Q-Plex today [Telegraph-Journal]
NEW BRUNSWICK - Gov't service shuffled between towns [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - How do we get a good library design? [The Coast]
OTHER NEWS
CHARLOTTETOWN - Public forum on enery set for Nov. 24 [The Guardian]
HALIFAX - School, church among groups in ...
JOHN LORINC: Paul Goldberger on why architecture matters
By John Lorinc // 1 Comment
In an era pre-occupied by "starchitecture" and the dominance of global cities, New Yorker architecture critic Paul Goldberger makes a persuasive case for the importance of workaday structures and the limitations of urban planning.
"I don't buy the notion that you can draw a clear line between great architecture and ordinary buildings," he said Friday during the Canadian Urban Institute's Designing Cities symposium. "Each structure has something to say about the culture that built it."
Goldberger has just released a new book entitled, "Why Architecture Matters" (Yale), in which he sets out to mine the meaning of Winston Churchill's famous aphorism, "We shape our buildings and thereafter they shape us."
Architecture, observed the Roman builder and engineer Vitruvius, encompasses "commodity, firmness and delight," and Goldberger, a Pulitzer Prize winner, cites this enduring definition to point out the paradox at the core of the most visible of all art forms. A building has to be "both useful and the opposite of useful," he says. "It makes sense to think of architecture as both great masterpieces and daily experiences... Sometimes, it is the average [building] that tell us the most."
The current recession, he said during an interview with me on Friday (the full conversation will be available on Spacing Radio on the December 7th episode), has dampened demand for good design. "In the very short term, we're going to struggle to have architecture at all."
Looking beyond the recovery, however, Goldberger feels the next wave of architecture will focus on the need for highly flexible design that recognizes the changing nature of family life. He also predicts that sustainable design "will become so taken for granted that we'll stop talking about it."
Goldberger further argues that bold experiments such as New York's High Line, Broadway's new "piazza" and the West Toronto RailPath mark a distinct trend in the way cities are thinking about the purpose of open space. "We've viewed public space as being about stasis — it's where you sit and don't move."
With cities lacking both money and space to create new Central Parks, they are looking instead to linear parks as a means of re-claiming waterfronts or aging infrastructure. "Cities are about movement and circulation as much as anything else," he observes. "We're looking at places of movement as being public spaces."
How would a National Housing Strategy impact our cities?
By Emma Feltes // 2 Comments
HALIFAX - National Housing Day was first marked on the calendar by a team of Toronto housing advocates on Nov 22, 1998. But this year, more than a decade later, it was infused with new meaning.
Housing is back on the national agenda, with proposed Bill C-304 calling for the development of a national housing strategy designed to ensure safe, adequate, accessible, affordable housing to all Canadians. The Bill, seconded by Halifax MP Megan Leslie, has deep implications for Canadian cities, and the diversity of housing challenges they face. “Housing impacts the health of communities," says Leslie, who is the NDP critic for housing and homelessness. "It’s not just about putting a roof over someone’s head, it is about the health of a community general — the physical health, the mental health, the economic health of a community.”
The need for a national strategy was made amply clear at yesterday's National Housing Day events in Halifax. Gathered at St. Matthew's United Church, a crowd of over 100 marked the opening of the Out of the Cold emergency shelter for a second winter. A collaborative community initiative by the Metro Non-Profit Housing Association, Community Action on Homelessness (CAH), St. Matthew's, and a dedicated team of volunteers, the shelter provides 15 beds for men and women.
A panel consisting of members of the organizing committee, housing advocates, and community members shared stories on why initiatives such as this one are so important in a city like Halifax, wrought with its own unique set of housing challenges. However, the grassroots, community-based strategy provokes conflicted feelings for many of those involved.
The fact that the shelter receives no support from the government is "the elephant in the room that we have to recognize," said Fiona Traynor of Dalhousie Legal Aid. "It's all being done by volunteers, and as great as that is, it's still, in my opinion, a black mark on the federal and provincial governments." This black mark is indicative of the need for a national strategy.
November 24th, 2009
From the Vaults: Dartmouth
By Lauren Oostveen // No Comments
The Nova Scotia Archives is pleased to share photos showcasing the changing faces of urban centers in Nova Scotia. You can learn more about the archives and explore thousands of photos, textual records, maps, art, and more on their website.
Five Corners, Dartmouth, ca. 1897
DARTMOUTH - In the year 1750, the Alderney arrived in Halifax Harbour with 151 immigrants. Officials at Halifax decided that these newcomers should settle on the eastern side of the harbour in an area known to the Mi'kmaq as Boonamoogwaddy or Tomcod Ground.
The area was later given the name of Dartmouth after William Legge, 1st Earl of Dartmouth. By the year 1752, 193 people lived in Dartmouth.
Events Guide: Going backwards/Moving forwards
By Crystal Melville // No Comments
HALIFAX - Tie your shoe laces, dig out your fluorescent track pants, strap on your reflectors and bring any other walking devices/favourites (friends included) for this not to be missed backwards walk! Look out for Eryn Foster, your friends and anyone else who wants to join her, in her last scheduled performance walk for Wanders in the Yonder, Going Backwards/Moving Forwards.
Going Backwards/Moving Forwards is a reverse wander which will commence at the Point Pleasant Lodge on November 29, 2009 at 1pm. Eryn and participating wanderers will walk backwards from Point Pleasant Park to ...
Halifax needs a pedestrian scramble
By Jake Schabas // 12 Comments
HALIFAX - I've watched with joy as cities around the world have embraced pedestrian culture. From one side of the globe to the other, cities have been implementing 'pedestrian scrambles'—intersections where all car traffic is stopped and pedestrians are allowed to cross in any direction without fear of being hit. First known as a Barnes dance, these crossings now grace the streets of Auckland, Tokyo, Kansas City, London and Toronto to name only a few.
About a month ago, Joshua Biggley posted on Charlottetown's recent steps towards getting the first pedestrian scramble in Atlantic Canada. While I applaud their initiative, it strikes me as odd that in Halifax, the region's biggest city, scrambles haven't even been mentioned. So it got me thinking, if Halifax was to get a pedestrian scramble, where would it go?
November 25th, 2009
Wednesday’s headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
CITY HALL
FREDERICTON - Businesses honoured by city [Daily Gleaner]
FREDERICTON - Affordable housing policy changes [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Council considers registry for legal graffiti art [Metro]
URBAN GREEN
SHEDIAC - Shediac hears concerns over loss of green space [Times & Transcript]
SYDNEY - Wentworth Park nears completion [Cape Breton Post]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HALIFAX - Diversity is key to thriving downtown, Sloane says [Metro]
SHEET HARBOUR - Sheet Harbour is getting sidewalks [Chronicle-Herald]
DARTMOUTH - Trail to be finished [Chronicle-Herald]
INFRASTRUCTURE
MONCTON - Work begins on new water line under river [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - $1.3m home for disabled empty amid ...
Events Guide: help Halifax’s homeless keep warm
By Thom Bator // No Comments
HALIFAX - A concert to benefit Out of the Cold, Halifax's emergency winter shelter, is taking place this Sunday, November 29th at the Paragon Theatre.
Out of the Cold is based out of St. Matthew's Church on Barrington. Every night they offer 15 beds to men and women. It receives no government funding, and is run entirely off of community and volunteer support.
Benefit performers include Broken Ohms, Evolution Soldier, Ghettosocks, Jason and Adam McIsaac, The Baketones, The Nomadics, The Repercussionsits and The Troubleshooters.
WHAT: The Emergency Winter Shelter Benefit Concert
WHERE:...
People to the Power!: Civic Reconcilation and Democratic Renewal
By Jason Pelley // 4 Comments
Many familiar with Halifax politics are quick to blame City Council for our civic ills. While cynicism towards Canadian urban city councils is not uncommon; in Halifax our Council is often regarded as a barrier to the implementation of progressive ideas, a rival in civic-minded endeavour and an ineffective mechanism useful only to political stair climbers. But as political participation has waned extra-political citizen engagement has spread; though this alone will not be enough to ...
Where do we need bike lanes most?
By Thom Bator // 8 Comments
HALIFAX - Whether you’re looking to get to work, have some fun or get some exercise, there’s really nothing better than a good old fashioned bike ride. Unfortunately for the cyclists of Halifax, the biking infrastructure in this town is a little bit short on ‘good,’ with a much greater emphasis on the ‘old fashioned’ part.
In fact, biking on the peninsula can be down right dangerous. In most places cyclists have to share the road with cars, trucks, and even the occasional rickshaw in the touristy areas.
As if the the moving vehicles weren’t enough, bikers also have to worry about smashing face first into a car door as somebody gets out of their Honda Civic.
The worst part of it all is that there’s a pretty easy fix for most of these concerns; more bike lanes!
A quick look around Halifax and you’ll realize that the city is really lacking in adequate space to keep cyclists safe on the road.
I think it would be tough to find a cyclist in this city that didn’t agree that Halifax needs more bike lanes, but where do we need them the most?
Pipe dreams: A new stadium in Halifax
By Jake Schabas // 12 Comments
HALIFAX - Over the past couple of weeks, I've been following a thread in the Halifax section of popular online forum Skyscraperpage where discussions over a new major stadium in Halifax have been gaining momentum. To give a little background, many Haligonian sports fans have been clamouring for a new major sports facility for years. Some argue the city should build a new Metro Centre with an arena that could hold substantially more than the 10,000 fans of the current Metro Centre, raising the city's prospects for gaining an NHL franchise some time down the road.
For others, the story properly begins in 2006, with Prime Minister Harper announcing funding for a stadium in Moncton for the 2008 World Junior Athletics Championship. With sports money going elsewhere, the Harper Government's move helped grease Halifax's ill-fated bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games—which would likely have included plans for a new stadium—to be withdrawn following mounting criticism over budgeting in 2007. With the Commonwealth Games abandoned, hopes for building a football stadium that might later host the east coast's first CFL team faded along with it.
Gone but not forgotten. With growing concern for the degradation done to the Halifax Common following summer super-concerts and the continuing inadequacy of other stadiums around the city to host sports like football, soccer and rugby, calls for a new outdoor stadium are again being heard. Here's the letter written by the people over at Skyscraperpage setting out the benefits a new stadium would bring to Halifax:
If You Build It – The Market Master Plan
By Joshua Biggley // No Comments
CHARLOTTETOWN - When Kevin Costner wandered into his corn field and encountered the baseball legends of past generations, he was given this simple reassurance -- "If you build it, they will come." While Costner, playing farmer Ray Kinsella in The Field of Dreams, was trying to not sound too crazy when pitching the idea of a baseball field where his corn once stood, the idea of a Farmer's Market, once the playground of the granola munchers and Mennonites, has gone mainstream with attendees, not the purveyors, going crazy.
World Wide Wednesday: Transit fares, bridges and Dallas’ newest park
By Matthew Blackett // No Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• Dallas, Texas, long-known for a lack of green space and an overabundance of parking lots, is taking bold action to change its reputation and transform its downtown. Last week, ...
November 26th, 2009
Thursday’s headlines
By Jake Schabas // 1 Comment
CITY HALL
HRM - Urban chickens plan re-flight [The Coast]
ROTHESAY - Mayor broaches hot-button subject [Telegraph-Journal]
HRM - Halifax's 'tax reform' war begins in earnest [The Coast]
SAINT JOHN - Snow Removal or Snow Job? [Telegraph-Journal]
HRM - City appoints board for Design Review Committee [Metro]
HRM - Councillors sit in on tax reform [Chronicle-Herald]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
MONCTON - Metro continues to enjoy a building boom [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Green lantern building still shines [The Coast]
FREDERICTON - Will FREX site turn into residential area? [Daily Gleaner]
MONCTON - Court reno cost $500K [Times & Transcript]
SYDNEY - ...
Events Guide: 4 opportunities to celebrate cycling
By Emma Feltes // 1 Comment
HALIFAX - There's a slew of cycling celebrating going on this weekend, kicking off with tonight's party and film screening in honour of the 2nd anniversary of the Halifax Cycling Coalition. Then, get out of your seats and onto your... well, seats, for a series of community bike rides around the peninsula.
1. WHAT: Halifax Cycling Coalition 2nd Anniversary
WHAT TO EXPECT: Cycling trivia, door prizes, screening of documentary film, Veer
WHERE: MacMechan Auditorium, Killam Library, Dalhousie University
WHEN: ...
Breaking News: Draft proposal for new Khyber management released for public review
By Jake Schabas // 3 Comments
HALIFAX - This afternoon, HRM released a draft [pdf] of the potential operating schemes for the future management of the Khyber Bulding. Built for the Church of England Institute in 1888, the building has a long and storied history. Renamed the Khyber Building in the 1970s when the Khyber Cafe opened on the ground floor, since the mid-1990s it has acted as a focal point for the Halifax arts community.
Aside from making major renovation improvements that will, among other things, make the building accessible to all, the City's proposal intends to honour both the heritage of the building and its cultural impact on the city by maintaining its role as a bedrock of the arts community. The question the draft addresses is how this should be accomplished.
The draft proposes five different scenarios:
November 27th, 2009
Friday’s headlines
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
CITY HALL
HRM - Take five with the mayor [Halifax NewsNet]
MONCTON - Moncton tests CFL waters [Times & Transcript]
HRM - Halifax's 'tax reform' favours wealthy and higher value homes [The Coast]
SYDNEY - Council approves $200,000 community sustainability plan [Cape Breton Post]
HRM - Funding for new four-pad arena in Bedford falls short [Halifax NewsNet]
TRURO - Decision as to how council will pay for contribution won't come until the spring [Cape Breton Post]
FREDERICTON - New Brunswick to spend $1.6B on infrastructure [CBC]
HALIFAX - HRM seeks public input on Khyber Building [CBC]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HRM - Bridge ...
Where are Halifax’s worst intersections?
By Thom Bator // 15 Comments
HALIFAX - Bad intersections, every major city in the world has them. They confuse us with complicated traffic signals, make us late for work, and probably cause more than their fair share of accidents.
I decided to go on a quest to point out the worst intersections in Halifax, and maybe even suggest a few fixes along the way. Now you may be wondering, what exactly qualifies me to pontificate on the inadequacies of Halifax traffic infrastructure? Well, to tell you the truth, not much really.
That's why I decided to contact the good people at the Cities and Environment Unit, in the Department of Planning and Architecture at Dalhousie. They all had a discussion and kindly got back to me with their own list of problem intersections in Halifax. As an added bonus they're actually qualified to suggest some legitimate fixes to our fair City's cruddiest crossroads.
SPACING: come to our Toronto release party
By Matthew Blackett // No Comments
WHAT: release party for winter 2009-2010 issue of Spacing
WHEN: Wednesday, December 9, 2009
WHERE: Toronto Reference Library, The Appel Salon, 789 Yonge Street
HOW MUCH: $10 (includes copy of mag), $5 for subscribers
ATTENDING?: RSVP to our Facebook event
If you're in Toronto, make your way to the Toronto Reference Library (7pm-midnight) on Wed. Dec. 9th, to take part in Spacing's 16th issue release party and holiday party. We'll have some games and activities, plus the music to dance to thanks to our resident DJs Track Meet.
Come check out the Reference Library's new event ...
Cornwallis Park (unofficially) rededicated
By Sarah Corey // 2 Comments
HALIFAX - This past Saturday over 100 Haligonians gathered in the park formerly known as Cornwallis Park, across the street from the Westin Hotel. The people in the crowd were a healthy mix of young and old, loud and quiet, politically radical and not-so-radical - everyone had come together to rally against the Halifax International Security Forum. The conference was hosted at the Westin over the weekend as part of NATO’s recent work to reconfigure itself as a security force.
Many Canadians who are opposed to Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan and in NATO are concerned that the ...
November 30th, 2009
Monday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
CITY HALL
MONCTON - Poverty advocacy group criticizes gov't plan [Times & Transcript]
PEI - MLA proposing provincial ombusman [Guardian]
PEI - Big spending until 2012-2013 [Guardian]
SAINT JOHN - Truth be told, size doesn't really matter [Telegraph-Journal]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HALIFAX - City seeks input on future of The Khyber [Metro]
GEORGETOWN - The little theatre that could [Guardian]
SAINT JOHN - Planning for a vibrant, 24-hour city [Telegraph-Journal]
TATAMAGOUCHE - 'You can meet your needs on LETS' [Truro Daily]
DEVELOPMENT
MONCTON - Moncton's new $50-million courthouse will be limited [Times & Transcript]
MONCTON - Museum to get $7.6M addition [Times & ...
Inside HRMbyDesign Part I: Heritage
By Thom Bator // No Comments
For the next month, Spacing Atlantic will engage in an in-depth analysis of HRMbyDesign, the ambitious plan set fourth by the municipal government to transform the region over the next 25 years. This series of weekly installments will move through the plan's various nooks and crannies, and carve out a unique and fresh perspective on the HRMbyDesign process.
________________________________________________________________________
Odds are if you’re reading Spacing Atlantic, you have at least some knowledge about HRMbyDesign.
While there’s been lots of coverage of plan in the the media, most of it has not been particularly comprehensive. One reason for the limited nature of the coverage is the fact that the documents which lay out the groundwork for HRMbyDesign are composed of typically dry, jargon filled, government bureaucrat speak — not exactly a fun afternoon read.
Luckily for the readers of Spacing Atlantic, I’m interning here for a month and I pretty much have to do whatever they tell me.
Thus, we begin the first of Spacing Atlantic’s in-depth series on HRMbyDesign. This week we’ll be looking at the heritage portions of the plan.
The majority of the information that will be looked at here was found in two documents: Downtown Halifax Secondary Municipal Planning Strategy [ PDF ] (which, for the purposes of brevity, I’ll call the Downtown Plan) and Barrington Street Heritage Conservation District Revitalization Plan [PDF](The Barrington Plan).
The fact is, there are a lot of really cool old buildings in Halifax. Andy Fillmore, the Urban Design Project Manager for the Capital District, told me that there are currently 126 registered heritage properties in the downtown study area. The protection of these properties is a central component of the whole downtown plan.
The main way that heritage properties will find further protection under HRMbyDesign is through the creation of heritage districts.
December 1st, 2009
Tuesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
CITY HALL
MONCTON - Protestors take MLAs to task over NB Power sale [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Poverty team announced [Daily Gleaner]
NFLD - N.L. presses Quebec to reopen Upper Churchill deal [Telegram]
HALIFAX - Students rally for quicker action on the environment [Metro]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
FREDERICTON - Mystery blankets downtown [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Planned Halifax farmer's market building earning 'worldwide' attention [Metro]
DARTMOUTH - Woodlawn library opening delayed [Chronicle-Herald]
ST. JOHN'S - Newfoundland revives colourful past with traditional palette [Globe & Mail]
NUTTBY - Nuttby Mountain wind project approved [Truro Daily]
SAINT JOHN - Bus ride inspired artwork ...
Get better acquainted with your city over a good book
By Thom Bator // 5 Comments
HALIFAX - Halifax has a rich 260 year history. A lot of fascinating stuff has happened here, much of it has even been written down. Here’s a quick selection of some neat books I found on Halifax, and they’re all available through your local public library.
1. Halifax Street Names: An Illustrated Guide, edited by Shelia Mackenzie. Halifax: Formac Publishing Company Limited, 2002. 189 pages.
If you find it at all interesting to know that Robie Street was named after Nova Scotian Judge Simon Bradstreet Robie (1770-1858), or that in the mid 19th century the south end of Brunswick street was known as ‘Knock-’em-down Street” because of the frequent brawls outside of the brothels and taverns on the east side, then this is the book for you. Halifax Street Names provides the reader with the histories of some of Halifax's over 5000 streets. The book also has a number of cool photos of Halifax over the years. Halifax Street Names is sure to bring a little added appreciation to your daily dog walks and bike rides.
The Queen of the urban green: Victoria Park
By Jake Schabas // 1 Comment
HALIFAX - With the cold weather here to stay, the Halifax Public Gardens has closed its gates for the season. As sad as this is, you won’t find tears in my eyes. Don’t get me wrong, I really do like the Public Gardens, I just wish it didn’t steal so much of the spotlight away from my favourite downtown green space: Victoria Park.
With the gardens now closed, Victoria Park can take back the limelight. Existing in the shadow of HRM’s most well-known urban park, you’d think it would suffer from neglect, vandalism or any number of a whole host of problems. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Victoria Park is teeming with life. Full of benches, monuments to old Scottish poets and gathering spaces, the park attracts people day and night (despite technically closing at 10pm), summer and winter like few other places in the city.
Part of this has to do with how the park relates to its immediate surroundings. With bus stops on its north, east and south sides, a bike lane running along its eastern edge (one of the few in downtown Halifax) and criss-crossing pathways for pedestrians cutting diagonally through the park, Victoria Park is a model for multi-modal transportation.
December 2nd, 2009
Wednesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
CITY HALL
NB - N.B. budget highlights [Times & Transcript]
NB - Budget puts N.B. $748M further in debt [Daily Gleaner]
SAINT JOHN - Province's deficit doesn't concern city's mayor [Telegraph-Journal]
QUISPAMSIS - Council hears about green power [Telegraph-Journal]
URBAN GREEN
NS - Province investing millions in green transportation [Metro]
NS - Province kicks in for green systems [Chronicle-Herald]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Lawn pesticide ban tabled in legislature [Guardian]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
FREDERICTON - Sculpture 'will capture people's imagination' [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Signage to smooth bridge traffic [Chronicle-Herald]
SAINT JOHN - Getting to maybe: Are we ready to change? [Telegraph-Journal]
DEVELOPMENT
MONCTON - 3 ...
Trusting Traffic: The Fantasy and Fatality of PEI Drivers
By Joshua Biggley // 4 Comments
CHARLOTTETOWN - I've got trust issues. Years of training and indoctrination, which were to have prepared me to be an active participant in my personal locomotion, have been shattered in recent months. It wasn't intentional. Far from it, in fact. In spite of my sometimes rabble-rousing tendencies, I prefer a world with structure, a framework, some sort of shared agreement of civility. In retrospect, and to quote Cool Hand Luke, "what we have here is failure to communicate."
The mobility of society is based on a sacred oath that simply states that everyone will follow the same set of common rules at all times so, baring tragedy, we know what to expect when we interact with one another. Whether as a pedestrian, a cyclist, a motorist, or some sort of Segway-powered anomaly, the rules are common and understood. It is that oath that has been broken in my new provincial home.
World Wide Wednesday: Las Vegas, Dubai and Mecca
By Matthew Blackett // No Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• CityCenter, Las Vegas' newest mega-project, debuts to the public next week. Designed by 8 notable architects to function as a city in-itself, the $8.5 billion, 67-acre, glass-and-steel structure is home ...
Spacing Atlantic On Twitter
By Thom Bator // No Comments
Can’t get enough of Spacing Atlantic? Then check out our new account on Twitter.
We’ll be sending out links to stories on topics that don’t make it onto the blog, engaging fellow tweeters in spirited discussion of urban issues, and cracking all kinds of lame — but always thematically appropriate — jokes.
Check us out at www.twitter.com/spacingatlantic.
illustration by Rebecca Roher
December 3rd, 2009
Thursday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
CITY HALL
NB - Campobello Islanders to decide on self-government [Telegraph Journal]
SAINT JOHN - Getting to maybe: are we ready for change? [Telegraph Journal]
FREDERICTON - City puts out challenge to young artists [Daily Gleaner]
URBAN GREEN
NS - Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes wilderness threatened [the Coast]
TRURO - Farmers doing good job protecting town’s water [Truro Daily News]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Province changing Lands Protection Act [The Guardian]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
ST JOHN'S - Newfoundlanders revive colourful past with traditional palette [Globe & Mail]
MONCTON - How safe are Metro's crosswalks? [Times and Transcript]
CHARLOTTETOWN - CADC ...
From the Vaults: Scotia Square
By Lauren Oostveen // 1 Comment
The Nova Scotia Archives is pleased to share photos showcasing the changing faces of urban centers in Nova Scotia. You can learn more about the archives and explore thousands of photos, textual records, maps, art, and more on their website.
Duke Street Tower, Scotia Square, Under Construction ca. 1967
HALIFAX - From the Nova Scotia Historical Quarterly:
Those familiar with the busy shops and high office towers of the Scotia Square complex in downtown Halifax will not find it easy to picture the area as it was a century or more ago. Near the original townsite the streets were early laid out, and soon became lined with homes, stores, warehouses and public buildings. Argyle, Grafton, and Albemarle (later Market) streets all extended north to Jacob Street, which ran east down the hill to Lockman (now Barrington) and was not far from the present extension of Cogswell.
Then north from Jacob ran Starr to Hurd’s Lane, and Poplar Grove, a no-exit street. From the corner of Barrington and Duke to Hurd’s Lane may be found the sites of nine places of worship...
Public access to waterfront in Port of Spain, Trinidad
By Spacing Atlantic // 1 Comment
Cross-posted from Spacing Ottawa, by Michael Frojmovic
OUTER SPACE - For those not familiar with local fare in Trinidad & Tobago, a mix of dried channa (chickpea), roasted peanuts and splitpeas is certainly one of the world’s great beer snacks. Accompanied by a cold Carib beer and a demi-caraffe of water served up in the air-conditioned lounge of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, they help nurse a tired pedestrian through the 15 minutes it takes to recover from an 30-minute evening walk through Port of Spain. Walking in Trinidad after sunset is not a common practice. If you travel on foot from New Town, through Woodbrook, to the Hyatt, you'll face long stretches of empty streets, punctuated by the odd vagrant, without even a single honk from taxi drivers. Even as the sun sets, the humidity remains oppressive.
My own destination was Port of Spain’s newest waterfront development; specifically, the publicly accessible waterfront promenade. A waterfront city, Port of Spain was designed – much as numerous Canadian and American cities – with its back turned to the water. From a pedestrian’s point of view, the waterfront was separated by walled-in port facilities, and a major 6-lane arterial roadway (Wrightson Road) which functions as a highway.
Events Guide: ChangeCamp Halifax
By Thom Bator // No Comments
HALIFAX - ChangeCamp Halifax is one of many ChangeCamps being run across the country that aim to encourage public participation through harnessing digital media and social networking. The event will include presentations and 'breakout sessions,' where different groups will discuss political issues of particular significance to Halifax like “what changes would you like to see in the area of sustainable transportation, community housing, transparency in public information, poverty alleviation, etc.?”
Groups will then discuss both web-based and non-web-based strategies to address these issues in workshops and short sessions. ChangeCamp Halifax promises to be non-partisan ...
December 4th, 2009
Friday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
CITY HALL
HALIFAX - Handling of sewage treatment plant stinks, poll finds [Metro News]
MONCTON - Workshop seeks to define priorities and identify goals for neighbourhood [Times and Transcript]
URBAN GREEN
NS - Environmentalists doubt green forestry claim [Chronicle Herald]
NS - Biomass issue needs clarification [Chronicle Herald]
SAINT JOHN - Group aims to cut number of lone commuters [Telegraph Journal]
FREDERICTON - Farmers' market to open for three Sundays [Daily Gleaner]
OTHER
MONCTON - Which intersections are most dangerous for pedestrians? [Times and Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Project will give 12 families a new start [Daily Gleaner]
CHARLOTTETOWN - SuperStore outlets lend ...
Halifax Explosion Events Guide: Walking tour, memorial service and reception
By Jake Schabas // 2 Comments
HALIFAX - Ninety-two years ago this Sunday, as the First World War was raging across the Atlantic, the SS Mont-Blanc munitions convoy and the SS Imo collided in the Halifax Harbour, setting off an explosion of unprecedented force that leveled much of the city. Few events have so drastically impacted the future life and built form of a city in so singular and tragic a moment as the explosion, which literally blasted the small city of Halifax onto the world stage at the cost of over 1,900 lives and much of the city's north end.
Today the Halifax Explosion Memorial Bell Tower stands on the top of Fort Needham Park overlooking the site of the explosion in commemoration to those whose lives and homes were destroyed by the blast. Yet other less obvious reminders of the explosion abound in Halifax. With the aid money that poured into the city following the blast from places as diverse as China, New Zealand and Boston, over 3,000 houses were repaired within the first seven weeks. The unique architecture and layout of the 328 Hydrostone houses are also the product of rebuilding efforts.
The Nova Scotia Archives has just completed an extensive online virtual exhibit featuring photographs, documents and other material showing life in Halifax before and after the explosion. For those interested in learning more about these and other stories, a number of events are taking place this week to mark the 92nd anniversary of the Halifax Explosion.
December 5th, 2009
The Daily Sea: Georges Island
By Julia Grummitt // 4 Comments
Georges Island is the largest island located entirely within the limits of the Halifax Harbour. Not currently open to the public, Parks Canada plans to open the National Historic Site to visitors within the next 3 to 5 years (2012-2014).
December 6th, 2009
Atlantic snapshots: Snow’s here
By The Photographers // 1 Comment
Point Pleasant Park, Halifax
Jen Polegatto
Who really doesn't like the snow?
More than just pretty bright colours
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
ST. JOHN'S - Who would've known there's more to a lick a' paint than meets the eye in St. John's? While many cities in Atlantic Canada have brightly coloured houses, in St. John's, painted houses are a matter of historic importance. For the last few years, the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador has had a paint chart in effect that sets the standards and guidelines for house painting along supposedly traditional lines.
Based on the paint chart, Newfoundland's traditional pallete includes colours like Misky rain (a beige colour), Mussels in the ...
December 7th, 2009
Monday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // 2 Comments
POLITICS
FREDERICTON - Battles between premiers rages on [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Mayor aware of his environment [Chronicle-Herald]
SAINT JOHN - Harbour cleanup delayed? [Telegraph-Journal]
URBAN GREEN
TRURO - Local congregations urge to make noise about climate justice [Truro Daily]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
MONCTON - Metro's fine dining should be promoted [Times & Transcript]
BAIE VERTE - Baie Verte talks about rural planning [Times & Trancript]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Governing park subject of public meeting [Guardian]
SAINT JOHN - A success story that isn't spreading [Telegraph-Journal]
SAINT JOHN - Wanted: 10 people who care about city [Telegraph-Journal]
HALIFAX - Metro Transit seeks more cash ...
The Daily Sea: Public Gardens
By Julia Grummitt // 4 Comments
Sometimes the bandstand is used for free concerts, and sometimes not.
Canada Games Center: a construction project with benefits
By Thom Bator // No Comments
HALIFAX - Things are progressing nicely in the construction of the Canada Games Center on Halifax’s Mainland North Common. Margaret Soley in HRM's department of Infrastructure and Asset Management says that construction crews are hitting all of their major targets as far as time-line is concerned. She expects that the field house, fitness center and community center components of the facility will be weather-tight by December 22nd of this year with the remaining pool area all sealed up by late January 2010. If this keeps up, Soley expects that the Center will be finished on time and on budget for the December 2011 deadline.
The Center is being constructed for the 2011 Canada Winter Games, which will take place throughout Halifax and the surrounding area. It's the largest project associated with the games, and with a $40 million price tag, HRM sees the center as "the cornerstone of the sporting legacy that will accompany the 2011 Canada Winter Games."
Halifax and the surrounding area will see a number of other infrastructure improvements related to the games, in total there will be $15 million in other capital improvements: Ski Martock and Ski Wentworth are receiving a combined $7.6 million to make improvements to their trails and snow making abilities; St. Margret's Center in St Margret's Bay is getting a little more than nine-hundred thousand dollars for improvements to its ice rink and seating; and the Halifax Forum is also getting about $900,000 for improvements to its dressing room and concourse areas. You can see a full list of all the improvements here.
St. Mary’s cultivates a greener city
By Jesse Mintz // 3 Comments
HALIFAX - While urban spaces are being rethought across the country, Halifax's own St. Mary's University is leading the way in the Maritimes. As it stands now, there is only so much room for green space in our urban environment. Think about it: industrial sectors, vast networks of paved streets and highways, swaths of residential neighborhoods and commercial districts make up the edifice of the modern city, and this built environment has in large part succeeded in separating us from nature.
To be sure, we’re getting better at reversing this trend. The green building movement is gaining momentum and city planners and developers are – albeit slowly – becoming increasingly cognizant of the need to incorporate more of the natural into our built environments.
Green spaces, though, are not mere city frills; they need to be thought of, rather, as necessities of urban space in the same vein as schools and public transportation. Beyond the touted restorative powers of nature, parks provide many other benefits to a city, including ecological biodiversity and natural temperature regulation. However, as long as green spaces are confined to the areas between buildings these benefits will be scarcely felt.
Unused space atop every building affords a rare chance to bring a little more nature into the concrete jungle while simultaneously providing important ecological services in urban areas. If legislation recently passed in Toronto and currently being considered in Vancouver and Ottawa is any indication, green roofs will soon become much more prevalent in our cities.
More specifically, St. Mary's University is currently exploring the economic and enviromental viability of applying green roof technology in Halifax, both in terms of new construction projects and retrofitting existing buildings.
Copenhagen Climate Summit: from global to local
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
With the Copenhagen Climate Summit kicking off today, we over at Spacing Atlantic thought it only appropriate to take part in this truly international media scrum on environmental issues that some are describing as "the perfect storm." Aside from being recognized as one of the most important meetings in the last few decades, Cop 15 is also an important moment for bloggers, twitterers and other members of the non-mainstream media who will easily outnumber those coming from the more mainstream press agencies.
We are all a part of the global community, and despite not being one of the 15,000 attending the meetings, we very much hope that by engaging with local urban spaces in Atlantic Canada, we play a part (however small) in working towards accomplishing many of the same goals underlying the climate talks currently underway in Copenhagen.
On that note, as these talks continue over the next two weeks, we will shine the spotlight on some local initiatives of city-dwellers in Atlantic Canada who are working towards making our urban landscapes more sustainable, environmentally friendly and green.
To kick off the two weeks, we'd like to post 'Fourteen days to seal history's judgement on this generation,' an international editorial co-written by the editors of more than 20 major newspapers around the world. This editorial is under a creative commons license and is free to reproduce.
Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.
Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted.
December 8th, 2009
Tuesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
FREDERICTON - City: Don't expect lower tax rate [Daily Gleaner]
CHARLOTTETOWN - New political party sets sights for 2011 [Guardian]
FREDERICTON - Minister pushes regional partnerships in Halifax [Times & Transcript]
URBAN GREEN
FREDERICTON - Man hopes conservation council will join fight [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Ex-councillor urges HRM to protect wilderness [Chronicle-Herald]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
DARTMOUTH - Councillor: City should clear some snowy trails [Chronicle-Herald]
SAINT JOHN - Waterfront key to growth [Telegraph-Journal]
QUISPAMSIS - Developer wants deadline for project extended [Telegraph-Journal]
DEVELOPMENT
MONCTON - Sunny Brae moratorium maintained [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Pipelines costly for businesses [Chronicle-Herald]
TRURO - Extra ...
Burying the Pit
By Katie McKay // 9 Comments
HALIFAX - For nearly a decade, the parking lot at Lower Water and Morris streets has been the headquarters of one the city's most unique and unregulated cultural spaces. During the weekday, permit holders park their cars in the sunken pit. In its off-hours, it has hosted a multitude of unsanctioned activities. On the weekend, a regular crowd plays street hockey, and at night, car enthusiasts gather there to compare engines. The green space that surrounds the parking lot serves as an unofficial park; a place for people to hang out and for the homeless to sleep. It has been the backdrop for countless music videos and photo shoots, and a battling ground for freestylers. The most evident feature of this unique pseudo-public space is the wall that encapsulates the parking lot that operates as a dynamic open-air gallery for graffiti artists.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="614" caption="The Pit: parking lot and former legal wall. NSP offices under construction in the background."][/caption]
Up until very recently, the pit was considered a legal wall (or 'free wall') — the only place in the city where graffiti artists could freely practice their skills without fearing arrest. Since September, this freedom has been revoked. Without any formal communication to the artist community or surrounding neighbours, police began to crack down on graffiti activity in the pit, telling artists they were unwelcome and that what they were doing was illegal.
What gives? What changed?
Barrington 2010: ChangeCamp plans for a street in limbo
By Emma Feltes // 2 Comments
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="photo by Tracy Boyer Morris"][/caption]
HALIFAX - It all began on twitter. Who knew the internet phenom that limits verbosity to simple, codified one-liners could spur the transformation of an actual, real, living (well, floundering) downtown street?
Well, all those social media folks, that's who. But twitter was just the twigger. Those same folks helped to bring the conversation on the uncertain future of Barrington Street — dubbed 'Barrington 2010' — from virtual to empirical and back again at Halifax's ChangeCamp this Saturday, Dec 5th at The Hub.
The basic premise of ChangeCamp is to engage public participation and collaboration around the challenges impacting our communities through an open, participatory event format that combines 'web-enabled' elements (i.e. twitter and wiki pages) with face-to-face discussion. Halifax joins a host of Canadian cities that have held similar 'camps,' including Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver — while smaller cities like Barrie and Victoria, will pitch their own tents on the campsite, with events in the works.
Barrington 2010 was just one among 10 or 15 discussions on Saturday, which ranged from sustainable transportation to municipal reform to mobility challenges in the city. Each session was unique: some lasting just an hour, and those requiring more developed strategies — like Barrington 2010 — spanning the whole day.
I stuck around with the Barrington team, inspired by The Hub's Joanne Macrae, who, early in the first session warned us of the gravity of the street's decline: "we're at the perilous edge of losing a lot in the downtown core." This set the scene, propelling a smaller contingent to use the second morning session to take to the street, taking video, photo and audio documentation of Barrington and its various travelers. The ideas garnered on this venture were then brought back to the Hub, where the afternoon was spent developing and mapping them out, with a new initiative set forth for Halifax's precarious downtown street.
HRMbyDesign Part II: Revitalising downtown
By Thom Bator // No Comments
For the next month, Spacing Atlantic will engage in an in-depth analysis of HRMbyDesign, the ambitious plan set fourth by the municipal government to transform the region over the next 25 years. This series of weekly installments will move through the plan's various nooks and crannies, and carve out a unique and fresh perspective on the HRMbyDesign process.
________________________________________________________________________
HALIFAX - One of the central objectives to HRMbyDesign is the revitalization of the downtown core. The hope is that the new, more clearly defined zoning and design rules will create a climate that is hospitable to developers and retailers, while encouraging Haligionians to both live and work in the downtown core.
In the opinion of one of the leaders of Halifax's business community, HRMbyDesign lays a lot of the ground work necessary to reach these goals.
Paul Mackinnon is the executive director of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission. He says the biggest advantage of HRMbyDesign is clarity: “We’ve been lobbying council to come up with a new downtown plan for years, because for he past 30 years it was a mixed plan strategy...that document was very vague and sometimes even contradictory about how you could develop downtown.”
The old rules really held back potential development project. “We’ve had examples of a developer who thinks he's proposing something within the rules actually having to wait three years to get approval," says Mackinnon. The new planning rules under HRMbyDesign are by contrast much simpler. “The greatest change in terms of zoning is the complete removal of the previous complicated mosaic of land use zones, and its replacement with two simple zones: DH-1 (downtown mixed use), and ICO (institutional, cultural and open space),” says Andy Fillmore, urban design project manager with the Capital District.
December 9th, 2009
Wednesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
HALIFAX - HRM facing $30M budget shortfall [Chronicle-Herald]
HALIFAX - Dexter off to Copenhagen to sell green investors on NS [Metro]
SAINT JOHN - Parking ban exemption proposed [Telegraph-Journal]
URBAN GREEN
MONCTON- Prof touts wind power [Times & Transcript]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Greater protection of victoria park needed [Guardian]
DEVELOPMENT
MONCTON - City tables economic development report [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Talks to save heritage building continue [Chronicle-Herald]
ST. JOHN'S - New home construction remains steady [Telegram]
OTHER NEWS
FREDERICTON - No official NB day at Vancouver Olympic [Times & Transcript]
HRMbyDesign part III: Environmental sustainability
By Thom Bator // No Comments
For the next month, Spacing Atlantic will engage in an in-depth analysis of HRMbyDesign, the ambitious plan set fourth by the municipal government to transform the region over the next 25 years. This series of weekly installments will move through the plan's various nooks and crannies, and carve out a unique and fresh perspective on the HRMbyDesign process.
________________________________________________________________________
HALIFAX - The language of the Downtown Halifax Secondary Regional Planning Strategy (Downtown Plan) places great emphasis on environmental sustainability. The plan views sustainability as “[a] fundamental underpinning of the design approach to the Regional Center and downtown Halifax.” In spite of the high value that HRM places on sustainability, the Downtown Plan in its current form falls flat on this particular issue in a few ways.
One way that HRMbyDesign says the downtown can move towards greater sustainability is by improving public infrastructure in ways that encourage walking, cycling and use of public transit. I'll be focusing on the cycling and pubic transit implications of HRMbyDesign in next week's installment, so for now let’s hone in on the pedestrian elements of the plan.
York Street liquor station
By Andrew Matheson // 2 Comments
Co-written by Giovanni Paquin and Andrew Matheson
FREDERICTON - Reconstruction has finally begun on Fredericton’s beloved yet long-neglected York Street Railway Station. The future of the dilapidated landmark has been the subject of much discussion in this city for years. The potential reuse of this site understandably spurred the imagination of many Frederictonians. Its heritage status, unique architecture and central location led to numerous proposals from the community over the years, including a new home for the local Royal Canadian Legion branch and a train museum.
Train service to Fredericton ended in 1962 and in 1995 all CP rail lines to the city were ripped up. While the torn up rail lines have been transformed into one of the nation’s most extensive public trails networks (which we foresee discussing in more detail in future contributions), the same cannot be said for the trackless station, which was abandoned and has languished for more than a decade.
Mo’ money, (fo’) mo’ transit study
By Alex Boutilier // 3 Comments
HALIFAX - Remember that extensive, expensive transit study that was made public a month or two back? Theone I wouldn’t shut up about? Well apparently it wasn’t extensive or expensive enough.
City staff asked for more money to further study two aspects of public transit – the Access-a-Bus program and the city’s ferry service – at last night’s regional council meeting.
How much more money, you ask? Only about $69,100 [PDF]. Of course, that’s $69,100 on top of $258,200.16 already paid out to the IBI Group, the independent consulting firm behind the Metro Transit Five-Year Strategic ...
December 10th, 2009
Thursdays Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
CITY HALL
MONCTON - City tables economic development report [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - 33 politicians to get city hall back pay [Chronicle Herald]
TRURO - NDP wants your input [Truro Daily News]
SAINT JOHN - Search for city manager down to two candidates [Telegraph Journal]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HALIFAX - Starfish reveals plans for the old Sam the mp3 man [the Coast]
HALIFAX - Why everyone loses under the city’s new property tax plan [the Coast]
TRURO - Truro aims to curb 'indecent behaviour' at popular cruising spot [Metro]
ST JOHN'S - The root of the problem [The Telegram]
URBAN GREEN
HALIFAX - ...
COP15: What does it mean for Atlantic Canadians?
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // 4 Comments
I have been struggling with the idea of COP15: What is the best that could happen? What is the worst? How does it impact Atlantic Canada in the best or worst case? Instead of having this conversation in my head, here are some thoughts from me in hopes of sparking dialogue with you.
"It is one thing to run a campaign against climate change. It is quite another to paint a picture of a low carbon future that is so engaging and compelling that it enthuses others to embark on ...
Eat local for a sustainable future: it’s not always easy, but it’s worth it.
By Thom Bator // No Comments
HALIFAX - In our current era of environmental awareness, people are increasingly coming to appreciate the importance of getting their food from local sources. Eating local foods is old news to most rural Canadians; they’ve long been enjoying the products of their local farmers markets and backyard gardens. But for us city dwellers, it's a relatively new concept.
One restaurant that has been a major player in Halifax’s local foods movement is The Wooden Monkey. For six years, the Wooden Monkey has been serving up tasty and creative cuisine — primarily from local sources. Christine Bower is one of the co-owners. She says that there are a number of unique challenges to running a restaurant that uses mainly local suppliers.
December 11th, 2009
Friday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
CITY HALL
TRURO - Colchester County approves extra funds for civic centre [Truro Daily News]
HALIFAX - Vandalism merits its own hotline, councillor fumes [Chroncile Herald]
NS - N.S. insists it’s used half its housing fund [Chronicle Herald]
URBAN GREEN
TRURO - First United Church making noise for climate change [Truro Daily News]
NS - Will clearcutting get the axe in Nova Scotia? [Metro]
FREDERICTON - Woman says she didn't know signing letter meant she was supporting quarry blasting [Daily Gleaner]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
DARTMOUTH - Smith seeks new law on derelict buildings [Chroncile Herald]
TRURO - Pilot project lights the way with ...
Farm City Living: Backyard Chickens and Urban Agriculture
By Mark Lamovsek // 5 Comments
HALIFAX - Enthusiasm for local food is on the rise in Halifax. One only needs to witness the bustle of the Saturday morning farmers’ market. It’s so busy that the market is moving to a bigger location to accommodate the crowds. New markets are popping up all over the city. Whether it’s from a North End street-side market or one found in a South End parking lot, more and more people are buying local food.
Although most Haligonians embrace the local food movement, Halifax city council isn’t on board; at least when it comes to urban poultry. The beginning of 2008 saw city council taking a stance against food security with its decision to ban backyard laying hens. Almost two years later, it seems that urban agriculture enthusiasts and amateur chicken farmers will get another chance to plead their case.
The issue first came into the limelight in January 2008 in the West End of Halifax. At the time, Louise Hanavan was raising three laying hens in her backyard, collecting fresh eggs and using the manure to compost her garden. But a complaint from a neighbour put an end to her small-scale urban farm. Reg Harper claimed that the chickens were attracting rats and not long after, Hanavan was given official notice to move the hens off the peninsula. It seems foolish that this single complaint about attracting vermin (in a port city that is full of mice, rats, cats and other assorted pests) was enough to derail the entire city’s foray into urban agriculture.
Public art hopes to unify community in a low-income suburb
By Shaina Luck // 1 Comment
HALIFAX - Spryfield’s public spaces aren’t often associated with art. In many people’s minds, the suburban neighbourhood is associated with violence, graffiti tags, and low-income housing projects, but that could be all the more reason to make art in the community, says Miro Davis, a Spryfield-based artist.
“You hear about it,” she says. “You hear all these stories about it, all this trouble...all the problems.” Yet Davis strongly believes that art – and particularly community art – has great power to bring together people and space in a visual way.
“Introducing something that is a spectacular process, that’s happening in a place that has a rough reputation, shows the beauty in that particular place,” she says.
Davis has been commissioned to involve the community in a public art project, which will be called Water Falls — a 15-foot-tall project of plastic, metal, and lighting. The project is going to be installed in the Captain William Spry community centre.
Contest: give Halifax a nickname
By Thom Bator // 13 Comments
HALIFAX - What makes a city great?
Is it a beautiful skyline? A rich cultural heritage? Maybe it’s an exciting nightlife.
These are all possibilities of course, but I personally think that when it comes right down to it, the thing that makes a city great is its nickname.
When I think about it, all of my personal favourite cities have one: New York is the Big Apple, London is the Big Smoke, Chicago is the Windy City, Vancouver is the City of Glass, Hamilton is the Hammer, even Toronto is Hogtown.
I Halifax is another awesome city, ...
Spacing Saturday
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Spacing Saturday is a new feature that highlights posts from across Spacing's blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Spacing Saturday replaces the weekly features Montreal Monday and Toronto Tuesday.
• Public space activists in Toronto cheered this week as City Council voted to implement a new bylaw and tax on commercial billboards.
• Spacing Toronto's Shawn Micallef writes about the "overwhelming" experience of visiting Richard Serra's ...
December 14th, 2009
Monday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
HALIFAX - HRM has taxation renovation blues [Chronicle-Herald]
URBAN GREEN
MONCTON - Climate change rally held in Metro [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - 'Canada needs to do more to stop global warming' [Daily Gleaner]
SAINT JOHN - More harbour cleanup cash unlike: MP [Telegraph-Journal]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
PORTAPIQUE - Unsightly properties [Truro Daily]
SUMMERSIDE - Housing starts to dip, value of building permits jumps in Summerside [Guardian]
HERITAGE
SAINT JOHN - Carnegie or criminals? [Telegraph-Journal]
MONCTON - Dick Carpenter proud of Metro's heritage [Times & Transcript]
DEVELOPMENT
HALIFAX - $4.2M provided for N.S. Mi'kmaq housing, cultural centre [Metro]
TRURO - Ottawa passes cash for ...
Spacing Radio 013: Albino Squrriels, Paul Goldberger, and Transit Investment
By Matthew Blackett // No Comments
CHECK OUT THIS WEEK'S SPACING RADIO PODCAST: To coincide with the release of Spacing magazine’s new issue on urban animals, Spacing Radio sent our producer Mieke Anderson on a quest to find Toronto’s elusive albino squirrel (who is also the star of the magazine’s cover) with Jane Farrow (an albino squirrel know-it-all). Spacing’s contributing editor John Lorinc sat down with noted architecture critic Paul Goldberger to discuss the outlook on building cities in a difficult economic climate. We also sent our new contributor Sarah Bridge to an international transit conference to find ...
Tax reform proposal needs to update idea of urban
By Jake Schabas // 3 Comments
HALIFAX - Last Thursday, Tim Bousquet wrote a great article on the potentially damaging impact of the ‘tax reforms’ proposed by HRM's Tax Reform Committee. The general thrust of the piece exposed how the tax reform plan essentially hopes to replace the traditionally progressive notion that the more your home is worth, the more you pay in taxes, to the more urban-friendly idea that property tax should be based on “the cost of the services actually received by the property owner.”
I like to think of myself as an urbanist — someone who believes that healthy and vibrant cities hold the key to a better future for us politically, socially, environmentally and culturally — so seen through this lens, making suburbanites pay for the strain they impose on civic infrastructure through sprawl, car-based transportation, etc. holds its appeal. I think to myself, maybe that’ll be the kick in the pants they need to finally leave their McMansions and move downtown?
But we no longer live in the 1970s. This is no longer the era of “white flight” where the suburbs are populated by middle and upper-class Caucasians fleeing the blight and increasing multiculturalism of urban centres. When we refer to ‘inner city’ struggles today, issues like gentrification, condoization, historic preservation and public space debates are generally what come to mind, not topics like violent crime, poverty and racialized ghettos — problems which peaked in the downtowns of cities decades ago and have since slowly receded into the background, often literally.
December 15th, 2009
Tuesday’s headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
N.B. - 2010 to ring in strong economy [Daily Gleaner]
SAINT JOHN - Protestors take message to MLA offices [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - First night of parking ban means big bucks for city [Metro]
N.S. - Update shows slight improvement for provincial coffers [Metro]
CHARLOTTETOWN - City brings back tax incentive program [Guardian]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HALIFAX - Nineteenth-century building at heart of relocation talks [Metro]
HALIFAX - Groups confident historic building will be spared [Chronicle-Herald]
ST. JOHN'S - Protestors demand improved sidewalk snow removal [Telegram]
URBAN GREEN
SAINT JOHN - Pristine property will be preserved [Telegraph-Journal]
SAINT JOHN - Urban spaces, ...
Charlottetown ICSP – A Time for Review
By Joshua Biggley // 3 Comments
CHARLOTTETOWN - In November, the city of Charlottetown hosted a public meeting to review the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan with the hopes of garnering feedback on ideas relating to the fiscal, social, environmental and cultural fabric of our city. Instead of feedback on the ICSP, Stantec and the city got an earful about the failure of the 'dot-mocracy' methodology, including at least one urban advocate walking out on the process. The process was, from the outset, the subject of criticism for targeting a specific demographic, socially, fiscally ...
December 16th, 2009
Wednesday’s headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
DIEPPE - New committee system in Dieppe [Times & Transcript]
MIRAMICHI - Miramichi 2010 tax rate goes up [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON -City tax hike not ruled out [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Councillors gives cold shoulder to winter parking ban 'tax grab' [Metro]
URBAN GREEN
HRM - Mark Parent: HRM back-tracking on wilderness park is "height of political Machiavellianism" [Coast]
SYDNEY - Report calls for provincial entity to oversee renewable energy resources [Cape Breton Post]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HRM - Council defers decision of Bedford fast ferry service [Metro]
SAINT JOHN - Book sends message about maintaining city's gems [Telegraph-Journal]
DEVELOPMENT
FREDERICTON - ...
Bike parking on Quinpool
By Thom Bator // 2 Comments
HALIFAX - Quinpool Road is a great place to do a little shopping, grab a bite to eat, or maybe even catch a movie. Unfortunately, if you’re heading to Quinpool on a bike, you might have a bit of trouble finding a place to lock it up.
Sure, you have the standard telephone polls and other road signs, but these can’t really accommodate higher volumes of cyclists. If we truly want to encourage people to move towards more sustainable urban lifestyles, we need to ensure that some of the simple infrastructure needed to make this a convenient transition for people is in place.
World Wide Wednesday: Streetcars, Subways and Bikes
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• An ongoing bike-lane-battle in Brooklyn New York just got more heated as two "vigilante" cyclists were arrested for repainting lane lines that had only days before been sandblasted away ...
December 17th, 2009
Thursday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
CITY HALL
MONCTON - City of Moncton continues its probe into north end flooding [Times and Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Tax rate edges up [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Proposed class-action suit filed against N.S. gov't over immigrant program [Metro]
HALIFAX - Public can now make submissions at regular school board meetings [Chroncile Herald]
URBAN GREEN
CHARLOTTETOWN - P.E.I. wind farm to get started [Times and Transcript]
HALIFAX - Dalhousie study gets province powered up [the Coast]
HALIFAX - Mark Parent: HRM back-tracking on wilderness park is "height of political Machiavellianism" [the Coast]
HALIFAX - HRM urges PM to support 'ambitious' climate pact ...
Cyclists have the best racks
By Steve Bedard // 1 Comment
What makes a for good bike parking? Join the Halifax Cycling Coalition as we explain what to look for when locking your bike, and how end-point infrastructure is looking in Halifax today.
Hey Bell, what gives?
By Jake Schabas // 10 Comments
HALIFAX - Dear Bell Aliant,
I know you well.
Not only do we meet whenever I do anything with phones and internet, but your massive, oddly-oriented building is impossible to ignore.
I see it every day, and I'm not alone.
I know you're big, I know you advertise and I know those ads have gone hand-in-hand with your domination of all things telecommunication out here.
But — and it's a big BUT — that doesn't mean you should be allowed to dominate Barrington Street with your obnoxious projector ad.
Walking along Halifax's main drag, I shouldn't ...
December 18th, 2009
Friday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
CITY HALL
MONCTON - Absent city councillor irks colleagues [Times and Transcript]
TRURO - County council votes to expand composting program [Truro Daily News]
MONCTON - Moncton approves capital works budget [Times and Transcript]
URBAN GREEN
PEI - P.E.I. wind farm to get started [Times and Transcript]
NS - Nova Scotia's emissions cap lauded in Copenhagen [Metro]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
ST JOHN - Peel Plaza: does it really make sense? [Telegraph Journal]
PEI - Westwood School's new kindergarten wing underway [The Guardian]
TRURO - Local thirsty church makes finals in community enhancement contest [Truro Daily News]
LABRADOR - Highway leads to happiness in ...
HRMbyDesign part IV: Transportation
By Thom Bator // No Comments
Over the last month, Spacing Atlantic has engaged in an in-depth analysis of HRMbyDesign, the ambitious plan set fourth by the municipal government to transform the region over the next 25 years. This is the final segment in a series of weekly installments that has explored the plan's various nooks and crannies, carving out a unique and fresh perspective on the HRMbyDesign process.
________________________________________________________________________
HALIFAX - Aside from making our downtown more sustainable, economically vibrant and heritage-friendly, HRMbyDesign also intends to change the way we move. The Downtown Halifax Secondary Municipal Planning Strategy (Downtown Plan) section on transportation addresses issues such as the reorganization of downtown streets, active transportation, public transit, freight movement and parking.
One of the main parts of this section is the Street Network Plan. The Street Network Plan designates primary uses for downtown streets with the goal of streamlining traffic . Under the plan, Lower Water, Hollis, Prince, Sackville, Duke and Brunswick streets are designated as higher traffic flow streets. Barrington and Spring Garden are going to be taking on a greater role for public transit, while Bedford Row, Granville, Argyle, and Market — amoung others — will take on greater roles for pedestrian and bike traffic. Motor vehicle traffic on streets that are to be primarily used for biking and walking will be discouraged by allowing only one direction of motor traffic. I like this element of the Downtown Plan. It provides a good foundation on which other improvements to downtown transportation can be made.
When HRM talks about active transportation, they mean walking and biking. We took a brief look at pedestrian related improvements in the piece on HRMbyDesign and sustainability, so let’s take some time to look at cycling.
Metro Transit’s GoTime goes online
By Jake Schabas // 7 Comments
HALIFAX - Last week, Metro Transit launched an online GoTime schedule and departure feature for every one of its 2200+ bus stops, bus and ferry terminals. Encouraging as this is that Metro Transit is cluing into the fact that in this age of iPhone carrying, Blackberry BBMers, putting useful information online is the way to go, I can’t help but wonder whether this new GoTime system won’t suffer the same problems as the phone schedule system.
A far bigger, more important step up would be to switch from simply conveying static schedules and moving up to a system that actually told you when the bus was going to come. This would mean having checkpoints or sensors that would actually chart the position of the buses themselves so that information like heavy traffic, bus breakdowns and other incidents that delay the buses would somehow be conveyed to those people waiting.
I’m a real sucker for the GoTime phone call service. I love calling my local stop and route number in as I leave my house (I have the number saved into my phone) just to check and see if I technically have the time to linger a moment longer before heading out. But too many times have I called and heard that I have ten minutes only to find out my bus showed up two minutes later and left without me to trust the seemingly authoritative words of the always cheerful automated phone woman.
Walking backwards in Times Square
By Matthew Blackett // 1 Comment
Last week film artist Hye Yeon Nam produced a charming video of herself walking backwards through the Times Square area. Well, in the film she's not the one walking backwards, it's everyone else is. You can read her artists statement on the Babelgum web site where the video is hosted.
December 22nd, 2009
St. John’s Space Cowboy
By Giovanni Paquin // 1 Comment
Pleasantville is an historic military site in St. John's, Newfoundland that is currently being redeveloped by the Canada Lands Company into a mixed-density residential development. The original base was constructed under the supervision of an American Company, the Newfoundland Base Contractors, and the US Corps of Engineers, with the majority of construction completed by November 1941.
One of the most interesting features of the site can be attributed to the Texan who helped design the military base. In an apparent shout out to his cowboy brethren, he laid the streets out in such a way that when viewed from the ...
World Wide Wednesday: Buffalo, Los Angeles and Palma
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• Construction of a major Canal side redevelopment plan in Buffalo could begin by June of next year according to Buffalo's Business First Magazine. The $300 ...
December 25th, 2009
Tis the season…
By Spacing Atlantic // No Comments
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from the editors of Spacing Atlantic.
photo by Dave Ripdaskull
Spacing Saturday
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Spacing Saturday is a new feature that highlights posts from across Spacing's blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Spacing Saturday replaces the weekly features Montreal Monday and Toronto Tuesday.
• Spacing Toronto's John Lorinc assesses the candidates and the playing field in light of Toronto's upcoming mayoral election.
• The winning design for Toronto's Fort York Visitor Center was announced last week. Check Spacing Toronto's flickr page for ...
Dalhousie’s campus master plan a mixed bag
By Jake Schabas // 2 Comments
HALIFAX - About one month ago, I wrote an article for the Dalhousie Gazette on the updated campus master plan [PDF], which is in the final review stages before being implemented. Dal has made some effort to get good public feedback — they've set up a blog dedicated to the plan as well as an official page on the University website — these discussions haven't gotten much press or sparked too much attention, on or off campus.
This is too bad, since the plan will have a big impact not only on Dal students but the wider community. Included in the proposals are separated bike lanes, a pedestrian plaza, massive new buildings and a transit terminal on LeMarchant Street. While my article mostly focuses on the changes in store for Studley Campus, my hope is that re-positing it here will bring a little more attention and generate the much needed discussion these important plans deserve.
Master plans are always exciting documents, and Dalhousie’s updated Campus Master Plan is no exception. Full of colourful diagrams, maps and tables, plans give us the rare opportunity to shape the future landscape of our communities to better reflect the goals and values we think are important.
Judged from this perspective, there’s much to praise in Dal’s new plan. Students’ cries for improved active transportation and public transit infrastructure have finally been heard. The master plan proposes putting bike lanes along University Avenue and turning the now vacant corner outside the Student Union Building into a “landscaped transit terminal.”
From the Vaults: Halifax Movie Theatres
By Lauren Oostveen // 2 Comments
The Nova Scotia Archives is pleased to share photos showcasing the changing faces of urban centers in Nova Scotia. You can learn more about the archives and explore thousands of photos, textual records, maps, art, and more on their website.
The Vogue Theatre, Gottingen Street ca. 1957
"Now Playing": Jury Room Drama - 12 Angry Men
Opened 1948, Closed 1970
January 2nd, 2010
Spacing Saturday
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Spacing Saturday is a new feature that highlights posts from across Spacing's blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Spacing Saturday replaces the weekly features Montreal Monday and Toronto Tuesday.
• The York University busway, "the GTA's first major bus-only road" opened on November 20th to ease congestion in the area surrounding Toronto's York University campus. Sean Marshall provides insight into how this new project is working.
• The history of Agincourt--once a small ...
January 4th, 2010
Monday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
FREDERICTON - City's spending worries economic expert [Daily Gleaner]
URBAN GREEN
MONCTON - Citizen asking Suzuki's advice on river [Times & Transcript]
MONCTON - Centre teaches you to live 'off the grid' [Daily Gleaner]
DEVELOPMENT
FREDERICTON - City poised for strong construction year [Daily Gleaner]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Mayor pursuing downtown farmer's market [Guardian]
OTHER NEWS
MIRAMICHI - Opera House nightclub destroyed [Times & Transcript]
MIRAMICHI - Miramichi hopes for better days [Times & Transcript]
SAINT JOHN - Not all murder, mayhem in Saint John [Telegraph-Journal]
YARMOUTH - Ferry a 'Nova Scotia problem' [Chronicle-Herald]
N.B. - Smoking ban applauded [Telegraph-Journal]
Best/Worst of Bike Parking in HRM
By Steve Bedard // 4 Comments
HRM - Recently we shared what makes a great bike rack with you. This week we are hoping to raise awareness and change in regards to properly facilitating bike parking in Halifax and Dartmouth. Out of the numerous parking spots in the HRM, the Halifax Cycling Coalition has determined the three best and three worst spots using a bike parking evaluation tool developed by Citizens for Safe Cycling — a not-for-profit based in Ottawa.
We want you to vote on your favorite/most hated!
Best Parking Nominees
The Dickson Center Entrance, Victoria General Site
Some positive attributes to this site include: a variety of rack configurations; the parking area is completely covered by an outcropping of the Dickson Center; and on top of being regularly patrolled by security staff, there is a security station not 15 meters away from the site.
[caption id="attachment_2322" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Bike parking outside of the Dickson Building, VG site"][/caption]
January 5th, 2010
Tuesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
MONCTON - Mike Murphy resigns [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Mayor calls to ban texting while driving [Daily Gleaner]
TRURO - Truro delays vote gay community calls discriminatory [Metro]
SAINT JOHN - Agency will help city face challenges [Telegraph-Journal]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
STRATFORD - 'Lots of work, lots of results' [Guardian]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Public works chair surprised by Tweel's about face on roundabout [Guardian]
DEVELOPMENT
SAINT JOHN - Peel Plaza - Trying to save a deal [Telegraph-Journal]
OTHER NEWS
BAIE DE CHALEUR - 'Free' lobster anyone? [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Heavy snowfall brings heavy bill [Metro]
Events Guide: Out Now Speedy
By Joshua Biggley // No Comments
CHARLOTTETOWN - After last week's radio interview on the local CBC morning radio show, the folks over at the Institute for Bioregional Studies dropped me a line to do what Spacing, in whatever flavour you take it, does best -- connect people together. Nancy Willis and Phil Ferraro hold monthly discussions on pressing social issues in and around Charlottetown. The meeting this month is scheduled for Tuesday, January 19th and will address the implications of the new business tax strategy, particularly those elements that encourage non-conforming ...
January 6th, 2010
Wednesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
HALIFAX - HRM residents get a say on services with survey [Metro]
HALIFAX - Chamber gives thumbs up to city hall [Metro]
ST. JOHN'S - Parking ban takes effect; 300 tickets issued first day [Telegram]
SAINT JOHN - Squabbling about harbour bridge 'ridiculous' [Telegraph-Journal]
DEVELOPMENT
HALIFAX - Edit library plans, McClusky says [Chronicle-Herald]
MONTAGUE - Mayor expects building boom to continue [Guardian]
P.E.I. - Future of rural P.E.I. at hand [Guardian]
SAINT JOHN - Heritage flare-up [Telegraph-Journal]
OTHER NEWS
HALIFAX - Acute backlog in ER [Chronicle-Herald]
World Wide Wednesday: parking garages, private streets and carbon-neutral cities
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
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• An ambitious plan from landscape architecture firm James Corner Field Operations aims to connect four distinct quadrants in the heart of downtown Cleavland to create one cohesive park. ...
January 7th, 2010
Thursday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
MONCTON - Riverview capital projects total $4M [Times & Transcript]
MIRAMICHI - Miramichi trails group seeks provincial funding [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Union wants N.S. to restore funding for ferry service to New England [Times & Transcript]
CITY HALL
NACKAWIC - Former Nackawic town employee files human rights complaint [Daily Gleaner]
CHIPMAN - Chipman looks to hold the line on property tax [Daily Gleaner]
SYDNEY - Two community groups fighting tax bills in order to maintain halls [Cape Breton Post]
TRURO - Truro delays vote on bylaw that gay community says is discriminatory [Truro Daily News]
SAINT JOHN - ...
New ideas for old St. Patrick’s High School
By Jake Schabas // 8 Comments
HALIFAX - “Destroy St. Pat’s.” This was the verdict of the Coast’s newest fix the city article, a list otherwise chalk full of forward-thinking city-building suggestions.
What to do with the decrepit old high school — currently the Quinpool Education Centre — at Quinpool and Windsor now that its students sit a few blocks east in new Citadel High classrooms is definitely a good question to be asking; a question that deserves better answers than just demolition, especially since there are so many ways the neighbourhood could benefit by reusing this fifties-era landmark.
Physically the largest high school in Canada when it opened in 1954, St. Pat’s once accommodated 2,300 students. Due to the building's massive size, these last few years aren't the first time many of its rooms have gone unused. When it first opened, students took up only one fifth of the area, a number comparable to the 400 students using the school before its closure three years ago.
Besides empty classrooms, its crumbling exterior also houses an auditorium (a 1960s addition), library and gymnasium — features a creative architect would have no problem breathing new life into.
January 8th, 2010
Friday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
CITY HALL
NOVA SCOTIA - N.S. considering ban on pesticides [Times & Transcript]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Commission recommends new policy for P.E.I [Times & Transcript]
SAINT JOHN - Tax rate status quo [Telegraph Journal]
HALIFAX - Offer accepted by inside workers: HRM [Metro News]
INFRASTRUCTURE
FREDERICTON - Prospect Street walk-in clinic to expand [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Facelift in works for Commons [Chroncile Herald]
HALIFAX - North-end roundabout ditched, at least for now [Chroncile Herald]
NFLD - Pilot project to test year-round ferry service between the island and Labrador [The Telegram]
MONCTON - Metro has best home deals [Times & Transcript]
CULTURE
FREDERICTON - ...
Government 2.0: Open Source Accountability
By Joshua Biggley // No Comments
CHARLOTTETOWN - When the Charlottetown folks involved with SpacingAtlantic got together late last year, we decided to engage in some good old fashioned brain-storming to get the creative juices flowing. What transpired was a wonderful, engaging session full of optimism and pride in the city most of us called home. At the end of our two hour session, it was clear to many of us that if Charlottetown was going to change, a new climate of openness and transparency would have to emerge.
There are two keys to an open and transparent democracy -- information and accountability. One of the greatest criticisms of our democratically elected government is the premise that we can only hold them accountable once every four years. The inability to sway the direction of political policy, without the benefit of money, either promised or proven, has disenfranchised the younger electorate. Without accountability nobody can fail, but, more importantly, nobody can succeed. Building accountability is essential, but letting governments hold themselves accountable is a recipe for disaster.
In order to hold elected officials accountable, we have to know what they are doing, and whom they are doing it with. If politics are conducted in the back rooms of historic restaurants, in hushed whispers, or in the case of PEI, in clandestine meetings in Victoria Park, the perception continues that politicians are above, or perhaps better positioned, below the law. The problem extends beyond simple political negotiations or funding scandals. The root of the issue is access to information, sans the redacted documents so common to the Access to Information Act. Enter the open data movement. (Yes, I linked to Wikipedia --- get over it!)
January 9th, 2010
Spacing Saturday
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Spacing Saturday is a new feature that highlights posts from across Spacing's blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Spacing Saturday replaces the weekly features Montreal Monday and Toronto Tuesday.
• Chris Erb reviews a proposal that would would phase out free parking for non-residents in Montreal's Le Plateau-Mont-Royal area. Erb argues that the plan--which still needs to go through a public consolation process--would have a positive effect on the neighbourhood by, among other ...
January 10th, 2010
Transformation in store for CBC building site
By Jake Schabas // 3 Comments
HALIFAX - Big plans are in store for the CBC building site at the corner of Sackville and South Park Streets, reports the Chronicle-Herald.
Following four years of study, the CBC's aging structure has been slated for demolition to make way for a new 500,000 square foot development. Neighbours the YMCA — who have teamed up with CBC Radio Canada to come up with a development proposal — currently expect the site to include new YMCA facilities, office retail space, a public atrium, 200+ residential units and a 100 room boutique hotel.
While we'll ...
January 11th, 2010
Monday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
MONCTON - Scanner sought [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Halifax council set to debate felines again [Metro]
PEI - Jay Gallant named interim leader of the new Island Party [Guardian]
DEVELOPMENT
PEI - A vision for PEI, on a smaller scale [Globe & Mail]
SYDNEY - Shopping thinking outside of the big box [Cape Breton Post]
SAINT JOHN - Cathedral needs $8M repair job [Telegraph-Journal]
SAINT JOHN - Courthouse construction could begin next month [Telegraph-Journal]
OTHER NEWS
BOUCTOUCHE - Covered bridge pops up in unlikely place [Times & Transcript]
ST. STEPHENS - PM opens new NB-Maine bridge [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - ...
Atlantic Snapshots: the view from below
By The Photographers // 2 Comments
Harbour Passage, Saint John
Jake Schabas
The softer side of an elevated expressway.
January 12th, 2010
Tuesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
NB - Report delayed on sale of NB Power to Quebec [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Protestors challenge MLAs over power deal [Daily Gleaner]
URBAN GREEN
NB - Wind farms ready to grow [Times & Transcript]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HRM - Councillor worried about erosion [Chronicle-Herald]
SAINT JOHN - Official hopes more turn out tonight for bikeways and trails meeting [Telegraph-Journal]
DEVELOPMENT
FREDERICTON - $1M for water,sewer infrastructure expected [Daily Gleaner]
SYDNEY - Councillors attempt to dismiss rumours about sustainability plan [CBP]
SYDNEY - Committee hears stimulus money for new fire station not possible [CBP]
PEI - Cornwall mayor confident growth will continue ...
Events Guide: training for emergency shelter volunteers
By Emma Feltes // No Comments
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="National Housing Day event launching the Out of the Cold emergency shelter at St. Matthew's United Church"][/caption]
HALIFAX - The entirely volunteer-run Out of the Cold emergency winter shelter, housed at St. Matthew's United Church, will host a series of training sessions for new volunteers starting tomorrow, Jan 13 through Feb 6. This is the shelter's second season, filling a critical void left by the federal ...
January 13th, 2010
Victoria Apartments: Demolition Accomplished
By Katie McKay // 6 Comments
HALIFAX - This past Saturday, the corner of Hollis and Morris was once again the city's epicenter of perverse entertainment. An impromptu post-market crowd of witnesses gathered to to watch the Victoria Apartments be demolished, one wall at a time; revealing its bright colours, arched doorways and quirky interiors one last time.
Some people cheered as the bulldozer tore down the apartments, while others tried to hide their tears. Former residents pointed out their bedrooms and shared stories. Photographers had a field day. I tried to leave on three separate occasions, frozen and exhausted, but couldn't ...
World Wide Wednesday: Virtual billboards, sprawling cities and the world’s tallest building
By Kat Snukal // 2 Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• An art project in Columbus, Ohio, asks residents to consider the role of parking lots in the city's development. The piece, called Audio Dwelling, consists of ...
January 14th, 2010
Thursday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
CITY HALL
HALIFAX - Council OK’s pact with inside workers [Metro News]
HALIFAX - Halifax probes parking ban [Chronicle Herald]
CAPE BRETON - Councillors attempt to dismiss rumours about sustainability plan [Cape Breton Post]
HALIFAX - A case for a smaller council [Chronicle Herald]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Premier introduces major changes within bureaucracy [The Guardian]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
MONCTON - School District 1 wants bigger school [Times & Transcript]
SAINT JOHN - City gets D in study [Telegraph Journal]
HALIFAX - Halifax gets B in attractiveness report for cities [Metro News]
SAINT JOHN - City awash in potential waterfront projects [Telegraph Journal]
CHAROLOTTETOWN - ...
Netting our Garbage in St. John’s
By Andrew Matheson // 1 Comment
Cowritten by Giovanni Paquin
ST. JOHN'S - One of our favourite discoveries during the 2009 API Conference in St. John’s, Newfoundland was, of all things, their garbage. We were “lucky” enough to be in the city for garbage day. Street after street was lined with garbage bags covered in green and blue polyester nets. We assumed that this was a quirky Newfoundland tradition that highlighted the importance of the fishing industry to St. John’s economy – they’ve got so many nets they’re even using them to cover their garbage! Ah the ignorance of a visiting tourist.
January 15th, 2010
Friday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
CITY HALL
MIRAMICHI - Province commits to roadwork in Miramichi region [Times & Transcript]
NOVA SCOTIA - Province turns to public for deficit advice on 23-stop tour [Metro]
DARTMOUTH - Scrap municipal tax reform, Dartmouth-area councillors say [Chroncile Herald]
HALIFAX - Downtown parking fees considered [Chroncile Herald]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
NOVA SCOTIA - In economic recovery, housing leads the way [Chroncile Herald]
ST JOHN'S - Fortis eyeing major project [The Telegram]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Historic Charlottetown church's appeal for glass in new doors rejected by council [The Guardian]
SAINT JOHN - Y looking at waterfront home [Telegraph Journal]
INFRASTRUCTURE
NOVA SCOTIA - Reports show ...
Halifax’s winter parking ban woes
By Abad Khan // 6 Comments
HALIFAX - If you happened to be one of the many unlucky car owners who left their cars parked on your neighbourhood street on the night of December 14th, you would have woken up to a $50 ticket on your windshield. With nary a snow flake on the ground or in the forecast, welcome to HRM's Winter Parking Ban [PDF] (not to go off on a tangent, but this is a document that equates pedestrian traffic with congestion... uh what?).
Merry Christmas! The Grinch came by early.
From the Vaults: Up in the Air
By Lauren Oostveen // 1 Comment
The Nova Scotia Archives is pleased to share photos showcasing the changing faces of urban centers in Nova Scotia. You can learn more about the archives and explore thousands of photos, textual records, maps, art, and more on their website.
Halifax Waterfront
Aerial photos taken by Nova Scotia Information Service. NSIS dates back to 1924, when the Nova Scotia Publicity Bureau was established with a mandate to "Tell the world about Nova Scotia."
Images were taken between 1945 and 1970.
January 16th, 2010
Spacing Saturday
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Spacing Saturday is a new feature that highlights posts from across Spacing's blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Spacing Saturday replaces the weekly features Montreal Monday and Toronto Tuesday.
• A discarded bike buried in a snowdrift prompts Spacing Ottawa contributor Kathryn Hunt to investigate what happens to the city's abandoned bikes.
• A proposal to turn Orléans, a key Ottawa intersection "from a standard four-way into a roundabout or ...
January 17th, 2010
Atlantic snapshots: spacecrafts
By The Photographers // No Comments
Moncton, New Brunswick
Blake Morin
Snowy night at the skate park.
January 18th, 2010
Monday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
ATLANTIC - Same firms get ACOA help for 20 years [Daily Gleaner]
DIEPPE - Council debates signage tonight [Times & Transcript]
OROMOCTO - Mayor ponders new fire station [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Councillor wants alcohol stripped from municipal events [Metro]
SAINT JOHN - $10M budget imbroglio [Telegraph-Journal]
URBAN GREEN
HAMPTON - Hampton organic farmers' market in the offing [Telegraph-Journal]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
LUNENBURG - Foundation ponders future of Lunenburg Academy [Chronicle-Herald]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Selling the Mount [Guardian]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Church caught in the middle on door issue [Guardian]
SAINT JOHN - Thinking big: Future concerts on waterfront? [Telegraph-Journal]
DEVELOPMENT
HALIFAX - Musicians rally ...
Sustainability vs. Consumerism
By Joshua Biggley // 5 Comments
CHARLOTTETOWN - I had a nasty case of déjà vu last week when the City of Charlottetown announced that another Big Box development was coming to town. PlazaCorp is already responsible for 300,000 square feet of strip malls in Charlottetown, complete with their upfront parking lagoons, but this new development ratchets the insult and degradation of Charlottetown to a completely new level.
The threatened site, which can be seen embedded in this Guardian article, sits just north of the Charlottetown Mall, south of the Arterial Road, west of University and east of Mount Edward Road. A review of the map provided by the Guardian shows heavily sloped land and a watershed on this property which, from an environmental perspective, set off alarm bells in my head. Currently being used as farmland, PlazaCorp is proposing turning a juxtaposed agrarian landscape into yet another cookie-cutter Big Box asphalt lagoon.
Perhaps those alarm bells are why council has decided to refer the issue to public consultation, a process that is likely to divide the city into the "we want more shopping" and "local is better" camps so typical of this age of transformation. Ironically, this battle is patterned after a debate that is still taking place in my hometown of Windsor, Ontario. In spite of starting the discussion more than two years ago when Jenny Coco, fittingly a local paving company magnate, wanted to build a development next to federally protected prairies, the development on the border of Windsor and Lasalle has not broken ground. Back then I was writing for a local blog and advocacy group, Scaledown.ca, where our thoughts, failures, and rants are still lurking online. Even the Ontario Municipal Board, the final authority on all things development in Ontario, has pushed back on the CocoBox complex (as we so lovingly dubbed it) in recent weeks.
January 19th, 2010
Tuesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
DIEPPE - Sign law draws big crowd [Times & Transcript]
NB - New energy deal details [Times & Transcript]
NB - NB strikes new hydro deal to avoid Quebec stranglehold [Globe & Mail]
SAINT JOHN - Familiar face gets city's top staff job [Telegraph-Journal]
SAINT JOHN - Public input for new city plan crucial [Telegraph-Journal]
URBAN GREEN
HALIFAX - Regulator ponders future of gas promotions [Daily Gleaner]
ST JOHNS - Politicians wonder about waste management's board's existence [Telegram]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HALIFAX - Waterfront festival planned for games [Metro]
HALIFAX - Olympic fun on the waterfront [Chronicle-Herald]
DEVELOPMENT
SHEDIAC - Public wants multifunctional ...
Small businesses bite into sandwich board by-law
By Emma Feltes // No Comments
HALIFAX - Who knew a plywood Oompa-loopma could cause such a stir? Since the City adopted the Temporary Sign By-law [PDF] in 2006, which placed strict regulation on street signage, sandwich boards have been an unprecedented source of contention in Halifax. Dedicated fans have rallied behind Freak Lunchbox, whose hand-painted signs are a beacon of creativity (and candy) on Barrington St — there was even a Facebook group created in defense of the candy store's then Oompa-loompa-themed sign. But beyond the Oompa-loompa hoopla lies a real debate about the control of public space in the city.
Perhaps in response to this public objection, for the last three years enforcement has been purely complaint driven. But with the By-law now under review, small businesses are nervous about the impacts if the policy were to tighten up. Amendments proposed to Regional Council in November, would crank up enforcement of the By-law's complex licensing requirements for temporary signs, imposing strict — in some cases inhibiting — limitations to the size, style, and placement of the all important sandwich board.
Spacing Radio returns for season three!
By Matthew Blackett // No Comments
Spacing is happy to announce the launch of Season Three of our biweekly podcast Spacing Radio.
You can listen to the episode on the Spacing Radio web site or subscribe to the podcast (free!) through iTunes.
Episode 014 kicks things off with Marc Glassman (the owner of the now-defunct Pages Books) interviewing critically acclaimed filmmaker Atom Egoyan, who discusses his decision to cast the oft-overlooked Toronto as itself in his latest film, Chloe. Will Alsop, the renowned British architect whose work (including the Ontario College of Art ...
January 20th, 2010
Wednesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
NB - Parties quarrel over power deal [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Councillors take aim at rural tax rates [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Council scraps motion to make municipal events dry [Metro]
SAINT JOHN - Chase wants mayor to say he's sorry [Telegraph-Journal]
SAINT JOHN - Mayor's 'Chicken Little' taunt came after lengthy debate [Telegraph-Journal]
URBAN GREEN
FREDERICTON - Protestors march against Petitcodiac restoration [Times & Transcript]
TRURO - Need for year-round farmer's market [Truro Daily]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
NB - Minister to address complaints about school transportation [Daily Gleaner]
FREDERICTON - Group submits report on future of York Arena [Daily Gleaner]
SAINT ...
Events Guide: Public presentation of proposed improvements to the North Common
By Emma Feltes // 6 Comments
HALIFAX - HRM's proposed plans for the North Common [PDF] will be presented and discussed at an open house at City Hall tonight. The proposal includes an asphalt "Special Events Plaza," a new building, clustered street-side kiosks and seating, wider pathways, and a redesign of the Centennial Fountain. The public is invited to view the proposed plan starting at 6:30, followed by a presentation and question period — a crucial opportunity to float concerns, clarifications, and suggestions.
In preparation for tonight's event, community group Friends of the Halifax Common ...
World Wide Wednesday: Hong Kong, Moscow and Port-au-Prince
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• Since July of last year Petaluma California has been known as "the city without planners". The decision to dissolve the official planning department in favour ...
January 21st, 2010
Thursday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
CITY HALL
ST JOHN - Mayor won't apologize to deputy mayor [Telegraph Journal]
MONCTON - Shovels in ground on schools next year? [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Work begins on new NBCC campus in capital [Daily Gleaner]
FREDERICTON - Arts centre contemplates $1-million upgrade [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Tax politics heat up [the Coast]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HALIFAX - Some wonder if plan for Commons concert venue a done deal [Chronicle Herald]
ST JOHN'S - New waste management plan could cost $150-$200 per household [the Telegram]
TRURO - Need for year-round farmers’ market: supporters [Truro Daily News]
HALIFAX - Housing co-op gets ...
January 22nd, 2010
Friday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
CITY HALL
MONCTON - Moncton falls short in smart city awards [Times & Transcript]
NEWFOUNDLAND - Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador launches new logo, website [The Telegram]
ATLANTIC CANADA - Mayors urge feds to keep infrastructure money flowing despite deficit [The Telegram]
NOVA SCOTIA - Schools need at least $36M: Group [Metro News]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HALIFAX - HRM, N.S. swap land in Halifax [Metro News]
HALIFAX - 'Park after dark' targets overnight parking ban [Metro News]
IN CONVERSATION
HALIFAX - Brains for Change working to make Dal better [Chronicle Herald]
NOVA SCOTIA - Public meetings to focus on future of farmland [Chronicle Herald]
TRURO ...
Events Guide: meeting on the Halifax Urban Greenway
By Emma Feltes // 1 Comment
HALIFAX - Interested in learning more about the development of the District 14 active transportation trail and how it fits into the larger plan for the Halifax Urban Greenway? Here's an opportunity to hear members of the Halifax Urban Greenway Association and HRM staff speak on the development of the trail and how community members can become involved.
WHAT: Meeting on the Halifax Urban Greenway trail in District 14
WHEN: Wed, Jan 27th, 7pm
WHERE: Oxford School, 6364 North St (entrance off of Willow St, ...
January 23rd, 2010
Spacing Saturday
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Spacing Saturday is a new feature that highlights posts from across Spacing's blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Spacing Saturday replaces the weekly features Montreal Monday and Toronto Tuesday.
• Toronto architect George Dark, recently tasked with overseeing the design one of Ottawa's "biggest city building projects in decades", went on an afternoon stroll with Spacing Ottawa where he revealed what he loves most about the city he's now part of ...
January 25th, 2010
Monday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
FREDERICTON - Something familiar about 'new' deal [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Council kicks off busy day with talks on secret project [Chronicle-Herald]
FREDERICTON - Hyrdo deal tests Graham's political survival skills [Globe]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
FREDERICTON - City plans to install permanent speed radars in school zones [Daily Gleaner]
FREDERICTON - Group hopes to join people together to solve city problems [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Project seeks to keep young workers [Metro]
HALIFAX - Waterfront Development offering flat rates for overnight parking downtown [NewsNet]
DEVELOPMENT
NB - NB company wants to upgrade power grid [Times & Transcript]
SHEDIAC - Centre undergoes ...
Revitalizing a signature urban park
By Devin Keating // 2 Comments
SYDNEY, NS - After declining use and facilities crumbling for years, the initiative to revitalize Wentworth Park in Sydney began in 2004. As this work continues to progress, this park will once again be worthy of being called Sydney's signature urban park.
Beginning in 2004, coinciding with the King's Road realignment and the start of construction on "The Wentworth" condominiums, renovations on the lower pond of Wentworth Park began. The renovations included an improved, more natural looking retaining wall along the pond's shore, improved pathways, monument restorations, a new elevated gazebo overlooking this section of the park, new fountains, and a new pedestrian underpass under King's Road as part of a larger plan to connect the park to the Sydney Boardwalk on one side and Rotary Park on the other. This is also part of the larger Active Transportation plan for Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM), parts of which will be further explored in future articles.
January 26th, 2010
Tuesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
FREDERICTON - Councillor calls for tax cut in wake of increasing house prices [Daily Gleaner]
FREDERICTON - Councillor objects to expropriation procedure [Daily Gleaner]
URBAN GREEN
QUISPAMSIS - Warning issued: Beware of coyotes [Telegraph-Journal]
SACKVILLE - Wildlife institute a week away from closing [Times & Transcript]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
TRURO - County's property values up 49% in five years [Truro Daily]
SAINT JOHN - Market square gets new look [Telegraph-Journal]
DEVELOPMENT
SHEDIAC -Shediac approves civic centre [Times & Transcript]
PEI - Action plan takes aim at rural growth [Guardian]
NS - Ottawa gives $10M to widen Cabot Trail [Chronicle-Herald]
NFLD - Province announces ...
Uncovering our ‘Common’ past
By Nova Tayona // 6 Comments
[caption id="attachment_2901" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Map of Halifax Commons in 1931 linked to Point Pleasant Park by Tower Road"][/caption]
HALIFAX - If you look it up on Google Maps, Canada’s oldest urban park, the Halifax Common hugs the western skirt of Citadel Hill. It’s shown as two triangular patches of green space — North and Central — divided by a yellow line that is Cogswell Street. The city seems to stop at its edges on all sides: Cunard, Robie, North Park Streets, and Bell Road define its present day boundaries as it sits sheltered by the Citadel from the east. Halifax’s early beginnings though, tell a different tale — there was also a South Commons — and that story can be read through the urban fabric that exists today.
It’s fun to be an urban sleuth — reading the physical city for windows back in time. Cities themselves can often tell the story if we’re willing to squint and read between the lines.
The Commons (as it is locally known) began as a much larger piece of land, a swath of open space ‘for common use’ that cut north-south across the peninsula reaching to the edge of what is now Saint Mary’s University.
As our biggest public room in the city, The Commons is lined with buildings, tall and short, and anchored by the Citadel from the east. You may think that there is a very clear edge to its domain on all sides, but the public and institutional spaces found a little further south challenge that boundary and show us hints into our city’s past.
The Right to the Common
By Katie McKay // 9 Comments
HALIFAX - Last Wednesday January 20th, HRM staff presented the plan “Improvements to the North Common” [PDF] to a full house, where there were more people in attendance than there were chairs. The presentation of the plan lasted an hour, and although only 30 minutes was set aside for input from the public, the question period ended up continuing for over an hour and a half, until only a handful of people were left in the room.
In this new century, we are facing a different kind of threat to public space— not one of disuse, but of patterns of design and management that exclude some people and reduce social and cultural diversity.
- Rethinking Urban Parks: Public Space & Cultural Diversity
There was clear support for certain aspects of the plan that fostered walkability, safety and passive enjoyment of the park, which include wider pathways, a redesigned fountain, diverse seating and an increase in trees in the park. The debate that ensued was not centered around the fact that the City is proposing improvements to the Common - that point was well-received and echoed by those in attendance. The more controversial elements of the proposed plan were those that cater to the facilitation of concerts: the removal of a baseball diamond in the southeast corner, a 'special events plaza', and a permanent power supply housed in a new building proposed for development.
January 27th, 2010
Wednesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
FREDERICTON - NB Power CEO says it's time to move on [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Council narrowly votes down controversial tax reform proposal [Metro]
HALIFAX - Council adjusts rink committee [Chronicle-Herald]
URBAN GREEN
MONTAGUE - Funding cuts could end Southeast Environment Association [Guardian]
SAINT JOHN - Atlantic Coastal Action Program fears funding cut [Telegraph-Journal]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
MONCTON - Metro tames mean streets [Times & Transcript]
BASS RIVER - Residents voice opposition to consolidating schools [Truro Daily]
DEVELOPMENT
MONCTON - Province commits $2.2M to Peace Centre [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Train station restoration project gets nod from city [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - ...
Events guide: “How to be Cosmopolitan”
By Veronica Simmonds // 1 Comment
HALIFAX - If cosmopolitanism is understood as a "willingness to engage with the other", is it an essential ingredient of Canada's multi-ethnic, immigrant-receiving cities? Can only the jet-setting elite be cosmopolitan, or can we conceive of street-corner cosmopolitans too? These are some of the questions being asked and addressed by Dr. Martha Radice this Friday at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Sponsored by the Atlantic Metropolis Centre (AMC) and the Dalhousie Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Dr. Radice's presentation of her ethnographical ...
The courtesy is Common, but is the sense?
By Mark Lasanowski // 4 Comments
Brought to you in collaboration with the Ecology Action Centre and Halifax Cycling Coalition, SpokesPeople covers all things cycle-related. From the principles to the potholes, we're here to examine the realities facing the two-wheeled traveler.
HALIFAX - With debate still simmering after last week's North Commons revitalization presentation, Spacing Atlantic is pleased to kick off SpokesPeople with a look at the place of cyclists in the Halifax Common.
An undisputed geographical crossroads in peninsular Halifax, the North Common is a figurative crossroads in countless other ways, too. Each day, thousands of pedestrians and cyclists criss-cross the Common’s various axes – and each other. Many are “straight-line” users, commuting to and from school and work via the shortest possible path between two of the Common’s numerous corners.
For others, the Common itself is the destination: a place for a relaxed stroll on a sunny afternoon, or a venue for youngsters to test the waters of life without training wheels, free of the worry of motorized vehicles bearing down on them. Add in concertgoers, picnickers and sports enthusiasts, and you’ve got a multi-use space that is brimming with Haligonians and visitors alike. Where else could a commuting high schooler, a left fielder, and a rabid rock fan make the same footprint within hours of each other?
World Wide Wednesday: Portland, Detroit and Port-au-Prince
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - ...
January 28th, 2010
Thursday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
CITY HALL
MONCTON - Metro tames mean streets [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Tax vote over, council still grappling with idea [Metro News]
SAINT JOHN - Bridge authority asks city to support loan bid [Telegraph Journal]
SUSSEX - Town seeks citizen input [Telegraph Journal]
SAINT JOHN - Cast Monopoly vote for city and win a Super Bowl party [Telegraph Journal]
TRANSPORTATION
HALIFAX - Metro transit plan for waterfront bus [the Coast]
HALIFAX - Construction of new airport hotel quashed [Metro News]
CAPE BRETON - Englishtown ferry back in service [Cape Breton Post]
HALIFAX - HRM staff looking at rail commuter service ...
[Re]Presenting Halifax: Exploring the potential of the city through mapping
By Matt Neville // 5 Comments
This is the first of a series of explorations through maps of the Halifax region.
Revisiting maps, diagrams and other interpretive readings of Halifax that have long been buried can only help to further the discussion and debate about the current direction and future vision for the region.
The overall objective is to re-present the city within the historical and contemporary socio-political, spatial, and ecological dimensions and challenges in a manner that helps to reveal opportunities and contribute to a wider discussion on current conflicts, debates and developments. The ‘agency’ or capacity of the map is explored in parallel to the region’s ability to adapt to and meet some of the increasingly diverse needs and demands of the city, its users, and inhabitants.
This proposal loosely imitates recent interpretive mapping exercises as published in Mapping Boston and Mapping London (among others), that demonstrate a renewed interest in both mapping/map as process and product. While this exercise is much more modest in scale, it is also well suited for collaboration and contributions for others interested in the topic - so, please, join in on this subjective cartographic journey through the past and potential of Halifax! Anyone interested in contributing to this interpretive reading of the city is encouraged to send an email with suggestions, ideas, or proposals.
I begin with a rather simple plan of the city centre and immediate surroundings produced in 1878, as it offers a glimpse of the city as both expanding port and fort town - a colonial town - yet, before its relationships to the landscape were eroded beyond recognition.
January 29th, 2010
Friday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
CITY HALL
FREDERICTON - Social Development lays out spending [Times & Transcript]
NEW BRUNSWICK - 'We're tackling big issues' [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - HRM paid out $362,456 in settlements last year [Chronicle-Herald]
FREDERICTON - District looks to solve vandalism problem [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Halifax tax reform: Leadership vacancy [Chronicle-Herald]
URBAN GREEN
NOVA SCOTIA - N.S. won’t ban biosolids on farmland [Chronicle-Herald]
HALIFAX - Climate cash running out [Chronicle-Herald]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Kinkora goes green with wind turbines completed [The Guardian]
HALIFAX - Revolution in the food business [Chronicle-Herald]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
ST JOHN'S - Housing costs skyrocket for children, youth in need [The ...
An (obstructed) vision for the future of St. John’s
By Andrew Harvey // 7 Comments
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="The three buildings that would be demolished under the Fortis proposal"][/caption]
ST. JOHN'S - Newfoundland and Labrador has seen great economic benefit from offshore oil and gas developments in recent years. For the first time (since Confederation), Newfoundland is a 'have' province. With the province awash in oil money, Premier Danny Williams assures us that investments will be made with a vision for the future, and that we will come out of the oil boom stronger then ever before.
In St. John's, the hub of the province's oil driven economy, the lasting legacy of oil will come from the development which occurs during the boom. Long after the jobs and prosperity brought by oil leave, the buildings they helped construct will remain.
Fortis Properties, one of the largest companies in Newfoundland, has recently made a proposal for a redevelopment in downtown St. John’s. Fortis currently owns a 12-story building on the corner of Water street and Harbour drive (pictured below). The proposal includes plans to demolish the three buildings next to their exiting building to construct a 15-story tower. The proposed site for this new tower is in the closest block to the harbour, which makes many worry about its potential effect on views in the downtown, and the St. John's skyline.
January 30th, 2010
Spacing Saturday
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Spacing Saturday is a new feature that highlights posts from across Spacing's blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Spacing Saturday replaces the weekly features Montreal Monday and Toronto Tuesday.
• As Ottawa gets closer to breaking ground on a subway system, Spacing's Alain Miguelez discovers that plans for underground transit have been on the table, in some form or other, since 1915. Miguelez takes us ...
January 31st, 2010
Spacing Atlantic on Flickr, Facebook and Twitter
By Spacing Atlantic // No Comments
As Spacing Atlantic grows, we're doing our best to cast our social nets on more shores and expand our reach to more urban communities throughout Canada's east coast.
Despite the grim state of many newsrooms across the country, for bloggers and online readers the mood couldn't be more different. With so many great online social networking tools at our fingertips, we felt it was about time to make the most of these new media and take the plunge.
Want to meet more like-minded urban ...
February 1st, 2010
Monday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
NB - Independent panel reveals NB Power report today [Times & Transcript]
ATLANTIC - Atlantic mayors make pitch for infrastructure funding [Guardian]
SAINT JOHN - Politician wants historic buildings saved [Telegraph-Journal]
URBAN GREEN
FREDERICTON - Wetlands key to fighting climate change [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - 'Caring for living things' - Swinimer says shelter separate from wildlife rehab centtre [Chronicle-Herald]
TRURO - Wind power project expected to be running next winter [Truro Daily]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
MONCTON - Fire engulfs restaurant [Times & Transcript]
MONCTON - Casino on track for May opening [Times & Transcript]
DIEPPE - NBers debate bilingual signs [Times & ...
HRM’s Active Transportation Committee revs up for 2010
By Steve Bedard // 1 Comment
[caption id="attachment_2819" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Without adequate infrastructure, commuting downtown can sometimes feel like this"][/caption]
HALIFAX - On January 21, HRM's Active Transportation Advisory Committee (ATAC) held it's first meeting of the year in order to make plans and set goals regarding expansion and improvement of HRM's Active Transportation network (AT). Transportation Demand Management (TDM), having committed to expanding our AT network by 20 linear kilometres by the end of the year has really stepped up its commitment to improving AT by increasing transparency in regards to AT infrastructure installation. Nevertheless, we are still approximately 70kms short of reaching AT targets defined in HRM's AT Plan before including the 20 km expansion.
I met up with Halifax Cycling Coalition Co-Chair Lauralee Sim and asked her a couple quick questions about ATAC's first meeting of 2010.
---
Steve: Did any issues take the spotlight at the ATAC meeting?
Lauralee: We didn't discuss AT issues in detail at this meeting. We spent our time discussing how we can work as a group and reviewed some key points in the AT plan. We're hoping to determine some priority issues at our next meeting in February.
Steve: What did ATAC representatives have to say at the meeting?
February 2nd, 2010
Tuesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
FREDERICTON - Few surprises in advisory panel's report [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Panel calls for stronger energy regulation [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Chamber of commerce pushing for commercial tax reform [Metro]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Province donates $108,000 to help low-income Islanders keep warm this winter [Guardian]
URBAN GREEN
HALIFAX - Public space needn't be green to be great [Chronicle-Herald]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Uprooting the crows [Guardian]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
MONCTON - Chateau 'ahead of its time' [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - City wants to find new concert venue [Daily Gleaner]
FREDERICTON - Legion still mulling where to place cross [Daily Gleaner]
CHARLOTTETOWN - ...
Atlantic snapshots
By The Photographers // No Comments
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
by Shakies Buddy, from the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool
February 3rd, 2010
Wednesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
HALIFAX - Council does a U-turn on taxi zones [Metro]
HALIFAX - City taxi zone issue stuck in neutral [Chronicle-Herald]
SAINT JOHN - Irving's decision shocks mayor [Telegraph-Journal]
SAINT JOHN - Councillors not throwing in the towel [Telegraph-Journal]
URBAN GREEN
HALIFAX - Vancouver topples Halifax in annual sustainability report [Metro]
SYDNEY - Plan to remediate former radar base revealed [Cape Breton Post]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HRM - Couple wants property rezoned for horses [Chronicle-Herald]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Jack Frost Festival quickly taking shape [Guardian]
SAINT JOHN - Architect describes decision as a 'real set-back' [Telegraph-Journal]
GRAND MANAN - New ferry an Adventure [Telegraph-Journal]
ST. ...
PlanSJ: Planning for Saint John’s Future…Finally!
By Andrew Matheson // 1 Comment
Co-written by Giovanni Paquin
SAINT JOHN - Last Wednesday was the project launch for one of the most exciting urban planning projects in Atlantic Canada. The City of Saint John kicked off PlanSJ: Our City, Our Future – a two-year initiative that will bring the City’s badly-outdated municipal plan in line with current realities and modern planning principles.
Saint John’s current Municipal Plan received Council approval in 1973 and was based on the assumption that the City’s population would grow to some 250,000 residents. Today, almost 40 years after the plan came into effect, the City’s residents number 68,000 – less than one third of the plan’s anticipated total. With faulty projections and dozens of subsequent amendments, the current plan has slipped into obscurity over the years and has failed to adequately guide development in a manner that best serves the interests of Saint John residents.
That’s all about to change.
World Wide Wednesday: Moscow, Vancouver and America’s high-speed rail
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• A big transit news week as the Obama administration announced the benefactors of the $8 billion investment in high-speed rail. Time Magazine ran an in-depth piece on ...
February 4th, 2010
Thursday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
TRANSPORTATION
NB - Hillsborough stops bike races [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Missing the bus [the Coast]
NB - Fuel taxes hurting bus company [Daily Gleaner]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Dealership co-owner wants public meeting on roundabout [The Guardian]
NB - Bridge contract in spotlight again [Daily Gleaner]
DARTMOUTH - Parking near NSCC irks neighbours [Chronicle Herald]
URBAN GREEN
NB - Tories seek review of landfill complaints [Daily Gleaner]
NS - Forever green: N.S. buys Irving land [Chronicle Herald]
HALIFAX - Some farmers to stay at Brewery Market [Chronicle Herald]
DOWNTOWN BUSINESS
HALIFAX - Quinpool now open, and late [the Coast]
HALIFAX - Barrington ...
[Re]Presenting Halifax #2: Against the Grain
By Matt Neville // 1 Comment
This is the second installment in a series that revisits historical and contemporary maps, diagrams and other interpretive readings of the Halifax region. See my first post for the full aims of this project and more information about contributing to the series.
HALIFAX - This map is a representation of the waterfront area, city centre, and suburbs of Halifax in 1835. Despite the passing of nearly 90 years since its founding, the original layout of the city remained intact in 1835. The only noticeable expansion is evident in the suburban growth in the north and south (Schmidtville), while paths to the west identify patterns for future expansion.
The inclusion of plot size is one of the most distinguishing and legible features of this map. Within the original city centre, blocks are narrow, with the long edge running parallel to the water. The blocks follow a strong grid pattern, each being approximately 320 feet in length and 120 feet in width (98m x 37m), with 55-foot (17m) wide streets in between. Each block is then subdivided into 16 equal plots. The result is a fine grain and diverse urban fabric, as each plot is a mere 40 feet wide.
From the Vaults: Africville
By Lauren Oostveen // 1 Comment
The Nova Scotia Archives is pleased to share photos showcasing the changing faces of urban centers in Nova Scotia. You can learn more about the archives and explore thousands of photos, textual records, maps, art, and more on their website.
Bird's eye view of Africville, showing its location on Bedford Basin, with north end Halifax and the Narrows in the background.
Selections from Bob Brooks' Photographic Portrait of Africville in the 1960s.
Bob Brooks created his photographic record of Africville, mostly in black and white, between about 1962 and 1965. His work appeared in Time Life, The Star Weekly, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, McCall's, Harper's, Maclean's, Chatelaine, The London Times, Paris Match and National Geographic.
Atlantic snapshots
By The Photographers // No Comments
Victoria Row, Charlottetown
by Martin Cathrae, from the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool
Petitcodiac: The ‘little’ river that’s causing a big fuss
By Blake Michel Morin // No Comments
MONCTON - While driving towards Salisbury along the Riverview side of the Petitcodiac River I noticed some peculiar sign-age under the acronym LAPPA, imploring all who cared to read it to keep the causeway connecting Moncton with Riverview closed. Having become familiar with the plight of the river myself over the years, the sign struck me as odd. It was my understanding that the general consensus amongst concerned citizens was that the gates should be opened in an effort to restore the river. So, as with anything of particular interest to my life, I Googled it. Before we get to my findings, a little background information if you will.
The causeway was constructed as a means of connecting Moncton with the quickly expanding town of Riverview and, as is the case with many NB municipalities, foresight was a word not found in the City of Moncton’s dictionary. The causeway essentially pinched off the river, causing a massive buildup of silty sediment directly downstream. The river's tidal bore, once world renowned and allegedly surf-able, was reduced to little more than the trickle of an 80 year man with kidney stones. As can be imagined the local ecosystem was affected and the fauna — fish in particular — that had once flourished soon vanished. A new ecosystem has since grown in its place, namely that of Lake Petitcodiac, a fresh water headpond that amasses upriver of the causeway.
February 7th, 2010
Atlantic snapshots: Containers at night
By The Photographers // 1 Comment
Halifax, Nova Scotia
by Dean Bouchard, member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool
Events guide: Smart growth in downtown St. John’s
By Andrew Harvey // No Comments
ST. JOHN'S - This should be a great opportunity for the community to gather, and discuss issues surrounding development in St. John's. The expert panel should give everyone a useful insight into ways we can ensure St. John's grows into the vibrant city we all want it to.
This event is being organized by the good people at HappyCity.ca, who also organized a public forum on smart growth and urban sprawl last April. They have an online forum on their website to promote discussion regarding growth, and ...
February 8th, 2010
Monday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
NB - Too soon to predict open-caucaus revolt - professor [Daily Gleaner]
NS - Dexter back in province, to speak today [Chronicle-Herald]
NS - Tories wrap up convention with talk of renewal on way [Chronicle-Herald]
URBAN GREEN
TATAMAGOUCHE - Farmer's market in Tata opened for 30th season [Truro Daily]
TRURO - Dutch elm disease taking fewer trees than in past years [Truro Daily]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
DIEPPE - Sign bylaw stalls [TImes & Transcript]
St. JOHN'S - Storm wrecks Battery, Quidi Vici [Telegram]
SAINT JOHN - Taking the city the wrong way down a one-way street? [Telegraph-Journal]
COMMUNITY
ATLANTIC - Festivals rock region ...
Events guide: Urban Chicken Bylaw Public Information Meeting
By Mark Lamovsek // No Comments
HALIFAX - Interested in turning your urban yard into a rural idyll? Always wanted a piece of the country right here in the city?
On Wednesday at Halifax Hall, city staff are hosting a public information meeting regarding backyard laying hens and a proposed amendment to the Peninsula Land Use By-law. Following this meeting, the proposal will undergo a detailed review and staff will prepare a report to be tabled at Peninsula Community Council. If you're interested in the growing urban farm movement, this is the place to make yourself heard.
WHAT: Public information meeting ...
February 9th, 2010
Tuesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
FREDERICTON - N.B. rule change aims to boost immigration [Times & Transcript]
DIEPPE - Dieppe council discusses sign bylaw amendments [Times & Transcript]
NS - MLAs to soon account for every penny [Chronicle-Herald]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
FREDERICTON - Government has no plans to subsidize bus company [Daily Gleaner]
FREDERICTON - City does well on resident satisfaction survey [Daily Gleaner]
ST. JOHN'S - Urban housing starts down slightly in January [Telegram]
DEVELOPMENT
ST. JOHN'S - Councillors call for co-operative response on storm repairs [Telegram]
TRURO - Hospital shocker [Truro Daily]
P.E.I. - First action completed under Rural Action Plan: LeClair [Guardian]
MIRAMICHI - ...
Atlantic snapshots
By The Photographers // No Comments
Halifax, Nova Scotia
by Ryan Wilson, member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool
February 10th, 2010
Wednesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // 2 Comments
POLITICS
N.S. - Tories want 'full disclosure' on political double-dippers [Metro]
GREATER HALIFAX? - Name-change talk confuses [Chronicle-Herald]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Plebiscite on at-large elections to be part of city vote [Guardian]
URBAN GREEN
ARICHAT - Richmond County council issues support for biosphere reserve [Cape Breton Post]
SAINT JOHN - City gets $10M to go green [Telegraph-Journal]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
MONCTON - Moncton 'best place' for cardiac lab [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Sea levels may rise by 73cm by 2100: Experts [Metro]
ROTHESAY - Fieldhouse not authorized yet: Mayor [Telegraph-Journal]
DEVELOPMENT
TRURO - Shares sold to raise money for Marigold renovations [Truro Daily]
TRURO - ...
February 11th, 2010
Thursday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
CITY HALL
MONCTON - Students show off art at Moncton City Hall [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Halifax, province of Nova Scotia, poised to make Africville settlement offer [the Coast]
FREDERICTON - Mayor wants morale back in police force [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Councillors debate changing name of HRM to Greater Halifax [the Coast]
URBAN GREEN
HALIFAX - Fore! Urban golf comes to Halifax [the Coast]
HALIFAX - Green firm wants its cash [Chroncile Herald]
NS - Government help needed for agricultural industry, say farmers [Truro Daily]
OTHER
MIRAMICHI - MLA to fight bus route cuts [Times & Transcript]
NB - N.B. ...
Cross the town and hope to ride
By Mark Lasanowski // 3 Comments
Brought to you in collaboration with the Ecology Action Centre and Halifax Cycling Coalition, SpokesPeople covers all things cycle-related. From the principles to the potholes, we're here to examine the realities facing the two-wheeled traveler.
The Halifax Cycling Coalition (HCC) has its sights set on an ambitious goal for 2010: the establishment of the CrossTown Connector (CTC) bike route, connecting the many tentacles of cycle-unfriendly Windsor Exchange in the north to Point Pleasant Park in the south. Wasting no time, the HCC is making tracks through Halifax's snow-covered streets to gather signatures for a petition in support of the CTC, with the hope of converting signatures into bike lanes before Santa begins his next round of chimney-hopping.
The CTC proposal is stuffed with laudable elements. Connecting existing bike lane segments on Windsor and South Park by way of Almon, Agricola, North Park and Ahern, the CTC forms an impressive trans-peninsular trunk from which can grow the limbs of a broader, more complete bike route network in the years ahead. And how sweetly flat it is. On a peninsula with an imposing humpback ridge, the CTC neatly skirts the steep grades that many Haligonians cite as an impediment to hopping on a bike in the first place.
[Re]Presenting Halifax #3: DesBarres on Halifax and Sydney
By Matt Neville // 3 Comments
The [Re]Presenting Halifax series revisits historical and contemporary maps, diagrams and other interpretive readings of the Halifax region. See my first post for the full aims of this project and more information about contributing to the series.
HALIFAX - Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres: “army officer, military engineer, surveyor, colonizer, and colonial administrator” – cartographer.
DesBarres is a mysterious figure and little is known about his personal life. But despite the little attention he is given, DesBarres holds an important place in the history of this region. Leaving Switzerland, spending time with Voltaire in Paris, joining the military in England, DesBarres came to North America in 1756, seven years after the founding of Halifax.
Instrumental in the successful 1758 siege of Louisbourg, DesBarres' many talents were quickly recognized by his superiors. DesBarres was soon mapping the St. Lawrence River and working on his charts in Halifax during the winter months while teaching mathematics, astronomy, and surveying to a young James Cook.
In 1760, DesBarres began mapping the Halifax Harbour in preparation for the construction of fortifications and dockyards. Over the next decade he would also complete detailed hydrological surveys of the coast. The Atlantic Neptune, a large collection of charts and views of the east coast of North America was the result of his work, first published in 1777, and has been his lasting legacy.
February 12th, 2010
Friday’s Headlines
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // 2 Comments
CITY HALL
FREDERICTON - Organizer says city should consult before picking site [Daily Gleaner]
ST JOHN'S - Town suing OCI [The Telegram]
FREDERICTON - City OKs appointments [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Alderney loan landing in taxpayers’ laps [Chronicle Herald]
SAINT JOHN - 'Shut 'er down' [Telegraph Journal]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HALIFAX - Businesses welcome Agricola project [Chroncile Herald]
SYDNEY - Cape Breton landscapes can now be seen around the world with a click of a mouse [Cape Breton Post]
SYDNEY - Mom upset by graffiti [Cape Breton Post]
TRURO - Local MLA ‘optimistic’ good news lies ahead for new facility [Truro Daily ...
If you love someone, buy them Spacing
By Spacing Atlantic // No Comments
Between now and Vanetine's Day on Sunday, you can buy the love of your life a discounted subscription to Spacing.
For only $25, the man or woman that loves Toronto as much as they love you can receive six issues mailed to their home for nearly 50% off of our newsstand price. This deal is also $4 off of our regular subscription rate.
photo from Toronto Archives: fonds 1257, series 1057, item 6980
Atlantic snapshots: parking lot
By The Photographers // No Comments
Halifax, Nova Scotia
by Dean Bouchard
February 13th, 2010
Spacing Saturday
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Spacing Saturday is a new feature that highlights posts from across Spacing's blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Spacing Saturday replaces the weekly features Montreal Monday and Toronto Tuesday.
• Scandal has rocked Toronto’s mayoral campaign. Revelations of an “inappropriate relationship” with a woman other than his long-time partner has led City Councilor and Toronto Transit Commission Chair Adam Giambrone, to drop his bid for mayor just 13 days after announcing his candidacy. Spacing Toronto has been ...
February 14th, 2010
Atlantic snapshots: SnowCycle
By The Photographers // No Comments
Charlottetown, PEI
by Kim Stillwell, member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool.
February 15th, 2010
Monday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
MONCTON- Is Moncton council doing enough? [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Council feels full review of city services too costly [Daily Gleaner]
TRURO - No hate charges for Truro mayor [Metro]
SYDNEY - Municipalities tackling population decline [Cape Breton Post]
SAINT JOHN - City gearing up to borrow $20 million [Telegraph-Journal]
P.E.I. - Premier taking too much credit for rural programs, Opposition MLA says [Guardian]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
FREDERICTON - Interest grows as Shannex nears completion [Daily Gleaner]
FREDERICTON - York Arena still needed to meet city's ice-time needs [Daily Gleaner]
DEVELOPMENT
MIRAMICHI - First Nation plans Miramichi Casino [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX ...
The impact of Metro Transit’s five year plan on downtown Halifax
By Jenn Casey // 3 Comments
HRM - Metro Transit's new 5-year transit operations plan was recently "approved in principle" at an HRM regional council meeting on February 9th. The 187-page report [PDF] suggests a number of upgrades, route changes, terminal changes, price changes and additions to their service. But what does it mean for the downtown?
First presented to council in October 2009, the plan is designed to "take transit to the next level," according to HRM documents.
While some councillors voiced concern at the February 9 council meeting, the plan still passed. North end Councillor Jerry Blumenthal was the only one to vote against the plan. He was worried about the cost of the plan. However, this plan is just a collection of recommendations; the specific ideas put forth will need to be approved by council during the budgeting process.
Councillor Jim Smith was critical of the emphasis on expanding service to rural areas like Fall River, Enfield and Musquodoboit Harbour. He's worried the plan would support urban sprawl, however he did vote to move it along.
The fear of urban sprawl is no reason to not provide public transit to communities that are part of HRM and pay HRM taxes (I think we've been through this with the tax reform issue).
The report shows growth in all but a few routes, in some cases up to 361 per cent. And that growth could be even higher — a study done by city staffers shows respondents would generally like to use transit more, if only the service was better.
Events guide: A chat with Andy Fillmore, HRM’s urban design chief
By Jake Schabas // No Comments
HALIFAX - Looking for a lunch date this Tuesday? Come chat with HRM's urban design head honcho Andy Fillmore. This Dalhousie-Harvard educated architect-come-planner-come-urban designer is the manager of the influential HRMbyDesign Downtown Plan (discussed in detail in a Spacing Atlantic four-part series) and also happens to be the lead urban design advisor on both the proposed New Central Library project and World Trade and Convention Centre site.
Currently, Andy is set to take a leading role in creating a masterplan to redesign the infamous Cogswell Interchange. Now is as good a ...
February 16th, 2010
Tuesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
SAINT JOHN - Council defeats transit motion [Telegraph-Journal]
URBAN GREEN
DIEPPE - Kent Homes unveils energy-efficient home [Times & Transcript]
MONCTON - Council debates Petitcodiac causeway [Times & Transcript]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
FREDERICTON - York Arena gets stay of demolition [Daily Gleaner]
TRURO - Victoria Park no place for zip lines [Truro Daily]
MONCTON - Moncton residents have accepted TreeGO [Truro Daily]
DEVELOPMENT
MONCTON - Will Metro get a new downtown convention centre? [Times & Transcript]
MONCTON - Metro new home market stable [Times & Transcript]
N.B. - Affordable housing projects in province get boost [Daily Gleaner]
COMMUNITY
HALIFAX - No to mega-concerts, yes ...
Events Guide: PechaKucha Night 4 Haiti
By Rachel Caroline Derrah // No Comments
HALIFAX - PechaKucha Nights are informal and fun gatherings where creative people get together and share their ideas, works, and thoughts — just about anything really. The idea behind PechaKucha is to have many people sharing their thoughts and work within the course of one night. Therefore the 20x20 PechaKucha format was created: 20 images + each shown for 20 seconds = 6 minutes 40 seconds per presenter + 14 presenters = 1 wild night.
The global PechaKucha family is coming together with ...
February 17th, 2010
Wednesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
MONCTON - Events centre report due March 15 [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - City needs tougher by-laws - councillor [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Halifax planning public meetings as part of polling district review [Metro]
HALIFAX - Generating some interest [Chronicle-Herald]
SUMMERSIDE - Council puts crime prevention recommendations into effect [Guardian]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HALIFAX - City airport second best on continent, rankings say [Metro]
SYDNEY - Funding for public internet at library in jeopardy [Cape Breton Post]
SAINT JOHN - Police get new HQ pitch [Telegraph-Journal]
DEVELOPMENT
MONCTON - Council approves trail for Millenium Boulevard [Times & Transcript]
SAINT JOHN - City ...
February 18th, 2010
Thursday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
HALIFAX - Snowstorm will take chunk out of HRM's budget [Chronicle-Herald]
HALIFAX - Halifax to host G8 meet in April [Chronicle-Herald]
CORNWALL - Cornwall freezes residential, commercial tax rates [Guardian]
SAINT JOHN - Permit system may be better than exempting streets, councillor says [Telegraph-Journal]
URBAN GREEN
MONCTON - Changes coming to wastewater treatment [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Company fined for violating clean environment act [Daily Gleaner]
N.S. - N.S. Gov't continues to scoop up land in hopes of reaching conservation goals [Metro]
DEVELOPMENT
FREDERICTON - Neighbours of new development voice concerns, ideas [Daily Gleaner]
DARTMOUTH - Welcome to the New ...
Atlantic snapshots: Union Street
By The Photographers // No Comments
Saint John, New Brunswick
by Number Six (bill lapp), member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool.
February 19th, 2010
A New Space in Fredericton to Explore Space
By Giovanni Paquin // No Comments
Co-written by Giovanni Paquin & Andrew Matheson
FREDERICTON - As of February 11th, Fredericton’s Gallery Connexion has opened the doors of its new home in the Chestnut Complex on 440 York Street. The inaugural exhibition of the gallery’s new location is presenting Nomadic Landscapes, an interactive art and architecture installation by José Luis Torres, a sculptor whose works have been showcased in exhibitions, residencies and symposiums in South America, North America and Europe.
I was fortunate enough to attend the opening night of ...
New life for Shannon Park
By Lizzy Hill // 1 Comment
Squat rows of abandoned apartments circle an empty children's playground, buried by snow. These buildings have seen better days. Their dull brown, yellow, grey and dishwater green paint is fading. Most windows are shattered or boarded up, while metal fencing and a dozen 'No Trespassing' signs surround them. If you look into the horizon, you can see candy cane striped smoke stacks belching smoke and the outline of the A. Murray MacKay Bridge. Shannon Park, a dilapidated former military barracks, is one of the first things people ...
February 20th, 2010
Spacing Saturday
By Spacing Atlantic // No Comments
Every Saturday, we highlight recent posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region.
• Jenn Casey examines the details of the recently approved five-year Metro Transit plan for downtown Halifax, including provisions for increased service to outlying areas, a streamlining of bus coverage in the core, and a year-round downtown shuttle.
• The Shannon Park military barracks in Dartmouth is a dilapidated eyesore with huge potential — as a new-thinking, sustainable neighbourhood, land for the the ...
February 22nd, 2010
Monday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
HRM - City accountants project million-dollar deficit [Metro]
HALIFAX - Africville trust gets financial boost [Chronicle-Herald]
HALIFAX - MacKay drops $1.6M for five rec projects [Chronicle-Herald]
SYDNEY - Cabinet will consider ferry funding: Baird [Cape Breton Post]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
MONCTON- Historic buildings get $6M for renos [Times & Transcript]
DARTMOUTH - Too tall for Dartmouth? [Coast]
HALIFAX - Demolition closes streets [Chronicle-Herald]
SAINT JOHN - Affordable North End homes remain vacant [Telegraph-Journal]
DEVELOPMENT
FREDERICTON - City needs major street work [Daily Gleaner]
SAINT JOHN - The biggest east of Montreal [Telegraph-Journal]
COMMUNITY
FREDERICTON- Beaverbrook funding requests ignored: CEO [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - ...
[Re]Presenting Halifax #4: Making the Case for Urban Renewal
By Matt Neville // 3 Comments
The [Re]Presenting Halifax series revisits historical and contemporary maps, diagrams and other interpretive readings of the Halifax region. See my first post for the full aims of this project and more information about contributing to the series.
HALIFAX - In 1957, University of Toronto planning professor Gordon Stephenson released a report titled A Redevelopment Study of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Jointly funded by the City and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), this study was commissioned after a series of unsuccessful slum clearance and redevelopment proposals for the peninsula in the early 1950s.
Stephenson’s study, widely-known as The Stephenson Report, was a manual for urban renewal and regeneration achieved through slum clearance. Armed with "evidence" from the Report’s statistical surveys of social conditions, the city razed 16 acres of dense housing (more than the 8.8 acres recommended), displacing 1600 people and relocated them to the newly constructed Mulgrave Park housing project. The cleared land sat empty until the construction of Scotia Square in 1967.
February 23rd, 2010
Tuesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
N.B. - Environment department celebrates 40 years [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - No Africville compensation cash for individuals [Chronicle-Herald]
HALIFAX - Halifax offers $3M payout to former black community [Globe & Mail]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Mayor pursues federal funds for ditch infilling, road work [Guardian]
URBAN GREEN
HALIFAX - Forestry work may close park routes [Metro]
N.S. - NS Power signs 20-year power deal with Watts Wind Energy [Metro]
SAINT JOHN -City pouring millions into water projects this year [Telegraph-Journal]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
MONCTON - Energy-saving model home to be built soon [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - City to look at cost of saving ...
Africville Reparations: 40 Years Later
By Katie McKay // 3 Comments
This piece of paper was found outside of the George Dixon Centre.
HALIFAX - This past Saturday, the Africville Genealogy Society announced that Halifax Regional Municipality has offered a three million dollar compensation package to the former community of Africville. Yesterday the federal government contributed an additional $250,000 towards the creation of the Africville Heritage Trust.
Africville, a small community settled in ...
HRM by Re-design: Swimming and social infrastructure
By Dustin Valen // 3 Comments
A series that examines urban and architectural issues in Halifax by way of un-built proposals authored by different designers, this week featuring a project by Architect Oliver Dang for an aquatic centre submitted to the 2006 ACSA/AISC steel student design competition. All drawings courtesy Oliver Dang.
HALIFAX - The liveliness of a city is a reflection of the quality of its social infrastructure. In addition to housing and retail, leisure spaces are necessary to relieve uniformity, attract people to the downtown and serve as a locus for outward growth. More importantly, social landmarks contribute to the identity of a city by inscribing centrality, signifying values, and giving order to the urban fabric. Emphasising social infrastructure as a foundation for healthy urbanity entails that a city like Halifax be viewed not simply as a collection of shops and offices, but as a leisure destination. Two recently announced projects in Halifax are outstanding opportunities to create and improve upon social spaces in the city.
This August, the Centennial Pool — built as a venue for the 1969 Canada Summer Games — received a federal award of one million dollars for accessible upgrades to the building. Jointly funded by the Halifax Regional Municipality, the unassuming proposal includes the installation of solar hot water heaters, a district heating system, and some modest interior renovations. Meanwhile, plans to redevelop the site of the CBC building at the corner of South Park and Sackville Street have engulfed the neighbouring YMCA programme and will likewise include new fitness and pool facilities. Together, these projects are a rare opportunity to invest downtown Halifax with new and improved leisure amenities and celebrate one hundred years of competitive swimming. The role that these two projects could play in helping to revitalize downtown Halifax merits a more critical discussion about design objectives that could be of long term benefit to the city.
February 24th, 2010
Wednesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
N.B. - Midwife rules in the works [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - City seeks more power over zoning bylaws [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Africville gets unanimous OK from council [Metro]
HRM - HRM faces $30.4M gap [Metro]
HRM - City hall must tackle $30M budget shortfall [Chronicle-Herald]
NFLD - Nalcor's last-ditch effort for a better hydro deal [Globe & Mail]
URBAN GREEN
MONCTON - Officials hold causeway open house [Times & Transcript]
DEVELOPMENT
MONCTON - Downtown Moncton poised for change [Times & Transcript]
MIRAMICHI - City protects heritage [Times & Transcript]
TRURO - Changes to building codes will cost homebuilders, say ...
Atlantic snapshots: Planet Fredericton
By The Photographers // No Comments
Fredericton, New Brunswick
by zeegs, member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool
World Wide Wednesday: Vancouver, Lisboa, and Shanghai
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games will eventually end. The athletes and spectators will go home but the infrastructure built to accommodate them will remain. Fastcompany looks at the built-form ...
Events Guide: Governance and Boundary Review Meetings
By Emma Feltes // No Comments
HALIFAX - Leading up to the 2012 election, The Governance & Boundary Review Committee of Council is undertaking a review of the polling districts and boundaries, hoping to address key questions around how Council can work better for HRM citizens. The first of the public meetings took place last night, with six more to follow across the different HRM districts through March 10th. Discussion topics include the size of electoral districts, the role of district councillors, and the decision-making power and size of Community Councils and ...
February 25th, 2010
Thursday’s Headlines
By Emma Feltes // No Comments
POLITICS
HALIFAX - Africville deal nets millions [Metro]
HALIFAX - Buses beg as cars cash in [The Coast]
HALIFAX - RCMP could be replaced [Chronicle Herald]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Island EMS, government officials meet with paramedics union over ambulance speed concerns [Guardian]
N.B. - Graham defends NB power deal delay [CBC]
DEVELOPMENT
FREDERICTON - Group worried about bridge closure [Daily Gleaner]
SAINT JOHN - Commons campaign launched [Telegraph-Journal]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Cycling not part of Riverside Drive expansion [CBC]
URBAN GREEN
N.S. - Nova Scotia considers banning pesticides [The Coast]
COMMUNITY
HALIFAX - 'We are sorry,' Halifax apologizes to ...
Atlantic snapshots: Behind the ‘hood
By The Photographers // No Comments
Saint John, New Brunswick
by Number Six (bill lapp), member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool.
February 26th, 2010
Friday’s Headlines
By Emma Feltes // No Comments
POLITICS
HALIFAX - Africville deal details in report [Chronicle Herald]
N.S. - N.S. NDP fined over union donation [CBC]
N.B. - Intervener says bus service crucial [Daily Gleaner]
CHARLOTTETOWN - New project supports democratic participation of women and girls [Guardian]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Charlottetown monthly parkers unhappy [CBC]
NFLD - Nalcor's last-ditch effort for a better hydro deal [Globe & Mail]
DEVELOPMENT
HALIFAX - N.S. loans Halifax shipyard $20 million for upgrades to wharves, cranes, offices [Metro]
HALIFAX - Urban renewal was progressive way to do things, in 1960s thinking [Chronicle Herald]
URBAN GREEN
SAINT JOHN - City, Ottawa ...
February 27th, 2010
Spacing Saturday
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Every Saturday, we highlight recent posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region.
• Daniel Rotsztain looks at the organic and spontentous paths Montrealers create collectively as they negotiate snow in the city's park and streets.
• For the past two years Spacing Montreal has been following the city's controversial plans to revitalize the Lower Main. For those who need a review of the issues at stake, Spacing Montreal has helpfully itemized all its ...
March 1st, 2010
Monday’s Headlines
By Emma Feltes // No Comments
POLITICS
FREDERICTON - City not easing up on marketing [Daily Gleaner]
MONCTON - Officials discuss parking solutions [Times & Transcript]
SAINT JOHN - Police chief doesn't meet council's deadline [Telegraph-Journal]
HALIFAX - Africville deal details in report [Chronicle Herald]
SYDNEY - Councillor objects possible reduction of fire stations [Cape Breton Post]
DEVELOPMENT
N.S. - Labour shortage driving up cost of capital projects for Nova Scotia municipalities [Metro]
MONCTON - Downtown development moving at steady pace [Times & Transcript]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Possible buyers preparing bids for Sisters of St. Martha property [Guardian]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
FREDERICTON - Repairs will close Fredericton ...
[Re]Presenting Halifax #5: Waterfront [Re]Visions
By Matt Neville // 1 Comment
The [Re]Presenting Halifax series revisits historical and contemporary maps, diagrams and other interpretive readings of the Halifax region. See my first post for the full aims of this project and more information about contributing to the series.
HALIFAX - Waterfront redevelopment has been a major focus of cities around the globe for decades. In the case of Halifax, it has been a process that has spanned decades. Halifax, much like Toronto, has struggled to find consensus for a waterfront redevelopment strategy. The plans and images presented here show two early visions for the renovation and revitalization of the Halifax waterfront. Although both plans may have had some influence on subsequent development, the future of the waterfront remains a contentious debate.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The redevelopment proposal from the 1971 plan. In addition to the highrises along the waterfront, it is interesting to note the terraced residential infill proposed at the base of the Citadel (much of which is occupied by the Metro Centre today)."][/caption]
March 2nd, 2010
Tuesday’s Headlines
By Emma Feltes // No Comments
POLITICS
SYDNEY - Changes to governance structure necessary to survive: Whalley [Cape Breton Post]
HALIFAX - Council debates policing behind closed doors [Chronicle Herald]
HALIFAX - Bridge toll hike must go to transit: councillor [Chronicle Herald]
SAINT JOHN - City Budget: New process will improve public accountability, officials tell common council [Telegraph-Journal]
ST JOHN'S - St. John's, Mount Pearl talking trash [Telegram]
DEVELOPMENT
MONCTON - Industrial Park expansion gets $910,000 loan [Times & Transcript]
URBAN GREEN
MONCTON - Envisioning the future of a restored Petitcodiac River [Times & Transcript]
SAINT JOHN - Other cities take a pro-active ...
SPACING RADIO: City budgets, ferry rides and Olympic legacies
By Matthew Blackett // No Comments
Spacing Radio 017 is on the air.
It's budget-time in Toronto and while City Hall is busy at work approving the final numbers, host David Michael Lamb sits down with Spacing contributing editor John Lorinc to talk about the pitfalls of having to pay the bills. Producer Mieke Anderson stows away with the crew of the Toronto Island Ferry Ongiara to discuss the realities of operating the ferry throughout the winter months and, in the process, discovers one of the city's best-kept secrets. Meanwhile, nearly 3,500 km away in Vancouver, reporter Pattie ...
March 3rd, 2010
Wednesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
MONCTON - Snow removal too slow: Councillor [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Politicians on the bus! [Coast]
HALIFAX - Big wheels on the bus [Coast]
HALIFAX - Mayor and councillors get look at new hybrid buses [Metro]
HALIFAX - No changes for cops [Metro]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
FREDERICTON - Keeping watch over old city clock [Daily Gleaner]
CHARLOTTETOWN - City to stagger parking fee increases [Guardian]
CHARLOTTETOWN - No plans for bike lane on Riverside Drive, minister says [Guardian]
DEVELOPMENT
FREDERICTON - Big year in housing expected [Daily Gleaner]
TRURO - Buildings approved despite objections [Truro Daily]
TRURO - Local developer says ...
World Wide Wedneday: Los Angeles, Denver and Mumbai
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• In 2004, the City if Denver committed $4.7 billion to an ambitious transit project called FasTracks, to be completed by 2017. Supported by thirty-two regional mayors, FasTacks included provisions ...
Atlantic snapshots: New buses
By The Photographers // No Comments
Halifax, Nova Scotia
by Victor Stegemann, member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool.
March 4th, 2010
Thursday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
HALIFAX - Cop vs. cop [Coast]
HALIFAX - HRP won't comment on decision to keep RCMP [Metro]
HALIFAX - Councillor: City told funding split wouldn't change [Chronicle-Herald]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
MONCTON - The great parking debate continues [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Channeling history [Coast]
HALIFAX - Beyond the walls; library architecture [Coast]
DEVELOPMENT
FREDERICTON - 'There's lots optimism and ambition here' [Daily Gleaner]
ST. JOHN'S - Integrated Community SustainabZzzzz.... [Scope]
COMMUNITY
MONCTON - No late drinks for St. Pat's [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - Capital health shaping up, says Cyclists [Chronicle-Herald]
SYDNEY - Rockcliffe apartment tenants upset by rent increases [Cape Breton ...
Atlantic snapshots: Moncton
By The Photographers // 1 Comment
Moncton, New Brunswick
by Philip Mercier, member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool.
AWARDS: The best and worst bike parking in HRM
By Steve Bedard // 1 Comment
[caption id="attachment_3769" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="From left to right: Steve Bedard (Co-Chair, HCC), Laura Smith (Workplace Health Promotion Planner, CDHA), Jeffery Horne (Supervisor Maintenance and Operations, CDHA), Emma Felts (Editor, Spacing Atlantic) and John Mason (Supervisor Maintenance and Operations, CDHA)."][/caption]
HALIFAX - In early January, Spacing Atlantic teamed up with the Halifax Cycling Coalition and launched a poll of the best and worst bike parking spots in Halifax and Dartmouth. After over a month of voting, we're ready to announce the winners of the Best and Worst of Bike Parking in the HRM for 2009!
Winner of Best Bike Parking: The Dickson Centre Entrance at the Victoria General Hospital
This spot really blew all other nominees out of the water. With its high capacity, sheltered parking area, multiple bike rack designs and the security of the commissionaires office nearby, the Dickson Centre Entrance at the Victoria General Hospital site was the clear winner with 69% of votes.
March 5th, 2010
Friday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
MONCTON - Planned cuts in budget raise questions in Metro [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - More money for HRM despite fewer tickets [Metro]
HALIFAX - RCMP bid cost more money for fewer cops [Chronicle-Herald]
URBAN GREEN
MONCTON - Nice biking weather [Times & Transcript]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
DARTMOUTH - Parents: School grounds unsafe [Chronicle-Herald]
DEVELOPMENT
HALIFAX - Who are the new Central Library architects? [Coast]
HALIFAX - Bikers propose new route [Metro]
BEDFORD - Mickey to uncork new business [Chronicle-Herald]
COMMUNITY
FREDERICTON - Ever wanted to stick it to the mayor? [Daily Gleaner]
OTHER NEWS
CANADA - Renovation tax credit axed [Times & Transcript]
N.S. - ...
Revamping representation in Halifax: HRM’s Governance & District Boundary Review process
By Emma Feltes // No Comments
HALIFAX - Life in a post-amalgamation world. This seemingly perpetual challenge lingered in the realm of subtext during Wednesday night's public meeting on Halifax Regional Municipality's Governance and District Boundary Review. Poised for completion by Dec 2010, the Review aims to assess and improve our municipal governance structure, looking primarily at the number of electoral districts; their size and boundaries; and the size, number, and scope of power of Community Councils. What this really means: how many councillors should make up Regional Council, what population of HRMers each councillor should represent, and how the geographic structure of their governing authority might shift.
Chaired by Mayor Peter Kelly, Wednesday's meeting— the fifth of seven meetings taking place across Community Councils through mid-March — gave HRM residents and representatives of the business community the opportunity to voice their opinions, musings, and concerns about the current governance structure and make a case for change.
March 6th, 2010
Spacing Saturday
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Spacing Saturday is a new feature that highlights posts from across Spacing's blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region. Spacing Saturday replaces the weekly features Montreal Monday and Toronto Tuesday.
• Spacing Ottawa’s Evan Thornton recently brought along his omni-directional microphone on a walk through the city’s Byward Market and Rideau Centre. Check out Spacing Ottawa for Thornton’s detailed description of the “audio footprints” he captured and to listen to the city’s soundscape .
• Spacing’s Evan ...
Quilting the Urban Landscape
By Jessica Walker // No Comments
HALIFAX - What happens when you take a harder discipline like architecture out of context and cut it up to resemble something more soft, like a quilt? Photographer Diane Laundy's new exhibition, fabrications, now on display at ViewPoint Gallery on Barrington Street in Halifax, provides urban art enthusiasts with some pause for thought.
March 8th, 2010
Monday’s Headlines
By Emma Feltes // No Comments
POLITICS
PEI - P.E.I. gets Island Party [CBC]
ST JOHN'S - Landlords turning back on welfare clients: mom [CBC]
CHARLOTTETOWN - City's crackdown on meter feeders shows quick results [Guardian]
FREDERICTON - Council eyes transit project [Daily Gleaner]
FREDERICTON - Most ignore province's tax guidelines [Daily Gleaner]
SAINT JOHN - Council wants battered dirt roads chip sealed [Telegraph-Journal]
URBAN GREEN
SAINT JOHN - Rockwood Park's shifting borders worry residents [CBC]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
FREDERICTON - Convention centre turning heads [Daily Gleaner]
DEVELOPMENT
HALIFAX - Get set for next big winter games [Chronicle Herald]
HALIFAX - McCartney, Kill fans spent ...
Fenwick developer hopes to set a new precedent in Halifax
By Emma Feltes // 6 Comments
Co-written by Rachel Caroline Derrah
HALIFAX - Fenwick Tower, the 40-years unfinished, 33-storey butt of the anti-development community's — nay, everyone's — jokes is going through an identity overhaul. And, if all goes according to the proposed plan, it's taking the city with it. For decades skeptical fingers have pointed in the building's direction, naming it a quintessential example of bad development — a living argument against changing Halifax's height restrictions.
But Joe Metlege of Templeton Properties — 7-month owner of the infamous high-rise — aims to "flip that." He sees potential in Fenwick Tower to become an example of development gone right, envisioning fingers across the country pointed Halifax-bound, towards a new precedent in innovative renovation of the Le Corbusier-inspired 'tower in the park' design, which was prevalent in the 1960s and 70s and is widely critiqued for its brutality and context insensitivity.
This Tuesday, March 9th, Templeton's application to amend the Municipal Planning Strategy and Peninsula Land Use By-law to allow for mixed-use re-development of the Fenwick site will come before Regional Council.
[Re]Presenting Halifax #6: Waterfront [Re]Visions Part 2
By Matt Neville // No Comments
The [Re]Presenting Halifax series revisits historical and contemporary maps, diagrams and other interpretive readings of the Halifax region. See my first post for the full aims of this project and more information about contributing to the series.
HALIFAX - This is a continuation of last week's post about waterfront redevelopment. Similar to the plans presented last week, this post focuses on a plan commissioned for the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission during the early 1970s.
Dubbed Harbour Plaza, this 1971 urban redevelopment plan reimagines the Dartmouth waterfront and ferry terminal. In contrast to the plans for Halifax revealed at the same time, this plan presents the redesign of the ferry terminal as a strategic urban project meant to reactivate the surrounding area. While this proposal never materialized, it shares some similar features to the new ferry terminal and Alderney Landing complex.
March 9th, 2010
Tuesday’s Headlines
By Emma Feltes // No Comments
POLITICS
HALIFAX - 'Mayor' Stoffer would do 'more than talk about cats' [Chronicle Herald]
HALIFAX - Overnight street parking ban to be lifted Monday night [Metro]
SAINT JOHN - Sexist cads on council? [Telegraph-Journal]
SAINT JOHN - Chase 'bad news bear,' mayor says [Telegraph-Journal]
ST JOHN'S - St. John's rejects Petty Harbour's land request [CBC]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Website helps city police nab suspects [Guardian]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Brown calls for greater fiscal accountability in city's finances [Guardian]
URBAN GREEN
SYDNEY - Cape Breton firms land two tar ponds cleanup contracts worth $7.7 million [Metro]
CHARLOTTETOWN - Environment minister ...
March 10th, 2010
Wednesday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
MIRAMICHI - Presenters to argue against bus cuts [Times & Transcript]
SAINT JOHN - 'City is driving us out' [Telegraph-Journal]
SAINT JOHN - More money needed - Chase [Telegraph-Journal]
SAINT JOHN - Peel Plaza cost hasn't soared, city official says [Telegraph-Journal]
URBAN GREEN
FREDERICTON - Rink to get green upgrade [Daily Gleaner]
SABLE ISLAND - Wild horses couldn't keep them away [Globe & Mail]
SAINT JOHN - Define Rockwood's boundaries first: neighbours [Telegraph-Journal]
DEVELOPMENT
MONCTON - Downtown Moncton needs teamwork to thrive [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Regent Mall to start $13M upgrade [Daily Gleaner]
SYDNEY - Libraries to get internet ...
Atlantic snapshots: Lone walker
By The Photographers // No Comments
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
by plankskate, member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool.
World Wide Wednesday: Exit signs, China’s golf obsession and the decade’s most expensive transit projects
By Kat Snukal // No Comments
Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• Planning a bike trip using Google Maps is about to get much easier as the company is set to launch a new bike trip planner service in 150 US ...
March 11th, 2010
Thursday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
MONCTON - Tax fix up to N.B. - mayor [Times & Transcript]
N.B. - Tories blast power deal 'consultation' process [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Pedestrian-vehicle accidents concerns city hall [Daily Gleaner]
TRURO - Losing TreeGO worries chamber [Truro Daily]
P.E.I. - Island New Democrats call for wholesale conversion to organic farming [Guardian]
DEVELOPMENT
FREDERICTON - Train station work waits for federal OK [Daily Gleaner]
DARTMOUTH - $9.5M terminal expansion plans revealed [Coast]
HALIFAX - Big plans for Fenwick [Coast]
HALIFAX - City, tire recycler to discuss concerns [Metro]
ALBERTON - Holland College building training centre in Alberton [Guardian]
COMMUNITY
MONCTON - ...
Events Guide: Green Week end… just the beginning
By Veronica Simmonds // No Comments
HALIFAX - Dalhousie's third annual Green Week is coming to an end tomorrow after four (ecology) action packed days. Organized by the Student Union Sustainability Office, the week has provided such earth-friendly events as a Bicycle Tune Up Bonanza!!, a green job fair and a residence waste challenge.
Here at Spacing Atlantic we are a coastal people, and it is with this in mind that we encourage you to make your way to the Dalhousie Student Union Building tomorrow at noon. ...
March 12th, 2010
Friday’s Headlines
By Peter Richard // No Comments
POLITICS
MONCTON - City has 3 police options [Times & Transcript]
HALIFAX - City's new auditor general getting busy [Chronicle-Herald]
SAINT JOHN - Councillor calling for immediate solution [Telegraph-Journal]
SAINT JOHN - MP must act: councillors [Telegraph-Journal]
URBAN GREEN
HALIFAX - Tap into local water [Metro]
HALIFAX - Monsanto curls up with Brier organizers [Chronicle-Herald]
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
DIEPPE - New Paul St. unveiled today [Times & Transcript]
FREDERICTON - Bridge closure will highlight city's paths [Daily Gleaner]
HALIFAX - Like steak, razing was well done [Chronicle-Herald]
DEVELOPMENT
CHARLOTTETOWN - Private sector may build, own Charlotte Court [Guardian]
COMMUNITY
FREDERICTON - City wants residents to get ...
Atlantic snapshots: silhouettes
By The Photographers // No Comments
Charlottetown, PEI
by Jeremy Griffin, member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool.
Chartered spaces
By Andrew Matheson // 2 Comments
SAINT JOHN - Saint John has a long and proud history of parks and green spaces. As the first incorporated city in Canada, it also became the first city in the country to set aside land for public squares in its Royal Charter of 1785. With the creation of the City came the creation of the city’s first green spaces. These parks, “known by the names of King’s and Queen’s Square, shall be and forever remain open, unenclosed and unappropriated to any use or uses whatsoever either private or public…”
These four squares — King’s Square and Queen’s Square on the Uptown Peninsula and their mirror images of King’s Square West and Queen’s Square West on the City’s lower west side — were the first green spaces developed in Saint John. King’s Square, located next door to the bustling City Market, is one of the most used open spaces in the entire city.
The protection of the four “royal” squares from any type of development under the City’s charter does not extend to all city parks. The preservation of public space has been a hot topic in Saint John in recent weeks. This past Wednesday, the City hosted a public consultation session for the Sandy Point Road Study to engage citizens in a discussion about the future of city-owned land on the western edge of Rockwood Park.
March 13th, 2010
Spacing Saturday
By Kat Snukal // 1 Comment
Every Saturday, we highlight recent posts from across Spacing’s blog network in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Atlantic region.
• Danish architects Louise Kielgast and Kristian S. Villadsen recently gave a talk at Montreal's Mcgill University. The designers (from the world-renowned Gehl Architects) spoke on "people-focused" urban design with particular attention to the challenges and opportunities of Northern cites. This week Spacing Montreal hosts the video of the talk which should prove interesting to all Spacing readers.
• Émile Thomas offers some small ...
March 14th, 2010
Atlantic snapshots: Barrington Street
By The Photographers // 2 Comments
Halifax, Nova Scotia
by Ben MacLeod, member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool.
March 15th, 2010
Monday’s Headlines
By Emma Feltes // No Comments
POLITICS
HALIFAX - HRM's absurd obsession with secrecy [The Coast]
MONCTON - Codiac RCMP report fans political tensions [CBC]
MIRAMICHI - Public meetings begin today on bus route cuts [Daily Gleaner]
SAINT JOHN - Looking for answers [Telegraph-Journal]
NB - N.B. increases property tax rebate [CBC]
NB - Province puts municipalities on edge [Daily Gleaner]
PEI - Union, Health Department far apart on new contract [Guardian]
URBAN GREEN
CHARLOTTETOWN -