HALIFAX - This Monday will launch an exhibition of black and white photos dubbed "Culture Not Convention" to be featured at The Khyber all week. The work is a collective, community-based response to plans by all three levels of government to spend up to $375 million in tax dollars on a proposed high rise convention centre in the downtown core. It also includes two water colours by Kyle Jackson. Borrowing its name from a previous fence weave project, the photo initiative started back in December, when an ad-hoc group of ...

ALL OVER - "Jane’s Walk is the street-level celebration of Jane Jacobs’ legacy that combines the simple act of walking with personal observations, urban history and local lore as a way of knitting people together into strong and resourceful communities." Since it's inception in Toronto in 2007, every first weekend of May (to coincide with Jane Jacobs' b-day), Jane's Walk sends swaths of pedestrians out to infiltrate and explore the urban landscape. The walks honour urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs who championed the interests of local residents and pedestrians, ...

Halifax - Kourosh Rad, a fourth year student at Dalhousie's School of Planning, wants your input on the feasibility and potentials of public bicycle sharing system in HRM. Fill out his short online survey to contribute to a broader understanding of Haligonian's attitudes towards bike sharing: https://surveys.dal.ca/opinio/s?s=10526. photo by Isaac Tsahi Moscovich, member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool

HALIFAX - On Thursday, Feb 10th, a diverse group of about 30-40 people gathered at Dalhousie's University Club to discuss a new initiative being launched by four of Halifax's largest institutions. Dalhousie University, Saint Mary's University, Capital Health, and the IWK Health Centre have teamed up to create a 'Transportation Demand Management' working group which aims to  meet sustainability goals through promoting cycling. The group's central project is to develop and implement a new Bikeways Plan for the expansive "institutional district" formed by their total combined landmass. The session, facilitated by ...

This just in: The opening of the Canada Games Oval has been POSTPONED due to the unseasonably warm weather! Plans to open the week of Dec 19th... stay tuned! HALIFAX - After months of curious construction, the time has finally come!  The monstrous Canada Games Skating Oval will open to the public tomorrow evening, launching the first of many free public skate opportunities to come. As reported in Lezlie Lowe's giddy Chronicle Herald article, the oval will offer free daily skating, ...

HALIFAX - On Thursday, Dec 2nd, approximately 30 people gathered for a two-hour workshop dedicated to imagining a more environmentally, socially, culturally and economically sustainable downtown Halifax.  Appropriating the total estimated budget allocated towards the controversial convention centre development — $15 million per year over the next 25 years — and using a "menu" of figures pulled from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative's extensive Nova Scotia Alternative Budget as a reference point, participants were ...

HALIFAX - Take a wander past the long-vacant, burnt-out NFB building these days and you'll noticed a new addition to Barrington's fractured landscape.  At Saturday's 4FUNDS event — hosted by the Pepsi Refresh Project, DreamNow, and the Hub Halifax — a small team of Haligonians, challenged with the task of doing good in the community using only $100 and 100 minutes, alloted their time and money towards the creation of a participatory community board. With dry-erase supplies mounted to the door, and thought-provoking questions strategically posed, the community board invites downtown passersby to step into the enigmatic doorway and voice their reflections, ideas, and musings about Halifax. The unique event, which was piloted in Vancouver on last Thursday, pooled each participant's $20 registration fee (with Pepsi Refresh kicking in an extra $20) to provide a collective project budget of $100 per team. Each team had to come to consensus as to the best and most creative use of their budget and then execute this idea in just 100 minutes. As discussed on CBC's Information Morning on Monday, the idea for a community board sprung from the collective desire to do something engaging and community-oriented that would inspire people to think and converse about their city. It was well placed on the restoration-desperate NFB building, whose façade masks an expansive skeletal frame, gutted by a 1991 fire. Nevertheless, the Hollywood-inspired  portraits which decorate the façade's windows have rooted the building as a kind of beacon of public art in the downtown. In addition to the community board, a second team decided to use their funds to support local art, purchasing five pieces from Argyle Fine Art, and then distributing them among unsuspecting strangers. They roamed the downtown, asking those they came across to offer "advice" as to which piece would make the best gift for a friend. Upon choosing one of these Halifax originals, the helpful advice-giver would discover that they themselves would be the friendly recipient of their selected piece. A left-over sum was then put towards a gift certificate to The Jade W bookstore, given to the attendant at the Ferry Terminal, a hesitant ally in the team's activities.

HALIFAX - "There's a reason why I love this town" croons hometown hero Joel Plaskett. At tonight's presentation, those reasons why we love HRM and the reasons why it could be improved will be deliberated. Hosted by the Ecology Action Centre, guest speakers David Donnelly, former director of Environmental Defence, and Bruce Lourie, author of Slow Death by Rubber Duck, will discuss how development and sustainability can coexist — how Halifax can continue to grow and evolve while ...