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.

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 ...

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:

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 - ...

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:

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?

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 - ...

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 - ...