HALIFAX - The spirit of Nocturne is access to art. This is a noble and worthy venture, but one that needs a bit of tweaking. Taking art into the street for passersby to engage with is exciting and shines a new light on the city that we love. However, the realities of building and urban infrastructure make many public and private spaces in Halifax inaccessible. This is felt at Nocturne, where we are invited into spaces, and yet not all of us can ...

Today, Friday, September 16th, is PARK(ing) Day! In cities around the globe, artists, activists and citizens will transform metered parking spaces into temporary public parks and other social spaces, as part of the annual event. PARK(ing) Day invites people to rethink the way streets are used and promotes discussion around the need for broad- based changes to urban infrastructure. In recent years, PARK(ing) Day has inspired city governments to create legal mechanisms to extend the public realm into the parking lane. In San Francisco, the Pavement to Parks “Parklet” program provides a permit system for businesses, community groups and individuals to transform metered parking spaces into small “parklets” that are open to the public. In New York City the “pop up café” program offers similar permit system for local cafes wishing to offer sidewalk service. A listing of events scheduled for Canadian cities follows. For more information, visit the PARK(ing) Day project website.

Editor's Note: From the desk of District 14 Councillor Jennifer Watts. Read her op-ed piece in the Chronicle-Herald here. WHAT: Bayers Road Widening Public Meeting WHEN: Wednesday, September 14, 7:00pm WHERE: St. Andrew's Community Centre, 6955 Bayers Road, Halifax FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=114181238686810 HALIFAX - A public meeting on the proposed Bayers Road widening will be at 7 pm on Wednesday September 14 at St Andrew's Community Centre, Bayers Road, organized by Councillors Jerry Blumenthal and Jennifer Watts. Staff will give an overview of two items before ...

WHAT: Parchetypes, Public Performance - HRM Open Project WHEN: Starting today, August 15th, 11am-1pm - September 11, 2011 WHERE: Point Pleasant Park HOW MUCH: Free HALIFAX, NS - Parchetypes is a site-specific performance created by artist, William Robinson for Point Pleasant Park and supported through the Halifax Regional Municipalities Open Projects program. In concert with this project, Robinson explains, Parchetypes is based on two real-life personalities who define the experience of attending Point Pleasant Park through their musical performances. These two parchetypes or fathers of the park use this extraordinary urban forest in order to nurture the park’s natural elements and entertain park-goers with their musical expressions. The first I have encountered as an anonymous bag piper. His disembodied sounds are a common auditory occurrence and are part of the Point Pleasant Park experience on any given summer day. Like a living ghost nestled in the park’s forest this musical patriarch offers up his kinship with the park by leaving only trace chanters and drones from his pipes into the wind. The second is an elder who provides an embodied auditory experience. Like a guardian to the park he plays fiddle music on his small portable cassette tape stereo at the Tower Road entrance. As the park’s proverbial gatekeeper he provides a transitional point by projecting a unique tone onto the park experience.

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 ...

Still from Leonardo Dalessandri film Under the Lucan Sun WHAT: Design the Network - Session #2, It's More Than Just Buses WHERE: World Trade and Convention Centre, Argyle Street WHEN: Tuesday, July 19, 6pm-8pm HOW MUCH: Free! HALIFAX REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY - A bus stop could be an amazing thing (gardens, playgrounds, outdoor gym) is one point which came up in the first public session - "Exploring the Options" - at It's More Than Just Buses on Tuesday, June 28th, 2011. It's More Than Just Buses is a public discussion initiative that explores the options of public transit, designs a better network and mobilizes for support, organized by the Planning and Design Centre and Fusion Halifax. Guest speaker Steven Dale, also raised another smart key point with regards to transit administration, which is the development of a staff policy for all Metro Transit employees, particularly the network planners, whereby they must take the bus at least once a week, if not more. Why I found this to be such a brilliant idea, is because you can only understand how something works in practice and how it could work better, by using it and taking part. This fact was evident at the public session, where all those that attended and rode the bus frequently, had lots to offer the discussion. Of course, there was frustration concerning the current infrastructure and digression from discussion questions, but only because people wanted their experiences and ideas to be heard and they were! Find more of the group discussion points here.

WHAT: It's More Than Buses - Public Forum on Public Transit WHEN: Tuesday, June 28th (July 19 & Sept. 7), 6pm-8pm WHERE: World Trade and Convention Centre HOW MUCH: Free HALIFAX - Waiting for the bus each morning to start my short daily morning commute to work in Downtown Halifax, I observe the regular bottle-necking on Robie Street, whereby cars are narrowly packed together carrying generally one driver each. In much larger cities, transit is used more often by commuters and helps to create a more active, efficient and accessible transit system and urban culture. If you have ever used Metro Transit in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), then you have likely thought of ways that the infrastructure could be improved. As a daily bus commuter, I really enjoy the transit system - but it has only come with time of understanding the way it works in Halifax, particularly, by having a cell phone to check the exact time in which I can expect the bus to arrive. I have also been privy to peoples opinions about the HRM transit system - referencing specifically (in)frequency of buses and (in)consistent schedules.

To coincide with the launch of Spacing's first national issue, the magazine is hosting events in 10 Canadian cities this summer. The Spacing Road Show is sponsored by BMO SmartSteps for Homeowners and supported by Autoshare and the Canada Council for the Arts. Over the next week the Spacing Road Show is kicked into high gear with events in Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver. PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE IS AN EVENT IN EDMONTON TONIGHT EDMONTON When: Wednesday, June 22, ...