Category Archives: NEWS

Time-limited information. Something happening NOW and will be deleted very soon when the event/activity has passed. An item that will only appear in the blog for a short time.

Is Parking for the Common Good?

Letter To The Coast Magazine by Peggy Cameron, Coordinator, Friends of the Halifax Common

Why should parking be convenient? Get on board, support commuter rail at: halifax.ca/transit/commuterrail.php The Coast Image credit: Jenn Wall, Cunard Street at North Common

Great job describing myriad reasons why metro pedestrians feel they’re the last on the list. I suspect it’s not the sidewalks that have patience maxed out but also the long-term failure of the city to develop an integrated transportation policy. Decades of widening streets to improve capacity and speed of vehicles (more recently it’s a roundabout fetish) has been to the detriment of meeting real transportation Continue reading →

HRM Tender for The Pavilion at The Oval

Survey Preverence for Pavilion Architecture Design 38%- Traditional 25% Modern & Contemporary 18% Fun & Vibrant 12%Contextual and Low Key

Survey Preference for Pavilion Architecture Design
38% Traditional
25% Modern & Contemporary
18% Fun & Vibrant
12% Contextual and Low Key

The Halifax Examiner reports: after much delay, the city is offering the tender for construction of the pavilion at The Oval. Back in 2012, the city issued a request for proposals for design of both the plaza and the accompanying building, but with the sense that things were going too fast for design of a building, that tender was cancelled*. Since then, the plaza has been built and named after a beer company that paid pennies on the dollars of the construction price, and the city went into super consultation-with-citizens mode for design of the building. Here are some pretty pictures of what is said to be the final Continue reading →

Effective Lighting & Public Safety on the Common

Letter To The Coast Magazine by Peggy Cameron, Coordinator, Friends of the Halifax Common

Lumieres law-the further the light is from the source the lower the intensity. Multiple stadium lights without cut-offs installed on too-tall poles at The Oval are a glaring example of ineffective and inefficient lighting design.

Glare And Present Danger – Letter to the Editor, January 15, 2015. Although we can feel vulnerable walking alone at night, there no evidence that bright lights reduce crime. (Streetlight scarcity casts risky shadows,” feature by Ameya Charnalie and Sergio Gonzalez, How to fix the city issue January 8).
That’s not to say Halifax doesn’t have lots of problems with lighting. There is a public safety issue when people need to be able to Continue reading →

The Common Streetscape vs Towers, Wind & Shadows

Why is another Halifax neighbourhood up for grabs?
Chronicle Herald Op Ed, Jan. 14, 2015
by Andrea Arbic, Peggy Cameron, Kathy Moggridge, Steve Parcell and J. Grant Wanzel

The corner of Quinpool and Robie streets in Halifax: “If the two proposals proceed, we’d get a massive block of towers with more traffic, noise, shadow, wind and a much larger carbon footprint,” say critics. (ERIC WYNNE/Staff)

HRMʼs Municipal Planning Strategy and Land Use By-law were intended to guide a rational planning process for the city. They were developed through extensive public consultation and approved by our elected representatives on HRM council. By representing citizensʼ shared view of what constitutes “the public good,” these documents should minimize individual negotiations with private interests. Continue reading →

Letter to Herald- Will Halifax City Council See The Wisdom of Daylighting River?

Example of a landscaped raingarden to absorb stormwater and create habitat.

Paul Schneiderheit’s story highlights the benefits of daylighting streams. Jan 6, 2015- Chronicle Herald – Schneiderheit One omission is that HRM’s 2006 daylighting policy specifies two water courses: Dartmouth’s Sawmill River and the Halifax Common’s Freshwater Brook.

We’re generally unaware that the Halifax Common as the watershed for the peninsula was a rich and diverse ecosystem of plants, trees, birds, fish, frogs-all manner of critters and beasties. Ruth Whitehead Holmes’ The’ Old Man Told Us, Excerpts from Micmac History, 1500-1950 “ recounts histories of Mi’kmaq hunting beaver, Black Duck and moose near Black Duck Pond, later Egg Pond and now the skatepark. Continue reading →

More Pavement Slated for the Central Common

FHC has learned the Pavilion parking lot on the Central Common is slated for paving. Soon. The restricted (not public) lot is directly beside the wading pool and the pathway that follows the route of Freshwater Brook through the Central Common. Why is the city’s priority cars and paving the Common instead of landscaping the pathway? Hundreds of walkers and cyclists use the route everyday-why not make it beautiful, add some benches or how about a few tables with roofs?

from https://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/11/18/7236471/cars-pedestrians-roads

“This brilliant illustration shows how much public space we’ve surrendered to cars” is from an article of the same name at https://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/11/18/7236471/cars-pedestrians-roads

Citizens have raised concerns about safety for pedestrians in this area for years. Up to 18 or 20 cars crowd into the lot and until recently drivers would pull out along the public pathway and into the crosswalk on Cogswell Street to exit.

An easy solution would have been to ticket illegal vehicles and lock the gate. Instead, the city unnecessarily replaced the old gate with a new but still unlocked gate, and installed an unattractive chain link fence and a badly designed barrier gate along the pathway that interferes with cyclists and walkers. Cars continue to illegally park at the lot and are still a hazard to pedestrians in the crosswalk.

Soon the vehicles will have an asphalt surface but the waders, walkers and cyclists will only get the run-off.

Want to stop more Halifax Common from being paved? Write the Mayor and Council at clerks@halifax.ca

Interview ~ Invasive Species Phylum Paveia, News 95.7 – Rick Howe Show

Phylum Paveia, Lapilus civitis

Listen and learn about the invasive Phylum Paveia, responsible for the creeping disappearance of green space on the Halifax Common…

Catalogue Launch – Celebrate the Common 250

In October of 2014, Friends of the Halifax Common organized four days of activities to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Halifax Common. The Halifax Common came into being when the land was given to the “common folk” of Halifax by King George III “to and for the use of the inhabitants of the Town of Halifax as Common, forever”. To further mark this anniversary we published the Illustrated Catalogue “Celebrate the Common 250”.

Within the 24 pages of this historical documentary book are present-day photographs taken by Alvin Comitor interspersed with archival photographs and images. Accompanying text describes the gradual diminution of the lands allocated to the Halifax Common, south to north, over the past 250 years.

To view the catalogue on line CLICK HERE.

For beautiful print copies Contact Us. A donation of $10 per book is suggested but not required.

Photographic Exibition: Parking the Common, Documentation of Phylum Paveia

View On Line: Parking the Common, Documentation of Phylum Paveia

This study classifies invading species of Phylum Paveia (parking lot) responsible for the creeping disappearance of the Halifax Common. Ecological examination reveals P.Paveia colonizes territory replacing endangered natives such as Lawnis tranquilis, Gardenia publica and Serenis communis. Identified Paveias include Genera Bituminus (asphalt), Lapillius (gravel) and Cementus (cement) and species civitis (city), ecclesiais (church), hospitalis (hospital), imperium canadis (federal government), imperium nova scotis (provincial government), privatis (private), scholis (school), and universitis (university). This study raises doubt about notions of improvement historically rooted in imperialist ideology that, unless mitigated, will result in further colonization.

Letter To The Coast – Roundabouts – Wrong Priority for the Common

total cost estimate $31 million (2011)

Letters to the editor, July 31, 2014, Sidewalk Closed Use Other Side – Julat like spending millions of dollars to widen Robie St. at Cunard or millions to widen Chebucto Road itself, blowing $12.9 million on the North Park roundabouts project is out of sync with a big-picture integrated transportation strategy. The money will do nothing to reduce heavy reliance on cars by improving public transit (buses and trains), land use planning (better ways to access public transportation and active transportation) or moving people in and out of the downtown, not just cars. Continue reading →

North Common Roundabout – The Big Picture, News 95.7 Rick Howe Show

Listen to News 95.7 The Rick Howe Show Interview with Peggy Cameron

On July 7/14 Rick Howe interviewed Peggy Cameron (representing Friends of the Halifax Common) about The Big Picture and the $12.9 million dollars spent on the North Park Roundabouts. Peggy questions how this expenditure meets HRM’s stated long term goals.

North Common Roundabout Design (birdseye)

Trees, Traffic & Roundabouts

FHC isn’t wading into the pro or anti roundabout on North Park Street debate but instead asks…

North Park Street

1. How does this $12.9 million expenditure fit into an integrated transportation strategy* that is about moving people, not just cars into and out of the downtown? Should the cost $12.9 million be a spending priority when HRM’s 5-year Active Transportation budget is only $42.5 ( ~ $8 million/year); the bikelane budget for the peninsula the next 5 years is only ~$100,000 and there’s no money for supporting auto-ownership-alternatives such as CarShare?
2. Why are these roundabouts being installed in advance of…. Continue reading →

Disappearing Green Space, News 95.7 Interview With Rick Howe – 2014/07/07

Banksy says: every day is Park(ing) Day. Photo via BeautifulTrouble.org.

Rick Howe discusses the disappearing green space on the Halifax Common with FHC’s Peggy Cameron. We have been losing more than an acre per year and City Counselors show no hurry to protect the remaining green space.

Chronicle Herald Op-Ed – Running Circles Around Common Plan

Published June 27th, 2014
This week marked the 251st anniversary of the signing of the 1763 land grant of 240 acres “for the use of the inhabitants of the Town of Halifax as Common forever.”

This year also marks 20 years since the City of Halifax approved the 1994 Halifax Common Plan, a document that was developed after a thorough public consultation because of concern about the increasing number of changes and demands for use and the need for additional protection for the Halifax Common. Continue reading →

Book Launch – Reclaiming the Commons for the Common Good by Heather Menzies

Everyone is welcomed to attend events with award-winning author Heather Menzies in celebration of the launch of her new book, Reclaiming the Commons for the Common Good.

HALIFAX BOOK LAUNCH
Tuesday June 3rd, 7PM
Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, 1747 Summer Street

DARTMOUTH BOOK LAUNCH
Community Picnic/Potluck Supper
Monday June 2nd, 3:30 – 6:00PM
Park Avenue Oven, Dartmouth Common

MAHONE BAY BOOK LAUNCH
Monday June 2nd, 7:30PM
Mahone Bay Centre

A memoir of personal and political discovery, Menzies’ focus is on the need to reclaim common resources to work together to build a better society. Her message is especially relevant to Friends of Halifax Common who present these events in cooperation with Halifax’s Lifelong Learning Network, Nancy’s Chair in Women’s Studies (MSVU), Common Roots Urban Farm, the Council of Canadians, and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Nova Scotia.