Ray Bates: To move around our communities without the many negative possibilities caused by a nearness to traffic is a physical and mental health-enhancing factor that community decision makers need to recognize and work to develop.
Friends of Halifax Common has released the responses for its 6-question survey sent to all electoral candidates to measure their level of support for a variety of issues that relate to the Halifax Common.
Martyn Williams, on behalf of the group HRM Safe Streets for Everyone, has written a Councillors survival guide to safer streets and traffic. It targets mayor and council hopefuls, but it is also useful to residents as it sets out the issues, and what councillors can do to resolve them. It’s a comprehensive guide, and, much like Martyn’s articles, the product of meticulous research.
HRM Council decided NOT to register the beloved set of colourful shops on Queen St. north of Spring Garden. They have been put up for sale and will likely be demolished. Unless we act.
In this weekend’s weekend video the PLANifax people make a good case for free transit in Halifax. Timely too, with municipal elections around the corner.
Two recent reports to Halifax Council, one on the pros and cons of right turns on red, and another an update on the Vision Zero Framework, show that motorists are like royalty in the city, and vulnerable pedestrians are mostly on their own.
Martyn Williams: Seniors rely on walking or cycling for mobility because they may no longer drive for health reasons, or because it is the only way they can enjoy much needed exercise. But the infrastructure they use is built for vehicles to move quickly and easily, not to meet the safety requirements of vulnerable road users of all ages and abilities.
New development tends to start with the tearing down of existing buildings. I spoke with Peggy Cameron about the city’s problematic demolition approvals, their impact on climate change and affordable housing, and the reluctance of city councillors to make things better.
Peggy Cameron: The Halifax Common’s 240 acres is ~ 20-25% parking lots. There is an obvious opportunity to re-naturalize, re-wild or landscape them to create new park space and a cheap, efficient way to deal with major impacts from climate change. But Mayor Savage and Council have no plans to change this usage. In fact they recently approved plans for a new 8-storey parking garage by the NS Museum of Natural History. That’s despite ~3,000 citizens petitioning against the garage and for protection of the Halifax Common.
The sale of the Bloomfield school site by the city more than anything means the loss of desperately needed affordable housing. A look at what could have been.