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Dog Dog Days of Summer

September 1st, 2010 Waye Mason No comments

So its Wednesday before the long weekend, and with the turning of the seasons I am once again sitting in the shade on the Woodside ferry, itself gentle rocking in the light swells coming from the mouth of the harbour.

This means my 10-15 minute essays on whatever I am thinking about on my commute to work have also returned.

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Categories: Halifax, Opinion & Editorial Tags:

HRM Map is back!

August 27th, 2010 Waye Mason No comments

After trying out 10 new plug ins today to see if I could get the map online, I found a simple one that works!

Check the link above, it works, for real!

Categories: HRM Map Tags:

Zoning with a (Caribbean) Twist – A tragedy in Four Acts.

August 26th, 2010 Waye Mason No comments

ACT 1 – Setting the Stage

Despite the usual mid-summer media doldrums there was still a lot of coverage of HRM By-Law trying to shut down Caribbean Twist.

The new, black owned, busy and delicious Caribbean Twist restaurant at 3081 Gottingen Street had been told that they had to close because the building was “not zoned for a restaurant.”

This is how it was presented by media but being a nerd, I know there is no specific restaurant zoning, so I started digging.  What is the real technical problem here?  Surely this building has always been commercial?  There is no difference in Commercial zoning, if you have it you can be a restaurant.  What gives?

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Categories: Halifax, Opinion & Editorial Tags:

Great glass hope could be white elephant | the Herald

July 26th, 2010 Waye Mason Comments off

Better said than most, certainly sums up what I have been thinking, I turn this space over to Laura Penny and her article from the Herald.

I LIVE ON Argyle Street, between two of Halifax’s most talked-about vacant lots. The new central library and the proposed convention centre may be a few short blocks away from one another, but they represent very different ideas about the role of government.

The library serves hundreds of thousands of HRM residents, and has been doing so from a cramped old building for quite some time. Critics of the new library, including some of the commentariat on this newpaper’s website, have been quick to cry government waste. Fifty-five million?!? You can get books on the Internet if you want to waste your time — ew! — reading. Read more…

Categories: Halifax Tags:

Response to Paul from DBTC on WTCC2

July 15th, 2010 Waye Mason 1 comment
Downtownpaul just posted a pro wtcc2 article, linking resistance to WTCC2 to some kind of malaise and downtown death spiral.  Here is my comment, spell corrected (paint fumes overcame me.. :)   We shall see if this gets published on the DBTC site:

I am in favor of a new or expanded WTCC.

I do not, at this time support the current proposal.

Wanting more information does not make one a visionless small town hick.

I am waiting for an actual business plan, having concerns over the architecture, the SIP P3 model, worrying about giving the private developer office towers twice the size allowed on those blocks under HRMbD and ALSO gives the private developer $100 million of taxpayers dollars.

People talking about this as a “catalytic building” in down town are just using buzz words to paper over the lack of actual hard information. Show me, Paul, show me, WTCC, show me how our 4th largest CC in Canada will not lose money every year, will not cost additional millions, will not spiral down into disrepair like all the other P3 projects the province has launched.

Show me how our isolated, hard to get to, but beautiful and picturesque destination will succeeded, and not fail, like the recent Vancouver CC.

Asking hard questions and getting no answers and then digging in your heels is only natural. Pro-WTCC2 advocates trying to paint a picture of caution and inquiry as being backwards and timid is, at best, insulting.

Categories: Halifax Tags: