Libby Schofield

YouTube video by HFX by Bike Woe Is My City's Budget #urbanism #finance #halifax

This would normally be scheduled for next week, but I made a short explainer about Halifax's current budget problems and am dropping it early because the events are currently happening.

youtube.com/shorts/3sGdD...

Also, if Halifax Council cuts Sunday and holiday services.

I hate the fact that stories about this ignore that bike lane spending is $65 million out of a $3bn capital budget of which we can only actually pay for $1.8bn of $3bn before we run out of money and debt. Cutting 0.021% of the capital budget is not fiscal responsibility, it's affordability suicide.

Transit advocates decry Halifax mayor's autocentric plan to address traffic congestion by providing more space for cars

"If transit is to work it must be freed from having to compete with cars for existing road space. That means bus lanes or other forms of separated rights of way"

– February 1974

Writing to @hfxgov.bsky.social councillors feels like a full-time job these days. My email on the wrong-headed proposed cuts when there's a blindingly obvious & evidence-based solution to address budget pressures. Feel free to adapt #Halisky & #BikeHFX folks docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Halifax could never do this. Literally. We outsource both of these services so we literally cannot convert our non-existent city garbage trucks into snow plows when needed.

Where’s my Bedford fast ferry? Halifax's Mill Cove terminal delayed until 2030 $258-million Halifax rapid transit project was supposed to be up and running in 2028

www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/...

What really made me feel well-rounded were my high school extra curriculars, especially 4-H (again, rural!). Lots of emphasis on lifeskills, leadership, independence & trying new things outside of academics.

As a kid with my nose in a book, it forced me out of my shell, which helped at university!

I went to a rural high school (no IB) which I often found boring/unchallenging - when I got to university it did seem like IB kids had a leg up academically at first, mostly because they had already studied first year level subject matter.

I was very jealous when I learned about IB kids!

*stairs runners 🫠

Steel stairs going up the Niagara escarpment in Hamilton

Two way steel stairs going up the Niagara escarpment in Hamilton. There is a tire trough on each edge for rolling bikes up and down

Hamilton has 5 sets of stairs up its escarpment! Very popular among pedestrians, stair-runnere, and even cyclists (some of them have tire troughs so you can roll your bike up!)

www.hpl.ca/articles/mou...

Me too! They do such a wonderful job of making the bike share feel like a community (I actually used their bike share, unfortunately what we have here really isn't useful/accessible to me because of where I live 🥲).

Here are the things that I think make a city child-friendly that also make the city better for everyone else:
- affordable transit coupled with parking chargers that together discourage driving, even for a family;
- parks and shade that make it pleasant and safe to get around;
- walkable schools;

I love Hamilton Bike Share so much!

a man in a pink shirt with the words my job it 's just beach on it ALT: a man in a pink shirt with the words my job it 's just beach on it

My last two posts have been about Hamilton, must redeem myself by shouting out how beautiful the Halifax public gardens are in the summer. Also this time of year in NS, my job is beach.

Craig Cassar: How To Take a Holistic Approach to City Building The Bottom-Up Revolution · Episode

Love a little Hamilton representation in the wild. In my memory, James St N art crawls are so integrated into the rhythms of the downtown core. 🔨

Halifax 🤝 Hamilton

Not an influencer per se, but beautiful lifestyle content ➡️ PEI Camera Roll on Instagram (I haven't found similar content for NS yet) www.instagram.com/peicamerarol...

Incredible!!

Fingers crossed!

Even Harbour Hopper is trying to make a pedestrianized Spring Garden a reality.

Another map I can get behind 🍦

I'm kind of surprised the machine took it!

Just used a Halifax transit ticket I've had in my wallet since 2018. 😎

So, let's talk about East Dalhousie. This site isn't a surprise because it's part of a larger economically depressed region. Uranium mining will pollute groundwater & homes in this area rely on wells. It's likely mining companies will move into Lunenburg Co., affecting the LaHave River watersheds.

Oops haha (but did you add it to the map? 😁)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136192092500063X

A map of most of the regional centre of Halifax. The green overlay are trees planted according to HRM Open Data (only trees planted in last 5 years seem to have "planted at" dates), and the red dots are bus stops. The image shows a generous coverage of trees across the regional centre with areas which clearly lack coverage. There is no simple means to distinguish between mature and younger trees

We are blessed with an impressive tree canopy and range of species here in Halifax but more is always better :-)

Was curious to see bus stop coverage after seeing this report "Heat stress mitigation by trees and shelters at bus stop" (link and explanations of map in alt text)

TLDR: Trees good.

Magnolia blooming over a black park bench after Sullivan's Pond

Close up of magnolia blooms at Sullivan's Pond, Dartmouth

5 geese lounging on the grass at Sullivan's Pond, Dartmouth on a misty day

Sullivan's Pond magnolias and friends. 🌸🪿

Magnolia Map link ➡️
goo.gl/maps/h3uvcHo...

‘Take another look’: Some in Halifax can’t brush off rapid development plan - Halifax | Globalnews.ca Rapid growth and development in Halifax has translated to high housing costs and a dwindling number of arts venues.

“There were about 10 other similar-sized art spaces [like the Bus Stop Theatre] (available) to us in Halifax. All of them are gone,” Audrey Eastwood, the interim executive director of the Bus Stop Theatre Co-op.