morrisseyed

I’m in love with this image that was sent to me recently.  It really is a call to citizens of Halifax Regional Municipality to think twice before they vote in the Fall 2008 Municipal Election.  Note that the first image is a .jpg rendering of the original .pdf which follows:

Peter Kelly and Halifax 2008: Think Twice Before You Vote

[Original Mayor Peter Kelly Bowl Cut Image, in PDF Format]

A small Sunday Twitter of sorts: I really, really love getting to hear Fort Massey United Church’s bells every Sunday morning.  It nearly morphs this part of south end Halifax from a student ghetto into a legitimate neighbourhood.

i am becoming more and more fed up with the current state of HRM governance, and the chebucto road widening issue is only adding fuel to the fire. but sadly (or fortunately) I haven’t the time to put to words my rage this morning.  (I’ll work on something this afternoon or evening)

Halifax, NS, is a city made up of disparate neighbourhoods, most of whose representatives hold a parochial attitude.  On the one hand, my feelings that the people in Shag Harbour or Musquodobit have no right to vote on whether a street on the peninsula ought to be widened is a little parochial in itself.  But on the other hand, I hold the HRM’s representatives who live off the peninsula often don’t have the wherewithal or gumption to even consider the bigger picture.  Of course, Steve Streatch has an obligation to consider the opinions of the residents of his area first, but never has this person once considered the role he has in community building across all of HRM.  Streatch and Company are tearing up a neighbourhood in town so that more cars can enter and cause pollution and congestion.  By voting for the widening, he’s effectively voted to exchange a community for a line of traffic up from the rotary. Good work, Streatch.

But that’s just how it goes.    This city needs some serious leadership.  And its governance and bureaucracy requires a complete overhaul.  The amalgamation experiment of 1996 hasn’t worked like it should.    More power ought to be divested from HRM council to its constituent community councils (an option with too many flaws), or the city should be broken off from its rural regions once more.

In other news, I’m not going to get going on Premier Rodney MacDonald this morning, whose PR agent has not even heard of the 9-page report on the Commonwealth Games bid, suffice to say the RodMac’s “didn’t know about it; don’t have an opinion about it” attitude has begun to affect all of the provincial government too.   Leadership, people.  This entire region is stagnant, because no one acts when they should have.  Instead of being civic-minded, we’ve let Streatch and RodMac lead us out to see without a sail, or a rudder.  Good job.