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someone123
Aug 15, 2007, 11:48 PM
From the Herald:

Grand Parade goes au naturel

By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter | 5:16 AM

The city’s Grand Parade can finally shed its parkade nickname — Mayor Peter Kelly and the 23 regional councillors have stopped parking in front of city hall.

Despite almost annual efforts over the past decade to oust the cars, this is the very first week that councillors haven’t been allowed to drive into the circular lot at the Halifax heritage building.

"It’s been a long time coming," Jacqueline Hamilton, manager of the city’s Capital district, said in an interview Tuesday.

"And that vista you get of city hall is quite beautiful."

Black wrought iron benches and flower planters have replaced the cheek-by-jowl cars in the former parking circle.

The quick fixes are just short-term improvements but they’re "pretty exciting," Ms. Hamilton said.

And, to enforce the new standard, the driveway to city hall now features a gate preventing cars from getting through.

Future attention will be focused on using the green space for events and lunchtime concerts.

As well, the city will now start looking into implementing some of the ideas brought forward in its Grand Parade master plan, she said.

A recent report to council suggested an amphitheatre, carved into the side of the Argyle Street slope, and a skating rink could improve the park.

So the next phase will be furthering some of the detail design work on those and other projects, Ms. Hamilton said.

"That will be a multiple-year (plan) and we’ll need funding to get moving on it," she said.

Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown), one of the key proponents of banning cars from city hall’s front yard, said Tuesday she’s delighted it has finally happened.

"I’m happy to see people using the benches, just sitting around and enjoying the Grand Parade," she said in an interview.

"It’s great. That’s what it’s supposed to be — a park."

Likewise, Mr. Kelly said he’s pleased with the transformation.

"We’ve had lots of commentary from people who say ‘Thanks for giving us the space back’ and ‘It looks great.’ "

Councillors are now parking across the street in a lot that was, for years, the site of Birks’ downtown flagship store.

Although some councillors protested the move to Barrington Street, Mr. Kelly says it’s not a big deal to have his car in a different place.

"There’s no difference," he said. "And you get to pick up some garbage along the way."

Regional councillors have been parking in the Grand Parade since amalgamation in 1996. Minutes from regional council meetings reveal that motions and requests surrounding parking in the Grand Parade date back to 1997.

The campaign to rid the public square of cars has been ongoing since May 2004 when members of TRAX, the Ecology Action Centre’s transportation wing, teamed up with the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia.

Together, they presented a petition of over 1,000 names to councillors encouraging them to return the city centre, which they referred to as the Grand Parkade, back to green space.

They pointed out that, as far back as the city’s founding in 1749, the Grand Parade was used for military drills and public meetings.

(apugsley@herald.ca)

Jonovision
Aug 16, 2007, 1:45 AM
It's about dam time!:cheers:

someone123
Aug 20, 2007, 3:43 PM
I just hope they redevelop the square in a sensible way. Originally, there was a fountain along the George Street axis and St. Paul's was cut off by a short street. Right now the square has no particular focal point or structure and can feel empty when there is no special event going on, which is about 90% of the time.

Halifax Hillbilly
Aug 21, 2007, 12:38 PM
I think the Cenotaph could make a reasonable focal point in the South, but the North end of the Parade is pretty bleak right now.

I'm not so much concerned with the outcome. When the city gets around to things the outcome can be quite nice, i.e. Victoria Park, recent Public Gardens renovations. The problem I have is we probably won't see any major changes to Grand Parade for a couple of years the way HRM rolls.

Still it's a good start. The Province House/Grand Parade plan looked interesting to me. Combined with the hopeful redevelopment of the Infirmary site plus some projects like the Brewery Market, Salter St., and Twisted Sisters downtown is changing, and very much for the better.

keninhalifax
Aug 21, 2007, 5:00 PM
City Hall finally weaning themselves off of surface parking, eh? I look forward to seeing the new Parade!

someone123
Aug 23, 2007, 6:09 PM
The sad thing is that there are actually some parking spaces located under the square, although I guess they wouldn't be big enough for the minivans.

Since the HRM is a regional government a lot of the councillors are from strip mall and big box land. Further complicating the problem, there was a bit of a conflict of interest and for a long time they voted to keep their own parking spots (or deferred the decision with studies, etc.).

hfx_chris
Aug 25, 2007, 12:49 AM
Pretty sure I remember hearing the parking garage under the parade is used to store equipment and stuff these days...