1. The first Playing for Change CD: "Songs Around the World" released 2009. Here's a youtube video of the first song, "Stand by Me". And the wiki page about the project.
2. This quote by John Stuart Mill: "A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury".
3. This Coast article from 2008, "Rat City" all about how Halifax, is overrun by rats. According to the article, one even ran across former Coun. Gloria McCluskey's face while she was sleeping. Interesting to note that Halifax is full of Norway Rats, which are sexually mature at 3 - 4 months, and have a 21 day gestation cycle, and can have many litters of up to 10 pups.
Halifax to date apparently takes no responsibility to remove rats on city property, nor does it employ any sort of outbreak prevention (eg, the sewers aren't baited) - other than responding to the odd complaint - which is a bit scary because it means nests of rats on city land can keep churning out baby rats indefinitely, which property owners are expected to remove indefinitely. There was a study started in June so hopefully something will come of that.
4. A potential solution to Halifax's rat problem: invite staff from the planning department to participate in rat control duty. Because according to this article from the Coast about a development proposed on Wellington Street: Ridiculous Development Approved Out of Spite. - apparently
councilors from districts other than where the project is proposed have
the utmost authority in deciding what gets built anyway.
As an aside, the developer in the above article was ordered to stop
demolishing a house on Young Ave that still has people living inside of
it.
More recently council also overrode recommendations of planning staff, and concerns of area residents, regarding a proposed 29 storey building on Quinpool.
5. This July 29th 2016 Coast story with a video interview of a manager describing issues they've had with construction of the Nova Centre.
and this other Coast article "So is the Nova Centre cursed or what?"
6. Last post I promised to list off our own issues with property across from a construction site (The Edison, designed by WM Fares Group for RC Jane) and I don't feel like putting it into it's own post anymore, so here it is.
In a nutshell, there's been the expected dust and noise. Unexpected were: a damage to our lawn, which had a sizeable chunk torn out from the crane, and lots o' rats which were stirred up and migrated to our yards, and corresponding rat damage. There has also been a lot of construction debris and litter drifting on to our yards where there is no fencing around the site. This has included many Tim's cups and other food/beverage trash. There have been blocked driveways from site staff, and reports of machinery working until late at night (close to midnight from what we heard).
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| bucket o'rats, a day's haul from one property across from the construction site |
The funny thing was we were actually pro-development, our homes are older but not heritage and on large lots. I think anyone checking out our street would agree these last few houses makes an obvious site for a multiunit development, especially with the new giant one right across the street.
So there is also the issue of our promised rezoning that hasn't come to pass, despite the councilor telling us "2 - 3 months" on a few occasions since this site was approved last June. More recently he admitted it'll take 2 - 3 years. When he finally let this slip it sounded like he knew this the whole time - as did the first real estate agent we spoke to. It would have been nice if our councilor could have just told us the truth right away so we could have more time to prepare, given the big impact that construction has had on our small rental business.
Further to the points above, the owner of the Edison assured us before his approval meeting last year that it was in our best interest that his building get approved, as he said this would make our lots more valuable, and he'd like to buy them off us. He already owns over an acre he's assembled across the street. At the time I said great and threw out a sales price based on a pile of research, to which he said he'd have to check with WM Fares as to what he could build, and maybe we weren't asking enough. To which we thought, goody! So while we went to the council meeting where the building was approved, we sat quietly and listened to our councilor speak about our impending new zoning. Fast forward to this year and it seems in fact our price is "crazy", our property is only worth the going rate for houses, even though the councilor kept telling us a similar project could go on our side of the street. Hmm.
I've also learned that WM Fares is just a design company, and was told by their staff that they have nothing to do with construction. Presumably this is why my emails to their company asking when our lawn would be fixed were ignored. I'm surprised they didn't at least refer me to the company responsible. Take heed, everyone in Halifax who will be impacted by a WM Fares building. Also take heed anyone who buys or rents a "WM Fares" condo or other property because this makes me wonder how customers are treated when stuff goes wrong. Ironically this all was happening while Wadih Fares was getting accolades in the media for naming streets after women.
The lawn has since been fixed but only after several months and a number of false dates from the Edison owner as to when it would happen - turns out he was waiting for the crane to leave the site in case it had to ram into our yard again so they wouldn't have to fix it twice. Again, why not just be honest with us about this in the first place...
7. This poster for our imaginary affordable housing complex which I daydream of developing on our property across the street from "The Edison". Part of why we were looking forward to flipping our lots was to be able to create some more affordable housing without needing government money - but it has since occurred to me that maybe flipping a good affordable housing site to developers to raise funds for other projects could be tantamount to selling lion hunting safaris to raise funds for PETA. So while this was plan "b" now I'm wondering if we could somehow actually pull off developing "The Tesla"....
It seems perfect since, like ourselves and The Edison's developer, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison also had a dispute over the value of something...
Adapted from the Nikola Tesla wiki page:
In 1885, Nikola Tesla was offered the task of completely redesigning the Edison Company's inefficient direct current motor and generators. According
to Tesla, Edison remarked, "There's fifty thousand dollars in it for
you—if you can do it." [equal to approximately 1 million dollars today]
This has been noted as an odd statement from Edison, whose company was
stingy with pay and who did not have that sort of cash on hand. After months of work, Tesla fulfilled the task and inquired about
payment. Edison, saying that he was only joking, replied, "Tesla, you
don't understand our American humor." Instead, Edison offered a US$10-a-week raise over Tesla's US$18 per
week salary; Tesla refused the offer and immediately resigned [and became a ditch digger for awhile].
About the poster: "soon" is relative.
The background for the poster is a screen grab from the "Tesla vs Edison" Epic Rap Battle on youtube, presumably inspired by the Tesla/Edison War of Currents.
"For people like YOU" is the slogan inspired because the owner of RC Jane/the Edison allegedly told someone in the neighborhood that his building "Is not for people like you" but rather is for business people in suits and ties only.
While I wasn't there, it wouldn't surprise me if this was said, as earlier this year he told me that I have "been a problem since day one". Ouch. Presumably this was referring to the letters we wrote and concerns raised in advance of his building (HRM Case 18510); all of which have proven to be well founded and if anything underestimated. Ironically he said this during one of the conversations when we were asking why our lawn hadn't been fixed yet.
In any case I like the slogan as it speaks to the crop of luxury buildings going up everywhere in Halifax, which may have people of more modest means, including seniors on fixed income, wondering where they're supposed to live.
Where one of our houses is brick and wood it is fun to daydream about priming the whole thing and turning it into a community art project/mural while figuring out development plans.
8. This blog post from the Halifax bloggers site which includes interesting observations of WM Fares' Saint Lawrence Place, with photos.
Given how large this site was, and the good price WM Fares picked it up for, I agree with this blogger that they could have done more to offer value to the surrounding community.
9. The webpage for Halifax's Willow Tree Group - a citizen group that looks at development in Halifax. Their pdf on "What Happened on Wellington" is pretty interesting.
Speaking of the development on Wellington, one of Ontario's Urban Capital's owners (David Wex) was involved in this 2009 Globe and Mail story about corruption in the Turks and Caicos government, just thought it was interesting: How Corruption in Paradise Ensnared Canadian's Dream Deal.
10. This Infinite Waters youtube video: 10 Secrets to Overcome Closed Doors, Detours, & Roadblocks to Become Unstoppable.
11. This episode of CBC's Fifth Estate, "Why Didn't We Know". About the murders of three women which seem like they could have been prevented by a more functional justice system. Especially chilling is a brief phone interview at the end with the alleged murderer, exhibiting typical psychopathic behaviours (blame shifting, failure to take responsibility for their actions).
12. This documentary which aired around 9-11 on CBC's The Passionate Eye: The Woman Who Wasn't There, about Tania Head, a 9-11 survivor who it turned out fabricated her entire story while being active in group of of actual survivors.
13. Movies: Storks, Lucy and The Giver
14. This 3 part series on youtube of older interviews with Esther and Jerry Hicks "Ask and it is given". Youtube cues up the next two videos. By happy coincidence, while cutting and pasting, I just noticed a great Nikola Tesla quote in the comments:
“My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe
there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and
inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I
know that it exists.”
15. This Salon article: How to know if your if your dog is in pain "with one lick to my face Lucy gave me peace".
I found this while searching for articles on how to know when to put down your dog and thought it was excellent. I read it the night before our dog, Jersi Huskyshepherd Cross, passed away in September, just a couple months from turning 14.
I'm so grateful that she went quickly on her own terms, on our back step just as I was clearing the car to take her to the vet where we likely would have decided to put her down; I don't think she suffered, but her body just gave out. We did manage an extra month with her I think, by giving her a homemade raw food diet; this perked her up but eventually it wasn't enough.
Jersi was like a sled dog crossed with a pig, but sweet and gentle to the end. We met in Regina where she had arrived from Utah with a football family that couldn't handle her anymore with young kids. She was the same age as my dog, Clarice would have been, who moved with me from BC and died too soon. I feel like Jersi subbed in to shepherd me to my forever home here in rural NS. She was a good companion. I always felt like she was more of a wild animal roommate than a pet and she'll always be with us in our hearts.
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| Jersi proud of one of her trash parties when we moved to Halifax |
A person may cause evil
to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either
case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/johnstuart118013.html
A person may cause evil
to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either
case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/johnstuart118013.html
