ORGANIZERS HOPING FOR BIG CROWDS AT ATLANTIC FILM FESTIVAL {page 4}
INKED MARCHAND
SIGNS NEW DEAL WITH BRUINS
{page 24}
HALIFAX
Thursday, September 15, 2011 www.metronews.ca News worth sharing.
RYAN TAPLIN/METRO
Heavy opposition to road widening Municipal staff assure community widening of Bayers Road for more car lanes not on table for five years Area councillors, mayor oppose project, but other councillors have vote too RYAN TAPLIN/METRO
ALEX BOUTILIER
@METRONEWS.CA
A pedestrian crosses in front of rush-hour traffic on Bayers Road yesterday afternoon.
If there’s public support for the widening of Bayers Road, it wasn’t exactly apparent last night. Hundreds of citizens turned out to a public information session on the project, held by Coun. Jennifer Watts and Coun. Jerry Blumenthal. Most of the speakers vehemently opposed the project, which would see Bayers Road blossom from four lanes to six, for a variety of reasons — from safety for their children walking to school to the effect on Halifax’s low-income housing stock. But the vast majority of speakers criticized the municipality for trying to promote vehicular traffic — with downtown parking scarce as it stands — instead of increasing urban density or promoting active
Coun. Jennifer Watts
Revisiting the issue The Bayers Road widening project is expected to come before council again by the end of the month.
and public transportation. The two councillors whose districts are directly affected by the widening, Watts and Blumenthal,
oppose the project — as does Mayor Peter Kelly, who was called before the crowd to let his position be known. “I think (the project) is flawed,” Kelly told Metro. “We need to look at the alternatives.... We have to be open to these ideas, at least planning for them and preserving opportunities, but in the interim we cannot just tear apart neighbourhoods.” Howard Epstein, the NDP MLA for Halifax Chebucto, also criticized the project. “This should simply be removed from (the regional plan) completely,” Epstein told the crowd. “In terms of the purported benefit for those people who are using (Bayers Road), compared with the huge amount of costs both to the municipality and to the province, it’s completely disproportionate.”