10.17.19
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Sudoku – the creative way

Sudoko is usually a 3×3 grid of 3×3 squares, with numbers 1 – 9.

Yesterday, the Duc Games Club played variations on the Sudoku theme:
– 2×2 grid of 2×2 squares using 4 colours of buttons
– 2×3 grid of 3×2 rectangles using 6 colours of lego

Pure awesomeness, and all built from scratch, on paper!

07.01.19
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Rusty “Duralast” Detectable Warning Plates in Haligonian sidewalks

I noticed that newer sidewalks in Halifax all seem to feature “Duralast” Detectable Warning Plates made by EJ Company in the USA. These plates are meant to help warn the blind or visually impaired of the edge of the sidewalk.

duralast-plates

The plates are made of uncoated cast iron and usually look rusty, with rust leaking down the concrete. It made me wonder how durable and long-lasting these “Duralast” products actually are.

Dartmouth Councillor Sam Austin was wondering the same thing.

According to the manufacturer and some info I found online, these plates rust until a natural “patina” develops. But I find it hard to believe that uncoated iron embedded in a sidewalk will ever stop rusting, as it exposed to salt in the winter, rain, ice and foot traffic.

What do you think? Is this a scam that will cost HRM as these plates rust away and have to be replaced?

04.12.19
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Mother tongues at Duc D’Anville Elementary

These are the family languages at Duc D’Anville Elementary as of early 2019 (in alphabetic order):

  1. Albanian
  2. Amharic
  3. Arabic
  4. Bengali
  5. Beni (Edo)
  6. Chinese
  7. Croatian
  8. Dinka
  9. English
  10. Farsi
  11. French
  12. German
  13. Greek
  14. Gujarati
  15. Hindi
  16. Igbo
  17. Kannada
  18. Korean
  19. Kurdish
  20. Lebanese
  21. Nepali
  22. Oromo
  23. Pashto
  24. Persian
  25. Punjabi
  26. Russian
  27. Serbian
  28. Somali
  29. Swahili
  30. Tagalog
  31. Telugu
  32. Turkish
  33. Urdu
  34. Urhobo
  35. Vietnamese
  36. Yoruba

08.10.18
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Halifax citizen survey – my main gripes

http://www.pra.ca/en/Halifaxcitizensurvey

I entered this on the overall sentiment page of the survey:

0) First of all: This is only a list of the unhappy-making things I see happening. There are also many good things, like the Central Library, that I am not listing here, because frustration currently prevails for me. That you are doing this survey in the first place is great. So don’t get defensive now, please. You are all good people, staff, councilors, mayor. You asked for a piece of my mind, so here we go: 🙂

1) Crosswalk and bike lane maintenance is extremely poor: Cheap options were chosen (painted lines), without putting real infrastructure in place (bike lanes and bike paths should be safely separated and protected, pedestrian safety requires traffic calming measures, not just paint on the road).

And then the painted lines wear off! And are not renewed. For example, most of the crosswalks in Fairview are barely recognizable (zebra lines almost completely gone).

2) Don’t get me started on commuter rail from Bedford to downtown: Talked about at least since Peter Kelly’s time, progress is like molasses. Turn that trailway corridor that surrounds the peninsula into a high-speed connector for commuters! Be it with a bus lane in there, rail-based or whatever, but get something going.

3) “Solar City” with loans at 4% interest is a nice idea, but still much too cost-prohibitive. Why don’t you start by setting good examples and put solar on all municipal buildings? Eat your own dogfood, as they say. I want to put solar panels on my house but my wife was afraid of the costs and the debt. So maybe offer tax rebates instead of loans at almost commercial rate.

4) Give community gardens municipal space on long-term basis. Common Roots getting kicked out for a hospital parking lot is disgraceful. Offer them a pro-bono lease for the big former school property on Quinpool, please. If you want to improve quality of life, community gardens are gold. Groom those treasures!

5) Stop giving exemptions from your own regulations and plans to “developers” (aka real estate capitalists). No more “29 or 25” floors haggling. Create democratically and community approved rules and then STICK TO THEM. I am not against density, but it can be done in moderate and fair ways. If those investors don’t think they can make enough profit unless they fill the peninsula with towering ugliness, then send them packing. We don’t need a Vancouver-like situation with empty and/or overpriced housing that normal locals cannot afford anymore!

6) Protect the Commons for everyone, primarily as the green lungs and heart of the downtown. Playground, public sports, gardens, community, peace.

7) Make the city and its outskirts truly walkable. Please, no more sub-divisions without sidewalks. No more huge parking lots where pedestrians have to play the old Frogger game from the 80s, hoping not to get killed. And don’t add insult to injury by installing pedestrian surveillance cameras at crosswalks. Traffic calming is the key. Wide straight roads invite 60km/h driving or even faster. Put in protected bike lanes, bumpers at spots where drivers are known to go too fast. One more pedestrian killed in HRM and I will consider suing the city for negligence. But don’t worry, I don’t have the money and time for the lawyer. 🙂

8) Last but not least: Birch Cove Wilderness Park is overdue. Meanwhile you are allowing an immense expansion of Bayers Lake, clear-cutting and blasting into what many hoped to become a buffer zone for the protected wilderness. I am one of the Friends of BMBCL and I am not sure if I can believe that this council is ever going to pull off the park. It is like one step forward, two steps back.