Frequently asked questions about bike lanes and trees in Schmidtville

• Are Friends of Schmidtville against bike lanes?

  • Friends of Schmidtville are in favour of bike lanes. Many Schmidtville residents ride bicycles. And we recognize the need for protection of cyclists. Indeed, riding a bike through tree-lined, historic Schmidtville is a distinct pleasure.

    Bikes are one of the ways we can move away from proliferation of automobiles in our cities and thus are a key to fighting climate change. It is unfortunate that the recent COP 26 largely ignored bicycles.

• Is this all about cyclists vs residents?

  • Absolutely not! Some politicians and media outlets and assorted mischief-makers try to set one group against the other. Let us be perfectly clear: some residents are cyclists and some cyclists are residents and we both have a similar goal: safe bike lanes without removing any trees.

• Are Friends of Schmidtville participating in HRM’s “public engagement process?”

  • We have participated in HRM’s public engagement process right from the start and continue to do so. We do have concerns about the details of proposed bike lanes, including the possible removal of trees.

    The second stage of HRM’s public engagement process was supposed to begin in late March or early April 2022. It did not begin until July 2022. We hope to see a wide public discussion of the issues; Friends of Schmidtville certainly believes it is in the public interest that such impactive changes are made available for discussion at the earliest possible opportunity and certainly well before it is scheduled to come to HRM Council.

• What is wrong with the city’s “public engagement process?”

  • Many have criticized the city’s “public engagement process,” and we concur with those criticisms. The days of a proper public meeting on issues of community concerns are rare, replaced with the post-it note approach as a very poor subsitute. Proper public meetings tend to give the community a better understanding of where concerns lie. This is particularly an issue of such community impact as tree removal.

    It is extremely important that as much information as possible is provided to the community during the early stages of a project when the basic approaches are being worked out. In the absence of detailed information from HRM, the community ends up relying on what various councillors pass on and very limited and incomplete information from city staff.

• What kind of bike lanes is HRM proposing?

  • HRM is proposing AAA bike lanes on Morris Street among others, similar to the ones on South Park Street. But Morris Street between South Park and Queen is too narrow to accommodate two lanes of this type without widening the street.

• Are trees really going to be cut down to accommodate bike lanes?

  • The July 7 plan for peninsula south involves at least 88 and as many as 125 trees removed. You see our calculations HERE.

    It is ironic that HRM is also looking to retain its reputation as a “City of Trees”. As Dalhousie University urban forest specialist Peter Duinker wrote in the September 16, 2021 Chronicle-Herald, “Should we lose trees to bike lanes? That’s 100 per cent stupid!”

    HRM has shown it is not averse to tree-removal for bike lanes. Examples are at Dahlia and Crichton Streets in Dartmouth and the plan for bike lanes in Halifax’s North End. The plan for bike lanes on Robie Street also envisions tree removal. This supports the concerns expressed by Friends of Schmidtville.

• What alternatives do Friends of Schmidtville have?

  • Here are some alternatives to widening Morris Street for two bike lanes and taking down trees:

    • Now that Spring Garden Road is being altered, put bike lanes there.

    • For the portion between Queen Street and South Park Street, have narrower bike lanes, or cycle tracks, or “sharrows”, marked off by flags, painted pavement and other indicators.

    • For the portion between Queen Street to South Park Street, move both AAA bike lanes to South Street.

    • If the slope on South Street is considered too great, then have only one AAA lane on Morris, eastward from Queen to South Park and move the westward bike lane for that portion to South Street. That would mean cyclists are going downhill on the South Street grade.

• Are the Schmidtville residents wealthy south-enders?

  • Schmidtville is definitely not a stereotypical enclave of wealthy south-enders. Seventy-five percent of residents are renters (while 25% are owner-occupiers). The 2016 census reveals that the median income of Schmidtville residents is $25,500 (meaning 1/2 of us are below that and 1/2 are above.) In fact, Schmidtville is a low-rise affordable enclave, home to a diverse set of incomes. It is also one of the neighbourhoods of highest population density in the city (and that doesn’t include the apartment buildings surrounding it.) Schmidtville is what progressive urbanists want in a city.

• Is the slope of South Street too great for bike lanes?

  • The grade on the steepest portion of South Street between South Park and Queen is 7.1%, which is within the AAA guidelines of 8%. We know that existing or planned bike lanes in other parts of the city are steeper than that. The grades at Dahlia and Crichton Streets in Dartmouth and on Rainnie Drive in Halifax are steeper. AND THE GRADE ON MORRIS STREET BETWEEN BARRINGTON AND HARVEY (WHICH HRM WANTS FOR BIKE LANES) IS AT LEAST AS STEEP AS THE PORTION OF SOUTH STREET BETWEEN QUEEN AND SOUTH PARK (WHICH HRM DOESN’T WANT FOR BIKE LANES.)

    However, if we want to make it easier for cyclists, then let’s put only the downhill lane on South Street and leave the uphill on Morris Street. The bottom line is: no trees come down.

• What about the suggestion by some HRM officials that perhaps only a few old trees will come down and they’ll plant new ones?

  • Amid global warming and climate crisis, removing trees seems an irresponsible design option for a bike lane that could easily be built without removing trees. It takes a maple sapling 50 to 60 years to grow to a mature tree. Fifty years to wait for mature shade?

    Talking about his upcoming trip to COP 26 in Glasgow, Mayor Savage on CBC’s Power and Politics (5 November, 2021) (1:19:00) said “A lot of people don’t understand how important trees are if we’re actually going to maintain and sustain and build healthy communities…if you lose it, you’ve lost it forever.” The mayor made similar comments about the importance of trees on the Todd Veinotte show on CityNews on 18 November, 2021.

    HRM’s 2013 Urban Forest Master Plan suggests the south end see a rise in tree canopy coverage from 27 per cent to 70 per cent (a 43% increase).

    National Geographic devoted an entire issue to the effect of trees on the environment. And an article in the October 18 issue of The New Yorker magazine, entitled “Seventy-two hours under the heat dome”, discusses the impact of the last summer’s heat wave in Portland, Oregon.

    It is well-known that treed sections of cities are considerably cooler than untreed sections. As the article explains, there is a phenomenon called “urban heat islands: pockets with scant tree cover, a preponderance of asphalt, and, in many cases, close proximity to freeways and parking lots. The asphalt retains heat and hinders nighttime cooling; the lack of trees means there is little shade to cool the ground.”

    On the hottest day, one Portland scientist went out to measure the heat in a treeless neighbourhood: “The air felt like a hot iron on his skin. At 3:03 p.m., he took the highest measurement he’d seen in fifteen years of chronicling temperatures, not just in Portland but anywhere. The ambient temperature was a hundred and twenty-four degrees [51.1 Celsius]; the infrared camera registered the surface of the asphalt at a hundred and eighty degrees [82.2 Celsius.]

    He then went to a well-treed neighbourhood where “In leafy Willamette Heights, [the scientist’s] sensor logged just ninety-nine degrees.” That’s twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit (14 Celsius) cooler on the very same day, just from the presence of trees!

• What do you say to cynics who claim it’s really all about parking, and we are using trees as an excuse to reject bike lanes?

  • Parking is a problem in all of the historic areas of Halifax’s downtown. HRM has no overall parking plan. Providing alternatives to automobiles, such as encouraging walking, bicycling and public transit use are terrific ideas. And they will ease the burden in the long run. But they will not solve it.

    Many residents of Schmidtville are not automobile-owners. But there still is a problem with trades- and service-providers not being able to find temporary parking spots. For example, a roofer with equipment and ladders or a home-care provider running on the clock, cannot park far from their clients. Indeed, several residents report that trades- and service-providers have refused to provide their services in the dense downtown area.

    So parking is one of many problems. But it is not the main one.

• What about all of the other trees that are removed in HRM?

  • Some critics ask us, “trees are removed all the time in HRM. Why aren’t you out there protesting against that?” Really? This seems like a diversionary tactic meant to disparage the campaign to save the trees where bike lanes will go. We are against any removal of any the Halifax urban forest where alternatives are possible. And there are many alternatives possible.

• Do the banners hurt the trees?

  • Before putting the banners on the trees, we consulted a tree professional. They assured us that placing them as we planned posed no danger to the trees. The banners are attached with wire or string and there is breathing space between the banner and the tree.

• What happened to the banners that Friends of Schmidtville placed on Morris Street trees on October 26, 2021?

  • On 26 October, 2021, Friends of Schmidtville put up banners on trees (see above) along Morris Street. Under cover of darkness, less than 24 hours later, on October 27, city crews took most of them down.

    Councillor Waye Mason explained on 29 October: “They were removed by staff as a part of the regularly scheduled poster clean up for that part of DT [downtown]. Posters were removed all over the area, not just trees.” (emphasis ours)

    It is puzzling, however, that the only items removed during the “regularly scheduled poster clean up” were the fresh, clean, newly erected tree posters/banners. And the old posters shown below, all tattered and torn, are left to grace our beautiful city (see pictures below.) Bit of an odd “clean-up”, so-called, job.

    Friends of Schmidtville has now replaced some of the missing banners.

    Friends of Schmidtville wants to know precisely who ordered the banners removed and is asking for our signs back from the city. To date there has been only silence on this issue.