Ben MacLeod 馬志斌

@benmacleod.bsky.social

3659 Followers 845 Following

Hong Kong / Halifax, urban & transportation things

A portion of the Harbour Hopper tour script. "Captain heart attack or loss of consciousness. If something happens to the captain while driving, keep all the passengers calm and get help to remove the driver from his seat. If on the water keep the boat running so you can steer the boat in the water away from other ships and away from hitting land. If on land, stop and turn off the vehicle no matter where you are. Do not attempt to drive the boat anywhere. Immediately radio for assistance. If on water turn the radio on to channel 12 and say 'may day' three times, say the name of the boat three times 'harbour hopper', tell them your situation three times and tell them your location in the water three times."
A section of the Harbour Hopper tour script for the Bishop's Landing residential-commercial development on the Halifax waterfront. It includes a list of facts such as, "It is the only residential development right on the downtown Halifax waterfront, boasting 206 luxury suites." The last bullet point says: "Please do not refer to Bishop's Landing as a condominium (luxury residence)".
A page from the 2013 Harbour Hopper tour script. It says: "All guides must say the following about the casino" and has a few facts about the Casino Nova Scotia that are promotional in nature, for example "Thursday nights are Vintage Vegas nights with John Gracie singing crooner classics".
A binder with the logo of Harbour Hopper tours, a tour company in Halifax, featuring a smiling frog with wheels. The binder is titled "Harbour Hopper Script 2013".
A new park on a grassy, sloping site along Barrington Street in downtown Halifax. There are stairs and ramps that ascend the slope to a multi-use path that runs parallel to Barrington. There is a long, concrete retaining wall on one side of the path, a remnant of the demolished Cogswell Interchange. A long mural is painted on the concrete wall. The mural is composed of bold geometric shapes in bright, contrasting colours. The shapes resemble things such as plants, flowers, and sunrises, while simultaneously appearing like letters that spell out the words "COMMON GROUND".
Granville Park in downtown Halifax on a really nice morning with a bright blue sky. The park has various benches, tables and chairs, open concrete walkways and a green lawn. Ben's coffee and salad are sitting on a table in the foreground.
Ben poses in a damp corner next to several blue barrels and a shopping cart with trash in it. There is a sign on the concrete wall that says "GREASE DRUMS" in bold, all-caps type.
Site plan from a construction tender for the "Granville Park water feature" in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. It shows the extent of a proposed water feature within Granville Park as well as the location of a temporary portable washroom structure.
A gravel area in Granville Park in downtown Halifax. There are seven cars and a motorcycle parked there.
The route from the Mackay Bridge to Windsor Street after the Windsor Street Exchange is redesigned. It involves making a 180-degree turn, driving back toward the bridge, then making another 180-degree turn through an underpass, then turning left onto Windsor.
A portion of a rendering of the redeveloped Windsor Street Exchange, which shows a lot of greenery surrounded by very wide multi-lane roadways
A computer rendering of the Windsor Street Exchange in North End Halifax as it will appear following redevelopment. A significant change is the introduction of free-flow traffic between the Mackay Bridge and the Bedford Highway, essentially turning that route into a grade-separated highway surrounded by service roads for local traffic. The rendering also shows new multi-use paths and short transit queue-jump lanes at intersections.
A drawing of the centre of Kwun Tong, a district of Kowloon, Hong Kong, depicting a dense urban neighbourhood with a mix of low and high-rise concrete buildings, bus and minibus terminals, and street markets.
Fern, August, and Jedwin at June Rowlands Park in Toronto
A modernist indoor swimming pool in the evening. Light is streaming through a row of high-level windows, casting a dramatic diagonal shadow against the red brick wall at the end of the pool. There are blue-and-white banners strung across the pool, which match the blue-and-white swimming lane markers.
Construction drawing showing proposed changes at the intersection of Burnside Drive and Commodore Drive in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It is a large intersection in an industrial park with right-turn slip lanes at all four corners. The drawing shows proposed new pedestrian crossings at the northern and eastern legs of the intersection, and indicates a "future multi-use path (not in contract)" extending northward from the intersection.
A black container ship docked at a container terminal. It has two very large, white masts that have been tilted diagonally. The sails are folded up.
A light blue poster with the logo of Wikipedia, a white, incomplete globe-shaped jigsaw puzzle, each jigsaw piece inscribed with a glyph from a different writing system. The poster is titled "Mask4Mask Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon" and says: "Tuesday, June 30th, 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Halifax Central Common Multi-purpose Room. 5816 Cogswell Street, next to the skatepark. Masks required (KN94). Please create a Wikimedia account prior to event -- details in caption! This event is sponsored by Wikimedia Canada".
A book of eight colourful stamps showcasing four places of importance to LGBT+ history in Canada, including The 519 community centre in Toronto, a festival called Metamorphosis in Saskatoon, Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium in Vancouver, and The Turret in Halifax.
Tall, concrete columns of a new rapid transit bridge under construction in Toronto's forested Don Valley. The skyline of downtown Toronto is visible in the distance.
An expansive, grassy park with rolling hills and walking paths under a big blue sky. There is an urban skyline in the distant background.
Two escalators leading to the platform level of Caledonia station of Toronto's line 5 light rail. A sign over the escalators says "Eglinton Line". A wall-mounted artwork in the background says "Do not delay. Climb aboard the ride of life. Now or never. Here today gone tomorrow."
Selfie of Ben in the big, modernist rotunda of Toronto City Hall. The central feature of the space is a giant circular column below the council chamber.
A very big road sign indicating that no right turns on red lights are allowed on the Île de Montréal
A flat tire
A newly installed concrete drain running the length of Argyle Street in downtown Halifax. Concrete pavers are stacked up around the trench awaiting reinstallation.
A Halifax Transit bus on route 7B with a brightly coloured pride livery and the words "ride with pride". The word "pride" is filled with the colours of the "progress pride" flag. The bus is travelling down Barrington Street, a major street in downtown Halifax.
Dear Centre Plan team and members of Council, I write in relation to your ongoing review of the Centre Plan. I hope the municipality will maintain its support for missing-middle housing and avoid introducing new, arbitrary barriers to housing construction. I returned to Halifax in 2022 in hopes of buying a place and settling down here. I quickly realized that ship had sailed and have often considered leaving. The Urgent Changes to Planning Documents for Housing of 2024 brought about some hope that Halifax’s housing situation would improve. Vacancy rates are gradually increasing as new buildings are completed. The situation for renters is noticably improved. Please, stay the course. It is to be expected that some will push back against new, badly needed missing-middle housing, which represents tangible change in neighbourhoods that have remained largely frozen by legislation for decades. On the other hand, it is harder to engage those who would benefit from missing-middle housing – the future residents who presently cannot afford to live in Halifax’s older, most walkable neighbourhoods. Most people are not aware of how land-use bylaws can worsen the housing crisis and make certain neighbourhoods more exclusive. The discourse is thus dominated by property owners, who have a direct stake in policy that perpetuates housing scarcity and spatial exclusivity. In this regard, I applaud staff for hosting an engagement session at Dalhousie’s student union building to help collect views from younger people, who are largely renters.
A light-pink poster with hand-drawn text. It says: "Mask 4 Mask. Open mic. May 22, 7:00 to 9:30. Local Council of Women (989 Young Ave). Cozy evening of community performance. Masks required, KN94 or better."
A package of Chinese "White Rabbit" (大白兔) brand ice cream desserts sitting in a supermarket freezer.
Screenshot of a Facebook comment from someone in Halifax who says: "Also, developers then rent, so tenants don't own anything. Non-owners don't invest in neighbourhoods and the fabric of living in the city fades away."
Screenshot of a portion of a public Facebook post with the name cropped out. It has a photo of a house and the text: "We loved our little house on Preston Street in Halifax - one of five precious bungalows built around 1929. Sadly, thoughtless greed means a 26-unit development could happen on the postage stamp lots next door. My heart breaks for my old neighbours and the entire neighbourhood. When I sold our house, I did my due diligence to ensure it didn’t fall into the hands of a developer. I would love to buy the two little houses and save them - but of course, that’s not going to happen. Hopefully something can be done to stop this."
A white rental van parked in the bike lane on Lower Water Street in downtown Halifax. The bike lane is delineated with a painted line and green plastic flexible posts. There are gaps in the posts such that cars can still park illegally in the bike lane.
A comparison of two photos taken from roughly the same spot along Upper Water Street in Halifax. The first one was taken in 2022, looking south from Casino Nova Scotia. In 2022, Upper Water Street was a two-lane road with a very tall, concrete retaining wall on its western side. In 2026, the retaining wall and adjacent Cogswell Interchange is gone. Upper Water Street is completely rebuilt with separated bike lanes, landscaping, and extra traffic lanes.
Still from a dashcam video taken from a car parked on Northwood Terrace, a one-way local street in Halifax. There is a big grey SUV driving on the sidewalk in front of the Northwood Centre, a high-rise senior's housing complex. It is driving in the opposite direction, against traffic.
Ben and Shira pose with Aura N95 respirators in front of the Public Gardens gates in Halifax
A very crowded bicycle parking area operated by the Halifax Cycling Coalition at the Blue Nose Marathon
A Halifax Cycling Coalition staff member standing at the HCC booth at the Blue Nose Marathon
An aerial photo of the Halifax-Dartmouth area, but photoshopped so that much of Halifax Harbour has been replaced with developed land, physically connecting Halifax and Dartmouth
An exerpt from the minutes of the Halifax regional council meeting held June 10, 2025. MOVED by Mayor Fillmore, seconded by Councillor Purdy THAT Halifax Regional Council direct the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to prepare a report and recommendation for Council’s consideration at its July 8 meeting, prior to the award of the tenders for Brunswick Street Multi-Modal Phase One projects, that: 2. Lists alternatives to achieving the protected bike lane that does not remove vehicular lanes on Brunswick Street or Sackville Street, including the righthand turn lane at Sackville and Brunswick Streets; and that does not otherwise worsen congestion on Brunswick and Sackville Streets. MOTION PUT AND DEFEATED. (5 in favour, 12 against). In favour: Mayor Fillmore, Councillors Hendsbee, Purdy, Young, Gillis. Against: Deputy Mayor Mancini, Councillors Deagle Gammon, Kent, Austin, White, Hinch, Cleary, Morse, Cuttell, Steele, Hartling, St-Amand Mayor Fillmore resumed the Chair."
The cover page of the 1973 annual report of the Crown Assets Disposal Corporation. It is bright blue and has the coat of arms of Canada, as well as the name of the agency in bold type. The page has been scanned incorrectly such that it is divided into numerous horizontal sections, each offset from one another and rendered in different levels of contrast, saturation, tone, and brightness, seemingly randomly.
A billboard along Joseph Howe Drive around a decade ago
An aerial photo of Halifax's so-called "quantum intersection" where Windsor Street meets Chebucto Road and Cunard Street. Chebucto and Cunard are offset from each other, such that traffic moving from one to the other has to turn right, then immediately turn left. Ben has drawn two cars performing this movement from opposing directions, but somehow in the middle of the intersection they have both ended up passing one another on the wrong side of the road.
Screenshot from Viewpoint, a Nova Scotia real estate website, showing a new sale of a modest, one-storey home in Halifax's far-north end for C$740,000
A small, round Halifax Transit ferryboat headed to downtown Halifax with many office towers in the background.
A newly built, open waterway next to Alderney Drive in downtown Dartmouth surrounded by construction equipment and gravel.
A greyscale aerial image of Hong Kong taken by a NASA Space Shuttle radar system in 1994. Centred on the Kowloon peninsula, the image includes most of Hong Kong Island, all of Kowloon, and much of the New Territories. The sea is a dark grey while the dramatic mountain ranges are in shades of lighter grey. There are many boats in Victoria Harbour which show up as glowing specks.
A sign on a Quinpool Road storefront with the AI-generated logo of a business called "The Beaver's Den", featuring a smiling beaver holding a beer mug in one hand and a martini in the other.
Litter clean-up supplies sitting in a traffic diverter at the Allan and Harvard street intersection in Halifax.
Some litter clean-up supplies laid out on the floor including boxes of trash and blue bags, disposable gloves, and a sharps container.
A classic American-style freestanding McDonald's restaurant surrounded by Hong Kong public housing blocks.
A bright red poster titled "Care for your community. Neighbourhood litter clean-up". It has a hand-drawn illustration of Skritchy, a raccoon, next to some pieces of litter including a Tim Horton's coffee cup and some cigarette butts. At the bottom, it says: "Meet at the diverter. Intersection of Harvard and Allan streets. Saturday, 25 April 2026. 11:00 am to 12:00 pm. Bags and gloves will be provided."
Katy Jean addresses a crowd of people, many wearing bicycle helmets, at the intersection of Harvard and Allan streets in Halifax.
Long Lake on a nice spring day
A one-storey, ornate brick commercial building on a street corner being demolished. There is a new apartment building under construction in the background.
Two people, one on a bike and another on an electric scooter, using a bike lane on Almon Street in Halifax.
A traffic cone made to look like a cute raccoon using duct tape, googly eyes, and a head seemingly crafted from a plastic bottle and some cardboard. The raccoon is holding a cardboard sign that says "bikes only" and is wearing a small yellow safety vest. It is sitting on a concrete curb in the middle of an urban street intersection in Halifax.
Scan of an article that appeared in the Halifax Daily News on May 1, 1996 titled "Council asks for plans for 'new' city hall", written by Brian Flinn. It describes a decision by Halifax regional council to ask its architects to draw up a plan to move the government into Halifax City Hall in downtown Halifax. Prior to this decision, the architects had also been considering moving regional council permanently into Dartmouth City Hall and the Halifax County building.
Navy blue cover page of the Integrated Mobility Plan: Action Plan Update 2026 with the logo of the Halifax municipal government.
Two skinny orange traffic bollards on a street corner in Halifax