the edmontonian: awesome since 2009

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My Twitter is 1

This week, I’ll have been using Twitter for one year.

It seems like only yesterday I was sending out those first tweets about getting on Twitter, and not knowing what Twitter was, and saying “Hi” to the few people I knew on Twitter.

Now I smile when I see a new account and that person has their first “Finally on this thing…” tweet.

This blog has a lot to thank Twitter for. While I was on Twitter (Man, this could be a drinking game…drink whenever I say Twitter.) as myself months before the edmontonian existed, the micro-blogging service has been the biggest source of getting our word out.

Facebook has been good too. And every once and a while we kick up our YouTube channel. Heck, we’re even on Flickr (in name only right now). But Twitter has ruled them all.

It’s been great to send out links to our stories. And there’s always interaction on Twitter about our stories, it doesn’t all have to happen back here.

It’’s been even greater to chat with everyone in Edmonton. Yeah, that’s the best part.

People are always linking to the most hilarious memes.

Twitter didn’t seem to have any appeal to me, at first. Then a friend of mine jumped on, and I followed when I wanted to start blogging.

It’s been a great way to engage with all kinds of smart people I’d never have the chance of meeting in the day-to-day world. Not only did our paths cross online, I’ve since met many tweeps out in reality.

I think the conversations (yes, even in 140 character bursts) have been the best part of Twitter for me. I hope to continue the conversation with those I’ve talked with, start new talks, chat with new people, and keep pushing the great ideas that start at 140 characters into the real world.

Not on Twitter? Here’s where you go.

Feb 08, 2010 | Categories: Letter(s) from the Editor(s) | Tags: birthday, jeff, twitter | 1 Comment »

February 8 Edmonton Headlines

Are you excited, Edmonton?

I’m talking about the provincial budget, of course. It’s revealed tomorrow. So, that makes today Provincial Budget Eve.

That’s the night when all the organizations and agencies that are funded, in whole or in part, by the provincial government fall into an uneasy sleep. They’ll dream of the Finance Minister, riding his magical sleigh, piled high with calculators and budget books. While they dream, the real minister will be dropping little notes into their stockings. It will either be continued funding, possibly even more funding (probably not in this economy), or a big red cut to their funding.

Exciting!

Or terrifying.

It depends how much you like stuff provided by the provincial government.

At least these guys appreciate what the pending cuts, and the cuts in the 90s, are all about.

In lighter news, they’re still talking about our new art gallery over here.

from the Edmonton Journal:

Old Strathcona alliance fights city plans to develop parking lot

Hertz car-sharing division launches first Canadian outlet at U of A (This, plus the car-sharing co-op, and you’d think everyone here isn’t driving giant trucks.)

Couple falls down condo ‘rabbit hole’

A flurry of government communication, lacking only co-ordination

The race is on, and the choices as of now are, well, diverse (There’s also an online push for Raj Pannu.)

from the Edmonton Sun:

Schools may face closure

Groups fear drastic cuts (Mmm…budget cuts…)

Mounties to stay on highway beat

Alberta sees year-over-year decrease in beer sales (What is going on?!)

from 630CHED/iNews880:

LRT extension testing may cause some delays (But it will be worth it when we get sweet, sweet LRT.)

Edmonton housing starts up from a year ago

from CBC Edmonton:

Province to consult on new Health Act

Alberta challenges move to one securities regulator (Because scammers never cross a provincial border. It’s like a velvet rope to them.)

from Global Edmonton:

Dodge-off (Remember the 5 Ds!)

Feb 08, 2010 | Categories: NEWS | Tags: february 8, headlines, jeff | 1 Comment »

Some stuff to do

Taking a look around Edmonton this weekend, here are a few items that caught my eye…

There are monster trucks at Rexall Place this weekend!!!!!!!

Nearby, and slightly quieter, is the Edmonton Renovation Show, at Northlands’ Expo Centre.

It’s almost Chinese New Year’s, so kick things off with a bang over at the big celebration at West Edmonton Mall. Plus, you get an excuse to go to that giant emporium of shopping goodness.

German Mardi Gras is this weekend. I hadn’t heard of this but before but it sounds like a good time.

The Art Gallery of Alberta’s got a party Saturday. Tickets at the door only. This place is popular.

Susan Aglukark is playing the Myer Horowitz tonight. Neat.

Feb 05, 2010 | Categories: EVENTS | Tags: art gallery of alberta, chinese new year, EVENTS, expo centre, jeff, monster trucks, myer horowitz, renovations, rexall place, susan aglukark, wem | Leave A Comment »

February 5 Edmonton Headlines

Birds! And an excuse to write "hoarfrost."

Hello, hello.

It was throne speech day yesterday. I’m sorry I didn’t play that up more Thursday. I bet you were really excited and you came here thinking I’d be in my political-nerd glory. Well, I forgot.

But I did watch (listen) to the speech from my desk yesterday. Mostly to count how many times they said competitive. It was 11. I was trying to win a free beer. I guessed 23 because I was thinking about the budget (which is next Tuesday!!!!!) which will likely talk much more about Alberta’s competitive competitiveness.

Anyway…enough about throne speeches (Miss you already, Norman Kwong.) let’s get this done and get to the weekend.

from the Edmonton Journal:

Smart card could replace Edmonton transit tickets (Yes!)

Experts offer tips on Edmonton schools ‘ open house season (Again, looking for someone to tell me how going to any school in the city keeps schools from closing…)

Seizing Edmonton’s northern ‘advantage’

Tories in trouble: Manning

Metis mining plan for river valley deserves honest assessment

from the Edmonton Sun:

“Government must live within its means”: Alta. throne speech (I’m going to throw this out there, and you can send it right back, but on the Internet you don’t have to abbreviate words like Alberta. The Internet gives you space to write and write and write and write and write and you don’t have to worry about fitting a headline on a newspaper page. Again, just putting that out there.)

Tories out of tricks

Oil industry applauds reconciliation (This makes me think of another reunion…)

Taxi boss predicts ‘big fights’ over parking

New lost and found system in works for transit system

New protection for witnesses

from Metro Edmonton:

Eating on $80 a month (This is going to tie into that story, just below, about minimum wage.)

Distinguished researcher calls it a career

from CBC Edmonton:

Stelmach to focus on health, competitiveness (Alberta must be competitive with the competition!)

EnCana unprepared for toxic gas leak: report

from CTV Edmonton:

Alberta’s minimum wage to stay the same this year (Which will work out well, since nothing, at all, is going to go up in price.)

Alberta’s jobless rate stays steady

from Global Edmonton:

House fire cause (The fire that saw three firefighters treated for injuries.)

And because it’s Friday, here’s one purely for its headline value: Man bit pregnant amputee’s stump, Edmonton court hears.

Feb 05, 2010 | Categories: NEWS | Tags: february 5, headlines, jeff | Leave A Comment »

World Class? Expo 2017 and growing Edmonton smarter

(Editor’s note: This post was sparked by debate about smart growth, infrastructure investment and whether a World’s Fair is needed to convince the population to spend the money.)

By Jordan Schroder

We’ve seen our economic growth in the West spawn climate change, resource depletion, social unrest, terrorism and global poverty via our consumption over the last century. It’s now clear that if we are to survive the next 100 years, we need major course correction by 2020, as the East is following our fossil fuel footsteps.

With over half the world’s population now booming in urban areas, the solutions to our global problems will be found and forged locally through smarter land-use and mass transit. The free market cannot address our problems alone, as the answers lay beyond the bottom lines of businesses who profit from the plights they’ve provided us. Broader, bolder leadership from governments is needed worldwide to reduce footprints and conserve energy, which is to say, doing more with less.

It’s in this context that Edmonton’s proposed EXPO 2017 theme, Harmony of Energy and Our Future Planet, while well intentioned, seems vague and slightly off the mark.

By sharpening the focus on sharing solutions, we could issue a five-year challenge in 2012 to nearly five hundred cities with populations of more than one-million, inviting them to bring delegations of engineers, bureaucrats and politicians to showcase their greenest projects and proposals.

Edmonton would then become an energetic nexus of cutting edge urban planning in the summer of 2017, when we would again be a logical host for the ICLEI World Congress, as well as other events like the World Social Forum. It’s against this backdrop that broader discussions of renewable energy, scientific research, technological innovation, as well as progressive provincial and national policy-making should take place. (more…)

Feb 04, 2010 | Categories: GUEST BLOGGER | Tags: edmonton, expo 2017, jordan schroder, smartgrowth, transit | Leave A Comment »

Always believe

We did it!

Alright, we, as in the edmontonian or Edmonton as a whole, didn’t do anything. But Commerce Place employees, visitors and just plain everyday Edmontonians can enjoy free and easy access from the city’s premiere street to the building.

It only took forever.

Never forget.

Door Watch will always have a special place in our hearts because it was one of our first features, and one of the first stories that seemed to connect with people who would say to us “Yeah, that door hasn’t been open in a bygone.”

We talk to a lot of old people who use terms like bygone.

Our only complaint was that the door was broken for so long that it had already become lore of unfixable items by the time we hit the scene.

Gee…I wonder if anyone else is being lax in fixing major items around this town…maybe we can get on their case next.

Sadly, when they were trapped inside the boarded up door in 2008 there were 10 of them.

Feb 04, 2010 | Categories: Neighbourhoods | Tags: broken, commerce place, door, jeff, lrt, sally | 3 Comments »

Edmonton Headlines – CP1

Of course CP1 means this is the first full day we have working doors at both Jasper Avenue entrances to Commerce Place.

Hey, it’s only the city’s signature street. Above you can see my first venture through the solid gold, state-of-the-art, robot-butlered doors that took more than a year to fix. Of course we’ll have more to say about our favourite doors as we officially end Door Watch ‘09 (‘10)…

Anyway, it’s actually nice that we can joke around about Commerce Place because the local news is being dominated by a sad story. Oh, and there’s Haiti too.

There are reasons sad, awful, violent stories dominate the headlines. There are fair arguments to be made for having them on the front page. There are also arguments to be made against them getting as much coverage as they do.

Here’s some stuff that’s important, but will probably only make you angry when it’s about taxes and whatnot.

from the Edmonton Journal:

111th Street intersections close temporarily for South LRT testing

So a game-show host and lawyer walked into my bedroom… (It’s about Lucy the elephant, not Paula Simons’ weird dreams. I think.)

Minister expects budget ‘haircut’ (That’s a nice way to put it.)

The question of question period

from the Edmonton Sun:

Charge laid after vicious minor hockey spearing

Firefighters ’shook up’ at inferno scene

Stabbed police dog back at work (Though, the dog did tell his loose cannon partner “He’s getting too old for this stuff.”)

from the Edmonton Examiner:

Skill Centre offers ‘different way of learning’

from 630CHED/iNews880:

Airport lands: Council wants more “sizzle”

City sets LRT vision (Now, just to find $3-billion…)

School board in holding pattern after teachers’ ruling (Teachers are to get money they were offered but with provincial budget cuts looming the question is where the money will come from.)

from CBC Edmonton:

Shell announces more job cuts

from City TV Edmonton:

Return to the Legislature (Surely the governing Tories had hoped to be rolling in oil cash by today, you know, so they wouldn’t have to care about whether or not they know what they’re doing.)