May 31 Edmonton Headlines
Good morning, Edmonton. Today, it seems, is all about Alberta news. But, that will tend to happen when you’ve got the provincial seat of power in your downtown.
A couple of Edmonton-specific items are in the news though:
Northlands still doesn’t know what to do about the fact they’re being told asked to leave the arena business.
Mayor Mandel isn’t going to a meeting of the Big City Mayors, saying they don’t get anything done.
Now…about that Alberta stuff… (more…)
March 4 Edmonton Headlines
I am going to climb you.
Good morning, Edmonton. Let’s start things off with some good news. The 10-year plan to end homelessness may be working.
Project KARE has paid out reward money, but won’t say how much of a promised $100,000 has been handed out or for which cases. And I think there are still plenty of unsolved murders of women in high-risk lifestyles.
Lawyers for an Edmonton man accused in a terrorist bombing want the judge currently on the case to give them a chance to see evidence seized by the RCMP.
More than just motorcycles may soon be targeted by Edmonton’s noise bylaw.
There are anti-arena billboards (at least anti-City money funding the project) and now there’s a pro-arena billboard. I do want to say, to the mysterious billboard purchaser, that Winnipeg is just fine. Heck, they even have a downtown arena so…wait…is this a pro-arena billboard?
A new Edmonton police station is among the projects landing money through a provincial fund for municipalities.
Speaking of Edmonton police…officers are getting better winter gear.
EPCOR’s stepping up its water main replacement this year, while it deals with a biggie over on 109 Street, north of the river.
There weren’t any major increases in passenger traffic through the Edmonton International Airport last year, so maybe the “Calgary habit” continues…
I don’t know, Canada Post, the sidewalk pictured in this story looks pretty good to me.
And there’s more! (more…)
Edmonton Headlines of January 19
The City of Edmonton would like to remind you to clear a path for garbage collectors. Canada Post has a similar reminder about your mailbox. Atco and EPCOR want to get to your meters. Basically, move that snow!
The zoning has been approved for an arena and entertainment district on the north-edge of downtown Edmonton. Earlier this week City Council voted to have city administration start talking with the Katz Group about an arena deal. Now, neither of these approvals means the arena is a done deal.
But you have to wonder when something, that’s not a done deal, runs out of items to be approved.
Also, it’s good to see the remark about the Oilers not playing in Rexall Place beyond 2014 being discussed. It was a threat, and Councillor Don Iveson should be commended for calling it out. (Though it should be noted Iveson isn’t using the word threat. He’s calling it emotional blackmail.)
Rexall Place continues to be one of the busiest arenas in North America. That’s going to complicate all of this arena business. Especially when you consider Northlands has noted (not threatened exactly) to keep running our current arena if the group is cut out of the new arena by the Katz Group.
Enough about the downtown arena. There has to be something else in the news. Maybe something about snow… (more…)
Pretty nice little Thursday
The snow seems to be waning, the weekend is pending, and there are a lot of entertainment options for your Thursday evening, Edmonton.
With the snowy weather upon us, you may just want to duck inside a movie theatre for some warmth. Gregg’s always got a rundown on what’s on the big screen. I also hear a rumour he and Sally are teaming up to tear down another popular movie…
I think I’ll be checking out a movie of a slightly different sort tonight. The Turkey Shoot is on at Metro tonight! This month they’re examining the deep, philosophical meaning of The Hand. Should be a great time.
And if you can’t make it to tonight’s Turkey Shoot, I want you to already think about checking it out December 9. They’re ending the year with Showgirls. There are few movies better suited to ongoing sarcastic commentary.
Since we’re talking all intellectual-like, I should point out the Festival of Ideas continues. It’s also at the Citadel tonight. (The Turkey Shoot’s screenings happen in the same building.)
Exposure Fest also continues to roll right along.
And if you’re up for a little citizen engagement, you can check out the open house on the Walterdale Bridge and West Rossdale. After seeing some tweets today about Rossdale, the Epcor plant, the location’s aboriginal history, and Winnipeg’s Forks, I totally want to see the old plant and surrounding area become a historial and recreational resource at the foot of a brand-spanking new bridge.
The current Walterdale Bridge is an aging green river crossing that has served us well. But it's time has come.
What a weekend
This is going to be a good one, Edmonton.
Just worry about the weekend. Don't look at Tuesday.
The weather is hot and sunny, Conan O’Brien is here, NHL playoffs are on TV, and the Edmonton Rush are home tonight (7pm) and trying to secure some Rexall Place playoff action for the spring.
I’m always a sucker to mention Winnipeg bands coming through town. Nathan is one such band that is worthy of your ears.
Buddy Guy, the dude who calls Eric Clapton in that cell phone commercial, is playing the Jubilee.
I’m grooving to some We Are Wolves as I tell you they’re playing the Pawn Shop. What did we do before YouTube?
Ghostkeeper is at Brixx. The Old Wives are at New City.
And there’s more!
You won’t believe all the good stuff ShareEdmonton has for you.
It’s time for the Edmonton Women’s Show. Which I predict will, predictably, have some soap opera star in attendance. Yup.
Saturday offers the rare treat of seeing inside the Edmonton Law Courts, cells, courtrooms, and more. Without a summons to appear.
The Winspear Centre will be pop-y with A Chorus of Hits.
And Edmonton celebrates Earth Day this Sunday, April 18. It’s not in Hawrelak this year, it’s at the City Centre Airport. Fort Edmonton Park. (I have no idea why I thought this was at City Centre Airport. This is my bad, not ShareEdmonton’s.)
I’m already tired.
p.s. If you didn’t see it already, Nikki “I Believe” Yanofsky is returning to the Edmonton International Jazz Festival this June.
Opinion: Where my parks at?
This deserves a webpage.
While looking up information on Ezio Farone Park I noticed the City of Edmonton only has webpages for its major parks. You know, the Hawrelaks, Gold Bars and Coronations.
The Ezio Farones, the Dr. Wilbert McIntyres and Kildares don’t get a webpage.
I want them to get their own webpage!
OK, there’s a slight twist to them not having a webpage. There are a bunch of different pages you can slog through to find picnic sites, or sports fields, or your neighbourhood’s parks.
I’ll note with my work on the Strathcona Centre Community League, however, that people tend not to know the “official” name of their neighbourhood. The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) and Next Gen can back me up on that, since it came up at their recent event to get younger people involved in community leagues. (More on community leagues soon enough my pretties.)
To make sure I wasn’t make an outlandish request, I poked around a couple of websites from other Canadian cities.
Certainly I checked on Calgary. They are like us, and only have webpages for their big parks. The community parks, nestled nicely into your neighbourhood, don’t have much more than a name and address mention.
A city of similar size to Edmonton (though not in a similarly sized capital region), Winnipeg, also doesn’t give its medium and small parks a page of their own. Though, they do provide information on the amenities of each park, which I think is a nice touch for anyone looking around at a neighbourhood to live in, or looking for a place to schedule the weekend pick-up football games.
Toronto beats them all. It appears all of their parks have their own webpage (except skateboard parks…) and at least one has its own website. I even did a measurement check on how big an acre was, to make sure these parks weren’t only the ones with giant swaths of land.
So, I’m writing this to the world (it’s the Internet after all) but I’m going to drop a line to the City of Edmonton and ask for a little more detail on our parks on the Internet.
We need to know more about the Garneaus, Montroses and Nellie McClungs. Those are parks we can have a BBQ in or saunter down to when we want a new place to read a book.
Are you with me or am I looking for too much from our city’s website?
