Edmonton Notes for 10/2/2011

Welcome to October! Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

• Congratulations to Alison Redford on winning the PC leadership race. She’ll become Alberta’s first female premier. Dave has mapped a breakdown of the vote.
• Council discussed the arena issue again on Tuesday but made little progress. Administration will be providing an update sometime before October 31, the Katz-imposed deadline. Though a statement issued by the Katz Group this week makes it seem as though we’re as far as ever from a final agreement. Certainly Mandel no longer sounds confident. In other arena news, Northlands this week released a 2007 report prepared by HOK Sport that looks at revitalizing Rexall Place.
• Councillor Linda Sloan has been elected President of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA).
• Final landscaping and clean up will take place over the next few months, but the final phase of construction on the Quesnell Bridge is now complete! The new multi-use trail is completely open to motorized, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic.
• It was potentially the most talked-about news of the week: the Lingerie Football League is coming to Edmonton next fall. Yes, for real.
• The City of Edmonton and Northlands have joined forces to host this year’s River City Round Up, a 10-day celebration of Edmonton’s agricultural and western heritage.
• I was really happy to learn about the Yield program, which aims to move illegal street racing onto legal tracks. You get to race an RCMP officer!
• Edmonton Transit has a new Trip Planner available for beta testing!
• A late-night bus from Whyte Avenue to Southgate will start in January. The pilot was scheduled to being September 2 but was delayed to discuss with neighbouring communities.
• Sylvancroft will be saved, but it will be turned into four or five different luxury flats.
• EIFF, the Edmonton Arts Council, and the Edmonton Film Commission launched The Edmonton Film Prize, a $10,000 cash award acknowledging the work of an Edmonton film-maker. The first will be presented during next year’s film festival.
• Here is TSN’s look at the Edmonton Oilers for the upcoming season. They said: “The sooner that Hall, Eberle, Paajarvi, Omark and Nugent-Hopkins hit their full stride, the sooner the Oilers can climb back into relevant discussion in the West.”
• Most residents like the reduced speed limits, but not in Westridge, Wolf Willow, or Oleskiw. The Office of Traffic Safety will provide an analysis of their findings early next year.
• It sounds like Edmonton made a good impression on representatives of FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association, though any role our city might have in the 2015 Women’s World Cup of Soccer won’t be determined for quite some time.
• Construction has begun on the new Meadows Recreation Centre, library, and park located at 17 Street and 23 Avenue in Silver Berry is set to open in 2014.
• It appears the long-sought neon sign museum may soon find a home in the Telus equipment building at 104 Street and 104 Avenue.
• Malltip, a new daily deal service based in Edmonton, launched this weekend. The twist is that they bring daily deals to shopping malls, and have a partnership with West Edmonton Mall.
• The Whitemud Equine Learning Centre is looking to raise $15 million to build a new facility on city land in the river valley.

Here are some upcoming events:

• meshwest is taking place on Tuesday at the Shaw Conference Centre.
• On Wednesday, Edmonton NextGen is hosting Up{date} at the Art Gallery of Alberta, an opportunity to reconnect with City Councillors a year after the election.
• The City of Edmonton’s budget consultation events continue this week. Terwillegar is Tuesday evening, Central McDougall is Wednesday evening, and MacEwan South Campus as Thursday.
• On Thursday at lunch time, come on down to City Hall for the first ever Truck Stop, presented by What the Truck?!
• Movies on the Square returns on Friday and Saturday in Churchill Square!
• Rise Against is at Rexall Place on Saturday evening.
• The 24 Hour Comic Challenge sounds like a fun event taking place on Saturday!
• Don’t miss the City Market on Saturday – it’s the last weekend outside on 104 Street. It’ll move to City Hall after that. Here is Sharon’s latest City Market Report.
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

Beautiful fall colors! Photo by Sherwood411 in St. Albert.

Edmonton’s two biggest employment centres, downtown and the U of A. Photo by cowtowncor.

The grand opening of EPCOR Tower was this week, and the bear was finally unveiled! You can see the rest of my photos here and also check out Darren’s photoset.