Edmonton Notes for 4/29/2012

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

• Edmontonians got a peek at the designs for the new downtown arena this week! After a couple images leaked to the Journal, the City made four new images available and says more will be released for the Council meeting next month. While the design was called everything from a steak to a kidney to a comma, Daryl Katz says an oil drop was the inspiration.
• Starting today, the new “Route 747” bus between Century Park Transit Centre and the Edmonton International Airport entered service. The route runs 7 days a week, from 5am to 12:30am, with buses leaving every half-hour during peak hours and every hour during off-peak times. The cost is $5 for a one-way ticket, and buses have wi-fi on them!
• More positive news for First & Jasper – Public Works & Government Services Canada has leased 41,000 square feet of space over four floors! At this rate the building is going to be full before the old BMO building is finished being torn down!
• Property taxes to cover municipal programs and services in 2012 will increase $7.25 a month, or 5.1%, for the typical Edmonton household.
• Arts on the Ave has put out a call for artists and designers to participate in the 12foot12 challenge! Submissions are due May 15.
• The Supreme Court of Canada has decided it will not hear an appeal on a court case regarding Lucy the Elephant, a decision the City of Edmonton welcomed on on Thursday.
• I haven’t heard yet how the Elements Music Festival went this weekend, but last week event organizers were saying that they were being asked to spend $145,000 on security and that it was unlikely the event could happen again in the future. Sandra Sperounes makes the case for such events in this blog post.
• EEDC’s new board chair is Peter Silverstone, and its newest board members are Jagdeep Bachher, JoAnn Kirkland, and Tracey Scarlett.
• The City Archives has launched its first virtual exhibit, which features Ella May Walker, an artist, musician, and author who was a key advocate for preserving and promoting Edmonton’s history.
• Melcor announced last week that Brian Baker will take over from Ralph Young to become the new President and COO. Young will continue as CEO.
• Speaking of Ralph Young, he was elected on Friday by the U of A board of governors as the university’s next chancellor, the honourary head of the university.
• Edmonton and Jasper have signed a memorandum of cooperation with Shanghai, China to jointly promote travel between Alberta and Shanghai.
• Apparently this is a big deal: visit centre ice at Rexall Place right now and you won’t find the Oilers logo, you’ll find the Oil Kings logo instead!
• Pretty crazy (in a good way) that this happens in Edmonton: Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, the world’s largest industrial auctioneer, conducted the largest equipment auction in Canadian history this week, selling more than CA$108 million of equipment.
• ProCura Real Estate says it is ready to begin construction on a new 21-storey tower in Century Park this summer, but it won’t look like the original plans.

We have certainly had some wild weather recently, everything from sunny and warm to this:

But I guess that’s Edmonton for you!

Here are some upcoming events to note:

• Tomorrow afternoon the City is running an economic development workshop, part of the public consultation process for The Way We Prosper.
• The Sage Awards will be handed out on Tuesday during lunch at the Sutton Place Hotel!
• The Slow Food Canada National Meeting & Conference takes place right here in Edmonton this week from May 3 to May 6.
• On Friday the Art Gallery of Alberta is hosting Art on the Block, a fundraiser to support the presentation of AGA exhibitions and education programs.
• The Handmade Mafia is back on Saturday at Orange Hall!
• And not far away on Saturday and Sunday is Royal Bison!
• Taking place all day Saturday the Fantastyland Hotel is iMedia 2012, a social media conference for western Canada. I’m on the panel at lunch!
• On Saturday afternoon, the Edmonton Public Library is running an event called Downtown Stories. I’ll be speaking in the afternoon about some of the ways our downtown is changing.
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton!

Due to construction of the North LRT to NAIT, the LRT is running on a slightly different schedule until September 1. Also, about one third of the Churchill Square LRT platform will be blocked off during that time. Here’s an overview of the North LRT to NAIT, including helicopter footage:

Sharon and I were out at the Shaw bright and early this morning for Edmonton’s eight Homeless Connect. We volunteered to do pre-registration and registration.

There were an awful lot of volunteers there today, which is great! The event didn’t seem as busy as past ones in terms of clients, however.