Central State of Mind: Judd & Linda

By Mack D. Male · November 18, 2011 at 10:00am

This is the second entry in the Central State of Mind series. To read the first entry, click here. Sharon and I visited Judd and Linda in early October to learn about why they chose to live centrally.

Judd and Linda live in Oliver, though like most people who call the eastern part of the neighbourhood home, they would say they live in Grandin. A short walk from the Grandin LRT station, their 1000 square foot condo is certainly cozy but its location more than makes up for its relative lack of space. The couple moved to the neighbourhood four years ago because they were ready to start a family and their previous home downtown was adult-only. Their daughter Zoe was born two years ago.

Avoiding or at least reducing their commute played a big role in Judd and Linda’s decision to move to Grandin. Judd works downtown as a mechanical engineer, while Linda works part time in social services in Central McDougall. They’re a one-car household, and they use their vehicle as infrequently as possible. Judd usually walks to work, though he has experimented with a variety of transportation options. Biking to work consistently takes about ten minutes, while taking the train can be quicker or slower depending on whether he misses the train or not. Judd has even ridden his longboard to work, though he says “it’s a lot more work because I have to dodge people on the sidewalks, and I usually end up walking anyway.” Linda used to walk to work, a trip that would take about 30 minutes. “We have friends that get up at 5 in the morning just to get ready for their commutes,” Linda said, as she reiterated the importance they place on living close to work.

Location is about more than just commute times, however. “I love being able to just go out for a walk,” Linda said. Judd agreed, adding that proximity to amenities is another reason why they liked the area. “Everything is within walking distance,” he said. Ezio Faraone Park is a short walk away, as are the Legislature grounds, both among the best urban green space that Edmonton has to offer. Grandin is also perfectly situated between Downtown and Garneau, which means favorites like Blue Plate Diner and Transcend Coffee are just a short walk or train ride away. “I love going to the City Market on Saturdays too,” Linda told us. “I try to go a little earlier, it’s a nice walk to get there.” Location wasn’t the only thing that attracted them to the Grandin area, of course. “It’s quiet, tree-lined, and pub free!” Judd quipped when I asked him for additional reasons.

Their current living situation does have its challenges, however. “It would be nice to have a little bit more space,” Judd admitted. Entertaining is difficult with Zoe’s play area concentrated in the living room (she had a very cool toy kitchen that made Sharon jealous). The family is casually looking for something central with a bit more space, but it has to be the right fit. “To get something bigger, it has to meet all the requirements that are met now,” Judd said. “If something bugged us so much, we’d have a realtor!” One of the biggest issues with the smaller space is the layout. Sound seems to travel right to Zoe’s room, often waking her up. She is getting better at sleeping through it, however. Communities they are looking at include Westmount, McKernan, and Bonnie Doon. They’re intrigued by the City Centre Redevelopment, but that’s a bit too far into the future.

Another challenge is the lack of shops and restaurants in the area that cater to families with young children. Linda wishes there were more kid-friendly cafes, and mentioned Café O’Play in Riverbend as an example. “In the summer it doesn’t matter so much, but when it gets cold, there aren’t as many places to take Zoe.” Similarly, many of the new restaurants that have opened nearby are focused on attracting adults, not families. Interestingly, grocery shopping has also been a challenge. “Downtown shopping is not baby-friendly,” Judd declared. Grocery stores in the area either don’t carry the items they need, or when they do, often charge far more than at other locations. On one trip to Sobeys for instance, Judd found just one brand of diapers and one brand of baby wipes. “When she grows out of diapers, it won’t be such a big deal,” he said. They usually shop at Save-On-Foods for smaller items, and now are able to make the short trip to Superstore on Kingsway Avenue for baby stuff. They also walk to Planet Organic occasionally.

Much of our conversation revolved around the challenges of having a young child in the core. “We kind of got into a pocket of timing with Zoe,” Judd said, realizing that the things they need and want now will change. “The less she is an infant, the easier everything gets.” Something that is very top-of-mind for Judd and Linda at the moment is wheelchair access. “Having a kid downtown has given me an appreciation for people who are in wheelchairs,” Judd said, noting that strollers and wheelchairs have similar needs and challenges. “If one elevator breaks down, then you’re often having to go quite far to detour,” Linda explained. “That’s why malls are so friendly to parents,” Judd concluded, because they offer multiple seating areas, big washrooms with change-tables, and excellent access.

Judd and Linda often compare their situation with friends who live in the suburbs. “It’s the commute, that’s the difference,” Judd said. “We don’t have the 20 minutes stuck in traffic, but we have a smaller space.” He does recognize there’s a tradeoff, in that having a car means you don’t have to think as much about where you’re going. “A car gives you options.” Less stress is just one the benefits of avoiding the commute, however. “Living centrally gives you more time to do other things,” Linda said.

The couple would like to see more families living centrally. “It should be more affordable for younger families,” Linda said. She likes Oliver, but says there needs to be more options for family-friendly housing in central neighbourhoods. That means three bedroom condos, as an example. “Having two kids tips the balance,” Judd said. They are confident they have made the right choice, though even they question the centrally-located/smaller-space tradeoff from time to time. “We are in the minority here. Everyone else in the world does it,” Judd said. “Why does it feel so hard sometimes?”

About Oliver

One of Edmonton’s oldest neighbourhoods, Oliver is also the city’s most populated. According to the 2009 municipal census, more than 18,000 people live in Oliver. Roughly 27% of the population is under the age of 20 and nearly 65% of the population is under the age of 40. There are more than twice as many renters in the neighbourhoods as owners. Accordingly, there are significantly more apartments than single-detached homes. Development began in the 1880s, according to the City of Edmonton, though it wasn’t named Oliver until the 1950s.

Oliver scores an impressive 83 on Walk Score, which is “very walkable.” It also gets a Transit Score of 63 thanks to the Grandin LRT station and 45 nearby bus routes. You can learn more about Oliver at Wikipedia and at the Oliver Community League website. The community league is one of the city’s most active on Facebook and Twitter.

Central State of Mind

Would you like to be featured in the series, or do you know someone else who might like to be? If so, please get in touch!

Central State of Mind: Dan & Kathryn Friesen

By Mack D. Male · September 27, 2011 at 10:00am

Introduction

“Yeah, but you don’t have kids.” Without question, that’s the most common remark Sharon and I hear when we talk about living in the core. Obviously there are families living in central neighbourhoods (32% of the downtown population is under 20 years of age, for instance) but you don’t hear about them as often as you hear about families in new suburban neighbourhoods. That’s one of the reasons that we’ve embarked on a new series we’re calling Central State of Mind. Our goal is to feature Edmontonians who have chosen to live centrally, and we’re kicking it off with a young family that selected King Edward Park over the new neighbourhoods in the south. Certainly we have been inspired by Elise Stolte’s excellent summer series, Living on the Edge, but we think the stories of Edmontonians who have voted with their feet and their money to help Edmonton become a more compact, financially sustainable city deserve to be told as well.

Meet Dan, Kathryn, and Sam

Dan & Kathryn Friesen live in King Edward Park, though when people ask they usually say Bonnie Doon because most don’t know where King Edward Park is located. They’ve lived in their current home for four years now, after moving from a condo in the heart of Old Strathcona near 80 Avenue and 105 Street. Choosing a mature neighbourhood was an important decision that Kathryn & Dan put a lot of thought into. Newer neighbourhoods in the city seem to get most of the attention, but not everyone chooses to live there. Sharon and I sat down with Kathryn & Dan at their home in early August to learn more so that we could share their story.

One of the biggest factors that went into their decision was commuting and their desire to avoid it as much as possible. “It seems like a waste of resources and a waste of time,” Dan said. The location they chose is split between Kathryn’s office downtown and Dan’s office in the south side (they both work in social services). Each can get home from work in less than 20 minutes, even in heavy traffic. “The time commuting takes away from time you can spend with your kids,” Kathryn told us as we watched her two-year-old son Sam play in the backyard. Before Sam was born, Kathryn would either bike or bus to work, but now she drives so that she can take him to daycare. Dan usually bikes to work. They’re a one-car-household, though they do have access to their parents’ vehicle if necessary.

Another factor was walkability. “I love that we can walk to so many places,” Kathryn said. “It was important to incorporate that kind of physical activity.” The Safeway at Bonnie Doon is within walking distance, as is a Korean restaurant that the couple enjoys (they lived in Korea for a time). There are also plenty of playgrounds within walking distance. “There’s a great playground with a spray park less than a five minute walk away,” Kathryn told us. King Edward Park, Duncan Innes Park, and Avonmore Park are all within walking distance, and Idylwylde Park is only a little further away. Additionally they have good access to bike trails and can get into Mill Creek Ravine easily. The day before we visited, they had biked to Heritage Days at Hawrelak Park.

As a new mom, access to programs, services, and other families was important to Kathryn. She was part of the New Moms Network at the Bonnie Doon Public Health Centre, just a ten minute walk from home. The moms group she is a part of now has 30 people – Kathryn & Dan told us there are a lot of families in the area. “There’s a lot of play in the front yards, it’s not all hidden in the back,” Kathryn said. She said that families in the neighbourhood often join each other for walks. In addition to spending time in the neighbourhood, Kathryn also frequents Kinsmen, within biking distance (or a short drive), and the downtown library, which she takes the bus to get to. “I talk to other new moms living on the outskirts, and they talk about the need to drive to get to those programs.” She has a lot of praise for EPL and its drop-in programs, such as Sing, Sign, Laugh & Learn. “I have no idea what I haven’t given up because I just look at all these things I have access to that are free!” She said that similar programs in the south side (in the newer neighbourhoods) are usually for-profit.

Dan was comfortable choosing an older home, even though there’s a lot of upkeep. “I could make a list of things this house needs that is pages long,” Dan mused, though he pointed out that newer homes aren’t problem-free either. “With newer homes you often have to fight the developers or builders.” Their house had been updated in recent years, with new windows, a new roof, a new hot water heater, etc. “All of the essentials were done,” Dan told us. He thinks there is certainly some truth to the notion they don’t build houses the way they used to. “The structural elements of the house are solid,” he said. “But you still have to look for a house that has been kept up and looked after.”

Of course, Kathryn & Dan were thinking about the future when they chose King Edward Park as well. The neighbourhood has two great schools – Donnan and St. James. Additionally, Avonmore School is only a few blocks to the south. “Schools in mature neighbourhoods seem to have more unique programs,” Kathryn told us. The family is also excited about a new LRT stop as part of the Southeast LRT to Mill Woods line. In addition to Bonnie Doon, a stop has been proposed for 73 Avenue and 83 Street.

Living in a mature neighbourhood that doesn’t require as much driving has had a positive impact on the way the family goes about its day-to-day activities. Kathryn calls it “slowing down” and finds she has to choose to do one or two things, instead of many. “When you live in the suburbs and you’re driving places anyway, you end up packing more into your day.” It might take more time to choose the bus, but Sam loves the ride and Kathryn doesn’t feel like she’s dragging him from place to place. “Less lugging, more hugging,” she said. “I find we’re just so much more relaxed.”

Dan & Kathryn are certainly happy with their decision to live in a mature neighbourhood, and they suggested the choice is more common than people think. “We’re not an anomaly,” Kathryn declared. “People think we’re an anomaly, but we’re not.”

About King Edward Park

According to the 2009 municipal census, nearly 4400 people live in King Edward Park. Roughly 32% of the population is under the age of 20 and 64% of the population is under the age of 40. The neighbourhood is split evenly between owners and renters. Single-detached homes are the most common type of structure, followed by low-rise (under 5 stories) apartment buildings and duplex/triplex/fourplex buildings. According to the City of Edmonton, the neighbourhood was annexed in 1912 but most development didn’t occur until the 1950s.

King Edward Park scores 72 on Walk Score, which is “very walkable”. The neighbourhood is included in the Mill Creek South Community Walking Map. It gets a Transit Score of 60 which is “good”, thanks to 41 nearby bus routes. King Edward Park is one of six neighbourhoods in Edmonton to take part in the speed reduction pilot, with speed limits lowered to 40km/h.

The neighbourhood is scheduled for reconstruction as part of the 2012-14 construction program (work will include roadway construction, street lighting upgrades, and sidewalk, curb, and gutter reconstruction). It was part of the drainage renewal program last year.

Central State of Mind

Would you like to be featured in the series, or do you know someone else who might like to be? If so, please get in touch! And if you haven’t already read it, David Thompson’s column on the cost of urban sprawl in Edmonton is definitely worth your time.

Celebrate Your Neighbourhood Spirit: Edmonton Community Challenge

By Mack D. Male · May 26, 2010 at 10:00am

Last July I attended an event called the Community Challenge, co-hosted by Edmonton Next Gen and the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues. Its purpose was to bring next-geners together to discuss how to improve and work with community leagues. That event was the first collaboration between the two organizations, and it was pretty successful!

Now NextGen and EFCL have teamed up again, this time for the Edmonton Community Challenge:

The Edmonton Community Challenge is a volunteer-driven event that aims to promote community spirit through friendly competition. By registering to join teams that represent community leagues throughout the city, individuals can support local charities, get to know others in their community, and win some great prizes! The event challenges will take place throughout the month of June, and teams will be rewarded based on a pre-determined point system for their energy, creativity, and commitment to sustainability.

I think it’s a neat idea. The big prize is a $15,000 fund for the winning community league which will be spent on a capital project in the neighbourhood. There are also smaller individual prizes to be won along the way.

Here’s how it works:

Register, by June 1.
Get a passport from your team captain.
Bring your passport when you participate in the events and get it stamped! The key events are the Pancake Breakfast (on ShareEdmonton), the Neighbourhood Cleanup (on ShareEdmonton), the 24 Hour Bike Repair-a-Thon (on ShareEdmonton), and the “Can It” Challenge (on ShareEdmonton).
Check the rankings. The team with the most points at the end of June wins.

If you need a little nudge to register, how about this: one of the prizes will be an Apple iPad! Remember, you have less than a week to register!

Stay tuned to the ECC website for news & updates, as well as Edmonton Next Gen on Twitter.

Thoughts on Connections 2010

By Mack D. Male · May 11, 2010 at 5:15pm

On three Thursday evenings in April the City of Edmonton hosted an event called Connections 2010, designed to connect residents with City staff to learn about programs, services, and projects. Organized by the Office of Great Neighbourhoods, Connections 2010 brought more than 40 City departments and programs together under one roof.

The first was held on the southside on April 15 at Taylor University College. The second was held on April 22 for westside residents at the Mayfield Inn & Suites. The third and final event was held on April 29 at the Alberta Aviation Museum, and that’s the one I finally made it out to.

Upon arriving I was greeted and given a quick rundown of what to expect: booths spread throughout the venue, and a stage in the back corner that would have different presentations every half hour. I missed the first on Capital City Clean-up, but arrived just in time to hear Councillor Batty speak about EXPO 2017. There were about a dozen people who listened to the brief pitch.

Next I walked around the museum, stopping at a number of the booths to chat with the City staff who were present. There were some really great displays – my favorites were the one explaining where your tax dollars go, and the Safe Communities one that featured a speed gun and display to see how fast you were walking. I also had a great chat with a young lady from the Waste Management branch.

Eventually I made my way to the garbage can that a number of people were painting. It was destined for the African Centre, part of a program to beautify trash receptacles at community centres around the city. I’m really not an artist, but I was convinced to help paint a small part of it:

It was kind of fun actually!

In total I probably spent about an hour and a half at the event. I thought it was a decent event, but there’s lots of room for improvement. Here are my thoughts:

Attendance was pretty disappointing. Maybe 100 About 210 people attended the evening I was there, and I’m told that was the busiest night of the three.
The silver lining to the low attendance was that City staff from various departments had the opportunity to learn about one another.
I found out from Treena Schmidt, one of the event organizers, that the booths were laid out according to the Transforming Edmonton themes – the way we move, the way we grow, etc. I thought that was pretty smart! It’s great to see more City events/programs thinking in the context of the bigger picture.
I’m not sure the venue choices were particularly good. I would rather have seen one closer to downtown, maybe at the MacEwan campus or in Enterprise Square. Another idea would be to host one of the nights at a high traffic location, like a shopping mall or something.

I also asked Treena if her team had consulted with any other similar events, and she said was very honest and said no. I mentioned Everyone for Edmonton, which I immediately thought of as I walked through Connections. I think the thoughts I wrote about how to improve that event are all relevant for Connections as well, in particular the need for a “hook”. Why not showcase local artistic talent at the event? Local performances can be a great draw. You can get information on all of the City’s programs and services online. I think there needs to be something else to attract people.

There’s probably also something to be said for improved promotion. I think the Great Neighbourhoods team organized this year’s series of events pretty quickly, so hopefully they’ll have more lead time next year. I think there’s a solid base they can build upon, and I look forward to an improved Connections series next year!

You can see the rest of my photos from the event here.

Edmonton Neighbourhood Census Data

By Mack D. Male · April 7, 2010 at 11:15am

For a long time I’ve wanted to get the City of Edmonton’s neighbourhood census data in CSV format (or really any usable format other than PDF). Recently, with the help of Laura (and Sandra) at the City’s Election & Census Services department, who I met at the Open City Workshop, I finally got it. And now you can have it too!

Download the Edmonton Neighbourhood Census Data in CSV

I’ve also emailed this to the City’s open data team, so hopefully they can get it in the data catalogue soon.

Visualizing the Data

Why is having the census data in a format like CSV useful? Well for one thing, it enables creatives to do stuff with that data through code or other tools. For instance, I was able to generate a heat map for the City of Edmonton:

The darker sections are more heavily populated, the lighter yellow regions are less populated.

Not all neighbourhoods are reflected, as the City does not release details for neighbourhoods with a population between 1 and 49. Here are some other things we can learn from the data set:

Total population in the data set is 777,811, which means there are 4628 individuals unaccounted for (total for 2009 was 782,439).
The average neighbourhood population is 2424, or 3039 if you exclude neighbourhoods with a reported population of 0.
The median neighbourhood population is 2216.
Oliver and Downtown are the only two neighbourhoods with a population greater than 10,000.
More dwellings are owned (192,171) than rented (121,953).

ShareEdmonton

Another reason having this data in CSV is useful is because app developers can more easily integrate it into the things they are building. For example, all the census data is now available at ShareEdmonton! So when you view a neighbourhood, you’ll see the census data on the right side (see Alberta Avenue for example). You can also browse neighbourhoods by population. I’ve also fixed the neighbourhood search, so it works better now.

This is just the first of a few neighbourhood-related updates this month, so stay tuned for more!

Apps4Edmonton

Yesterday the City released more information on the Apps4Edmonton competition. The first phase, from now until May, is “accepting community ideas”. Basically they want you to tell them what data you want. Aside from the obvious “we don’t know what we don’t know” problem, I think the community has done a pretty good job of defining desired data sets already.

They City had a great start in January with the launch of the data catalogue, but we need more data. Especially data like the census data, which myself and many others have been asking for since the day the PDFs were released. There are clearly some internal issues that need to be worked out if I was able to acquire this before the open data team was. I hope they get everything resolved for the competition, because it’ll be a pretty boring one if we still only have twelve data sets (New York and other cities had dozens, maybe even hundreds, before their competitions).

That said, I know there are passionate, smart people working on it. Email opendata@edmonton.ca if you have data set requests or want to get involved in Apps4Edmonton.

Recap: Community Evening with Jim Diers

By Mack D. Male · November 19, 2009 at 11:15am

Last night Sharon and I attended the West Community Evening with Jim Diers, the second of three events taking place in Edmonton this week (the last one is tonight in the south service area). Jim is a community organizer best known as the former director of the City of Seattle’s Department of Neighbourhoods, a position he held for 14 years. Some of Seattle’s most successful and well-known community initiatives, such as Little City Halls and the Neighbourhood Matching Fund, started and prospered under his watch.

Now Jim spends his time teaching at the University of Washington, and travelling all around the world speaking about what he calls “neighbour power”. In fact, he wrote a book on it! That’s what brought him to Edmonton this week, at the request of the City of Edmonton’s Great Neighbourhoods initiative. Last night was the second time I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Jim speak – he was in Edmonton back in 2006 for the Walkable Edmonton initiative.

Jim is probably best described as a motivational speaker. That’s what he did last night, sharing stories about the amazing things happening in communities all around the world. Here are some of the key takeaways for me:

You can have a neighbourhood without community! A neighbourhood is a place with which we identify, whereas a community is the extent to which we identify with and support one another.
There are four key ingredients for community: common identity, manageable scale, gathering places, and a vehicle for collection action.
Jim says that community is the key to so much of what we care about, and highlighted four main types of community power:

Power to care for the Earth
Power to prevent crime
Power to care for one another
Power to demand justice

So what does it take to build community?

Have fun!
Start where people are (their block, their language & culture, their networks, their passion, their call)
But don’t leave them there – strive for results!
Focus on assets rather than needs

Discover the buried treasure in your community!

His presentation was incredibly high energy, and he had the audience frequently do a cheer – one half yelled “neighbour!” and the other yelled “power!” Jim himself would let out a Howard Dean-esque “Yeah!” after each cheer.

My favorite stories were actually two that I heard back in 2006 – one about the Fremont Troll, and the other about the terraced community garden known as Billy Goat’s Bluff. All of the stories were really interesting, and I’m sure they motivated the more than 200 people in attendance to want to do similar things in their communities.

As I mentioned, Jim was here for the Great Neighbourhoods initiative. Everyone received a Neighbourhood Engagement Application last night. A total of 15 will be selected to attend an action planning workshop with Jim in February 2010. After the workshop, the City of Edmonton may provide matching funds of up to $2500 for projects. All projects need to be put into action by September, when Jim will return to check in.

I really enjoyed Jim’s talk, and I’m excited to see the projects that will happen in Edmonton as a result (but don’t forget there are already many amazing things happening).

For more on Great Neighbourhoods, check out the official website and also this article on Connect2Edmonton.

For more on last night’s event, check out posts from Tamara Stecyk and George Watts.