Happy Valentine’s Day! Here are some Edmonton-related things I found interesting this week:
- The City of Edmonton Youth Council presented a cheque for $110,000 to Boyle Street Community Services. The money will be used to provide transitional housing for homeless people.
- Mayor Mandel is in China until Wednesday as part of an effort to gain support for Edmonton’s bid for the 2015 Universiade Games.
- I had an interesting chat about technology with ETS this week. Watch for an announcement on Wednesday related to Google Transit.
- Jim Gurnett, executive director of the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, is leaving the job in May after almost 8 years of service. Under his watch, the organization’s budget increased from $2 million to $4 million.
- One of the more controversial stories of the week: Councillor Tony Caterina would rather see the LRT expand to Mill Woods than to NAIT. There’s a very large “rant” thread about Caterina at C2E.
- The Sun reported yesterday that The City will be expanding its wireless service to four new locations this year: Central Lions Senior Recreation Centre, Dr. Wilbur McIntyre Gazebo, ACT Aquatic and Recreation Centre in Rundle Park, and City Arts Centre.
- Edmonton Twestival was a major success – we raised at least $1000 for charity:water. Thanks everyone for your support!
- Epcor is building the drinking water and wastewater facilities in Whistler for the 2010 Olympics. Kinda cool.
- Looking for something to do on Family Day? There are a bunch of Winter Light activities taking place on Monday from noon until 4pm at City Hall.
- Here are a couple new Twitter accounts you might want to follow: @CityOfEdmonton, @ctvedmonton, @EPLdotCA, @SteveTambellini (not real of course, but hilarious)
UPDATE: Forgot to mention the Agile Edmonton social, taking place on Tuesday evening at Hudson’s downtown. More information here.
Twestival was awesome! For anyone who has no idea, look at the tweets in Twitter search: http://zi.ma/d7ef78
-Jerry
Great summary of all of the tech/political events happening in Edmonton. I’ll have to watch for this more often!