Edmonton Notes for 10/31/2009

Happy Halloween! Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

• Don’t forget to turn your clocks back this weekend!
• City Council announced its choice for Edmonton’s new City Manager: Simon Farbrother, currently at the City of Waterloo, takes over for outgoing boss Al Maurer on January 18, 2010.
• I’ve already written about this, but I want to mention it again here for posterity. Avenue Edmonton magazine unveiled their Top 40 Under 40 this week, a list of Edmontonians who are making a difference in our city. The issue should be available around town now!
• Also from Avenue – the first-ever Design Inside the Box Competition was announced.
• The Edmonton Sun’s annual Christmas Charity Auction was a success! Someone bid $140.00 to have dinner with me – thanks whoever you are, looking forward to it!
• The City of Edmonton has won a national award for its efforts to educate residents about responsible pet ownership.
• The City also received a “highly commended” honour at the Light Rail Awards in London, England for its LRT Network Plan.
• The latest version of Edmonton-based iPhone transit app MyStops supports 20 cities in North America. If you’ve written a transit app that utilizes ETS data, submit to the TransitCamp competition!
• H1N1 has obviously been top-of-mind for most Edmontonians this week – The Journal has great coverage here.
• The Hope Mission celebrated the grand opening of Immigration Hall this week. The historical building will offer 44 apartment suites.
• Watch for a “blockbuster lineup” when the new Art Gallery of Alberta opens on January 31, 2010. The works of Degas, Goya, Yousuf Karsh, Janet Cardiff, and Georges Bures Miller will all be featured.
• The Garneau Theatre was officially added to Edmonton’s list of designated municipal historic resources this week.
• News that the City is planning to close a number of downtown parking lots was met with concern this week. I’m in favor of the idea.
• I also like the idea of revitalizing 105 Avenue between 97 and 119 Streets.
• Edmonton Next Gen is looking for new committee members! You can fill out the application here.
• The next DemoCamp Edmonton has been announced! The ninth edition of the popular event (at ShareEdmonton) will take place on November 19.
• Coming up next week is the ICE Conference, and with it, Start Me Up (at ShareEdmonton), an event for local startups.
• November is Shop Local First month in Edmonton! The kickoff takes place Monday afternoon.
• You can see more upcoming events at ShareEdmonton.