Edmonton Notes for 7/25/2010

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

• Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz spoke to City Council on Wednesday in what was surely one of the most anticipated meetings of the year. While he committed another $100 million to his proposed downtown arena project, the Katz Group also made it clear that the Oilers will not play in a renovated Rexall Place. Shortly after the meeting wrapped up, the Why Downtown? website launched opposing the project. Also, don’t miss Don Iveson’s post on the meeting.
• Scott Dixon won the Honda Indy Edmonton today!
• As soon as the Indy has cleared out, Edmonton Airports plans to close one of the two runways at the City Centre Airport. Also ECCA-related this week, National Post reporter Kevin Libin suggested that there was a backroom plot to close the airport, before the issue ever got to Council. Take that with a grain of salt – Libin references just three emails out of who knows how many were sent in the months leading up to the final decision. It’s easy to jump to conclusions without any context.
• Edmonton International Airport is now ranked as the most efficient small airport in Canada, fifth in North America.
• The City launched its Have a Heart-Give Smart campaign this week, aimed at encouraging Edmontonians to donate spare change to service agencies rather than to panhandlers.
• Edmonton is joining the fight against the elimination of the long-form federal census. This report, which recommended that Mayor Mandel send a letter expressing the City’s concerns, was discussed and approved by Council this week.
• The temporary parking lot at Century Park LRT station is saving the City millions of dollars per year, which can now be spent on infrastructure projects. Shouldn’t it be placed into a “future LRT projects” fund instead?
• The Association of Edmonton Convention Hotels issued a letter supporting the Edmonton Indy this week, calling it an “investment in the future of the city”. You can read the letter in PDF here.
• What was once an old gravel pit in Hermitage Park has been transformed into the City’s first wetland built exclusively for stormwater treatment and river protection.
• For more headlines from the past week, check out theedmontonian.com.
• Both Taste of Edmonton and Capital EX are in full-swing now, of course. Get out and enjoy!
• The 5th annual Edmonton Chess Festival starts on Wednesday.
• Don’t forget about Latitude 53’s Summer Rooftop Patio Series! It happens every Thursday at 5pm.
• The BC Lions are in town to play the Eskimos on Friday night. It has been a very painful start to the season, but this have to get better right?
• The 35th annual Heritage Festival starts Saturday in Hawrelak Park!

FC Edmonton played Portsmouth FC on Wednesday in the second annual Edmonton Cup game. I was at the game, along with 8792 other Edmontonians. Unfortunately, FC Edmonton lost in penalty kicks.

The annual Capital EX Parade took place on Thursday morning. The list of winning entries is available here. My favorite was the WestJet float: