Envision Edmonton’s petition insufficient, City Centre Airport phased closure will continue

Yesterday the declaration of the City Clerk was released, stating that the petition put forward by Envision Edmonton was not sufficient, for two reasons:

There were no more than 73,657 valid signatures.
The petition was not brought within 60 days of Council’s decision to close the airport.

According to the Municipal Government Act (MGA) that means that City Council was not required to take any notice of the petition. They debated the issue in their final meeting before the election, and voted 10-3 against including a question on the ballot. The vote breakdown was exactly the same as it was in July 2009, when Council voted in favor of a phased closure of the City Centre Airport. Here are some of the quotes from the meeting:

“The decision to not put a question on the ballot is the right one for Edmonton.” – Mayor Mandel
“For some unknown reason it took 11 months to get a petition.” – Mayor Mandel
“This needs to end.” – Mayor Mandel
“This motion is the same year late as the petition. This needed to happen last year.” – Councillor Iveson
“I am not prepared to support something that could lead to 42 years of inefficient operation.” – Councillor Anderson
“Somebody has to have the guts to say enough is enough.” – Councillor Henderson
“I am prepared to stand up and say I did eight months of research on this issue.” – Councillor Krushell
“Is this the only big decision we’ve made in the last three years?” – Councillor Sohi

In both the meeting and a media briefing, we learned more about the petition verification process.

Roughly 80 staff worked for more than 3700 hours to verify the petition. About 60 of those staff were hired specifically for the verification process.
One of the first things the City had to do was photocopy every page of the petition. The copies and the originals are now stored in a vault, where they will remain for at least 5 years.
It turns out Envision Edmonton did not contact the City Clerk about its petition. If it had done so, it might have learned about the 60 day requirement.
Had the petition been valid and sufficient, the outcome of the question would have been binding for ten years. If Council had decided to put a question on the ballot anyway, its outcome would not have been binding.
The total cost for the verification is estimated at between $125,000 and $150,000.
Banister Research was hired to help complete the verification, which they did via telephone.
The petition signatories (addresses) were compared against both the Edmonton Elections database (current as of 2009) and SLIM (Spatial Land Inventory Management).
Since the July 2009 decision, the City has incurred costs of $12 million, while ERAA has incurred costs of more than $23 million.

Links

Lots of people have written about this already. Here are some relevant links:

Official News Release – City of Edmonton
The Day After The City Centre Airport Petition Died – Dave Cournoyer
ECCA Phased Closure Stands – Don Iveson
Councillors avoid taking easy way out – Paula Simons
A Message to the Members of Edmonton City Council – Charles Allard
Democracy (IMHO) – Chris LaBossiere
Council votes against holding airport plebiscite – Gordon Kent
Editorial Cartoon – Malcolm Mayes
City Centre Airport finally shot down – Alix Kemp
Council kills airport vote – Michelle Thompson
Good news, good news, and more good news – Brittany Kustra
Mayor Speaks on Council’s City Centre Airport Decision – Stephen Mandel
Envision Edmonton Petition Rejected – Avnish Nanda

Resources

PDF Municipal Government Act (2.4 MB)

PDF Declaration of the City Clerk (689 KB)

PDF Report on the Petition (55 KB)

Final Thoughts

I don’t for a second think the battle over the City Centre Airport is finished. I’m sure we’ll see additional challenges and fights in the weeks and months ahead. Edmonton Airports seems to think so as well, launching Share The Facts today. I am confident that City Council made the right decision yesterday however, and I think they’ll be rewarded for it on October 18.

Closing the City Centre Airport is the right decision for Edmonton’s future. Yesterday was simply another step along the way to making that future a reality.

Recap: Vacation in San Francisco

Sharon and I got back to Edmonton last night after spending ten days in San Francisco. I had never been there before but had always heard great things. As a bit of a “food town” we thought it would be a great place for us to go to get away from things for a while. Here are some of the highlights.

Based on a couple of recommendations, we looked at the Kimpton Hotel chain. We chose Hotel Triton, located right near the Chinatown gate. It was fantastic!

Pretty much the first thing we did after arriving was visit the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market. It reminded us of our own City Market.

Chinatown was an early highlight for me. I’d never seen a Chinatown like the one in San Francisco!

Without a doubt the most touristy place we visited was Fisherman’s Wharf. Lots to see and do in the area. I enjoyed eating fresh crab there!

Another popular tourist spot is the crookedest street in America. No not Wall Street, Lombard Street.

Of course, no trip to San Francisco would be complete without a trip to the infamous rock! We actually watched The Rock before leaving for our trip.

This photo was taken from Coit Tower (you can see the reflection). If you can believe it, we ran into a couple we knew from Edmonton at the top of the tower! Small world.

We loved all of the fresh produce that was available (and Sharon was particularly sad that we didn’t have a kitchen available). Visiting the Ferry Building Farmers’ Market was pretty cool.

The tasting fees quickly added up, but our decision to take a tour of wine country turned out to be a good one.

One of the dinners we had made reservations for in advance was at Fleur de Lys. The highlight was getting to meet Chef Hubert Keller, one of our favorites from Top Chef Masters.

We decided to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. It started off foggy but quickly cleared. Other than being very windy, it was a great walk!

All the festivals we visited seemed to be extremely well attended, and the Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival was no exception. The lines were insane!

One of my favorite events was Opera in the Park. This year was San Francisco Opera’s 37th annual event.

This is me sitting in a POPOS – a privately owned public open space. I’m holding a Super Burrito from the San Buena Taco Truck, one of my favorite things we ate.

We did ride the cable car once. This photo also shows the hills San Francisco is known for, and a fire escape too (they were a very common sight).

Potentially my favorite dish – a pizza from Chez Panisse. I’m a sucker for eggs.

On our last morning, we visited Muir Woods. It was so quiet!

Sharon and I at the Domaine Chandon winery.

That’s really just a taste of our trip. You can see the rest of our photos (846 in all) here.

I really enjoyed San Francisco and would definitely visit again!

Notes for 9/6/2010

Here are my weekly notes, from San Francisco!

Sharon and I are on vacation, until the middle of next week, here in San Francisco. So far the weather and everything else has been great, so let’s hope it stays that way! Not sure I’ll be writing about our trip every day, but I will upload pictures and stuff when I can.
Never thought of it that way. The Student Loan Scheme: gateway drug to debt slavery.
Apparently third party apps aren’t as important as everyone thought in the Twitter ecosystem.
Windows Phone 7 – Released to Manufacturing.
Another great piece by Arthur S. Brisbane, on the Age of Voices.

I know I’m a big geek but this cracks me up.

Chinatown in San Francisco.

Me in front of the cable car on Powell Street.

Edmonton Notes for 9/4/2010

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Take a few minutes and complete the City Market Downtown’s survey on a potential winter market!
The Toronto Star is reporting that Postmedia has cut a number of jobs across its daily newspapers, including up to 20 positions at the Edmonton Journal. In other local media news, longtime 630 CHED personality Gord Whitehead is retiring and did his last show this week.
Upcoming exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Alberta feature Burtynsky, Matisse, Gaugin, Münch, and Picasso, as well as new works by Albertan artist Laura St. Pierre. You can learn more about the fall lineup here.
Here’s a good catch-up post on the upcoming election.
ETS is gearing up for a busy fall season on the LRT – there could be over 100,000 riders per day. It also announced the completion of the Meadows Transit Centre on 17 Street at 40 Avenue. And a reminder: the LRT is not operating between Churchill and Clareview stations until Tuesday while ETS completes upgrades and maintenance.
The Edmonton Waste-to-Biofuels project is the world’s first industrial scale municipal waste-to-biofuels facility. Along with partner Enerkem, the City of Edmonton broke ground on the $80 million facility this week.
I really like the idea of more licensed buskers for Jasper Avenue, but the recommendation to extend the hours for bars to 4 a.m. seems misguided.
Ulf Ranhagen of Sweco, one of the finalists in the competition to redevelop the City Centre Airport lands, is excited about the project which he says will have a green focus.
The City is introducing a solar-electric pilot program with a total budget of $200,000 to issue rebates to home and business owners that install solar panels.
If you know someone between the ages of 7 and 18 which a love for film, encourage them to check out the Be Idle Free Video Contest! Here’s a great preview.
Interesting post in the ongoing debate over whether or not Oilers bloggers should be credentialed just like the mainstream media.
The University of Alberta has named Sangita Sharma to the new Chair of Aboriginal Health position. Also on the topic of the U of A, here’s a great profile of President Indira Samarasekera.
Doors open to 18 new schools in Calgary and Edmonton – news release and backgrounder is here.
Techvibes has launched localized news streams. You can see Edmonton’s here.
The Edmonton Police Service has successfully maintained its CALEA certification, something it has done ever since 1988. The program measures EPS against more than 450 international standards
A million dollar skateboard park is in the works for the Fulton Ravine near Capilano Mall.
For more headlines from the past week, check out theedmontonian.com.
Symphony Under the Sky started last night and runs through Monday.
Tonight in Churchill Square – Toy Story 3!
The 22nd annual T.A.L.E.S Storytelling Festival starts tomorrow at Fort Edmonton Park.
I think we should make next Sunday “walk day” here in Edmonton! There are at least four taking place that day.
ETS is hosting an open house on the West LRT extension on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.
Country Music Week Edmonton kicks off on Thursday with the big awards show taking place on Sunday.
The Calgary Stampeders are in Edmonton next Friday for the second half of the Labour Day Classic.
On Saturday, The Handmade Mafia returns to Orange Hall!
The Kaleido Family Arts Festival starts on Friday evening and runs all weekend on Alberta Avenue. Don’t miss it!

Edmonton’s bid for Expo 2017 was on display in Shanghai this week. Here’s the new video:

The City Market featured a petting zoo today!

I’ve started noticing more and more signs and billboards around town for the election, like this one for Mayor Mandel who is hoping to win a third term.

State of the Calgary Twittersphere – July 2010

Welcome to the seventh State of the Calgary Twittersphere of 2010, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Calgary, AB. You can see last month’s stats here.

For information on the data, definitions, and other background, click here.

For July 2010:

# of local users: 10501 (a decrease of 125 from June)
# of tweets by local users: 501941
# of tweets by local users containing #yyc: 22956 (4.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 153421 (30.6%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 148567 (29.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 21291 (4.2%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 16440 (3.3%)

Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates:

Some other interesting stats for the month:

Just over 50% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
Local users posted roughly 11.3 tweets per minute in July (compared to 11.7 tweets per minute in June).
The day with the most local tweets posted was July 30 at 19863. On average, 16821 local tweets were posted each day (compared to 16821 in June).
Of the 153421 replies posted by local users this month, 47364 or 30.9% were to other local users.
A total of 1960 users posted 50 times or more in July. In comparison, 1587 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most followed local users:

Here are the top ten most listed local users:

Here are the top ten most active local users (not including bots):

Here are the top ten most active local users using #yyc (not including bots):

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

Here are the top ten most retweeted local users (by other local users):

Final Thoughts

A small decrease in users in July, maybe because everyone was outside doing things! No surprise that the Calgary Stampede was among the most retweeted for the month. Chinook Centre celebrated its 50th birthday on August 1, and made a big push for followers during the month of July which likely explains why it was retweeted so much. With the Calgary election heating up, it’s interesting to see that mayoral candidate Naheed Nenshi was the 6th most retweeted user. I wonder if we’ll see more election-related stats as October 18 draws near.

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