Today was the big day – the 98th Grey Cup took place at Commonwealth Stadium, and the Montreal Alouettes defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders for the second year in a row. You can see my recap of the kickoff party here, and my recap of the parade here. My photos of the festival are here.
I’m still posting Edmonton-related stuff throughout the week at Edmonton Etcetera.
Here are my weekly notes:
- The other big news this week was of course the federal government’s refusal to support Edmonton’s bid to host EXPO 2017. It was top of mind all week for many Edmontonians, especially as it became increasingly clear that the security budget wasn’t a strong reason to deny support.
- It’s not a done deal yet, but the Indy looks set to return next year after City Council agreed on Friday to a $3 million deal. There is some fundraising still to be done, and the feds have already said they’re out.
- Councillor Tony Caterina was released from hospital on Wednesday after suffering a minor stroke. He’ll be participating in meetings via telephone.
- With the proposed downtown arena consultation now finished, the City reported that more than 300 people participated in open houses and that the online questionnaire was completed 28,979 times.
- On Friday, City Council endorsed a board to oversee construction of future LRT projects.
- Congratulations to the more than 100 Edmontonians recognized at the Salute to Excellence Citation & Performance Awards.
- I haven’t written anything about the Stephen Duckett cookie debacle, but I quite liked Paula’s take on the issue.
- Here’s a nice profile of the Boyle McCauley Health Centre.
- The groundbreaking ceremony for phase 1 of the Boyle Renaissance project took place this week. The $42 million project includes affordable housing, a Family Resource Centre, a daycare, and other facilities.
- GlaxoSmithKline donated $5 million to the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology at the University of Alberta.
- EFCL is looking for help with some new functionality for its website.
- Lightside Photography is continuing with its 30 Days of Edmonton series – here’s a profile of Duchess Bake Shop.
- For more headlines from the past week, check out theedmontonian.com.
- November has almost come to a close, and that means Movember is finishing up. The MoCupcakesYEG Challenge is taking place Monday night at Transcend Garneau.
- There are two information sessions on the West LRT taking place this week, one on Monday evening at the Fantasyland Hotel, and one on Tuesday at MacEwan’s City Centre campus.
- Also Tuesday evening is an information session on the 170 Street Planning Study.
- The Festival of Trees kicks off on Thursday the Shaw Conference Centre.
- There’s a public forum for The Way We Green on Thursday.
- The lights at the Alberta Legislature will be on for the season following the official light up on Thursday evening.
- The Oil Kings are in action at home twice this week – Wednesday against the Prince Albert Raiders, and Friday against the Brandon Wheat Kings.
- Friday night is the Let it Snow: Art Sale & Silent Auction to fundraise for the University of Alberta’s BDes and BFA final grad shows.
- The Oilers are home to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.
- Neat event taking place Saturday evening – Barista Jam at Transcend Coffee.
- Two great markets return on Saturday: The Handmade Mafia, and the Winter Market Downtown.
- Next Sunday is the Alley of Light open house at Enterprise Square. My post about the project is here.
- For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.
Sharon and I joined a bunch of other Twitter volunteers at the Santas Anonymous warehouse on Friday evening.
City Hall, all lit up for the Grey Cup festival kickoff.
Look at that, an event in the space behind the library! Why can’t we have more of those?
Though we definitely had some help from the milder weather, it was great to see so many people downtown this week.
MasterMaq's Blog 
After the gong show that was ETS / LRT tonight after the Grey Cup, no wonder Ottawa decided not to fund Expo 2017 in Edmonton; Edmonton is no where near ready for the big time.
No one should have to wait more than an hour to catch an LRT to downtown.
On a positive note, it was great seeing so many people downtown on the weekend! We need action like that downtown every weekend.
One big reason why the space behind the library doesn’t host more events is because there are weight limitations. The patio is the roof of the parkade and can’t support enormous weights – like trucks and cars, for example. Tents and people, on the other hand, are just fine.
Cod father: Apples and oranges. Moving 60,000 people at the same time is a challenge for any system. Moving a larger number of people over a 90-day period is a completely different kettle of fish.
Chris: It can’t support the weight of a car but it can support the weight of hundreds of people and all that goes along with that? Plus, there were cars inside that tent, on the far right.
From the experience in Vancouver Olympics, 60,000 people at the time is pretty normal in major event like that. It’s like having three hockey games every day. It’s starts to get busy at 7 and it doesn’t let down until 10pm+.
-Josh (www.BestCanadianDeals.com)