Edmonton Notes for 8/21/2011

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

• Design concepts for the new Royal Alberta Museum were made available this week, with four teams making the shortlist. You can see some more images on Flickr. Initial reaction was muted at best, but you still have time to email your comments.
• I hope you got outside to enjoy the weather today – we broke 30 degrees! The rest of the week looks pretty good too, with highs in the 20s.
• Today was the last day of Fringeopolis, the 30th anniversary edition of the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival. And what a year it was! The previous ticket record of 92,500 was shattered this year – estimates put it at more than 102,000.
• Despite the large amount of rain we’ve had this summer, the City says that all major road projects remain on schedule to be finished this fall.
• Canada Post is spending $86 million to revamp its Edmonton-region mail operations and facilities, changes which go into effect next spring.
• The governments of Alberta and Canada agreed to a new 20-year contract that will see the RCMP continue as Alberta’s provincial police force to March 31, 2032.
• In one of his final interviews, Premier Ed Stelmach suggested that provincial money could be made available for the proposed downtown arena as part of celebrations for Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017.
• Congratulations to Empire Avenue! The local startup announced this week that it has raised $1.2 million in series A seed financing.
• A peer review committee on snow removal has made a number of recommendations on how to improve the City’s reaction during the winter, including an interactive map to provide real-time information about snow maintenance activities. Let’s hope they also release the data in the catalogue for that.
• Night Ride, a late night bus service the City was planning to pilot on Whyte Avenue, is being delayed to allow for more consultation.
• Our homicide rate might be unusually high this year, but the number of traffic fatalities recorded is unusually low.
• Surprise, surprise! The Hockey News has once again predicted that the Oilers will finish last.
• Here’s a nice feature on the new Fort Edmonton footbridge from David Staples. I love that he took the photo as well.
• And here’s a nice feature on Alberta Avenue and the revitalization process.
• For more headlines from the past week, check out theedmontonian.com.
• Northlands President and CEO Richard Andersen launched a new blog this week.
• City Council is back at work this week, with a Community Services Committee meeting tomorrow, Transportation & Infrastructure Committee meeting on Tuesday, and Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday.
• interVivos and the Canadian International Council are hosting an event called The Oil Sands of Our Lives on Wednesday.
• Don’t miss the free I ❤ yegdt BBQ taking place in Churchill Square on Thursday at lunch!
• DEDfest is back! The film festival gets underway Thursday evening at the Garneau Theatre.
• The Capitals are hosting the Calgary Vipers from Thursday through Sunday.
• The Edmonton Public Library is taking over Churchill Square on Friday for the first ever EPL Squared outdoor book sale and library festival.
• Edmonton Next Gen has a new event called MEAET coming up on Saturday. It was inspired by Detroit’s SOUP series of events.
• Our summer music festivals continue next weekend with Open Sky, taking place Saturday and Sunday at Hawrelak Park.
• Starting Tuesday you can catch Madame Butterfly Opera at Giovanni Caboto Park every evening this week. It’s part of the East Meets West festival, which wraps up on Sunday with Viva Italia Viva Edmonton.
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton. Be sure to give the calendar view a look too!

The Edmonton Police Service launched a new video series this week called the Community Crime Update. Here’s the description:

In support of the Violence Reduction Strategy, the Edmonton Police Service is launching a series of weekly Community Crime Update videos, to provide an inside look at some of the ways police are dealing with crime issues as well as the ways that the community can become more involved. Please feel free to email us your comments at crimeupdate@edmontonpolice.ca.

And here’s the inaugural video:

Photo by Braeden Petruk