Edmonton Notes for 4/1/2012

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

• Hope you didn’t get fooled too badly today! I was happy to see some local jokes. The Oilers & the Eskimos plan to go head-to-head for the Edmonton Cup. The Alberta Party wants to build a high-speed gondola from Edmonton to Calgary. And Danielle Smith would pursue a merger of Alberta and Saskatchewan to form Saskberta. Love it!
• Can you believe the snow returned? I think the City jinxed it by talking about this year’s mosquito control program.
• Here’s more proof that Edmontonians want LRT expansion to happen faster. Those surveyed said that provincial funding should be fast-tracked for the LRT expansion to Mill Woods, and that it should not be used to support the downtown arena.
• Here’s one of the most popular things I posted this week: Cineplex Odeon Windermere is set to open on April 20, the first theatre in Alberta with VIP Cinemas.
• So much for the negative “EPCOR effect” – Enbridge is gobbling up office space downtown to support the company’s extensive growth over the few years. They have leased 218,000 square feet in just the past five months. Also, APEGA has signed on to become the first new tenant of First & Jasper.
• Every time we walk by Remedy Café on Jasper Avenue, it’s full of people. I love it. Here’s the story of Sohail Zaidi, the man behind the popular spot.
• Congratulations to all of the Edmonton and area recipients of the Diamond Jubilee Medal recognizing citizens “who have made real and lasting contributions to the quality of life we enjoy as Albertans.”
• More of the same story we’ve been hearing for months now – prairie cities, including Edmonton, will lead growth in Canada. The Conference Board of Canada predicts GDP growth of 3.2% for Edmonton this year.
• The City of Edmonton’s Drainage Services is considering changes to the Sanitary Utility Rate structure. You have until April 9 to fill out their survey to provide your feedback.
• File this one under “I’ll believe it when I see it” – apparently the Kelly-Ramsey Block on Rice Howard Way is going to become a 28 story highrise hotel and office building.
• FC Edmonton is ready for the upcoming season, and will call Clarke Stadium home.
• Not that it has any bearing on the standings, but Taylor Hall’s season has come to end to facilitate shoulder surgery.
• Later this month, ETS will launch regular bus service to the Edmonton International Airport. It’ll be known, appropriately enough, as route 747.
• Can’t say it better than this: “Local firms cleaned up at the recent Canadian Construction Association Conference, winning five of the 11 categories.”
• Beginning Saturday, April 7 about 20 bus routes that normally use Jasper Avenue between 100 Street and 102 Street will detour to allow rehabilitation of the Central LRT Station to move ahead.

The old BMO ‘63 building demolition continues!

Here are some upcoming events:

• The 25th Anniversary of the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts takes place Monday night at the Winspear Centre!
• On Tuesday evening the City is hosting another community conversation on the southeast to west LRT. This one is on the Whitemud Drive to Argyll leg of the line.
• Western Canada Fashion Week continues at the Arts Barns through Thursday.
• Head down to the ARTery on Thursday for the Edmonton NextGen Art House Party.
• Also Thursday is the next Green Drinks Edmonton, taking place at the new Common on 109 Street.
• There are a couple tech events this week to note. The next EMUG event on Architecting Consumerization of IT takes place on Tuesday, and Agile Edmonton’s lunchtime event on TDD/BDD with RSpec and Cucumber takes place on Wednesday.
• Can’t wait for the next artsScene Edmonton event on Saturday – Trip the Light is taking place in the Citytv Edmonton studios!
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.ca.

Happy April Fools from Google – it’s Edmonton in Google Maps 8-bit for NES!

For election related events, keep an eye on the following pages:

• Events with Brian Mason
• Alberta Party Upcoming Events
• Wildrose Events
• PC Alberta Events
• For the Liberals, I suppose follow their Twitter. Their website is not working. In the middle of an election. Nor is it linked from their Twitter profile page, oddly.

You can learn more about the Central Station LRT Rehabilitation and Jasper Avenue Streetscaping here.