Edmonton Notes for 5/6/2012

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

• Danielle Smith is “open to pressing the reset button” on her relationship with Mayor Mandel. After hearing that Smith intended to have Calgary Mayor Nenshi act as a peace broker, Mandel indicated he didn’t think that was necessary and said she should just pick up the phone and call him.
• Is Mill Woods misunderstood?
• Edmonton’s 311 call centre has been recognized as the #1 medium sized call centre in North America. 311 handles over 160,000 calls per month.
• Results for the 3rd year of A Place to Call Home: Edmonton’s 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness are in. Nearly 1800 Edmontonians are now housed in 1,237 units, 150% of the Plan’s target for the first 3 years.
• Edmonton has been named one of six official host cities for the 2015 Women’s World Cup. All games will take place at Commonwealth Stadium, and the schedule should be announced early next year.
• The Edmonton Police Foundation is now accepting nominations for the Harry Hole Community Policing Award. The deadline for submissions is 4pm on June 4, 2012.
• Good news magazine fans – Hub Cigar should reopen later this month!
• EPCOR President and CEO Don Lowry announced this week that he intends to retire effective December 2013.
• Northlands President and CEO Richard L. Andersen has signed a contract renewal and extension that will keep him with the organization through December 2017.
• The Eskimos unveiled new jerseys this week. The most notable change is the new green road helmets and pants.
• London-based Just-Eat, the world’s largest online meal take-out and delivery ordering service, is coming to Edmonton this year.
• Avenue Magazine takes a look at some of Edmonton’s power couples.
• Congratulations to NAIT Landscape Architecture student Em Poole on having her design for the green space adjacent to the TELUS House selected as the winning design. TELUS is investing more than $20 million in the buildings over the next two years.
• St. Albert city council voted this week to start proceedings on its third annexation of land from Sturgeon County in the last eleven years.
• Edmonton will soon be home to a Blo franchise, a business dedicated exclusively to “the art” of blow-drying hair.
• Why are Edmontonians bothered by people leaving the city? “We are Edmonton the impermanent, Edmonton the unsettled. We arrive in droves, we leave in droves. The pace of change is more rapid than in many other places, and that can be unsettling, even unwelcome.”
• Here’s a neat look at the LRT tunnel crews are working on as part of the North LRT to NAIT extension.
• Here is the City’s latest Council Roundup.

One of the giant mining machines that was on display in Churchill Square this week.

Here are some upcoming events:

• The Handmade Mafia and Startup Edmonton are hosting an event for “crafty entrepreneurs” at the Mercer Warehouse on Tuesday evening.
• The Way We Green Speaker Series continues Wednesday at lunch with Mark Stumpf-Allen talking about composting.
• Thursday is the Chamber’s Spring After Business Mixer at Waterloo Ford.
• Also Thursday is our second Truck Stop of the month! Come check out the food trucks at McIntyre Park in Old Strathcona from 5pm to 9pm.
• If you’re downtown that evening, check out Startup Edmonton’s Grand Opening Party in the Mercer Warehouse.
• The Oil Kings host Portland on Thursday night in game five of the series.
• Guru Digital Arts College is celebrating ten years on Friday at the AGA with Gala Guru TEN.
• The Muttart is holding its annual bedding plant sale from May 10 to 12.
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

A great shot of the supermoon by Ian McKenzie.