Hope you made the most of your extra hour today! Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:
- On Saturday, the Eskimos announced the firing of general manager Eric Tillman. The news followed a loss on Friday night to the Stampeders.
- It was another busy week for City Council. They approved $7 million in funding for the ETS Smart Fare System, which means we may finally be able to get rid of paper tickets and transfers.
- Council also approved the WinterCity Strategy. As Councillor Diotte noted, the request under the 2013 Budget will be $362,000, an amount he described as “scary”. He goes on to lament the lack of attention paid in the strategy to automobiles: “What about improving winter transportation for motorists? How come they’re left out of this strategy?” Are you kidding me?! All we ever talk about during the winter months is snow removal for cars. I think the WinterCity Strategy is a great step forward for our city.
- While we had a bunch of snow recently, and crews were out plowing and sanding the streets, the current warm weather has turned almost everything to water anyway. Looks like it’ll be nice all week too. Well, at least until Friday.
- I think most everyone was pleased about this news: the City Centre Redevelopment will officially be known as Blatchford.
- Here’s a look at downtown Edmonton’s transformation.
- If only the news release about the new Ellerslie Fire Station contained a photo of this: “MLA Naresh Bhardwaj and Edmonton City Councillor Amarjeet Sohi drove a fire truck through a ribbon to officially open Ellerslie Station, the City of Edmonton’s 27th fire station.”
- The votes are in, and red won! A report on the Jellybean Internet Voting Election will go to Council in the new year. You can see the detailed results here.
- According to the 2012 Litter Audit, our city saw a 9.4% reduction in litter on city streets from last year, and a 42% reduction from three years ago.
- The City will invest $201 million in 2012 to renew and replace neighbourhood infrastructure and to enhance community connections and overall neighbourhood livability in 74 neighbourhoods across Edmonton.
- Over the next month, the pyramids at the Muttart Conservatory will be closing for maintenance (one at-a-time). Here’s the schedule.
- You can check out EEDC’s Q3 report here.
- On Wednesday, the City put a three-year freeze on funding subsidized housing in five inner-city neighbourhoods.
- According to Statistics Canada, Edmonton still has the second lowest unemployment rate in the country, at 4.3%.
- Apparently the report on downtown wayfinding is finally making its way to Council this week. I would much rather see the data behind the pedway system go into the Open Data Catalogue than have the DBA build a bunch of apps.
Rush Hour at 1st and 2nd, by Dave Sutherland.
Here are some upcoming events:
- Farmfair International got underway today and runs until November 11. Canadian Finals Rodeo kicks off on Wednesday.
- Head down to the Art Gallery of Alberta tomorrow from 11:30am to 8pm to learn more and share your thoughts on the Civic Precinct Master Plan.
- The 30th annual ICE Conference takes place from Monday to Wednesday at the Shaw Conference Centre.
- The next Green Drinks, this time focused on arts and crafts, takes place on Wednesday evening at The Common.
- Breakfast with the Guys takes place on Thursday morning.
- Ward 1, your Community Safety Conversation takes place on Thursday at the Jasper Park Community Hall.
- A heads up that the University of Alberta’s Festival of Ideas takes place from November 14 to 18.
- For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.
A nice capture of the current weather, by bonniedoon2011.
MasterMaq's Blog 
Isn’t there already an app for finding stores and other fixed, public-serving locations? Isn’t it called Google Maps on a GPS-enabled smart phone? Failing that, there’s also a YellowPages mobile app with GPS capability. Why are we always so quick to make a new thing, without first considering what we already have?
As I understand it, what they’re really after with the wayfinding is the pedway system. Currently those routes are not included in Google Maps or any other app that I am aware of (though certainly it would seem like a good candidate for Google’s Indoor Street View in the future).
“I think theWinterCity Strategy is a great step forward for our city.”
Why? Just curious to know your opinion.
I think it gives us something to rally around. Previous efforts to better take advantage of our winter months have at times seemed haphazard. I’m betting that having a strategy in place will help to provide some guidance.
Agreed. While I don’t completely disagree with the idea that the sound provision of core services during winter months can help shape one’s perception of winter (snow clearing prep during 2010-11 was an epic fail), I do think there’s been a string of costly, ad hoc winter fairs that could have benefitted from an overarching strategy.
Thanks for featuring another photo of mine! I find Kerry Diotte to be out to lunch on most matters, but his opposition to the winter city strategy takes it to a baffling new level.