Edmonton Notes for 4/7/2013

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

• Water smelling a little off this week? Don’t worry, it’s still fine to drink – the smell is apparently simply due to the spring runoff (though it does beg the question, what makes this year worse than previous years?). Here’s the EPCOR release about the odor.
• When will it end?! Another dump of snow was probably not the way that most Edmontonians wanted to start April.
• Looks like there is a campaign underway to challenge the privatization of the LRT called Our LRT. They launched back in October according to a news release on the site. I wrote about the decision to use a P3 here.
• The Master Agreement for the downtown arena will be discussed by Council on Wednesday. This week we learned that MacEwan University is prepared to spend $2 million on the community rink.
• People are still talking about Mayor Mandel’s memorable State of the City Address. You might want to check out Councillor Iveson’s post on the speech.
• A total of 1,938 property assessment complaints were filed by Edmontonians this year, which is a 17% decrease from 2012.
• After 25 years of making its way through Old Strathcona, the Silly Summer Parade has been cancelled.
• Canada didn’t have a very good March in the job creation department. Here in Edmonton, we lost 400 jobs from February, but the unemployment rate actually fell slightly to 4.2% because the labour force dropped by 1700.
• There’s a new exhibit on now at the Enterprise Square Galleries, a three-year pilot project between the University of Alberta and the City of Edmonton for exhibition space.
• The DONATE A RIDE program is now in its 17th year, and charitable agencies are receiving 91,710 tickets for their clients.
• The lineup for this summer’s Interstellar Rodeo sounds pretty awesome!
• Seems to me that the trade deadline gets more boring each year, but the Oilers did make a few deals.
• I meant to link to local clothing company Flavor’s spring release. Love the Edmonton scenes they chose for modeling.
• Sounds like Homeless Connect today was another gratifying and successful day for both guests and volunteers.
• Michael Walters announced on Saturday that he’ll be running for Council in Ward 10:

Here are some upcoming events:

• Head over to Startup Edmonton on Monday night for the YegDroid Meetup!
• Tuesday night is DemoCamp Edmonton 21. See you at the Telus Centre!
• Edmonton Opera’s Eugene Onegin starts on Friday, April 19, but the accompanying Opera 101 event takes place on Wednesday.
• The 2013 edition of the Bonfire Festival gets underway on Tuesday. It runs through April 14 at the Citadel.
• Head over to the Haven Social Club on Thursday for Nerd Nite Edmonton #5.
• Make It Edmonton runs all weekend long, though it’s actually more like Make It St. Albert, since this edition is at The Enjoy Centre.
• The Oilers host the Coyotes on Wednesday and the Flames on Saturday.
• Saturday is the 31st annual Edmonton Law Day.
• The Rush take on Rochester at Rexall Place on Sunday.
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

Saturday was International Pillow Fight Day! Photo by Nelson Webb.