Edmonton Notes for 4/21/2013

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

• Despite some flurries over the weekend, the city looks pretty brown at the moment. And dirty. That’s why this week the City is encouraging you to participate in the 15-to-Clean Challenge! Take just fifteen minutes to clean up litter.
• The City of Edmonton’s neighbourhood street cleaning program kicks off tomorrow. You can find out when your hood is scheduled here. You can also get the data in the Open Data Catalogue.
• Here’s a positive public involvement story for the City of Edmonton. The Citizens’ Panel on Edmonton’s Energy and Climate Change Challenges sounds like it went very well, and resulted in some strong recommendations for Council.
• The $50 million Civic Precinct plan might be too costly for City Council – we’ll find out on Wednesday. I think Paula is right on this one: “We don’t need to make it harder to get to the LRT, we need to make it easier.”
• Speaking of LRT, the City posted a new North LRT video this week:

• Elise has the scoop on the City of Edmonton’s proposed “transformational” office tower. Most of the usual suspects submitted proposals in response to the City’s RFP. If all goes well, City employees would start to call the new building home in 2016.
• This is sort of interesting – the Edmonton Police Service has produced a web show called The Squad, described as “a gritty, hard-hitting look at policing in Edmonton.”
• The Victoria Driving Range opened on Thursday, April 18. The course itself will open “as soon as course conditions permit.”
• Finally some good news for patios in our city: smaller sidewalk cafes that don’t serve alcohol should now be approved immediately.
• In case you missed it, here’s Josh Wingrove’s piece on Mayor Mandel.
• This comic cracks me up.
• Maybe next year? The Edmonton Oilers were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs tonight with a 3-1 loss to Anaheim (and because Columbus beat San Jose). Are the Edmonton Oilers in the Playoffs?

4/20 Edmonton, photo by Hugh Lee.

Here are some upcoming events:

• The Edmonton Poetry Festival runs all week. The much anticipated Map of Canada Gala Event takes place on Saturday.
• The Oilers host the Ducks again tomorrow night and Chicago on Wednesday before taking on the Wild in Minnesota on Friday. The Oilers then return home for their final game of the season, hosting the Canucks on Saturday.
• Serena Ryder is performing at the Winspear Centre on Monday night.
• If you love beer you’ll won’t want to miss Edmonton’s International Beerfest at the Shaw Conference Centre on Friday & Saturday.
• The third Mosaic Minds Unconference is coming up on April 28, and the topic this time is food!
• The 26th annual Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts is coming up on April 29. Here’s a preview in the Examiner.
• Edmonton’s 5th Annual International Conference on Urban Traffic Safety is coming up on May 29, but before that there’s the Run Walk Ride 4 Traffic Safety taking place on Saturday at Concordia University College.
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

Post-It Notes at Churchill LRT Station, part of the Ideas for Edmonton competition! Photo by Funmi Omotade-Tan.