Edmonton Notes for 5/12/2013

Happy Mother’s Day! Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

• Is it going forward? Is it dead? Whenever the arena comes up at Council, the safe bet is “postponed”. That’s what Council unanimously agreed on Wednesday, which means the issue should be back on or before May 22. What that really means is that there weren’t enough sure votes to plow ahead with or without the remaining $55 million.
• Didn’t see that one coming: the Capital Region Board voted Thursday to support a grant application that Edmonton will make for $25 million for the downtown arena from the provincial government. According to the Journal, “the provincial budget didn’t confirm the existence of this grant until April 25.” That’s a little scary, isn’t it?
• Speaking of regional cooperation, check out this interactive map highlighting annexation plans in the Capital Region. Elise Stolte’s related story is here.
• The Edmonton Police Service has purchased six Segways for officers patrolling the downtown core. I haven’t seen them yet, have you?
• MoneySense magazine has released its list of the Best Places to Live in Canada for 2013, and Edmonton comes in at #3 on the list of big cities.
• Route 595 is the new ETS shuttle that runs between South Campus and Fort Edmonton Park. It starts May 18 and runs until September 2, on a twenty minute frequency.
• Council gave its approval to the $3 million plan to light the High Level Bridge. You can buy your LED bulb here.
• Edmonton is the new home of the Canadian Women’s Basketball Team! There’s a lot of basketball history in our city, with the Edmonton Grads coming to mind right away. Here is the City’s news release.
• Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at last summer’s big July storm from EPCOR.
• The Edmonton Heritage Council has launched a new grant program directed at preserving and telling Edmonton’s story.
• A few Target stores are now open in Edmonton – have you been?
• Sad news for Oil Kings fans: the Portland Winerhawks won tonight by a score of 5-1 to eliminate Edmonton.
• Still no takers for a run at the mayor’s chair? Well at least there are lots of candidates declaring in the other races. Dave Colburn has announced that he will run for Council in Ward 7. Check out Dave’s updated list of candidates here.
• The Oliver community has grand plans for the former Molson Brewery site. Can they find common ground with the developers?
• Check out the last week’s worth of local news releases here.
• The new air traffic control tower is now up and running at the Edmonton International Airport! Here’s a shot of the tower, courtesy of NAV CANADA:

Oh and a small PSA: it’s pretty dry out there, so be careful with any open flame!

Here are some upcoming events:

• The Analytics, Big Data and the Cloud II conference is taking place Monday through Wednesday at the Delta Edmonton South, as well as online.
• On Tuesday there’s another information session on the Valley Line (Southeast to West) of the LRT.
• Want to learn how to sell to the City of Edmonton? There’s a couple information sessions taking place on Wednesday that’ll help you do just that.
• This sounds like fun: head over to Churchill Square at 7pm on Wednesday for Light Saber Training. May the force be with you!
• The NeWest Press Spring Spectacular takes place on Wednesday evening at Roast Coffeehouse on 104 Street.
• The next installment in the Oil & Social Economy Speaker Series takes place on Thursday evening.
• I hope to see you at the Royal Alberta Museum on Friday night for our first Truck Stop of the season! It’s going to be fun – it’s a ginger beef throwdown!
• Also Friday night is the Red Bull Tour Bus concert featuring Shout Out Out Out Out and Cadence Weapon.
• On Saturday, the City Market Downtown returns to 104 Street. We noticed they painted the stalls on the street this weekend. Can’t wait!
• Carrie Underwood plays Rexall Place on Saturday evening.
• Hip Hop in the Park 6 is coming up, with events taking place throughout the week.
• Check out ShareEdmonton for more upcoming events!

A Gorgeous View by Funtographer.

Here’s a Make Something Edmonton project I found interesting: The 30 Most Interesting Edmontonians Project. Here’s what Shawn Kanungo is looking to accomplish:

From June 19 – June 23, we want to showcase 30 of Edmonton’s Most Interesting People for one-hour Q&A sessions. We need help finding those people! If you know someone with an interesting or inspirational story, crazy life experience, or awesome/odd career, let us know! Our goal is not to find the most famous or popular people, but those who are just amazingly interesting!

Sounds like a cool idea!