Edmonton Notes for 5/11/2014

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

Headlines

• Good news for Remedy Cafe, The Hat, and other businesses affected by the looming demolition of the old Paramount Theatre: plans are now on hold. There’s no specific timetable, but ProCura promised tenants will be the first to know.
• We found out on Friday that another historic theatre will be closed soon: Avenue Theatre will be closing its doors in mid-June. Hopefully this doesn’t affect the ongoing revitalization of Alberta Avenue too much.
• I’m a little surprised at just how divisive the proposed renovation of the Stanley Milner library has been. Everyone has an opinion, but they’re strong opinions!
• Historian Tony Cashman and philanthropist Reinhard Muhlenfeld are the two Edmontonians named to the Alberta Order of Excellence for 2014. The ceremony will take place in Edmonton on October 15.
• Omar questions why four Councillors haven’t gotten involved with Opening the Potential, a six-month program that will mentor women interested in municipal politics. Pretty shocking comments from Councillor Loken.
• Alberta’s annual Arbor Day took place this week and to celebrate the City launched yegTreeMap, an online map to register the trees you plant. Looks like it includes all the trees planted by the City too.
• The Oil Kings and Winterhawks will need game seven to decide their series after Edmonton squandered a three goal lead to lose in OT in game six.
• I still haven’t seen one except for on television, but the Edmonton Police Service is “cautioning the public regarding a new trend involving the use of electronic cigarettes for marijuana use by youth.” Crafty young-uns.
• Unless you filled out the online census, you can expect a census worker to visit your home anytime now as door-to-door collection began Saturday.
• Here’s an interview with Kendall Barber, co-founder of Poppy Barley, on “good business”.
• Rosanna Saccomani, Q.C., has been appointed to Edmonton Region Provincial Court, effective May 7.
• Looks like the war on graffiti didn’t have much success last year – the audit showed a 26.6% increase in incidents over 2012.
• Cool new series from NextGen: Get to Know a NextGen-er. The first entry features urban planner Jeff Chase.
• Construction livecams are all the rage right now in Edmonton! Here’s the official feed for the Walterdale Bridge Replacement Project. (At first I thought EPL had something to do with – the “Inspiring sustainable thinking” logo is so similar!)
• Have you got a big idea to make your neighbourhood more environmentally friendly? The City is launching a new program called You’re Gonna Love Green to inspire Edmontonians to take action to green their communities.
• Here are the latest urbanism headlines from Spacing Edmonton.
• This isn’t surprising, but ugh is all I can say. “As Alberta’s two largest cities breach the million-resident mark, Calgary is taking a tentative first step towards metropolises like Toronto and Vancouver while Edmonton’s approach to growth remains fundamentally unchanged since the 1950s, according to a new research paper.”
• Congratulations to Localize on taking the top prize at the 2014 TEC VenturePrize awards!
• Congratulations to all the winners at Friday night’s Yeggies! Gig City, which won the new Judge’s Choice award, has a roundup.

Looks like this was taken from the EPCOR tower looking north, photo by Ted Drake. So many empty lots.

Upcoming Events

• There are still a few days left to take in the Global Visions Film Festival!
• Head over to Startup Edmonton on Monday night for the Edmonton Python Meetup. Aaron Fay will be giving a talk that all kinds of programmers should find interesting.
• Much Ado About Nothing is on now at the Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site.
• I’m excited to be a mentor at the interVivos Sprint 2014 Mentorship Pairing event! I have hosted the last couple of events, and was thrilled to have the opportunity to participate myself.
• On Friday evening the Edmonton Rush will play their first ever home playoff game against Calgary. They were upset by the Roughnecks in game one last night.
• Also Friday evening is Carnaval, a fun event organized by Creative Edmonton taking place at the Edmonton Petroleum Club.
• Grab your camera on Sunday and head below the surface for International Underground Meet Day.
• Save the date for the first What the Truck?! event of the season, taking place on 104 Street on Saturday, May 24. We’re excited about all the new trucks hitting the streets this year!
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

Purple Phase by Jeff Wallace