I am in Toronto until Thursday, on a mini break with Sharon and her sister. Having fun so far, but the weather is colder here than it is back home! Happy Victoria Day!
Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:
Headlines
- City Council has established its first women’s advisory group called WAVE. The group’s first fifteen members will focus on engagement through networking, leadership through mentorship, and learning from best practices.
- Is Edmonton the next great Canadian city? Jim Beyers highlights some of the cool things happening in our city in the Toronto Star. Some found the article condescending, others were thrilled that Edmonton is getting some attention out east. I think we need to stop making such a big deal out of attention like this.
- Another ring road around Edmonton? I don’t even know how that’s a possible consideration at this point. Mayor Iveson says we should spend that money on transit instead. Agreed!
- Lots of Fire Rescue Services news this week! The service welcomed its 140th recruit class this week, welcomed “Grover” to the K9 unit, and announced that its inaugural Fire Cadet class will start training school this fall.
- This is a great story on the Transforming Edmonton blog. Neil Ganske, who works for ETS, is an inventor who created a tractor-like sweeping vehicle that has saved the City more than $700,000 per winter!
- For the third year in a row, EPCOR has been named one of Canada’s Top Employers Young People.
- We’ll have to see if people in the industry like this change, but the City claims it has streamlined the process for acquiring major development permits by setting up pre-application meetings.
- You may or may not enjoy this video of a crazy fight on Edmonton’s LRT.
- A second open source street art free wall has been opened in Edmonton. It is located on Whyte Avenue at the Tirecraft building just west of 99 Street.
- Here are the latest urbanism headlines from Spacing Edmonton.
- When you go to cut your lawn this summer, go bagless!
- For those of you wanting to see the speed limit on Whitemud Drive raised, it’s not looking good. A city report recommended against the higher limit, and it seems much of Council agrees.
- Wait, so are we a track city or a basketball city? Edmonton will host Brazil in the the first annual Edmonton Grads International Classic this June. The news release says Edmonton “is well on its way to establishing itself as the Centre of Excellence for basketball in Canada.”
Elms and The Pearl by Jeff Wallace
Upcoming Events
- The International Responsible Hospitality Conference takes place in Edmonton this week on Wednesday and Thursday.
- The next Capital Ideas Edmonton event is on mentorship and it takes place at the Edmonton Journal on Wednesday.
- On Wednesday evening, the Ad Club of Edmonton is having its AGM at the Mercer Warehouse.
- It’s outdoor market time! The 124 Street Grand Market returns on Thursday.
- Also Thursday night, the interesting fundraiser known as Everything Edmonton takes place at the Yellowhead Brewery.
- The big food/hospitality conference Host Edmonton takes place on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the Shaw Conference Centre.
- On Friday evening, WinterCity is hosting an appreciation event at Latitude 53.
- Interested in open data? Don’t miss the hackYEG hackathon at the Stanley Milner library on Saturday.
- Our first big What the Truck?! event of the season takes place on 104 Street on Saturday evening!
- Also Saturday evening is the AGA’s Road Trip Refinery.
- For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.
Edmonton LRT by iqremix
MasterMaq's Blog 
10 years ago Edmontonians complained that the media in Central Canada couldn’t even find Edmonton on a map. But now when the likes of Toronto Star are saying come check out Edmonton, people still bitch and whine about it. I honestly don’t understand the citizens of this city sometimes.