Happy long weekend! Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:
Headlines
- On Friday the City announced it has initiated an independent safety audit of the Metro Line LRT signalling system. They’re also considering some sort of manual signalling in an attempt to open the line. The next update is slated to come mid-August when Council next discusses the line.
- The latest Rogers Place update was again “on time and on budget” with the structure now more than halfway done. Here are some photos of the construction taking place inside.
- CBC’s Edmonton AM spent Friday morning discussing the hidden gems of Edmonton – everything from restaurants and buildings to blogs and podcasts.
- A total of 55,587 babies were born in Alberta last year, with Liam and Olivia proving to be the most popular names. If you haven’t already seen it, be sure to check out the Alberta Baby Name Explorer too.
- The Province is partnering with Bell Media, Facebook, and TELUS to expand distribution of Emergency Alerts.
- The Eskimos extended their winning streak to four on Friday night, defeating the Saskatchewan Roughriders 30-5.
- The Yards has a big discussion on bike lanes in Edmonton on its podcast. “Is there enough political will to deliver on this key element of the city’s active transportation strategy?”
- And speaking of cycling, there are three new artistic bike racks at MacEwan and two at NAIT.
- Alberta’s Superintendent of Insurance has weighed in on ridesharing services like Uber: “Albertans are at risk of not having access to insurance protection and accident benefits under Alberta law if using Uber’s ride sharing services, and potentially other ride sharing services as well.”
- The Local Good has a feature on the Electronic Recycling Association, an organization that can collect your old equipment and either refurbish or recycle it.
- You’re no doubt familiar with the terms hipster and yuppie, and hey, you might even know about the yuccie. Well David Staples felt those weren’t adequate to categorize Edmontonians, so he came up with some new terms.
- Dead Venues is a documentary series featuring defunct live music venues in Edmonton. Sounds like a pretty interesting project. It’ll be online for a year, then will be available at EPL.
- K-Days attendance was up nearly 45,000 this year to 785,290. Here’s the festival by the numbers.
- It’s August, and that means the Edmonton International Fringe Festival is coming up! Get prepared with previews at After the House Lights.
- Want to speak at Pecha Kucha Night 23? Edmonton’s NextGen is now accepting presentation submissions. The event is slated to take place on September 17 at the Citadel.
- Looking for a coworking space in Edmonton? Check out Cowork Edmonton.
- An upcoming MOOC (massive open online course) from the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Native Studies called Indigenous Canada aims to provide a basic understanding of aboriginal history and issues. I’ll definitely be checking it once it launches in September 2016.
- The federal election campaign officially kicked off today. This time around, Edmonton has 11 ridings instead of 9. Here’s an overview.
- For more recent headlines, check out ShareEdmonton.
Upcoming Events
- This year is the 40th anniversary of the Heritage Festival. If you haven’t made it down to Hawrelak Park, there’s still one day to do so!
- Rock’n August starts on Tuesday in St. Albert.
- Also Tuesday is the return of Movies on the Square! The first one is Jurassic Park.
- FC Edmonton hosts Indy Eleven on Wednesday at Clarke Stadium.
- Ladies on the Green takes place on Thursday at Victoria Golf Course!
- The Edmonton Folk Music Festival starts Thursday and runs through Sunday at Gallagher Park.
- Thursday night is also a great opportunity to check out the 124 Grand Market!
- The 22nd Animethon takes place this weekend, Friday through Sunday, at MacEwan’s downtown campus.
- Cariwest also kicks off on Friday, with the parade taking place on Saturday at noon, ending in Churchill Square.
- The City is hosting a 9km bike ride and hike in the river valley on Sunday called the Tour des Trees. It gets underway at 10am at Rundle Park.
- For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.
Panamerican Junior Athletics Championships, photo by Don Voaklander
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