Edmonton Notes for 8/23/2015

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• The Fringe ended this weekend and despite less than ideal weather, the 34th annual edition of the festival broke its 2014 record of 118,280 tickets sold. Final numbers will be announced early this week.
• Edmonton’s own Tom McGrath won the Edmonton Marathon this weekend with a time of 2:28:49!
• It sounds like the Edmonton Airshow was a big success this weekend with about 25,000 spectators! Sounds like it’ll be back next year.
• Friday was the 3rd annual Treaty No. 6 Recognition Day, which “recognizes Edmonton’s connection with the First peoples of this land.” This year was the 138th anniversary of the signing of the treaty at Fort Edmonton.
• I love the ETS bus ad, called ETS Cool Bus, but was definitely surprised to see how similar it was to this one by Denmark’s Midttraffik. Here’s the BuzzFeed article on Edmonton’s ad. In an interview with AdWeek, ETS acknowledged they took inspiration from that video but claim it is still different enough. You can learn more about the ETS campaign here. Here’s the video:

• ETS has also launched a zero-tolerance for sexual harassment campaign. It involves a public awareness advertising campaign, training of frontline employees, updating passenger assistance decals on all 94 LRT cards, and conducting a survey.
• The Edmonton Insight Community now has more than 3,200 members with a goal of reaching 5,000 by the end of 2015. “We’re proud of the success of this new approach, which enables Edmontonians to provide input to their City at a time that is convenient to them, using devices they prefer, and about issues that are important to them,” says Cory, Manager of the Office of Public Engagement.
• The City has added property information to the Open Data Catalogue. You can now see municipal address, lot size, zoning, and year built for primary buildings, among other things.
• There was a lot of discussion about the photo site Still in Edmonton this week. “We love it. We hate it. We’re still here,” is all the site says alongside the photos. You can learn more about the collaborative website in this CBC feature.
• The Edmonton Arts Council is looking for professional Aboriginal artists from across Canada to submit portfolios and letters of intent to the Aboriginal Art Park call for Expressions of Interest. The park will be located in upper Queen Elizabeth Park, north of the former Queen Elizabeth Pool site.
• I’m not sure why they did this, but Wireless Edmonton has been renamed “Open WiFi”. That’s a sketchy looking SSID to me and it’s a wasted opportunity to build Edmonton’s brand.
• Speaking of Wi-Fi, the new network at Commonwealth Stadium was unveiled on Friday at Social Media Night. “All visitors, regardless of service provider, can connect to the internet on a mobile device from their seat and throughout the stadium concourse during Eskimos home games.”
• The new General Manager of Rogers Place is Susan Darrington, the Oilers announced this week. She’s Edmonton-born and started her career at Northlands Coliseum as an usher. She was most recently General Manager of Allianz Parque in São Paulo, Brazil.
• From Vintage Edmonton: Winston Churchill comes to Edmonton, August 23, 1929.
• The latest Big Ticket Event saw 2,534 violations issued, 2,046 of which were for speeding. Overall the numbers are down 5% from August 2014.
• Have you checked out Explore Edmonton’s series You Think You Know Edmonton? Good stuff!
• Here are the latest urbanism headlines from Spacing Edmonton.
• Here’s my look at what is coming up at Council this week, and here are some thoughts on the Auditor’s report looking at the Metro Line LRT delays.
• For more recent headlines, check out ShareEdmonton.

Premier Rachel Notley, Mayor Don Iveson, Treaty 6 First Nation Grand Chief Tony Alexis, and Chiefs representing the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations

Upcoming Events

• The final Movies on the Square of the summer is set for Tuesday. Head down to Churchill Square to see Pitch Perfect 2.
• Head over to the Legislature grounds on Tuesday at lunch for the final Zumba session with Fitness Fanatics of the season.
• The next meeting of 100 People Who Care takes place on Tuesday evening at the Terwillegar Community Recreation Centre.
• Symphony Under the Sky is back in Hawrelak Park for its 20th anniversary from Thursday through Sunday!
• The Eskimos host the Toronto Argonauts on Friday night at Commonwealth Stadium.
• Friday is the final Night Market Edmonton downtown at Beaver Hills House Park.
• Nuit Blanche is coming up on September 26 but on Friday they’re hoping to set a world record by taking a “dronie” of the world’s biggest map market made out of people in Churchill Square. Be there at 5:30pm!
• Wanderlust 108 is “a triathlon unlike any you’ve ever known” and it’s taking place at Louise McKinney Riverfront Park on Saturday.
• The City is hosting another Big Bin Event on the weekend, this time at the Kennedale Financial Services & Utilities facility in the northeast.
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

Neat shot of a crane downtown by Dennis Cambly