Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:
Headlines
- Big piece on Edmonton’s lack of cycling infrastructure in the Globe and Mail this weekend. “While Vancouver is rolling out a bike-share program and Calgary finished a downtown network of bike paths last summer, the car is still king in Edmonton. The city’s first downtown bike path will not be finished before 2020, based on current plans.”
- And in Spacing Edmonton, a call for rethinking parking in Edmonton.
- Dave reports that ten candidates have already filed to run in next year’s municipal elections. Incumbents Bev Esslinger, Dave Loken, Scott McKeen, Michael Walters, and Mike Nickel have all filed their papers already.
- Are you playing Pokémon Go? Or avoiding those who are? The Edmonton Police Service is reminding everyone to abide by laws and stay safe. “The message is simple – have fun but stay safe,” says Const. Hunter Robinz. “Remember, you can’t catch ‘em all if we catch you breaking the law.”
- Speaking of Pokémon Go, here are the best places to take the kids to play from Raising Edmonton.
- When Rogers Place opens in a couple of months you might enter the building through Ford Hall, the new name for the Wintergarden. The Oilers announced the renaming as part of an expanded partnership with Ford of Canada.
- The Edmonton Public Library has started loaning Wi-Fi hotspots with unlimited data to adult library cardholders as part of a two-year pilot program. They have 40 such hotspots and hope the service will help the more than 116,000 Edmontonians who are without home Internet access.
- The Warehouse District downtown was the first in North America to be accredited with the Purple Flag designation. “The Purple Flag designation means that Edmonton has set the bar for North American safety standards in hospitality destinations.”
- Bus shelter vandalism is a bigger problem than you might think. “The rule of thumb is three days. That’s how long Edmonton Transit System can go before someone smashes a glass pane in one of their 2,300 bus shelters throughout the city.”
- Here’s a feature on three University of Alberta spin-off companies led by Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry researchers: MagnetTX Oncology Solutions, Tevosol, and Metabolomic Technologies Inc.
- It was announced this week that the next Council of the Federation summer meeting of Premiers will take place in Edmonton next summer, July 17-19, 2017.
- The City is reminding residents to help look after the North Saskatchewan River “by eliminating common household sources of chemical pollutants.”
- Vue Weekly’s annual Best of Edmonton poll is open and accepting votes until August 22.
- For more recent headlines, check out ShareEdmonton.
Rainbow over downtown this evening
Upcoming Events
- K-Days and Taste of Edmonton continue all week!
- If you’re planning to head down to Northlands, be sure to consider taking ETS. The additional trains on the weekend were very much appreciated and made our trip to and from the grounds very quick.
- And make sure you head to K-Days prepared! Here’s a preview from Linda and here’s a quick recap from Emil.
- London Drugs is sponsoring a photowalk on Wednesday evening at the Legislature grounds. There will be plenty of Pokémon Go players to photograph, I’m sure!
- On Thursday evening the Eskimos host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Commonwealth Stadium.
- Taking place on 104 Street (I think…call it a hunch) on Thursday evening is Diner en Blanc. The after party is set for Central Social Hall later that evening.
- There’s always lots to do on Thursday evenings! There’s also the Latitude 53 Patio and the 124 Street Grand Market.
- The 2016 Servus Heritage Festival takes place at Hawrelak Park from Saturday through Monday for the long weekend.
- It feels like summer is zooming by, but there’s still lots of great festivals and events to come. Check out my guide for 2016 for a full listing!
- For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.
Slide the City, photo by IQRemix
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