Edmonton Notes for April 23, 2017

Winter is back, but at least the Oilers are in to the second round! Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• The Oilers defeated the Sharks on Saturday to win the series 4-2. The Oilers are moving on to the second round and will take on the Ducks. Here is the best of round one from OilersNation.
• The Journal’s editorial board wrote against the proposal to spend $220 million to raise a portion of the Valley Line LRT which would have tried to save drivers maybe 30 seconds. Thankfully, Council voted against the idea. The proposal was pretty ridiculous but it was politically savvy to have this come up now.
• Edmonton Police have not named victims in 6 of the city’s 14 homicides so far this year, and Chief Rod Knecht is defending those decisions. “We are trying to do a better job of this,” he said.
• Dave has an update on the list of candidates planning to run in the municipal election later this year. “There are 179 days left until Edmontonians cast their votes to choose their next city council,” he wrote.
• The 2017 infill construction season officially kicked off this week. “Infill helps make the best use of our existing infrastructure and creates more housing options for Edmontonians and their families, which is important for the social sustainability of our City over the short and long term,” said Mayor Don Iveson.
• Councillor Andrew Knack says the City should look at setting a hard target for achieving Vision Zero. We were surprised to learn when reporting on this issue at Taproot Edmonton back in December that the City did not have a target.
• The Edmonton Eskimos are expected to announce this week that Brock Sunderland will be the team’s new General Manager.
• Work is underway to decide the location of the controversial northeast bridge over the North Saskatchewan River. One route would take the road right through valuable northeast farmland, while another would run through a mined-out gravel pit and land expected to be used for suburban development. Though the bridge apparently isn’t needed for 25-35 years, development is already planned for the area and everyone is jostling for land rights.
• Becoming Edmonton is a new documentary series that “explores the lived experience of people coming to Edmonton principally from First Nations reserves or as immigrants and refugees.”
• Some 22,000 years of history melted at the University of Alberta recently where a freezer containing arctic ice cores failed.
• The Delton Apartment, built in 1915 on 118 Avenue, has been designated as a Municipal Historic Resource.
• From Chris Chang-Yen Phillips: 5 Things I’ve Learned As Edmonton’s Historian Laureate.
• Paula Simons wrote about the new Royal Alberta Museum. It’s still months away from opening, but it is starting to look pretty good from the outside!
• The City of Edmonton’s Planning Academy is back with courses running at the Edmonton Tower from April to June.
• Startup Edmonton is looking for a new Program Manager to join the team!
• Are you playing the City of Edmonton Archives’ Canada 150 trivia contest? Here are the answers for the “buildings” set of questions. You have until Thursday to answer the next batch of questions on education.
• There’s still time to fill out the Edmonton Food Council’s annual local food survey. “Results will be used to track how Edmonton’s food system is changing over time and produce an annual local food system scorecard.”
• For more recent headlines, check out ShareEdmonton.

Cranes, photo by Jeff Wallace

Upcoming Events

• The 15 to Clean Challenge is underway and runs through May 7. The two-week long initiative is “designed to inspire Edmontonians to take 15 minutes to pick up litter in their community.”
• ECVO, the City, the United Way, and EndPoverty Edmonton are hosting a community roundtable dinner on Tuesday at the Santa Maria Goretti Centre to discuss Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy.
• Head over to the ATB Entrepreneur Centre on Wednesday afternoon for an Introduction to E-Commerce presented by Alberta Women Entrepreneurs and featuring Ashley Janssen!
• Let’s Talk Health is the next panel discussion in the “Great Ideas. Great City.” speaker series and it takes place at City Hall on Wednesday evening.
• The Downtown Edmonton Community League’s AGM is taking place on Thursday evening.
• Sailin’ On is holding a lunch pop-up at Earth’s General Store downtown on Friday!
• The Edmonton Cottage Life & Cabin Show takes place at the Edmonton Expo Centre from Friday through Sunday.
• Dig In, St. Albert’s Horticulinary Festival, takes place at the Enjoy Centre on Saturday and Sunday.
• The spring edition of the Edmonton Woman’s Show is happening at the Edmonton Expo Centre on Saturday and Sunday.
• The Rosies, the annual gala for the Alberta Film & Television Awards, takes place at the Shaw Conference Centre on Saturday.
• Jimmy Eat World is performing at The Starlite Room on Saturday evening.
• Northern Lands is coming up at the Shaw Conference Centre from May 2-6.
• Our first What the Truck?! event of the season will take place on May 14 at Northlands! Hope to see you there!
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

Let’s go Oilers! Round 2 here we come!