Edmonton Notes for November 5, 2017

I hope you made the most of your extra hour this weekend! Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• The Capital Region Board is officially becoming the Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board. Here’s the new website. Dr. Jodi L. Abbott is succeeding Nolan Crouse as chair of the board. “Dr. Abbott is the fourth Chair of the regional growth management board since its inception.” The first EMRB meeting is taking place on Thursday. Here is Paula’s take on the news.
• The snow appears here to stay so City crews are out in force. “Neighbourhood blading will not begin until a five-centimetre snow pack has built up on neighbourhood roads.” Check out Snow in the City for all the City’s snow-related info.
• Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht is using the City’s annexation of land from Leduc County as the rationale for a request to add 25 more officers at a cost of $4.3 million.
• The proposed rate increases for garbage collection, recycling, and other waste services for 2018 are “lower than projected in the City’s three-year approved budget.” This year’s increase is going to be 2.3% rather than the original 4.1%.
• Grayson Thate is Edmonton’s new Youth Poet Laureate. “Thate is a 19-year-old poet and tap dancer based in Edmonton whose art is largely influenced by the sociopolitical climate and his experiences as a queer artist.”
• New figures show “a slight rise in Edmonton’s downtown office vacancies since last year” to 17.7% but our city is still doing better than Calgary where downtown vacancies rose to 27%.
• The new security measures at City Hall have already been modified after councillors discovered that the water was prohibited.
• Congratulations to all the projects and individuals recognized in the 2017 Urban Design Awards. The Ritchie Market did well!
• The old MEC on 124 Street and 102 Avenue is going to become a flagship Evolve Strength facility that will feature “21 offices for chiropractors, massage therapists, dietitians and other health and welfare practitioners” as well as “a Brazilian jiu-jitsu studio, physiotherapy, a vegetarian restaurant and a personal training space and gym featuring Olympic and power weightlifting equipment.”
• November is Family Violence Prevention Month in Alberta. A number of events will take place in Edmonton throughout the month. “In 2016 approximately one-third, just over 825, of all calls to the City of Edmonton’s Individual and Family Well-being team were related to family violence.”
• Avenue Edmonton recognized its the 2017 Top 40 Under 40 on Monday night. Congrats to all!
• An upcoming bylaw change could make it easier for microbreweries to open up shop in Edmonton.
• I’m very excited about the third Credo Coffee location opening soon inside the Kelly Ramsey building!
• Both the old Walterdale Bridge and the Harbin Gate are partially dismantled right now. Quite a contrast to all the construction we’ve been witnessing.
• I know this won’t be popular, but…bring on the increased parking fines!
• “The new 102 Avenue bike lane was finished months ago but is blocked by barricades:”

102 Avenue Bike Lane Edmonton, photo by More Bike Lanes Please

Upcoming Events

• World Town Planning Day is being celebrated Monday evening at the Garneau Theatre with a screening of two short films.
• Homeward Trust is providing a community update on A Place to Call Home: Edmonton’s Updated Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness on Tuesday at the old Royal Alberta Museum.
• An open house for the Queen Elizabeth School Park and Glengarry District Park Master Plans is taking place on Tuesday at the Glengarry Community Hall.
• Open Minds 2017 takes place at the TELUS Centre on Tuesday and is “a celebration of Humanities and Social Sciences research at the University of Alberta.”
• Linda Hoang is hosting an event with ATB Financial on Tuesday called How to Adult: Investing at MKT. Tickets are $20.
• The Friends of Royal Alberta Museum Society (FRAMS) is hosting Ale-Beer-Ta on Tuesday at Yellowhead Brewery.
• The City is hosting a workshop “exploring options for how amenities and facilities, that were identified as priorities based on public feedback, could be arranged and fit on the Rollie Miles park site” on Wednesday at Strathcona Composite High School.
• Farm Fair International kicks off on Wednesday at Northlands! Canadian Finals Rodeo is also underway from the 8th through the 12th.
• National Philanthropy Day is coming up and there’s an awards luncheon taking place on Thursday at the Shaw Conference Centre to celebrate.
• On Thursday at the TELUS Centre, the United Way is hosting a screening of Us & Them, a documentary that “follows the lives of four individuals struggling with homelessness over a 10 year period.”
• The PBR Global Cup takes place at Rogers Place from Thursday through Sunday. The event “will feature the world’s best bull riders from Canada, the United States, Mexico, Brazil and Australia, all competing for their country and a Canadian-record purse of $1,000,000.”
• AFC is hosting its second Foodovation Summit on Thursday and Friday at NAIT.
• The Rocky Mountain Food and Wine Festival is on at the Shaw Conference Centre on Friday and Saturday.
• Saturday is Remembrance Day with many events happening throughout the city. The service at City Hall kicks off at 10:15am and the big Butterdome ceremony takes place from 10am until noon.

Morning to School, photo by ALLEN QIAO乔谦之