Tag: edmonton

Edmonton's New Downtown Plan

edmonton's new downtown plan The City of Edmonton unveiled a draft of its New Downtown Plan this week, an overhaul of the Downtown Redevelopment Plan that was first created back in 1997. There were information displays setup in various places downtown, including at the City Centre Farmer’s Market today.

I quite like the marketing for the plan. Dark, bold colors, and a clear message: “My Downtown Is…Sustainable. Dynamic. Well-designed. Liveable. Accessible. Moving Forward.”

The plan outlines seven strategic priorities:

  1. Spaces for People. More open spaces, including parks and plazas.
  2. Expand the Knowledge Base. Support the continued expansion of education institutions.
  3. Increase Cultural and Entertainment Options. New facilities and expansion of existing opportunities.
  4. Enrich Jasper Avenue. Restore the prominence of this street as Edmonton’s main street.
  5. Connect to the River Valley and Adjacent Neighbourhoods. Build walkable links and improve access to the Legislature and North Saskatchewan River.
  6. Pedestrians First. Connect downtown with richly landscaped, sustainable streets.
  7. More Amenities. Build a downtown that is rich in things for people to do and places to go.

According to the Edmonton Journal, 600 people have participated in the creation of the plan by filling out surveys, questionnaires, and attending public meetings over the last few years.

“Edmontonians have told us they envision a dynamic neighbourhood, with more amenities and cultural activities to attract, residents, businesses and students,” said Shafee Mohamed, senior planner for the Downtown Plan.

“We have tried to capture that vision in this plan.”

I live fairly close to downtown, on 122nd street and 104th avenue. For many years I had an office right in the core at 101st street and Jasper Avenue, and I continue to spend a lot of time downtown. Even though I think it has come a long way since 1998 when I moved back to Edmonton, I’m happy to see renewed interest in improving the downtown area. We still have a long way to go before we’re on par with cities elsewhere in Canada.

The city is collecting feedback on the plan now, and will make revisions before presenting it to council in November. You can help by filling out the survey, or by calling 780.496.6064 to leave your comments.

If you’d like more information, check out the Downtown Plan website, call 780.496.6225, or write to shafee.mohamed@edmonton.ca. You can also check out a public Open House on Tuesday, September 9th at the Winspear Centre. There will be brief presentations at 5, 6, and 7pm in addition to information displays.

I took a few photos of the information that was on display at the Farmer’s Market today, which you can see here.

Edmonton could use a place like WorkSpace

A few years ago I started reading about shared workspaces. In particular, I was interested in what Boris Mann started calling The Innovation Commons – a place for “creatives” to gather and feed off one another. These are physical places, with tables and chairs and Internet connections. They are perfect for programmers, designers, mobile workers, and others who don’t necessarily need office space of their own. I love the concept, and I am happy to see it catching on in a number of places. In Toronto, there’s the Centre for Social Innovation and in Vancouver, there’s WorkSpace. I took some time to visit WorkSpace when I was there a couple weeks ago.

WorkSpaceWorkSpace

Located at 21 Water Street in Gastown, WorkSpace is in a historic and unique area of Vancouver. It’s fourth floor view of the harbour is quite impressive. Sharon and I met Dane Brown, who gave us a quick tour and let us explore the place for a bit. There are small offices that can be used for breakout rooms, a larger meeting room, and lots of open space with tables and chairs. There are also private offices available, and a small cafe at the front. WorkSpace is even equipped with a shower!

Instead of renting space as you would in a traditional office building environment, WorkSpace is membership-based. For $95 per month, you can use the space after 4:30pm on weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday. The rates go up from there. Full-time access costs $495 per month, and the private desks cost $595 per month. There are also drop-in prices available, starting at $25 for half a day. WorkSpace currently has about 70 members.

I think Edmonton could definitely use something like WorkSpace. Dickson and I originally got an office for Paramagnus because we knew that being in the same room together often has a really positive effect. We ended up getting rid of the office because we didn’t need it all the time, and it got to be too expensive. WorkSpace would have given us the best of both worlds.

There are lots of interesting, creative people in Edmonton working from their bedrooms and basements. Opportunities to connect are somewhat rare though, limited to events like BarCamp. I can’t even begin to imagine how positive something like WorkSpace would be!

I know I’d be a paying member if we had something like WorkSpace in Edmonton. What do you think? Would you find such a facility useful?

Carsharing with Zipcar

zipcar I first learned about Zipcar at the ALT.NET conference a couple weeks ago. I was talking with a developer from Toronto who told me a little about the company. I meant to look it up when I got back to Edmonton but of course, I forgot. Then when I was in Vancouver this past weekend, I noticed a bunch of advertisements for the service. I made a note in my Moleskine to look it up.

I think the concept of carsharing is fantastic:

Carsharing is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. The organization renting the cars may be a commercial business or the users may be organized as a democratically-controlled company, public agency, cooperative, ad hoc grouping. Today there are more than six hundred cities in the world where people can carshare.

Zipcar, founded in 1999, operates in nearly two dozen cities. Currently they are available in just two Canadian cities – Toronto and Vancouver. They claim to be the world’s largest carsharing operation.

In Vancouver, there are two plans. The “pay as you zip” plan costs $55 per year, and you can then rent from $9.75 per hour, gas and insurance included. The other plan is a monthly fee for people who use the service more frequently. The way it works is you become a member, then you can reserve a car online or on the phone.

I am not sure how well Zipcar would work in a city like Edmonton, but it makes total sense in a place like Vancouver. Sharon and I took public transit everywhere we went over the weekend, and it was always really efficient. Sometimes a car is quite handy though, such as when transporting something large or awkward. In those instances, Zipcar could be really useful.

Here’s a comparison with rental cars, and here’s a comparison with owning a car. You can definitely save a lot of money with Zipcar, but I think it would work best in cities with really well-developed public transit systems. That certainly seems to have been their strategy given the cities in which they currently operate.

ETS is constantly improving, so maybe we’ll have Zipcar or something like it here in Edmonton one day.

Upcoming Edmonton Events: Pecha Kucha 2 & DemoCamp 3

Attention all “creatives” in Edmonton – two popular events are happening again in our city in September that you don’t want to miss!

The first is Pecha Kucha Night 2, taking place on September 11th. The first Pecha Kucha in Edmonton took place back on May 1st, and it went very well. Essentially a dozen or so presenters will each have the opportunity to show 20 slides at 20 seconds per slide. Typically the content is arts & design.

Date: Thursday, September 11, 2008
Time: 6:30pm to 9:30pm
Location: TransAlta Arts Barns, Westbury Theatre, 10330 84th Avenue (map)
Cost: $5 at the door

You’ll need to RSVP to nextgen@edmonton.ca. You can find more information here.

The second event is DemoCampEdmonton 3, taking place on September 17th. Local entrepreneurs and developers will show off real stuff they’re building. You can read about our first two democamps here and here.

Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Location: E1 017, ETLC, University of Alberta (map)
Cost: Free

If you’re planning to attend, add your name to the wiki page.

Should be a couple of great events. See you at both!

Where do you want free wireless Internet access in Edmonton?

free wifi Slowly but surely, the Free WiFi Project here in Edmonton is growing. We’ve added a number of new locations over the last week, including Boston Pizza on Jasper Avenue and 106th Street, Boston Pizza in Mayfield Common, and Transcend Coffee on the south side which just went live today. And despite being down for much of the week, our nodes at the Fringe are back up and should remain that way. We’ve learned quite a lot with that particular setup!

We need to expand the network to make it more useful and to fulfil our vision of free, accessible wireless Internet access for all Edmontonians. We’re actively working on that, checking out potential locations and getting some marketing information together. Still, I figure a little informal market research can’t hurt! So I’m asking you – where would you like to have free wireless Internet access in Edmonton?

I’m curious to know where you want to use it. We think cafes, restaurants, and similar locations are the most obvious, but maybe we’re missing something? We have received a few suggestions already, such as the Legislature grounds and more mobile setups like the Fringe.

Leave a comment here with your suggested locations, or use our contact form! Thanks!

Everyone for Edmonton

volunteer edmonton There’s a really cool event happening on Saturday that unfortunately I’m going to miss (as I’ll be in Vancouver). Everyone for Edmonton is the largest event of the year for volunteers, donors, and non-profit organizations.

The event takes place on August 23rd from 9:00am until 4:30pm at the Shaw Conference Centre downtown. Debbie Riopel, a founding member of the World Kindness Movement, will deliver a keynote to start things off. Her presentation is called Heroes for a Better World!

If you’re interested in volunteering, or if you just want to learn more about the various non-profits that exist in Edmonton, you should definitely take some time on Saturday to check out this event. One of the things we talked about at ALT.NET in Calgary last weekend was how to find out about potential projects – this event is a great way to do just that.

Admission to Everyone for Edmonton is free. If you’d like more information, you can contact EEDC or email everyoneforedmonton@edmonton.com.

Talking Twitter & Social Media on SmibsTV

smibstv A few weeks ago, local entrepreneur Peter Urban invited me to take part in one of his newest projects – an Internet TV show for small businesses called SmibsTV. Specifically he wanted to explore how small businesses can use Twitter to help themselves grow. I thought it was a great idea and jumped at the opportunity! The episode went live today.

Here’s what Cam wrote about Smibs on Techvibes a couple months ago:

Peter Urban, the company’s founder and President, said that Smibs was conceived out of years of consulting SMBs and finding a common small business frustration: the difficult balancing act of staying in touch with your network and on top of your sales activities, while working on projects that pay the bills. Urban’s solution to that challenge is Smibs and their first extension: Doorbell, a web-based sales software application for “non-sales people”.

You might recall that I gave Smibs my “demo of the evening” at the first Edmonton DemoCamp. It was my first exposure to the company, and I’ve been continually impressed ever since. Peter and his team use social media very effectively, so it was a treat to talk to him about it.

Check out the episode at SmibsTV and let me know what you think!

Recap: EdmontonTweetup2

Tonight we held our second tweetup here in Edmonton. Our last tweetup was held during the day on a Saturday, so I expected that we’d have a different audience out this time and for the most part we did. Of the 18 or 19 people that came tonight, I would guess that only 5 or 6 of us were at the first tweetup. To me that’s great, because it gets new people involved and illustrates that the Twitter community in Edmonton is quite big! Hopefully we’ll have a tweetup one day that everyone can make it to.

I only took a couple photos tonight, but @bruceclarke took quite a few shots with his fancy camera! You can see them in the Edmonton Tweetup set. Thanks Bruce!

EdmontonTweetup2

The venue was The Billiard Club on Whyte Avenue, which worked really well. We made our way to the patio in the back to soak up the sunny, thirty degree weather. There was no wifi access, but that didn’t stop us from having some really interesting and lively discussions!

It’s always great to be able to put a face to the username and chat with some of the most interesting people in the city. That’s what I love about the tweetups, and that’s why I think we’ll continue to have them every now and then.

I’ve added as many of the attendees as I can remember to the wiki page, but if I missed you, please feel free to add your username. Also add your links to blog posts and photos, etc. I’ve also created a page for our next tweetup, so if you have ideas, post them!

Thanks to everyone who came out tonight!

Edmontonians flock to transit in 2008?

100 Years of ETSI never thought I’d write a headline like that, but apparently it’s true. According to an article at CBC last week, Edmonton Transit is reporting that ridership rose by 8% in the first six months of 2008 compared with the same period last year. That’s roughly equivalent to an extra 2.5 million fares. ETS called the increase “astounding”, but seemed confused about the cause:

“Buses are packed, the LRT is packed, ridership continues to increase at an astounding rate,” said Ken Koropeski, director of service development for Edmonton Transit.

The increase is almost three times the growth being experienced by other transit systems across the country, Koropeski said, a trend for the city over the past few years.

The CBC article cites three potential reasons: high gas prices, the booming economy and related influx of newcomers to our city, and the U-Pass. I suspect #2 is the biggest cause, but that’s just my gut reaction. I wonder what impact the growth will have on security calls, which have already increased 20% over the last three years.

I also wonder why ETS didn’t share any of this information back in April? You might recall that Statistics Canada released information at the time that said nearly 80% of Edmontonians get to work in vehicle. Granted the StatsCan information came from the 2006 census, but it would have been a good opportunity for ETS to dispel some myths about stagnant (or least slowly growing) ridership.

I hope the growth continues. ETS turns 100 this year, and will celebrate Centennial Week from September 12th to 20th. You can learn more at the ETS website.

EdmontonTweetup2 – August 14th

Next week we’ll be having our second tweetup here in Edmonton. It’s a great way to meet other Twitter users from Edmonton and area – there’s quite a few of us already and the number keeps growing! The event is fairly informal and relaxed, the goal is just to have some fun meeting new people! You can read about our first tweetup here. Hard to believe it’s been three months already!

It’s always a challenge to find a date and time and venue that everyone can make it out to, so we’re trying something different this time. Here are the details:

WHO: Twitter users in Edmonton!
WHAT: An event to meet one another in meatspace.
WHERE: The Billiard Club on Whyte Avenue (map)
WHEN: Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 6:00pm
WHY: To chat about anything with other Twitter users!

If you’re planning to come out on Thursday, add your name to the list on our wiki. You may also want to follow edmontontweetup and/or myself on Twitter for updates.

See you there!