Happy Mother’s Day! Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• Rachel Notley will be Alberta’s next premier after the NDP won a majority in Tuesday’s election, defeating the ruling PC party. It was the result the polls were predicting but few believed could actually happen. Even a few days later, many found it hard to believe the NDP won. Here in Edmonton, the NDP won every seat. They also won every seat in the surrounding areas like St. Albert and Sherwood Park. You can see the full results here.
• The story behind the NDP’s rise and the PC’s fall is so compelling that newspapers around the world covered it, including the Guardian, the New York Times, and Vox.
• Former mayor Stephen Mandel was one of the many who lost his seat on Tuesday evening.
• The City of Edmonton has kicked off its summer construction season, announcing $451 million of investment in more than 175 road projects. You can see the full list of road projects here.
• Another big announcement from the City was that investments have contributed nearly $750 million to civic programs and facilities over the last decade. Without those investments, they say Edmontonians would have faced a tax increase of 7% over that period of time.
• Apparently the Edmonton region lost 1,300 jobs in April, and City of Edmonton Chief Economist John Rose says that could be a sign of things to come. The unemployment rate for the Edmonton CMA rose to 5.8% in April.
• The Northlands Board of Directors announced this week that they accepted all recommendations of the Northlands Arena Strategy Committee. That frees the management team to start moving forward on finding an alternate use for Rexall Place.
• Could the Metro Line soon be open? ETS began field training on May 2, another sign that launch day is approaching.
• Edmonton’s LRT has a new voice, but it’s not Brittney, sadly.
• Faculty of Engineering Associate Dean Steven Dew has been named the new Provost and Vice-President (Academic) of the University of Alberta.
• Here’s the Edmonton Rush season wrap-up! Let’s hope the post-season is just as positive.
• Congratulations to all of the winners of the 2014 Yeggies!
• Oilers coach Todd Nelson is still under contract, but it’s no secret that the team are looking at other options right now, including Mike Babcock and Todd McLellan.
• June 21 will be DIYcity Day here in Edmonton, a citizen-driven urban makeover day. If you need funding, you can apply for the Make Something Edmonton Project Accelerator Grant, but the deadline is Monday, May 11 at 5pm!
• If you liked Dustin Bajer’s YEGpie Flag you can now order your very own!
• For more recent headlines, check out ShareEdmonton.

Photo by Don Voaklander

Upcoming Events

• MacEwan is hosting it’s annual President’s Reception on Monday evening.
• The Global Visions Film Festival continues through Thursday.
• The Edmonton Public Library is hosting a workshop on Tuesday to help imagine what the future of the Stanley Milner library could look like.
• The City is hosting two sessions this week for EcoCity, one on Tuesday at the downtown library and one on Wednesday at the HSBC building. You can learn more about EcoCity Edmonton here.
• The Edmonton Real Estate Forum takes place on Thursday at the Shaw Conference Centre.
• Head over to 124 Street on Thursday evening for the season launch of the 124 Street Grand Market.
• Also Thursday evening is an event called YEGForward, which looks like a new initiative for young business professionals.
• I’ll be at Rexall Place on Friday night for the NLL Western Final between the Calgary Roughnecks and the Edmonton Rush. Go Rush Go!
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

Just in case you forgot that we live in Edmonton, Alberta:

Photo by Jason Woodhead on May 6

Photo by Jason Woodhead on May 9

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• Election day is nearly here – check out Dave’s latest roundup of news. Should be an interesting couple of days until the polls close at 8pm on Tuesday. The Wildrose has unveiled a list of its top donors and says it has raised more than $1 million in donations. Sounds like the parties are focusing on Calgary as the campaign draws to a close. You can check out the latest polling data here.
• The City of Edmonton has appointed Todd Burge as the new Chief Financial Officer. He has been the acting CFO since Lorna Rosen left in January.
• Council voted this week to remove the City of Champions slogan from our city’s welcome signs. Further changes will wait for a report on the costs and options.
• Property tax rates for 2015 have now been set, resulting in a 2.1% increase for the average single-family home, and an average increase of 7.6% for non-residential properties. Notices will be mailed on May 22 and the deadline to pay is June 30.
• From Spacing Edmonton: What will Alberta’s provincial election mean for its cities?
• Are you an Airbnb fan? The hotel industry is calling it a “serious issue” but the City says it is not pursuing active enforcement right now.
• Northlands held its AGM this week and reappointed Laura Gadowsky as the Chair.
• This is pretty neat – while performing soil remediation in the old parking lot at NorQuest College, crews found old building foundations that turned out to be the Tees & Persse Warehouse, built in 1913.
• Edmonton is now looking for its sixth Poet Laureate. The deadline for nominations is Friday, May 29.
• Groat Road was closed this weekend and will be closed again next weekend to allow removal of the damaged girders to proceed.
• The City has launched a new Current Traffic Disruptions Map to show planned construction and events-related traffic disruptions. It’s all available in the open data catalogue too. Great to see!
• The Edmonton Rush have completed their regular season and are now preparing for the playoffs. They’ll play their first game on May 15 here in Edmonton.
• Jason Gregor provides some analysis of the changes that have taken place recently in the Oilers management.
• Mayor Don Iveson wrote this week about Edmonton’s Community Energy Transition Strategy. “While a core function of the Transition Strategy is certainly about meeting risk head on, it’s also about highlighting the key leadership role the City must take to drive change.”
• Have a favorite tree? Tell Dustin and he’ll add it to the YEGtrees Map.
• In case you missed it: Daryl Katz is teaming up with Joel Silver, yes that Joel Silver, to create Silver Pictures Entertainment, a new motion picture company. Bring on the hockey movies!
• For more recent headlines, check out ShareEdmonton.

There are placards up now at the Neon Sign Museum!

Upcoming Events

• Tuesday is Election Day! You’ve got from 9am until 8pm to vote. You can find out where to vote here. On election night, check out my results dashboard for live results.
• Green Drinks: Hidden Gems takes place on Wednesday evening at Yellowhead Brewery.
• The newly expanded Global Visions Film Festival kicks off on Thursday and runs for one week.
• The next Exchange.js Javascript Meetup takes place at Startup Edmonton on Thursday evening.
• Royal Bison returns on Friday and runs through Sunday at the Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre.
• The Art Gallery of Alberta’s annual fundraiser Art on the Block is back on Friday.
• Head over to Hawrelak Park on Saturday for Get Ready in the Park, part of Emergency Preparedness Week.
• I’ll see you on Saturday evening at La Cite Francophone for The Yeggies! You can get your tickets here.
• Ellevate, “a fun activity day for females of all ages”, takes place at the Saville Sports Centre all day Saturday.
• Sunday is Mother’s Day!
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

MacEwan Station & Rogers Place

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• It finally happened! The Oilers have made some big changes to their management team. CEO Bob Nicholson has appointed Peter Chiarelli President of Hockey Operations and General Manager effective immediately. Kevin Lowe remains Vice Chair of the Oilers Entertainment Group but will be transitioning out of hockey operations. No word on what’s next for Craig MacTavish. Also, Patrick LaForge has stepped down as President and COO.
• The Edmonton Eskimos have extended Ed Hervey’s contract through 2017. Hervey has also added Vice President of Football Operations to his title. The upcoming season will be Hervey’s 17th with the green & gold and his third as General Manager.
• Pretty much everyone agrees: Rachel Notley won the debate on Thursday evening. Can she bring it home?
• We’re just over a week away from election day and this weekend I challenged myself to build an election site! The first version is now up which lets you browse candidates, electoral districts, and more. I’ve integrated some of the 2012 results data too and will be launching an update this week to support the 2015 results. My goal is to build the best online results dashboard for election night.
• From David Staples: all four major parties support heavy investment in city infrastructure, including the LRT. “It makes for a more boring election, but it’s good news for Edmonton.”
• On a similar note, the federal budget announced on Tuesday includes a transit funding commitment which takes effect in 2017. It’s not clear year how much will come to Edmonton, but it’s a positive sign.
• If you haven’t already watched the Legislative Assembly of Cards video do it now! It’s an amazing shot-for-shot recreation of the opening credits for House of Cards, but set here in Edmonton. It was created by Calgary cinematographer Alex Robinson.

• At least one of the bent girders on the 102 Avenue bridge project will need to be repaired and possibly replacing which means the bridge opening is being pushed back into 2016.
• Edmonton received a total of 7,864 votes during the We Love Cities Challenge placing our city first in North America and 7th overall. Nice work Edmonton!
• EPCOR has announced that President and CEO David Stevens is retiring. He will remain with the company while the Board searches for his replacement.
• A new Statistics Canada report found that Edmonton ranked 5th lowest out 32 cities in Canada when it comes to how residents rate their quality of life. That’s surprising to me!
• Congratulations to the Shaw Conference Centre on becoming the first conference venue in Canada to receive a 5 Green Keys rating from Green Key Global. The designation “demonstrates their commitment toward a more responsible and sustainable business event industry.”
• Will proposed amendments to the zoning bylaw put Edmonton on the urban agriculture map? I’m not sure about that, but they changes are welcome and positive.
• Edmonton’s NextGen has put out the call for presenters for Pecha Kucha Night 22, slated to take place on June 11 at Louise McKinney Park.
• If you hate traffic circles you may not be happy to hear that so-called “turbo roundabouts” may be coming to Edmonton. I like the circles myself (well not the one on 118 Avenue and St. Albert Trail…that’s an abomination).
• Be advised that ETS service adjustments took place today and some major routes are affected including the 1, 2, and 5.
• In case you missed it: here’s the wonderful poem that Poet Laureate Mary Pinkoski performed at the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts.
• Here’s my overview of what City Council will be discussing this week.
• For more recent headlines, check out ShareEdmonton.

Under the LRT Bridge, photo by Jason Dorn

Upcoming Events

• Mayor Iveson will deliver his 2015 State of the City Address at the Shaw Conference Centre on Monday at lunch.
• Head over to Haweye’s Too on Monday evening for the next interVivos event, this time focused on the provincial election.
• The International Conference on Urban Traffic Safety takes place this week at the Shaw Conference Centre.
• Check out some exciting new businesses at the 2015 VenturePrize Awards on Wednesday evening.
• Jim Prentice and other PC leaders will gather on Thursday evening for the PC Alberta Edmonton Leader’s Dinner.
• It looks like Passport Post, the newest initiative from the Edmonton Journal, is hosting a meetup on Thursday evening to talk about family travel.
• The Butterdome Spring Craft Sale gets underway on Friday and runs all weekend at the Butterdome!
• I’ll be at NAIT all day Saturday for the fifth annual Eat Alberta conference! Looking forward to learning some new cooking skills. If you want to join there are still tickets available.
• The Walk So Kids Can Talk fundraiser in support of Kids Help Phone takes place at Hawrelak Park on Sunday.
• Heads up: The Yeggies return on May 9! Get your tickets now!
• Oh and save the date: we’ve announced that the first What the Truck?! event of the season will take place in Churchill Square on May 23!
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

Kelly Ramsey Tower – April 25, 2015, photo by Jason Woodhead

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• Thanks to savings and increased revenue, City Council was able to reduce the tax increase from the 5.7% projected in December to 3.3%. They also gave in to EPS requests and approved the hiring of 49 new officers for the downtown arena area.
• Another big announcement for the Edmonton Arena District: the Baccarat Casino will be torn down after a new $32 million casino opens right next door in the summer of 2016. The new building will also house the offices for the Oilers and Katz Group.
• ICYMI: The final report from the Northlands Arena Strategy Committee was released on Wednesday. The recommendation? Find a way to collaborate with and complement Rogers Place, or tear it down and develop something new.
• As you’ve no doubt heard by now, the Oilers won the first overall pick in the NHL Draft Lottery, which means it’s almost a certainty that star Connor McDavid will start his NHL career in Edmonton. It’s their fourth #1 pick in six years.
• In other Oilers news, the team has agreed to terms on a two-year contract extension with Nail Yakupov.
• We’re now just a little over two weeks from the provincial election, and unsurprisingly the PCs have the most money. What is surprising though are the polls, which show the PCs in third place!
• Nice work Edmonton! The 2015 DONATE-A-RIDE campaign raised a record-breaking $242,685 which will be used to provide 101,136 transit tickets to passengers in need.
• We might be in the midst of an economic slowdown but you wouldn’t know it from Edmonton’s downtown where development continues unabated.
• Michael Ross dug into the news that Edmonton’s air quality is worse than Toronto’s. “Edmonton definitely does seem to have a problem” he found, but there’s some nuance to that which you might have missed if you just scanned the Edmonton Journal article.
• The Art Gallery of Alberta has launched a new initiative called the Poole Centre of Design, a “series of design-centred programs is made possible by a generous donation from the John and Barbara Poole Family Fund, through the Edmonton Community Foundation.”
• ETS is making changes to many downtown bus routes to “accommodate downtown revitalization and development of the Valley Line LRT.” There are both bus stop location changes and schedule adjustments.
• The City has amended its southeast annexation application to add four quarter sections based on research from engineering studies.
• Congratulations to PCL Construction on being named Alberta Contractor of the Year.
• Have you seen the large drilling equipment on site at Blatchford? It’s there to dig two holes approximately 150 meters deep to help evaluate whether a district energy system is feasible.
• Duchess Bake Shop made it onto a new list from Buzzfeed of the “23 bakeries around the world you need to eat at before you die”. Clickbait for sure, but still neat to see an Edmonton success story getting some international attention!
• The results of the 2014 Graffiti Audit show “an overall decrease in the number of incidents and locations of graffiti vandalism.”
• The Edmonton Rush held on to defeat the Colorado Mammoth on Saturday night, which means Edmonton has clinched first place in the west!
• Did you know the Oilers had trademarked the phrase “battle of Alberta” back in 2002? They did, and they’re now trying to get the Rush to stop using it. That’s of course their prerogative (and indeed responsibility as owner of the trademark) but it still rubbed many the wrong way.
• This is really cool: Brewmonton – a YEG brew history primer. Edmonton’s brewing history began way back in 1894!
• I saw my first mosquito today. Fortunately the City is already on the case.
• For more recent headlines, check out ShareEdmonton.

River Valley Sunset, photo by Jordan Vollrath

Upcoming Events

• The Edmonton Poetry Festival started today and runs through Sunday at various locations around the city.
• The Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts takes place at the Winspear Centre on Monday evening.
• There’s a public workshop on downtown bike routes taking place on Tuesday, and a workshop on the Strathcona bike routes takes place on Thursday.
• Edmonton Opera’s Lucia Di Lammermoor opened last night at the Jubilee. The next shows take place on Tuesday and Thursday.
• The Walrus and Enterprise Edmonton present The Walrus Talks Aboriginal City on Thursday at the Shaw Conference Centre.
• Edmonton’s 41st Social Media Breakfast takes place on Friday morning at Startup Edmonton, with a focus on foodies.
• The Game Discovery Exhibition (GDX) takes place at the University of Alberta on Saturday.
• Also taking place on Saturday is the 30th Mad Hatter’s Gala which raises funds for student scholarships and bursaries.
• Earth’s General Store is hosting Edmonton’s Earth Day Festival on 104 Street on Sunday.
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

The Federal Building

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• As if the last couple of months weren’t already rough enough for the City, they had to announce on Wednesday that the opening of the new Walterdale Bridge has been pushed back a year to fall 2016. The reason? “Steel required to build the new bridge was delivered months later than planned and put the project behind schedule.” At least the old bridge is still present and operational.
• Some good news though as Groat Road was reopened Tuesday. It’s still unknown what the plan is for the 102 Avenue bridge or how long that project might be delayed.
• Premier Jim Prentice announced on Tuesday that Albertans will go to the polls on May 5. Fixed election date legislation would have had us voting sometime next spring, but Premier Prentice says he needs a mandate to put the budget into effect. Dave has some highlights from the first week of the election.
• I don’t know about you, but my allergies have been awful to deal with lately because of all the dust that keeps flying around. Thankfully the City will begin cleaning up with the first street sweepers arriving in neighbourhoods tomorrow. You can see the schedule here.
• Edmonton Public School Board trustees voted against a motion to support a 50 cent per litre tax on soft drinks and other sugary beverages. Chair Michael Janz supported the motion and said such a tax could bring $158 million to the provincial government and would support better health outcomes.
• Get ready for the $24 million funicular that aims to improve access to the river valley – the City says construction could begin this year. Here is Paula’s take. Her editor is awesome and says “you can’t spell funicular without fun.” Love it.
• In case you missed it this weekend, I wrote about the history of Edmonton’s entrance signs and also why we should remove “City of Champions” from them.
• The University of Alberta has been awarded four new Canada Research Chairs worth a total of $5.2 million. “The U of A now lays claim to 48 Tier 1 and 39 Tier 2 CRCs worth $13.5 million annually.”
• Another Oilers season has come to a close. They finished the season in 28th place with a 24-44-14 record and lost their final game to the Canucks 6-5 in overtime. Captain Andrew Ference says the acceptance of mediocrity has to stop. Incredibly, the average attendance this season was still 16,839.
• The City has put out the call for public art for the new Northeast Transit garage worth $1 million, the largest in Edmonton’s history.
• The new Dovetail Delicatessen from the folks behind Drift is opening this week. Go check it out!
• Here are 20 questions with Amy Shostak, artistic director at Rapid Fire Theatre.
• The final opening night ever at the old Varscona Theatre took place on Friday evening. The new theatre should open in just over a year.
• Here’s an update from Phil (aka Baconhound) on the YEG Pizza Odyssey so far. “Now that I have eaten 14 different pizzas across the city I feel that I am ready to sit down and give you my thoughts on the state of pizza in Edmonton.”
• Here are the latest urbanism headlines from Spacing Edmonton.
• I was asked to share some thoughts on the City’s website recently for the Edmonton Examiner. Here’s to hoping we see a responsive, mobile-friendly one soon!
• With spring here and hopefully to stay, the City is encouraging Edmontonians to visit one of our city’s four Eco Stations.
• A press conference has been called for Monday morning about a casino announcement in the Edmonton Arena District. Metro says the Baccarat Casino will be replaced with a more upscale casino.
• For more recent headlines, check out ShareEdmonton.

The dust storm that hit Edmonton on Saturday

Upcoming Events

• The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce is hosting federal Industry Minister James Moore for a lunch keynote on Monday at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald. Special guest Rona Ambrose will be introducing him.
• The Sage Awards celebrate the contributions and achievements of seniors in Edmonton. The ceremony takes place on Wednesday during lunch.
• The City is hosting an information session on the 90 Avenue Reconstruction on Wednesday evening.
• On Thursday they’re hosting an open house on the 142 Street Rehabilitation project at Dovercourt School.
• Thursday is National Meetings Industry Day with the celebration taking place at Northlands Park.
• The Dare to Dream Dance Festival takes place at the Edmonton Expo Centre from Thursday through Sunday.
• The Edmonton Rush host the Colorado Mammoth at Rexall Place on Saturday evening.
• The Edmonton Woman’s Show takes place on Saturday and Sunday at the Edmonton Expo Centre.
• I hope to see you on Saturday at Mount Royal School for the 4th Annual Culinary Arts Cook Off, where Sharon and I are excited to be judges!
• Love beer? The Edmonton Heritage Council has organized Brew Curious: YEG’s Brewing History for Saturday.
• For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

MacEwan Station, photo by Dave Sutherland