Muttart Constellations, photo by Kurt Bauschardt

Linda Cochrane announces her retirement

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• Activist Greta Thunberg was in Edmonton on Friday and spoke at a rally at the Alberta Legislature. "We need to start treating this crisis as a crisis," she said. "Because you cannot solve an emergency without treating it as one."
• A mural of Thunberg painted by local artist AJA Louden was defaced over the weekend. So disappointing.
• City Council asked Administration to come up with an annual funding plan to help pay for the restorations of Brighton Block and the Strathcona Hotel. "These are the places where Edmontonians want to be," said David Ridley, executive director of the Edmonton Heritage Council. "So it really has a community and larger economic value."
• The 18th anniversary of the provincial historic designation of the Rossdale Power Plant was celebrated on Thursday with a new lighting installation "that highlights the architecture and history of the structure." The City says there are 35 light stands in the mezzanine floor and 28 lights on the smoke stacks, and that the project cost $200,000.
• City Council’s Executive Committee denounced Quebec’s Bill 21, signalling a willingness to back legal challenges against the bill.
• Cannabis edibles, extracts, and topicals are coming soon and the City says that "licensed cannabis retailers in Edmonton will be able to sell these products as soon as they are legally available from manufacturers and distributed by Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC)."
• A new road and pedestrian crossing is now open just south of Stadium LRT Station. I wish they’d change the name – Muttart Crossing is confusing.
• The proposed Nordic Spa at Fort Edmonton Park was abruptly cancelled on Friday. "Both organizations worked hard to find commercially viable common ground, but in the end we could not make it work," said Darren Dalgleish president and CEO of Fort Edmonton Management Company in a release.
• Mayfield Toyota has announced it is moving to West Edmonton Mall with the new dealership slated to open in April 2021 primarily located in the old Sears part of the mall.
• Campio Brewing officially opened in the former Characters space this past week. I’m looking forward to checking it out!
• Michael Kalmanovitch was running for the Green Party in Edmonton Strathcona but on Wednesday ended his campaign and encouraged supporters to vote strategically to keep the Conservatives out of power.
• Taste of Edmonton has announced it will return to Churchill Square next summer with more vendors and more food trucks. “We’re thrilled, we’re excited,” said Donovan Vienneau, Taste of Edmonton’s general manager.
• In the latest episode of Speaking Municipally we got a little distracted, but still managed to talk about heritage buildings, regional waste, and pumpkin spiced lattes.
• ICYMI: The Belvedere Transit Centre reopened on Oct. 2 with a new modern building and improved amenities and safety features.
• Get the latest on Media, Tech, Food, Health Innovation, the Region, Music, Arts, Business, and Council with Taproot Edmonton’s latest roundups.

Edmonton Climate Strike, photo by Dave Sutherland

Upcoming Events

• Monday is Election Day!
• This week is Edmonton Startup Week! There are lots of great events happening every day. The flagship event, Launch Party 10, takes place Thursday evening at the Edmonton Convention Centre.
• LitFest is underway at venues around the city. The festival runs until Oct. 27.
• DARK 2019 continues at Fort Edmonton Park until Nov. 1.
• The majority of the City’s Engage Edmonton 2019 events take place this week across the city. "Share your voice, help shape our city."
• Olde Towne Beverly Dining Week is on now at restaurants in Beverly. The event wraps up on Friday.
• WE Day Alberta, "the world’s largest youth empowerment event of its kind," takes place on Tuesday at Rogers Place.
• Nerd Nite Edmonton #52, covering gamification, bankruptcy law, and health living, is on Tuesday evening at the ATB Financial Arts Barns.
• The Edmonton Chapter of CPAs presents #yeg Fastest Growing Companies on Wednesday during lunch at the Westin.
• Happy 5th birthday to Pogo CarShare! They’re celebrating on Wednesday afternoon at Work Nicer Beaver House.
• Canadian Western Bank and AltaML are hosting How YEG Tech Will Transform Alberta’s Economy on Thursday morning at the Citadel Theatre.
• Fashion with Compassion will be held on Thursday at the Edmonton Convention Centre.
• The Oilers will host the Capitals on Thursday evening and the Panthers on Sunday afternoon at Rogers Place.
• Edmonton ScreamFest runs Thursday to Sunday at the Edmonton EXPO Centre.
• Edmonton Shift Lab is hosting a showcase on Friday evening at the Singhmar Centre for Learning to "announce the latest service prototypes designed to reduce racism at the community level."
• The PBR Canada Edmonton Classic will be held Saturday at the Edmonton EXPO Centre.
• The Edmonton Ski & Snowboard Show runs Saturday and Sunday at the Edmonton EXPO Centre.
• The Edmonton Pop Culture Fair takes place Sunday at the Alberta Aviation Museum.

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Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• New data shows that Indigenous peoples and racial minorities are disproportionately ticketed on Edmonton Transit. Since 2009, Indigenous peoples have received 43.8% of all tickets when race is recorded despite making up just 6% of the city’s population.
• What happened at Council this week is kind of hard to follow, but essentially it boils down to Councillor Cartmell pressing the wrong button. We’ve got much more on that in the latest episode of Speaking Municipally.
• The latest Vital Signs report shows that just 55% of residents rate quality of life in Edmonton as very good or excellent. “We found this was a very pessimistic year for attitudes in general,” Elizabeth Bonkink, communications advisor for Edmonton Community Foundation, said on Tuesday.
• A new report from the Edmonton Public School Board "shows students were placed in seclusion rooms 716 times in the first month of school, offering the first district-wide view of the controversial practice."
• According to new data from the Realtors Association of Edmonton, the average price of residential homes is continuing to fall.
• Councillor Aaron Paquette would like voters heading to the polls on Oct. 21 to ride for free. "I take voting very seriously and I think I take the ability to allow other people to vote very seriously," Paquette said.
• ParityBOT uses artificial intelligence to "identify hateful or abusive tweets directed at female candidates" which it then responds to with a positive tweet. "The software, which relies heavily on language filters, was engineered by Edmonton-based ParityYEG in collaboration with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute and artificial intelligence scientist Kory Mathewson."
• Kirk MacLeod has photographed the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald from his 15th floor office window nearly every work day for six years. "It’s a super spectacular view. In my life I’ve had views of parking lots and parkades, and, for a few years, a basement with no windows. So this is pretty amazing," he said.
• Rogers Place has introduced a new lineup of food and drinks including Panko-crusted pickles and Granville Island beer.
• Get the latest on Media, Tech, Food, Health Innovation, the Region, Music, Arts, Business, and Council with Taproot Edmonton’s latest roundups.

Fall for Edmonton, photo by Kurt Bauschardt

Upcoming Events

• Edmonton Design Week is underway and runs until Friday!
• This week is also Fire Prevention Week.
• The Edmonton Social Planning Council is hosting a Vital Signs lunch & learn on Tuesday at the EPL Enterprise Square branch.
• The Alberta Podcasting Network is hosting the Edmonton Podcasting Get-Together on Tuesday evening at the ATB Entrepreneur Centre.
• Green Drinks: Climate Politics takes place on Wednesday evening at Yellowhead Brewery.
• Alberta Blue Cross is hosting the Wellness Summit on Thursday at the Renaissance Edmonton Airport Hotel.
• The iTech Conference takes place on Thursday at the Edmonton Convention Centre.
• The Downtown Business Association is hosting its 2019 Fall Lunch on building innovation on Thursday at the JW Marriott Edmonton.
• Unrealized: Edmonton’s Unbuilt Heritage runs until Oct. 25 at Edmonton City Centre with the opening reception taking place Thursday night. The exhibit "examines the projects that would have shaped Edmonton, and the reasons they did not become a reality."
• Edmonton is hosting a regional qualifier for the Canadian Culinary Championships on Thursday night at the Edmonton Convention Centre, part of Canada’s Great Kitchen Party.
• Robert Saik will talk about how we feed the future and "how technology convergence is reshaping the farm and the consumer" in the next Lougheed College Lectures event on Thursday evening at the TELUS Centre.
• The 2019 RISE Awards will be celebrated on Thursday evening at the Edmonton EXPO Centre.
• The Edmonton Fall Rock n Gem Show runs Thursday to Sunday at the Alberta Aviation Museum.
• Luke Combs performs on Friday night at Rogers Place.
• Shinedown performs with Papa Roach on Friday night at the Edmonton Convention Centre.
• The Edmonton Downtown Farmers Market moves away from 104 Street on Saturday for the first market inside the GWG building on 97 Street in The Quarters.
• The Edmonton Eskimos will host the BC Lions on Saturday evening at Commonwealth Stadium.

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I am thrilled to share that Taproot has been selected to participate in the first Edmonton cohort of ATB X, the business accelerator from ATB Financial!

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Headlines

• Council has approved two more downtown towers this week – 9955 Jasper Avenue just north of the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald and The Clancey on 104 Street at 103 Avenue.
• Homeward Trust says the number of people experiencing homelessness in Edmonton has been cut in half since a peak in 2008. "Of course, we still have a lot more work to do," said Homeward Trust CEO Susan McGee.
• The University of Alberta’s vice-president of university relations Jacqui Tam has resigned "over the school’s "beefier barley" billboards, which were slammed as promoting climate change."
• A German real estate investment firm has purchased the commercial space inside Stantec Tower for $500 million, "the largest office transaction in Edmonton’s history in terms of dollar value."
• In a Q and A on e-scooters with Postmedia, Dr. Bob Summers from the University of Alberta says that "in the long term, we really do have to look at transitioning our city to be more effective for different modes of transportation."
• The Oilers have continued to be terrible on the ice and it appears that is finally starting to be reflected in lower ticket sales, so the team is looking to shore up the game presentation this season, I guess to make attending in person worth it.
• Our city needs more publicly accessible washrooms! "Unlike cities such as Toronto that have passed bylaws requiring all retailers to offer customers washroom access, Edmonton has no current bylaw requiring public washrooms."
• The Edmonton Police Service is launching a new "dedicated, focused team to investigate gun crime" early next year called the guns and gangs investigative unit.
• Hundreds of students packed City Hall on Friday afternoon to take part in the city’s fourth Orange Shirt Day event to "share the history and impacts of residential schools and serves as a reminder that schools are respectful, inclusive spaces for all students."
• More than 2,000 motorcycle riders were expected to participate in the 36th annual Edmonton Toy Run, which benefits Santas Anonymous.
• In the latest episode of Speaking Municipally we talked about new downtown towers, the downtown farmers’ market, and the Aurum Road extension.
• Get the latest on Media, Tech, Food, Health Innovation, the Region, Music, Arts, Business, and Council with Taproot Edmonton’s latest roundups.

Autumn Edmonton, photo by Kurt Bauschardt

Upcoming Events

• The Edmonton International Film Festival is on at Landmark Cinemas 9 City Centre until Saturday.
• DemoCamp Edmonton 46 takes place Tuesday evening at CCIS at the University of Alberta.
• The Mustard Seed presents the inaugural Office Chair Grand Prix on Wednesday morning behind Rogers Place. "Teams will compete in a relay and endurance event to find out which top teams will face off for ultimate office chair domination and bragging rights. All proceeds will go to The Mustard Seed employment program to help our community get jobs through employoment coaching, training, and placement."
• The next Edmonton Innovation Ecosystem Community meeting is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at the Edmonton Convention Centre.
• LitFest Alberta runs Oct. 17-27, but there are already events taking place like the sold out evening with Malcolm Gladwell on Wednesday evening at the Winspear Centre.
• The Edmonton Oilers kick off their 2019-2020 regular season at home this week hosting the Canucks on Wednesday evening and the Kings on Saturday evening, both at Rogers Place, of course.
• FC Edmonton will host Forge FC at Clarke Field on Wednesday evening.
• Change for Climate Talks features nine community leaders who will "share why they act on climate change and inspire others to take action now" on Thursday evening at Allard Hall.
• The Spa Expo runs Friday to Sunday at the Edmonton EXPO Centre.
• MADE is hosting a panel discussion with the Edmonton Urban Design Awards judges on Friday night at the Phipps-McKinnon Building.
• The Pop Culture Night Market takes place Friday night at the Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre.
• Just A Little Night Market runs Friday and Saturday at the Alberta Aviation Museum.
• The Edmonton Travel & Adventure Expo takes place Saturday and Sunday at the Edmonton EXPO Centre.
• Paths for People and the Edmonton Historical Board present E-scooter to the Past on Saturday afternoon starting at the Oliver Exchange Building.
• The NextStep Conference at the University of Alberta "provides experiential and hands-on education that will help transition students into adulthood."
• The next Homeless Connect Edmonton will be held on Sunday at the Edmonton Convention Centre.
• Bridal Fantasy takes place Sunday at the Edmonton EXPO Centre.

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