Edmonton Construction 12 (December 2013)

[Daveography]

That "let's be realistic" guy bothered me. There's nothing realistic about your attitude, guy. You only need to look around you to see that this city is far from being stagnant as it once was. You need only glance at the plans for the park to see how far along they are. I can't fathom how someone can clearly see so much physical change happening and still be so negative.

[Coldrsx]

Infuriated me that people who CHOOSE to live here say that shit about our city.

[Hallsy's Toupee]

Originally Posted by RTA

I understand the sentiment, but short of the owner going into receivership, there's not much anyone can do to force them to sell it.

Yeah but my worry with this ongoing debacle is that the Permanent will go the way of other neglected heritage buildings in this city i.e. the scrap heap.

[s211]

Speaking of which. Is that burned-down apartment building downtown still a rubble heap?

[Daveography]

Originally Posted by Hallsy's Toupee

Yeah but my worry with this ongoing debacle is that the Permanent will go the way of other neglected heritage buildings in this city i.e. the scrap heap.

I worry about that too. I don't know why the owner is so dead-set on opening a strip club, but I have a feeling that if rebuffed again he will just let the building rot out of spite.

[ScottieA]

Varscona is going to EDC for formal presentation on June 17:

Varscona Theatre
Group2 - Allan Partridge
10329 - 83 Avenue NW
Site legally described as:
Lots 19-22, Block 68, Plan I

http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/documents/EDCJune3Agenda.pdf

[EdmTrekker]

Originally Posted by ScottieA

Varscona is going to EDC for formal presentation on June 17:

http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/documents/EDCJune3Agenda.pdf

Group 2 the architect? They have solid design peops like Barry Johns lurking around in the background. Not sure who is the design lead on this one.

[Hallsy's Toupee]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Right?


CBC video

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/new-downtown-park-plans-moving-forward-1.2661975

edit - I see that CTV has mixed up video clips

CTV

http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=374715

Updated CTV link
http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=375013

Who's the realistic guy? The dogwalker from the CBC clip?

[ue]

Reminds me of the article CTV had on the proliferation of dandelions in Edmonton where one of the guys they interviewed about it was so irked that he said we should "stop calling ourselves the City of Champions and just call ourselves the City of Dandelions". Too many negative nancy's in this city still.

[kcantor]

Originally Posted by ue

Reminds me of the article CTV had on the proliferation of dandelions in Edmonton where one of the guys they interviewed about it was so irked that he said we should "stop calling ourselves the City of Champions and just call ourselves the City of Dandelions". Too many negative nancy's in this city still.

don't know who that "one if the guys" was but it could have been me. the disgraceful proliferation of dandelions on our boulevards and parks and playing fields is a disgrace that stems from a lack of care and attention if not a lack of caring. expecting more and better and using sarcasm to point that out is far from being a negative nancy...

[Hallsy's Toupee]

Here's the dandelion story
http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.1850065

From what I gather from that story, it's partly due to provincial pesticide regulations and partly due to the city needing do more lawn mowing in public greenspaces.

[ue]

^ Dandelions are hardly an Edmonton-specific problem, though. The guy (it wasn't you) seemed to think otherwise and just kept whining about a perfectly natural phenomenon.

[fortroad]

Ok, where are the Stantec and Enbridge announcements?

[kcantor]

Originally Posted by Hallsy's Toupee

Here's the dandelion story
http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.1850065

From what I gather from that story, it's partly due to provincial pesticide regulations and partly due to the city needing do more lawn mowing in public greenspaces.

it might be partly due to provincial pesticide regulations but in my experience blaming someone or something else for dandelions is just an easy scapegoat/excuse for not doing what should be done.

the issue is really due to a lack of regular and consistent cutting combined with never overseeding and never aerating. the right seed mix shouldn't need watering and shouldn't need fertilizing although sports fields could probably use a regular top dressing every few years along with the overseeding.

it's heartbreaking to see the hundreds of thousands of dollars of landscaped space completed and maintained for two years before being turned over to the city in impeccable condition and slowly watch it all turn into a sea of dandelions through neglect.


the city says "they're just following provincial regulations" but they also presumably follow those same regulations on their golf course fairways. it's not "the regulations", it's the lack of maintenance that nurtures those dandelions.

[Daveography]

http://www.citylab.com/politics/2014/06/...who-was-changing-the-light-bulbs/372018/

The result, Taylor says, is a lack of true ownership and a profound sense of municipal amnesia. When he asked the city who was changing the lightbulbs in directional signs in some private parts of the pedway – because someone was – city officials couldn't tell him who. He asked about the security phones in parkades inside the pedway. "Nobody knew who was answering the phone," Taylor says. "But somebody was."

[Coldrsx]

Critical Mass: Edmonton’s pre-arena downtown revitalization

Edmonton was told a half-billion dollar arena would save its downtown. So why is the core revitalizing before it’s even up?

Jun 3, 2014

by Alix Kemp

http://albertaventure.com/2014/06/critical-mass-downtown-edmonton-revitalization/

[Airboy]

Dandelions, are not that obscene. I remember driving in Costa Rica and seeing Inpatients growing everywhere like a weed. Hell I paid 20 bucks for a few of those. Maybe we can sell our dandelions as exotic plants some where else.

As for Stantec, it got very very quite with all my contacts.

[Coldrsx]

*quiet

Fill out the EFCL survey here, focus on their role, public involvement and current issues.

http://efclsurvey2014.ca

[Hallsy's Toupee]

Staples: It’s the golden age of downtown pedways
Council may hate them, but pedways are beating the competition

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/edmonton/Staples+golden+downtown+pedways/9904333/story.html

Our boy Cold has been quite the media whore lately! He nails the issue, as usual.

[Hallsy's Toupee]

Residents skeptical of Greyhound claim that relocating bus terminal would result in minimal traffic increase

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/edmo...claim+that+relocating/9904741/story.html

Greyhound must find a new terminal as the lease for its current station, located at 103 Street and 103 Avenue, is up in May 2016. The property has been sold and there is no way to extend the lease, said Greyhound spokesperson Craig Leake.

The company has been quietly looking for a new location since 2012, and the move to 123 Street would be ideal, given they already own the property. They are considering two other locations, although he wouldn’t give details — only saying the properties are car dealerships whose leases are expiring soon.

Any clues as to which dealership leases are expiring? There's SUN Toyota on Whyte Ave, the various dealerships on Calgary Trail making the exodus to the auto village south of SEC, or the ones just off Yellowhead Trail and 97 St where Jarman Mazda used to be.

I'm thinking the Yellowhead/97 St area is the most logical. It's adjacent to a major highway and several transit routes that go downtown. I used to take my old car there for servicing and hop on a bus back to downtown.