On a more cheerful note, it looks like we may get a bit of a break on the GST. I would just say people are cranky because of economic problems, but I suppose vibesession sounds much more clever and current. In any event, I suppose we will see if this helps some...

It looks nice and probably not quite as cold as it looks, but these events are planned quite a bit ahead of time and our winter weather is fairly variable. I have always felt the best way to get unseasonably warm weather in the winter is to have an Ice Sculpture Festival. It seems to often...

This is a bit confusing. I'm not sure if this is an expansion why they wouldn't just use space available in their current building, as it seems there is the extra space there. Unless they feel may somehow be cheaper to get someone else to renovate or provide the space. There may be reasons to...

The cynical part of me feels that the current UCP government is trying to minimize or destroy any power structures in the province other than them. Hence they are trying to control municipalities and reduce their ability to work together. Alberta uber alles, I guess.

So the non car owing households are around 800,000 Albertans, which is not an insignificant number. And this does not account for households that only have one car for several people, who may not want to or be able to always travel together, or people who don't have new cars. But this isn't...

Its not that difficult, even school children take busses regularly! I have taken transit systems in cities I am unfamiliar with. It is possible to figure it out. But I am not saying this will work for everyone, no transportation system serves 100% of people.

I realize many north Americans and Albertans have car separation anxiety, but even here we can get by without one without great difficulty. It depends on where you are going and what you are doing. For instance, if you are going to a meeting downtown, you may not need a car, or if you are...

We actually now have an LRT line connecting four other parts of the city with downtown (ok the Metro line to NAIT isn't that long) and will soon have another to the West End, so I don't its a lack of transit to downtown that is the problem here now. There are various reasons people are hesitant...

There could be a combination some that are non stop between the two bigger cities and some that stop in Red Deer, so you may get to 2 hours, which is a good time savings vs. auto or bus, but I sense beyond that would be too costly.

One of the biggest criticisms of City Centre West, or Eaton Centre as it was called at the time it was built by the Ghermezians, was that it was too much of a replication of a suburban mall for such a downtown location. In their defense, of course they were just building what they knew how to...

I go through both of these spaces regularly - traffic in City Centre and retail there is recovering, while the old Bay space remains fairly dead. I think the University has a few more people actually working there now, but it still seems very quiet. So if I had to pick, the Bay space really...

If I understand correctly the city isn't planning to build anything here, but just coming up with ideas it hopes some private developers will follow or take up which it refers to as planning.

So there will be nothing built or under construction before the next election or probably even several after that?

Yes, the areas are complimentary. One of the ways Edmonton was spread out to much, was major arts and entertainment facilities built in the 1950's to the 1970's were built outside of downtown: for instance, the Jubilee Auditorium, the Coliseum and the former Royal Alberta Museum are three...

Oh there are always industries looking for a handout and given the close relationship between municipal politicians and this group that tends to be major donors, this is not surprising. I am all for more housing downtown and I am ok with subsidizing particularly so lower income people can...

I would completely agree with the point the city is more spread out. This is very obvious when you compare the CMA populations of the two cities that are fairly close, yet Calgary is constantly referred to as a much bigger city. The discrepancy in these facts is because more people in the...

I was thinking along these lines reflecting more on all the recent silly talk of demolishing things to improve our downtown, which I feel is mostly nonsense perhaps peddled by people who like to put forth easy answers and quick fixes. But demolishing the mall actually is one thing that would...

Yes, rents were going up a lot but I feel the increase is starting to slow a bit. So perhaps they got a bit ahead of themselves and realized they needed to adjust.

Calgary ...? Provincial governments seem to like to build hospitals there more than here.

I realize you weren't saying we need to bulldoze Whyte Ave, but the initial proponents of the downtown too big were actually talking about demolishing things and this is a logical outcome of the tear down to improve approach which I feel very strongly is going down the wrong path. People have...