Edmonton Headlines: Wednesday, March 1, 2017

You ever just walk into a sign? It’s actually not out of the ordinary in Edmonton, where the City routinely puts signs, posts, even fire hydrants right in the middle of sidewalks and shared-use paths.

As one staff member puts it: “…the city hasn’t traditionally focused much on pedestrians in traffic operations.” No, people walking are not usually a priority here.

The City is saying it will do better. Among the options we’ll hear about, when a report comes back in the summer, are charging construction companies for blocking the sidewalk, building a second, usable, sidewalk and not actually placing signs in the sidewalk. Here’s hoping.

Dear #yegcc @Scott_McKeen et al. It’s currently illegal for me to walk to my grocery store. Does anyone care? pic.twitter.com/uvboRRUmcL

— Tim Querengesser (@timquerengesser) August 30, 2016

Justice denied

An Edmonton court heard the Crown won’t prosecute 15 criminal cases because of a “lack of resources“.

It sounds like there’s some hiring that has to happen at the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service, especially in Edmonton. But the chief crown prosecutor says more cases may be stayed before that happens.

Cases also have to proceed more quickly through the court system now, following a Supreme Court decision that sets timelines for the period from charges to trial of 18 months (for cases in Provincial Court) and 30 months (for cases in the Court of Queen’s Bench or a Provincial Court case with a preliminary hearing).

Catholicity

Students, parents and staff of the Edmonton Catholic School District all think things are going pretty well. The only thing that’s not in agreement is how good a job the school board is doing. District staff have a much lower opinion of the board’s trustees than parents or students.

This might not be surprising as the board continues to be involved with in-fighting, disputes and is being watched by the deputy minister of education as it gets itself back on track.

It’s an election year though. So all of that is probably not going to be enough to force the education minister to dissolve the board before October’s voting.

Best eats in Edmonton

Avenue Edmonton is out with its annual best restaurants issue.

Edmonton also landed five restaurants on the latest list from Canada’s 100 Best.

Meanwhile, the Edmonton Sun’s Graham Hicks is checking out a few of those forgotten/never forgotten spots.

In other news…

Our mayor just visited Yellowknife and Whitehorse and is now talking about taking our city’s post-secondary schools to the north.

The Alberta government has announced its green energy savings program. You can sign up today for an energy efficiency inspection of your home and free installation of items like showerheads, lightbulbs and smart thermostats.

Kevin O’Leary skipped the Edmonton debate of federal Conservative leadership candidates. Pourquoi?

Meanwhile, the dozen other candidates talked about video production value, I hope. More seriously, the debates were the usual affair and let’s hope the party chooses a leader who’s not going to push for racist, sexist and fascist policies that won’t create jobs or help Canadians, like a certain other right-leaning leader.

Edmontonians who use wheelchairs are going to have a gym that caters to their needs.

Edmonton’s Rockford Peach

The Alberta Sports Hall of Fame announced its inductees for the 60th anniversary. One of them is an Edmonton baseball player who spent time on the Rockford Peaches – a team made famous more recently by the movie “A League of Their Own”. NAIT’s undefeated men’s hockey team from 1984-85 is also being inducted, as is former Oiler Ryan Smyth.