Officials hope three works of art and decoration — a light-refracting sculpture hanging from the ceiling called The Raven, a wall of musical dancing lights beside the moving sidewalk and a living wall of tropical plants — will give foreign travellers a better first impression of Edmonton before they go through customs.
Which will then be usurped by the second impression: a desolate 15 minute drive into the city.
EDIT: I should point out that I actually think making things — all things — nicer and more welcoming is good for everyone. But shaping this as a better first impression of Edmonton is silly. The airport isn’t even in Edmonton, dummies! This is a first impression of Leduc, which is a big pile of shit no matter how you look at it!
Ohhhhhhh man. This is making me cum buckets. Not because of the design — which I actually really like — but because of how many crazy fuckos are going to scream about this!
Thank. Fucking. Christ.
There really isn’t much to say about how stupid this is so I’ll just say isn’t Jane Batty … batty?
(nailed it)
New neighbourhoods already approved by Edmonton city council will cost the city an additional $1.2 billion for fire halls, parks, police stations and libraries, says a new report that gives the numbers for the first time.
(via the Edmonton Journal)
Look, dummies, I get that is is a big stupid deal. City Council is ridiculous — it’s always ridiculous — but a cursory look at the online response to this is mind numbing. People have turned this into “OMG URBAN SPRAWL IS EVIL IT WILL DESTROY US.” That’s an understandable, albeit idiotic, point to make. The issue is that Council went ahead with approvals without knowing how much it would cost, and the reality is that it’s going to cost a lot and we have a tight-ass downtown arena to build, yo. The real problem here is about a bunch of stupids running the city who apparently don’t know that you should figure out how much something is going to cost before you approve it.
As for the issue of sprawl, I’m sorry, but if you want urban development on a scale that will transform Edmonton, you either need to leave this city or stop holding your breath. Edmonton is a product of its environment: plunked in the middle of a farmer’s field with no natural boundaries. People want houses and yards and quiet streets and they don’t want to buy into established neighbourhoods that have become horribly overpriced. (Largely due to sprawl; circle of life!) These people aren’t wrong; they’re practical. And you can think that they’re killing your precious Portland-of-the-North, but until you stop renting your piece of shit basement suite off of Whyte and 91st, spending your evenings hunting for new Listen Birds to photograph with your broken Nikon FM2, shut the fuck up about urban sprawl.
They lost me at “we do not see ourselves as curators” and then I killed myself at “oppressed visual culture.”
Fourth-generation Strathcona resident Rob McDonald, upset that a new apartment building on Whyte Ave will block his “historic view of the landmark Old Strathcona train station.”
Yeah, a building that was a shitty bar — which was closed due to escalating gun and knife violence at the venue — for the longest time and now sits vacant, waiting to be turned into a new shitty bar. Real historic. What a cultural resource. Great view.
(via the Edmonton Journal)
27 taken to Edmonton hospitals during two-day dance party that drew thousands
I didn’t have an opinion on this Skrillex wub-wub orgy on the gross north side this weekend, but after seeing this photo, I’ve pretty much decided that banning this shit is the most important issue facing Edmonton.
Fuck the arena, Mandel, this is your REAL legacy.
Yo, this is shitty and definitely something we can all agree we don’t want in our backyard, but what the fuck is a “drinking party”, Edmonton Journal?
