City McCityFace is the slogan Edmonton deserves

Coun. Michael Oshry, tongue deeply in cheek, suggested Tuesday that Edmonton might consider revising its slogan to "City McCityFace." He did this as council spent yet more time not devoting itself to addressing things like homelessness or sprawl or, you know, issues.

A city that uses City of Champions: Pittsburgh. Flickr/AhrJay

But despite Oshry's joking, City McCityFace is the slogan we currently deserve.

Edmonton seems torn in two between those who look to the past as our greatest times and those who see the city as needing a whole lot better in the future — and I count myself in the latter camp.

That we've spent so much time debating City of Champions appearing on welcome signs — for people flying past at 130 kilometres per hour — shows you how powerful the nostalgia lobby is in Edmonton. But that we continue having to worry about this lobby's feelings and concern for the good old days is the unexamined and damaging power of populism.

Our city is happening in the future. Nostalgia, most especially around sports and sports venues, is currently affecting simple decisions over the future of Northlands and the Coliseum. If we need a slogan, we need City McCityFace. Why? Because it highlights just how ridiculous all the time we've spent debating City of Champions really is. And it underlines how corrosive populism is to actual progress.

Thankfully, the motion to re-examine the slogan failed Tuesday. 

-End rant

 

Why so silent? An update on what I'm working on

I'm rarely at a loss for words but my blog here has seen few of them since mid May. What gives?

Well, the truth is I'm working at it.

Flickr/Kurt Bauschardt

Aside from some stories that I'm writing for The Walrus (online) and The Globe and Mail, I'm also working on a larger project for well, well down the road for Canadian Geographic.

On top of that, I'm also putting the final touches on my first Walkcast, a podcast about walking in cities. In fact, if you're keen to help out and learn more about podcasting, I could very much use a production assistant on this one.

The first episode of Walkcast features an in-depth walk about with Kurt Borth, where he explains his research into location efficiency, and a walk with Prem Singhmar, who had some blunt words about The Quarters and how the city of Edmonton has encouraged development in the area. I can't wait to post it.

Beyond all of this, I've also started preliminary work with the Old Strathcona Farmers' Market, to build a communications strategy for the next generation. Oh, and I've taken a seat at the steering committee Paths for People has built for an upcoming, transformative event in Edmonton in 2018.  

All of this, I'm hoping, will allow me the time and financial security to resume work on my memoir about car dependency. I'm hoping to be back to writing there by the end of the summer. 

If you're keen to help with the Walkcast, please be in touch. timquerengesser at yahoo dot com. 

In praise of a one-term councillor

I wish more people on Edmonton City Council were like Coun. Michael Oshry.

Oshry and I don't agree on everything, but I sure value his contrarian nature and willingness to engage people to talk issues. What makes me wish more were like him, though, is that Oshry has decided not to ride out his seat on city council for as long as he can, which is something of a known and unfortunate behaviour councillors have tended to exhibit in this city.

City of Edmonton stock

Instead, Oshry announced on Wednesday he's not running in this fall's election. This will allow someone else, with a refreshed agenda, competency or pet project, to take over in Edmonton's Ward 5.

Some I spoke with about Oshry's announcement yesterday said it was "strange" to be a one-term councillor. And, in some ways, they have a point: It takes a long time to achieve a larger agenda in our city, and politics can be seen as a profession just like, say, accounting or nursing.

But there's another way to look at Oshry's decision. Given how Edmonton voters routinely send incumbent councillors back to council up and until the councillor themselves decides to call time, Oshry stepping aside promises more of what we need on council.

Change.

It was 1998 when Ward 9 voted Coun. Bryan Anderson to council, and it was 2001 when Coun. Ed Gibbons was first elected in Ward 4. Both have announced they're not running again in 2017, and respectfully to them, I think it's the right decision. In the time between 1998 and today, Edmonton has transformed.

Back then, Edmonton was a city of about 625,000 people, most of whom lived in suburbs and worked in a sleepy downtown of offices, pedways and parkades. In 2017, Edmonton is a city of close to one million, with a nascent urban bike grid, a soon-to-launch rethink on transit and a new LRT line on the way, mixed with an impossibly spaced out inner ring of first-generation suburbs and some very entrenched NIMBYism. Oh, and Blatchford and The Quarters and bridges that are years behind schedule. 

The next council will have to make bold, perhaps even unpopular decisions, in order to make Edmonton work well for those outside the Baby Boomer demographic.  

To do this, I think our council needs to be younger, more diverse, more reflective of who we are and what we want the city to be in the future. (As an aside, the fact Coun. Bev Esslinger is the lone woman on council in a city of our size and ambition is unacceptable.)

That's why I think Oshry's decision is exciting and why I respect his decision so much.

Still, while Oshry, Anderson and Gibbons' departure opens the possibility of more reflective candidates entering council, incumbent power could possibly feature in the 2017 vote. Ward 7 councillor Tony Caterina, who was first elected in 2007, is running again. His son, Rocco, will likely run for Gibbons' vacated seat.