the SUMMER 2015 • YARDS FREE THE DOWNTOWN EDMONTON COMMUNITY LEAGUE AND THE OLIVER COMMUNITY LEAGUE NEWSMAGAZINE Hollow LOVE THY GAYBOUR Temples Reflecting Churches on our evolve LGBTQ for the history unchurched HEART +6 SURGERY core Bikes lanes will change strength downtown—for the better exercises r r e e v i v R i R N aann orth Sasskkaatchheeww the THE YARDS | SUMMER 2015 theyardsyeg.ca YARDS SUMMER 2015 EDITOR INSIDE OMAR MOUALLEM ART DIRECTOR 5 EDITOR’S NOTE & COMMUNITY JENNIFER WINDSOR LEAGUE MESSAGES PUBLISHER JARRETT CAMPBELL CONTRIBUTORS FRONTYARDS Tracey L. Anderson, Murray The (Fit) Billett, Jeremy Derksen, Myrna 6 THE MOVE List Kostash, Brittany Nugent, Night courses and a condo help a virgin buyer 8 Ian Scott , Tim Querengesser plan for the future Reclaiming public spaces as your colossal urban gym CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Tracy Hyatt 7 THE ROUTE Downtown’s highlights through photographer EDITORIAL INTERN Raffaella Loro’s lens Allison Voisin ADVERTISING & EVENTS 9 AROUND DOWNTOWN Sona Chavda Clear your schedule for block parties, nerdy pub PODCAST RECORDING nights, thought-provoking speakers and more Steven Bowers EDITORIAL COMMITTEE CHAIR Jarrett Campbell CYCLES of VICE-CHAIR Chris Buyze DIRECTORS CHANGE Alex Abboud, Justin Archer, 11 Can the future 102 Ave. bike Lisa Baroldi, David Cournoyer, Myrna Kostash, Milap Petigara, corridor transform the urban core? r r e Michael Phair, Anne Stevenson, e BY JEREMY DERKSEN iv Alison Turner vR i The Editorial Committee consults on story ideas R and offers strategic support, leaving the decision a n making and final content to The Yards staff R O wn S D BACKYARDS e N I h W a c R CONTACT US t E N a IF o k N INNER VOICES r s w N 16 t a JE The Yards Magazine N h ort S e Y h B S h N A human rights advocate c O PO Box 43073 askat I T TRA LUS Edmonton, AB T5J 4M8 reflects on the “Gaybourhood” COVER IL BY MURRAY BILLETT ADVERTISING SALES [email protected] THE URBANIST 17 Hollow Published by How age-restrictive condos keep Temples The Central Edmonton families out 14 News Society BY TIM QUERENGESSER What does the future hold in partnership with for downtown churches and 18 YOU ARE HERE congregations? A flashback to the “Studio 54 BY MYRNA KOSTASH of the Prairies” THE YARDS PODCAST Monthly conversations with influential voices on the past, present and future of our neighbourhood. Find out how the downtown dining scene was resurrected, why coffee shops feed a sense of community and whether McDougall United can be saved. theyardsyeg.ca/podcast theyardsyeg.ca facebook.com/theyardsyeg 4 THE YARDS SUMMER 2015 @theyardsyeg EDITOR’S NOTE COMMUNITY LEAGUE UPDATES OMAR MOUALLEM DOWNTOWN EDMONTON COMMUNITY LEAGUE [email protected] Tidying the City’s Living Room Who are s the weather warms and people turn out Prioritize Pedestrian Areas in droves, we’re faced with one of our great Edmonton has few areas where people are just Bike Lanes For? Achallenges: cleanliness. Especially after as likely to walk as drive, and Downtown is one of winter. The amount of garbage, sand, and debris them. Let’s all work together to improve the level hortly before summer, I tiptoe past the left behind from the “big melt”can be discouraging. of cleanliness on our main streets, along high-use accumulative junk on my balcony to a Add to that a short but sudden injection of festivals transit corridors, near bus stops and everywhere Scrowded corner and whip off a wrinkled and outdoor activities and you’ve got the recipe for else where people congregate. Pedestrians don’t plastic tarp with the flair of a magician. Beneath it a a mess. In Downtown Edmonton, where a large have the benefit of being sheltered by their vehicles. blue, upright bike that performs one trick: it gets me number of us walk, this mess detracts from the live- So in order to make the city walkable, we have to around for the next six months. ability of the neighbourhood. Equally unpleasant prioritize street and sidewalk cleaning in pedes- But the freedom and delight I get from cycling is the airborne sand and gravel kicked up from the trian areas. also opens up a minor domestic tension in my roadside curb by passing vehicles and busses, and house. thrown into our eyes. Although we organize a spring If You See Litter, Pick It Up My wife, who owns a little red cruiser she named cleanup that sees dozens of volunteers dedicating A little bit of effort here and there can go a long “Scout,” is too scared to ride it on most roads, so hours to the cause, a single day just isn’t enough. way to improve Downtown cleanliness. If you see a we constantly negotiate how we get to places as a Let’s do better to ensure it’s cleaned faster, kept at piece of litter don’t walk over it, don’t ignore it; take couple—often separately in summers. For Scout to a higher standard of tidiness and presentable year- a second to pick it up. It’s a simple act that goes a long touch the pavement, a practically interstellar align- round. Here are a few ways to do that. way to improving the Downtown experience for ment of good weather, low traffic and clear side- everyone. walks must occur. By contrast, I mostly avoid the Year-Round Street Sweeping —Milap Petigara, Treasurer and Development sidewalks—partly because it’s law, partly because The amount of concrete and asphalt Downtown Committee Co-Chair it’s statistically less safe—and get a passive aggres- causes winter snowfalls to melt quickly, and the sive kick out of taming traffic with my two-wheeled sand and gravel applied for ice control erodes to As of May 12 the DECL board is: Chris Buyze presence. street side within days of application. And that’s (President); Ian O’Donnell (VP); Milap Petigara On the cyclist spectrum identified by American where it remains for half the year. It’s filthy. That’s (Treasurer); Erin Duebel; Jillian Gamez; Laurissa transportation engineer Roger Geller, I’m in a why we’re advocating to sweep our core streets on a Kalinowsky; Christie Lutsiak; Jarrett Mykytiuk; small category of “enthused and confident” riders. year-round basis, instead of only in the late spring Lindsey Trufyn; Vikki Wiercinski; Scott Winder and My wife, however, belongs to the largest subset, and summer, as we’re doing now. Chris Wudarck. “interested but concerned.” Fifty-four per cent of Edmontonians surveyed characterize themselves OLIVER COMMUNITY LEAGUE like this and, as Jeremy Derksen writes in “Cycles of Change” (p. 11), that is for whom the 102nd and Make Oliver Yours 83rd avenue bike lanes are being constructed. If your imagination can’t conjure why this city— n the past few years, Make Something Make Something Oliver Committee. Examples of sprawling, affluent, 53rd parallel north Edmonton Edmonton has embarked on a new branding the types of initiatives, activities or projects that —needs a multimillion-dollar segregated bike Iexercise for the city. The primary idea behind may be funded include: lane, think of it as a service road. Service roads the city-funded campaign is that Edmonton is “an • Skill swaps or skill-sharing workshops separate local traffic from commuter traffic, and in unusually good place to make something, from • Community activity nights (e.g. board game a neighbourhood like Oliver, where 80 per cent of the ground up.” Born from the idea that some of or craft-making nights) households own bicycles, there’s potential for a lot our most cherished services and institutions—the • Advocacy groups (e.g. bike lane advocacy) of local traffic. Fringe Theatre Festival, Canada’s first mosque and • Drop-in sports nights (e.g. badminton, Potential, of course, because only a sliver of first food bank, Bioware—were conceived, born and basketball, etc.) people in the ’hood commute by bike—just 1.37 per nurtured here, the initiative encourages residents • Festivals and celebrations cent according to the municipal census. (However, to also build something from nothing. Learn more • Public/guerilla art these surveys are deeply flawed because they don’t about it at makesomethingedmonton.ca. • Educational or fitness programs account for multimodal people; I once argued with We at the Oliver Community League think our (e.g. bootcamps, yoga) a census taker who tried to put me down as a driver neighbourhood is a pretty good place to make Find out how to apply for a Make Something because it was one of the several ways I get around.) something, too. So, we’re exited to unveil “Make Oliver micro-grant, or how to get involved, at And so the hope is a 40-block segregated corridor Something Oliver.” olivercommunity.com. We encourage you to dream along 102 Ave. will induce more cyclists, just as We want to financially support activities and big as you come up with a way to make this neigh- adding a lane to a freeway is guaranteed to induce projects benefitting the community and aligning bourhood yours! more drivers. with our strategic goals, especially building I hope my wife will be one of them. partnerships within the community. Both As of May 1, the Oliver Community League board individuals and groups are welcome to apply for a of directors is: Lisa Brown (President), Jarrett On another note, this is our first issue designed Make Something Oliver micro-grant. Individual Campbell (Past President); Danny Hoyt; Simon by Jennifer Windsor, who joined our team in applicants must be current residents of Oliver or a Yackuli (Secretary); Leah Hilsenteger (Treasurer); March.