And then the meetings came to to an end. A historic election in 2021, which included the most women ever elected to Edmonton's council, a mayor of colour, and a progressive wave of councillors that, collectively, seemed to push back against provincial political winds that were blowing ever rightward, has now held its last meeting before the Oct. 20 election for the next council. But as the hosts of Episode 324 of Speaking Municipally noted, a council that created great expectations has not necessarily delivered. Here's a quick snapshot.
The bite of the hype
As co-host Stephanie Swensrude sang Alphaville's 1984 hit, Forever Young, to denote the melancholy of the end of the current council's public work, co-host Mack Male said the past four years have been challenging, especially given the expectations people had when such a diverse and new council was elected in 2021. "And now, with the benefit of hindsight, (I'm) just feeling like it didn't live up to the hype," Male said.
Swensrude replied that, as a member of Gen Z, she is already "very used to politicians being disappointing."
Both agreed, though, that the world itself is different in 2025 than it was in 2021, and that being a politician through this shift has undoubtedly been hard. "That's why I'm surprised that so many (councillors) are running for re-election," Swensrude said. "I would have thought that … a lot of them would be very tired out from politics, but it's almost all of them (who) are running for re-election."
West end not best end?
Construction gridlock was on both Swensrude's and Male's minds during the episode. The city has, in recent days, closed 102 Avenue in the Glenora neighbourhood, between 130 Street and 132 Street, to rebuild the Wellington Bridge. The backlash has been immense because it's just another thing to deal with for west-end commuters.
"This is kind of west-end traffic part two: Electric Boogaloo," Swensrude said, "because just as it seemed like everyone was recovering from having to funnel from 104 Avenue, now all of a sudden, 102 Avenue (is closed)."
The closures and restrictions to drivers, pedestrians, emergency vehicles, and other users of streets that connect to Edmonton's downtown include the bridge closure, work on Jasper Avenue, work on the Valley Line LRT on Stony Plain Road, and even work within neighbourhoods along the route. People expressing frustration have noted the cumulative effect of all of the closures happening simultaneously.
Male suggested it's another example of how Edmonton needs to get better at doing things. "Lots of other cities do construction and maintain access," he said. "And this is a bigger problem: I find, for pedestrians (there are more closures) than … for cars actually, right? But you can do work without closing sidewalks, and in Edmonton, we just always close sidewalks."
What's unfair in Windsor Park?
A strange item of discussion was the application from Westrich Pacific Corp. to rezone a land parcel near the University of Alberta in Windsor Park to allow for a 27-storey tower with close to 300 units. The application headed to council this week, but the discussion veered into unexpected territory, Swensrude noted.
Council voted to send the application back to administration because there was an appearance of procedural unfairness, Swensrude said. "Admin was kind of dancing around why they were calling this back for perceptions of procedural unfairness," she said. "One thing they did say is that the expectation is that decision-makers are unbiased and they have no consultation with parties outside of the public hearing." Swensrude later added: "It's very mysterious and I want to learn more about this procedural unfairness piece."
The Sept. 19 episode also discussed downtown work patterns, rezoning applications in Calder, council workload management, and more. Listening and subscription options are all right here.