The new O-day'min Park in downtown Edmonton, new temporary bike lanes that link to downtown, and the future role of a co-creator of the podcast were on the minds of the three co-hosts of Episode 332 of Speaking Municipally. Here's a snapshot.
Heartwarming heart berry
Decades ago, downtown created a parking campaign called "Park in the Heart." That makes the use of several downtown surface parking lots to incentivize housing development with O-day'min Park (the name means roughly strawberry or heart berry in Anishinaabe), all the more poetic. Co-host Stephanie Swensrude went to the recently opened park with a friend and liked what she saw. "It was awesome," Swensrude said. "I'm literally getting chills thinking about it. We sat on those swings under the Northern Lights (display) thing, and we just talked. And there were probably 15 to 20 people there. There was a group of kids playing basketball and there was a ton of people at the dog park. There were people at the little fire pits, and this was all on a Sunday evening."
Co-host Mack Male also went to the park with his two daughters. "It was nice to see so many people there," Male said. "And then I took my youngest again this week on Remembrance Day, because everything else was closed, and we were home and went to the playground. She had a great time climbing and sliding. It's the best playground now that is close to us. But I have to think that most of the people visiting the park right now are not from downtown, because there's not that many kids around us."
Male noted the programming for the park's opening set a good expectation for what the park can and could be used for. "This is not just a place to sleep, or to do drugs, or any of those kinds of things — and like, let's be honest, those things are going to happen in the park, and that's fine," he said. "It's a public space, but I think there's an opportunity to set some expectations and some norms ahead of time."
On that point, Swensrude noted the recent experience with the Valley Line LRT, which opened with heated vestibules but saw the city eliminate or disable those features after a large amount of social disorder concentrated around them, meaning everyone lost features that they nonetheless paid for. "I'm really worried that all of these lovely winter city elements (at O-day'min Park), we might lose them, because homeless people go and use them," she said, adding that she supports everyone's right to use things to stay warm and worries mostly about the city's response.
Co-host Troy Pavlek took the urbanist position. "The big sadness for me is that (the) Boston Pizza still exists with the gravel parking lot to the south," Pavlek said. "You take your wins where you can get them, and turning gravel parking lots into this is a big win, (but) I would have preferred to win just a little bit more."
Replacement lanes
The closure of bike lanes on 102 Avenue due to construction of Valley Line West has caused a bit of controversy, which the co-hosts discussed. Newly built temporary lanes on 103 Avenue have made life somewhat difficult for the residents of a tall tower beside one of the lanes, and also for cyclists, who have noted design flaws with the unidirectional layout, even earning a soft criticism from Ward O'day-min Coun. Anne Stevenson.
"There's been some reporting that people are not a fan of these lanes," Male, who uses these lanes almost daily, said. "And Anne Stevenson, who's the councillor for O'day-min, actually said she's not a fan of these unidirectional lanes. And I will agree that riding on the lanes that are single direction are not my favourite, either. I much prefer the wider, both directions on the same side, (lanes) on 102 Avenue. There's enough room on that bike lane for my daughter and I to ride side by side, which is good for visibility and safety. But (the temporary lanes), they're fine."
Troy is leaving Speaking Municipally
The elephant in the veritable podcast room was the re-appearance of Pavlek, the podcast's co-creator, who took a break from the show during the municipal election campaign to allow him freedom to advocate for specific candidates rather than take Taproot's more journalistic, objective approach. Pavlek and Male, who co-created Speaking Municipally in 2018, discussed that they have decided to continue operating in separate canoes paddling in largely the same direction, so to speak, in the future, rather than return to how things were before the election. So, for now, Pavlek's leaving. "The news is, dear listener, that daddy's going to the store for smokes," Pavlek joked. "I promise I'll be back, maybe, eventually." He added: "I am not saying there's a horse head on Taproot's doorstep, (or) this is friends off, we're Splitsville forever. It's when it's right, it'll be right. And I'm open to that."
The Nov. 14 episode of Taproot's civic affairs podcast also includes discussion of members leaving the Better Edmonton party behind. Listening and subscription options are all right here.