The Pulse: Feb. 18, 2021

Edmonton drivers may soon face fines for passing too close to cyclists, in an effort by the city to clarify the rules of sharing the road.

On Feb. 17, city council's community and public services committee unanimously endorsed a proposed bylaw that would define a "safe passing distance" between motorists and cyclists, and fine motorists for violations, similar to a bylaw passed by the City of Calgary in 2019.

A report presented to the committee states the new rules would align with Edmonton's City Plan, one of the goals of which is to improve the transportation network for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users.

Typically, rules for cyclists on the road are set out by provincial governments. The Government of Alberta's Traffic Safety Act says drivers must pass cyclists safely, but does not clarify what that means.

Cycling advocates have been pushing for this bylaw for over a year. Christopher Chan, executive director of Bikes Edmonton, said the main benefit is that it "would make objective and clear what it means to drive safely around cyclists."

• The Edmonton LRT system will face system-wide disruptions between Feb. 25-28 as it undergoes testing and work for the Metro Line alternative signalling system.
• Edmonton police have responded to the video that was released of EPS officers removing people from a downtown LRT station during the extreme cold snap. "We should have arranged transportation or helped in accessing the services our partnering agencies have in place to keep our most vulnerable safe and warm," acting chief Alan Murphy and acting CAO Enyinnah Okere said in a statement.
• Premier Jason Kenney announced a new grant to replace the current program to support small Alberta businesses who have been impacted by the pandemic. Grants of up to $10,000 will be available in the spring.
• The province reported a "small but significant" increase in the number of people who aren't cooperating with COVID-19 contact tracers. In December, around 1% of Albertans weren't participating in contact tracing, but that number was 1.9% in January and 1.3% in February.
• "Where is the plan? The silence on how vaccines will be rolled out in the community is getting ridiculous," writes columnist Elise Stolte in the Edmonton Journal about the province's lack of updates about COVID-19 vaccine logistics.
• Edmonton's Bitcoin Well will move from Whyte Avenue to a downtown office by the end of 2021. "The move comes as the city’s Downtown reports the highest office vacancy rate in decades," writes the Edmonton Journal.

When Erika Thorkelson started reminiscing about her early days as a freelancer in Edmonton, she couldn't find any way to access her first stories penned for the defunct weekly, SEE Magazine. When the magazine's final issue hit the recycling bin in 2011, its website and online presence were shut down, too. 

"I wanted to be able to look at whole issues of SEE Magazine and reconnect with the culture of the time," Thorkelson said, noting that she found a few places with hard copies, but the pandemic made it nearly impossible to access them. "I needed digital copies. No one had digital records, but everyone I spoke to said they would love to have them."

After consulting with University of Alberta librarian Sarah Severson, the idea to create a digital archive of SEE's 913 issues took shape. The U of A library has a scanner that can capture bound print pages in high quality, full colour renderings, and make those renderings searchable — the same process was recently completed to preserve the full 1910-2016 print archive of The Gateway.  

A hundred years ago, coal companies were vying for business from Edmonton households with newspaper ads like this.

The coal from the Black Diamond Coal Company would appear to be of the homegrown variety — the mine was near where the Strathcona Science Park is now located. It was one of more than 50 mines operating along the Clover Bar seam underneath Beverly between 1900 and 1950.

Pembina Peerless Coal, on the other hand, was mined near Evansburg, where the coal was apparently of higher quality. This ad doesn't trumpet the coal's provenance, but the company went to great pains to assure customers in the Roblin Review in Manitoba that the coal was not mined in Edmonton but rather 70 miles west. Evansburg was founded in 1907 by Harry Marshall Erskine Evans, who was mayor of Edmonton in 1917.

Coal ceased to be used much to heat homes by the middle of the 20th century, but remained in use industrially. Natural Resources Canada says 7.4% of Canada's electricity is generated with coal, with the goal to get to zero by 2030 as part of our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The current controversy over opening the Eastern Slopes to open-pit coal mining is for metallurgical coal, used to produce steel.

This clipping was found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist @revRecluse.

• EPL's Forward Thinking Speakers Series presents author and activist Irshad Manji in a free talk on Moral Courage for Messy Times on Feb. 18.
• Silver Skate 2021 runs until Feb. 21 in Hawrelak Park and aims to get Edmontonians outside with a variety of winter experiences in sport, art, music, and food.
• Metro Cinema is hosting virtual screenings of We are the Roots: Black Settlers and their Experiences of Discrimination on the Canadian Prairies all throughout Black History Month. Metro is also running a retrospective showcasing the films of visionary Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai until Feb. 19.
• McMullen Gallery is showing an exhibition titled DAYDREAMS until Feb. 26, featuring the works of Yong Fei Guan and Wei Li.