The Pulse: Aug. 5, 2022

When the team behind The Helm started talking about expanding to a bigger space, there was no question about where it should be.

"Our entire DNA is based in the downtown core of the city," said owner Chad Helm. "We love the downtown core. We want to see it prosper, not die. It was a conscious choice that we made to stay and grow."

The upscale men's clothing company's new flagship store is just a block east of its former home on 104 Street, where it spent a decade. The new spot features an impressive multilevel layout at the base of Encore Tower, a luxury highrise that Helm says offers more than just additional space for its dress shirts and casual wear.

"Not only bigger, but more interesting spaces, spanning three different floors and allowing us three different opportunities to provide unique concepts to our client," Helm said.

Plans for the new store started in April 2020, "right in the heart of the mess that was going on," Helm remarked. Helm was confident the timing was right to double down on downtown, despite the retail lull caused by the pandemic, and the departure of clothing giants Holt Renfrew and Hudson's Bay,

"We've seen a lot, and we've seen the ups and downs of downtown and being a small business," Helm explained. "And ultimately, the city has been pretty good to us. Over the past 10 years, we've been growing, and despite some hiccups with the pandemic and whatnot, we were confident in the demand for what we have to offer in the city."

• About 90 soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Edmonton are going to England next week to deliver tactical training to Ukrainian soldiers. It is the start of a larger effort under Operation Unifier to deploy 225 Canadian soldiers to the U.K. to train new Ukrainian military recruits.
• Despite an 18% drop in Edmonton's crime severity index and a 21% drop in the crime rate between 2018 and 2021, Police Chief Dale McFee said the Edmonton Police Service is seeing an increase in crime trends in 2022. "Crime, in my opinion, is way still too high and we have lots of work to do," he told Postmedia. "The No. 1 priority is to make Edmonton safer for everybody, and we are trending positively. But, we have some serious storm clouds on the horizon."
• The Edmonton Folk Music Festival kicked off last night and runs through the weekend with almost 60 staged performances along with Indigenous acts throughout Gallagher Park. Alcohol consumption will be permitted throughout the park this year. The sold-out event is running an official ticket exchange program for anyone who wants to request or return tickets.
• An investigation by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) into the death of a man fatally shot by police officers on Aug. 18, 2018 found that the use of force was justified, but the authors of a newly released report recommend the Edmonton Police Service implement policies to mitigate future risks associated with traffic stops involving stolen vehicles.
• Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland said he is satisfied with how the organization handled the off-season, but he may not be done deal-making. "There are some players out there that I'm still kind of looking at for the bottom part of the roster," Holland said. "We'll see, but I am comfortable if we do nothing."
• The organizers of the 2023 Juno Awards have moved the event in Edmonton one day later to avoid a scheduling clash with the Oscars. Ordinarily scheduled for Sunday, the celebration will now take place March 13, a Monday.
• Sexual assaults in Alberta increased by 21% in 2021, according to Statistics Canada's latest numbers on police-reported crime. The number of police-reported sexual assaults has risen across Canada for the past five years, aside from a dip in 2020, and is now at its highest national rate since 1996.
• The province said it has directed the civil service to change the rules around bonus payments during emergencies in light of the $228,000 bonus Dr. Deena Hinshaw received in 2021. "The public service should not have the ability to unilaterally approve significant overtime payments of this size," said Finance Minister Jason Nixon. UCP leadership contender Travis Toews, who was finance minister at the time, said he was unaware of the bonus.

This weekend sees the return of Edmonton's Caribbean arts festival, as well as a festival of Japanese animation, an event with the author of psychological thrillers, a ball hockey tournament celebrating diversity, equality, and inclusion through sport, and music of the outdoor and indoor variety.

• Aug. 5-7: Cariwest Caribbean Arts Festival at Churchill Square
• Aug. 5-7: Animethon 2022 at the Edmonton Convention Centre
• Aug. 6, 9:30am: Louise Penny book signing at Audreys Books
• Aug. 6, 12pm: Pride Cup at the ICE District Plaza
• Aug. 7, 2pm: ESO Outdoors at Borden Park
• Aug. 7, 2pm: ESO Garneau String Quartet at the Art Gallery of Alberta

Find even more things to do in the Arts Roundup.

Photo: Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, seen here in 2010 when he was a councillor, will once again join the Cariwest parade, this time as parade marshal. (Mack Male/Flickr)