The Pulse: March 29, 2023

When Linda Ha looks back at what led her to decide to close her barbershop, she sees a series of small decisions that resulted in an inevitability. But she stands by the principles that guided her decisions.

Barber Ha will close its doors on Whyte Avenue for good on March 31, nine days after announcing the decision in an email to clients. It's a product of many factors largely stemming from the pandemic, Ha told Taproot.

"It was actually quite a few things over a long period of time," she said. "Obviously, we had the closures at the beginning of the pandemic … As we were opening and closing, we weren't as booked as we were before — I don't know a lot of places that were — and of course, changing habits during this time was also a big factor."

There was also a "mass exodus" of staff who moved on to other opportunities, which Ha doesn't blame her former employees for. Add to that rising costs for everything from cleaning supplies to rent and internet service, plus perhaps the biggest challenge: debt from pandemic-relief loans.

"I did make some mistakes along the way," she said. "But also I'm not as cutthroat a business owner (as I could be)."

She described Barber Ha as a "community barbershop," where all are welcome regardless of gender, sexuality, or any other identifying factor. The mental health of her team was a top concern throughout the pandemic, she said. She could have raised prices. She could have changed her team's compensation model to chair-rentals, effectively putting them in competition with each other. Instead, she chose compassion.

"Do I regret the decisions I've made? No, I don't," she said. "There's just a lot of micro-decisions that have to be made, and sometimes I think the human part of me doesn't allow me to make the right business decisions."

• The city thanked Edmontonians for paying tribute to Const. Travis Jordan and Const. Brett Ryan, who were remembered at a regimental funeral on March 27. With the service concluded, the city says it will now follow Edmonton Police Service protocols in taking down public signs of tribute and memorial respectfully. On March 28, the city removed blue ribbons from fleet vehicles and began the removal of flower memorials, and on March 29 crews will begin collecting blue ribbons from public property. The condolence books at city hall and police stations will be gathered and shared with the officers' families.
• Mayor Amarjeet Sohi has responded to the new federal budget, which was tabled by Liberal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on March 28 and puts billions toward green industries, health care, and affordability supports. Sohi said he welcomes investments in urban Indigenous housing, which Edmonton advocated for, as well as in mental health, addictions support, renewable energy, and the clean tech sector. However, he expressed concerns that the investments "do not go far enough to tackle the challenges that urban centres like Edmonton are facing when it comes to addressing issues like houselessness and the housing crisis."
• The city got more than twice as many complaints about graffiti in January and February of 2023 than in the same period in 2022. This year, Edmontonians made 81 complaints in January and 143 in February, up from 34 and 56 in 2022. From January to March of this year, 29 of 147 applications to the city's graffiti removal program were for hateful messages on private property. Waitin Ng, managing director at Elements Wholistic Centre in Strathcona, told CBC News about his plan to address a longstanding issue with graffiti outside the business by adding to it himself with art. Ng said he hopes to access a Community Mural Grant, which is one of the city's graffiti management efforts. City spokesperson Chrystal Coleman said a mural can be an "excellent deterrent" but doesn't necessarily prevent graffiti or the involvement of municipal enforcement.
• EPCOR has begun adding a chemical called orthophosphate into Edmonton's water system at its two local water treatment plants. The chemical creates a protective coating inside pipes to prevent lead from leaching into the drinking water, with the treatment expected to take full effect after six months. Jeff Charrois, a senior manager at EPCOR, said orthophosphate is colourless, odourless, and doesn't have a noticeable taste. The plan to reduce lead levels first arose in 2019 after Health Canada lowered the acceptable concentration of lead in drinking water and 25,000 Edmonton homes were found to be above the threshold. EPCOR says about 1.6% of homes in Edmonton have lead service lines.
• CTV News spoke to Mill Woods resident Les Deaveu who believes the city should adjust signal lights to improve safety along the Valley Line LRT tracks. Deaveu suggested the intersection of 28 Avenue and 66 Street, where two sets of tracks and multiple lanes of arterial traffic combine, is dangerous because the timing of the red lights forces drivers to either stop on the tracks or run the red. TransEd said the intersection, and all other intersections along the Valley Line, were designed to provide vehicles "sufficient time" to pass through, while deputy city manager Adam Laughlin said work is ongoing to optimize red light times.
• WILDNorth, an Edmonton non-profit that provides urgent care to injured animals, may have performed the first successful porcupine blood transfusion in North America. Two weeks ago, staff transferred blood from a large porcupine that had been stabilized following a dog attack to a smaller porcupine that arrived lethargic and close to death. WILDNorth and the Harvest Pointe Animal Hospital plan to publish an article about the rarity in a wildlife medical journal.

On this day in 1971, credits rolled on the career of Bill Wilson, the longtime manager of the Garneau Theatre.

Film was the Wilson family business — his father started managing the Capitol Theatre in the late 1920s. Bill Wilson was responsible for creating the Roxy Theatre in 1938. He managed it for a year before leaving to start up the Garneau.

Although central Edmonton had a healthy number of theatres, options for cinephiles south of the river were limited; the Garneau was only the second film theatre to open outside of downtown, three months after the rival Varscona opened just a few blocks away.

Architect William G. Blakey built the two-storey theatre in an Art Moderne style, which developed from the Art Deco style popular in the 1930s. The theatre's marquee and neon signage make it instantly recognizable to anyone travelling along 109 Street, and the two-tone bricks that spell out Garneau on its north wall make it impossible to misidentify.

The nearly 800-seat theatre reflected the growing wealth and optimism that bloomed in Edmonton just after the Second World War — the interior featured golden pillars, a fireplace, and philodendron-packed wallpaper. On Oct. 24, 1940, the Garneau showed its first film, The Great Waltz.

The theatre ran independently before it was leased to the Famous Players chain, but its popularity as a first-run theatre began to decline in the 1980s and '90s as new, modern multiplexes opened in Edmonton. Magic Lantern bought the Garneau in 1991 and turned it into a discount theatre targeting students. This proved lucrative enough that the company started showing new releases again in 1996.

Edmonton is a city with a long history of demolishing beautiful old theatres. The Garneau has narrowly escaped that fate a few times. Defiant neighbours stopped a plan to turn it into a sports-themed restaurant in 1992. It similarly faced possible demolition in 2001 and 2007.

The theatre's future was secured in 2009 when the City of Edmonton offered funding to restore the original 1940 exterior and designated the building a historical resource. Atlas Obscura recently showcased it along with a dozen historic movie houses as one of the few surviving Art Moderne theatres in North America.

In 2011, the nonprofit Metro Cinema Society took over the lease. It has continued restoring the historical elements of the theatre, as well as showing a diverse range of classic films and independent releases. It also uses its stage for special programming, such as a Q&A with Skinamarink director Kyle Edward Ball, as well as events on harm reduction and homelessness, not to mention film festivals.

This is based on a clipping found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist @revRecluse — follow @VintageEdmonton for daily ephemera via Twitter.