The Pulse: Aug. 1, 2023

As interest in pickleball continues to grow in the region, a St. Albert-based facility is opening a second location in Edmonton.

The Pickleball Hub will expand to the Roper Industrial Park at 63 Street and Roper Road sometime between August and October, co-owner Michelle Cho told Taproot.

"It's near the Whitemud Freeway, it's near Sherwood Park, and it's easy access for all the southsiders," said Cho, who found the location while driving her son to soccer. "Pickleball is something that you plan ahead. You book a court, you arrange some time with your friends, you join a league, you join a lesson, and it's more of a destination-type activity."

Cho said she became interested after playing pickleball in St. Albert and connecting with the hub's owner, Vinh Ngo.

"We actually grew up playing ping pong together, and the two of us are still very close to our old ping pong coach," Cho told Taproot. "Once you're in the community... you see that the demand for pickleball has risen, and it's growing."

Ngo said he opened the St. Albert pickleball hub in 2018 when he couldn't find places to play during the times when he was free.

"Once I caught the pickleball bug, there was really no place to play, five years ago, in the evening," Ngo told Taproot. "For those prime-time hours, most of the rec centres are booked. Even to this day, it is always a challenge to get those courts."

The Edmonton Sport and Social Club added the sport in 2017 and has seen it skyrocket in popularity.

"I think that pickleball is pretty unique in how quickly it has grown," said marketing director Caitlin Richler. "We didn't really realize the growth potential, but it has been our fastest-growing sport."

Pickleball has grown so quickly that many municipalities are having a hard time keeping up with the demand for facilities. The Parkland Pickleheads have been lobbying hard to get more courts built to serve players in Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, and Parkland County. Last year, members of a pickleball group in Leduc told the Leduc Representative they were disappointed in the number of dedicated pickleball courts in the city.

• New data from Statistics Canada shows that the Edmonton census metropolitan area's crime severity index — which measures both the volume and severity of crime indexed against 2006 figures — increased 3.44% from 2021 to 2022. The violent crime severity index decreased 2.38% while the non-violent crime severity index increased 6.31% over the same period. The Edmonton Police Service said the data shows that "Edmonton maintained a consistent ranking in the majority of the comparative crime statistics categories from 2021 to 2022." Published EPS figures show that all three indexes have decreased since 2018 in the City of Edmonton itself, with the total crime severity index dropping 15% in that time. But Police Chief Dale McFee told reporters that violent crime is up so far in 2023 and that his No. 1 priority is to hire more officers. "We get what we tolerate. If there's no accountability, then we shouldn't expect anything but chaos," McFee said. He also suggested police will introduce a new approach for dealing with drug use in the coming weeks.
• K-Days welcomed about 557,000 people over its 10-day run this year, far lower than the 760,000 people that went through the gates in 2022. "Explore Edmonton is very happy with this year's event as we were able to provide Edmontonians and guests with a wide variety of entertainment, rides, food, and local activations," said Arlindo Gomes, vice-president of business development and venue management. Taste of Edmonton also saw attendance drop, from about 300,000 in 2022 to 270,000 this year. Both festivals cited poor weather as a factor.
• The Edmonton Public Library has named award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, and educator Mallory Chipman as its inaugural musician in residence. "To be the inaugural artist in this position is an honour I do not take lightly, and I look forward to facilitating musical opportunities and celebrating the artistic excellence in our community over the coming year," Chipman said. Her term concludes on May 31, 2024.
• A visualization shared by Dustin Bajer, founder of Shrubscriber, illustrates the cooling effect that trees have on the city. The map makes clear that areas of the city with a larger tree canopy are several degrees cooler than areas with fewer trees. The city's goal is to reach total canopy coverage of 20% by 2071, but it is unclear where those new trees would be located. Last year, Bajer spoke with NAIT students about where planting more trees might do the most social good in Edmonton.
• The struggling Edmonton Elks promoted Jarious Jackson from pass game coordinator and quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator. He takes over immediately, while former offensive coordinator Stephen McAdoo will remain on staff in an advisory role. Jackson told TSN that quarterback Taylor Cornelius will be demoted to the third spot, with Jarret Doege and Tre Ford now vying to become the team's primary quarterback.
• The Edmonton International Airport has signed on to a new initiative led by Action Coalition on Human Trafficking (ACT) Alberta that provides translated materials to Canadian newcomers about their rights in the province. QR codes to access materials in English, French, Spanish, Punjabi, Chinese, and Tagalog will be installed in washrooms at the airport.
• The Edmonton Aboriginal Seniors Centre is receiving nearly $300,000 in federal funding for a project intended to build capacity for Indigenous seniors to address gender-based violence. The funding is part of nearly $1.7 million announced to help address Pillar 4 of the National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence.
• Premier Danielle Smith's mandate letter to Mike Ellis, the minister of public safety and emergency services, asks for the exploration of continued sheriff deployment in Edmonton but does not mention the proposed provincial police force. "Increasing the role for sheriffs is not about replacing the RCMP. It's about augmenting and supporting the RCMP," Ellis told reporters.

The final version of the Anti-Black Racism Action Plan commissioned by the City of Edmonton last year recommends the creation of a permanent office devoted to meeting the needs of Black people in Edmonton.

That's one of 130 recommendations in the plan, organized into 12 categories such as municipal leadership, hiring and employment, and data collection. Other recommendations include the following:

• Design a program to promote upward mobility for Black employees in the City of Edmonton;
• Mandate the collection of disaggregated data by race within all municipal departments;
• Develop accessible avenues for reporting hate crimes on transit, including third-party reporting for those not comfortable in engaging with the police.

Mayor Amarjeet Sohi first announced the creation of an Anti-Black Racism Action Plan in August 2022 as part of an event re-committing the city's support for the UN's International Decade for People of African Descent. The city appointed two Halifax-based consultants — DeRico Symonds and El Jones — to create the plan, which they based on consultations with various members of Edmonton's Black community.

The city made a draft version of the plan available on its website in May and posted the final version on July 17. In it, city manager Andre Corbould says the city will review the action plan over the coming months and recommend next steps to city council in the fall.

"As we develop a plan to address these recommendations, we will turn our focus on taking action, and we will continue to listen and learn," Corbould wrote.

The city's Anti-Racism Strategy, which city council approved in February 2022, also recommends the creation of an independent anti-racism body, guided by a temporary advisory panel that has been meeting since February 2023, shortly before the dissolution of the Anti-Racism Advisory Committee. The city's website says it is expecting a report from the panel by spring 2024.

Photo: City manager Andre Corbould, seen here at a news conference in June 2022, said administration will bring recommendations based on the Anti-Black Racism Action Plan to city council in the fall. (City of Edmonton/YouTube)