The Pulse: Oct. 9, 2024

Edmonton's head of transit said a redesign that emphasizes visibility has turned one of the least safe LRT stations in the city into one of the safest.

Stadium Station was one of five LRT stations on the Capital Line when the system opened in 1978. The old station had an underground concourse that was essentially a series of enclosed hallways and stairwells that allowed riders to walk beneath the tracks to reach the platform.

Reconstruction of Stadium Station started in 2020 and cost the city about $28 million. "Stadium Station was in need of redevelopment and an overhaul just based on the age of the infrastructure," Carrie Hotton-MacDonald, branch manager of Edmonton Transit Service, told Taproot in an interview at the station. "It was a fantastic opportunity to rethink this entire design."

The old Stadium Station was consistently ranked among the top five stations on the LRT system that dominated calls for service to the ETS control centre. Those calls could be for security incidents, disorder, crime, or trespassing.

Redevelopment of the station was completed in May 2023. Hotton-MacDonald said the station has seen a 50% reduction in calls for service since 2019. It now places in the bottom five of a list that it sometimes used to top. This data doesn't include 9-1-1 calls.

The station's new design is safer because it has opened up sightlines, Hotton-MacDonald said. The concourse, stairwells, and hallways are gone, replaced by a platform that's at ground level, and entrances and exits that flow off of street sidewalks. When a rider is standing on the new platform, they can see the sidewalk next to the station, the low-rise apartments across the street, and the Kinnaird Ravine farther down the street. These "eyes-on-the-street," a term coined by urbanist Jane Jacobs, act as natural deterrence for unwanted activity. The natural surveillance also makes riders feel safer, Hotton-MacDonald said.

"When you have those open sightlines combined with more foot traffic nearby, it connects transit riders with people who are nearby and it just helps you feel safer when there's more people around," she said.

• Edmonton Transit Service has seen a 14% increase in ridership from January to September 2024 compared to the previous year, partly due to the new Valley Line Southeast LRT. The growth has ETS on track to move nearly 60 million riders in 2024, surpassing last year's 53 million, with ridership exceeding pre-pandemic levels by 12%. The City of Edmonton said it is continuing to work on closing the gap between current service levels and the growing demand.
• Edmonton Downtown Business Association CEO Puneeta McBryan joined more than 20 business leaders from across Canada urging the federal government to address safety and social disorder issues affecting downtown areas, which are linked to homelessness, mental health, and addiction crises. McBryan said that while business groups can identify these issues, they lack the expertise to solve them. She called on the federal government to collaborate with provincial and municipal partners to address shortcomings in the justice system and improve post-incarceration support. "These issues are affecting people wanting to live downtown, visit downtown. It's affecting tourism, it's affecting the mental health of people who live and work and own businesses downtown," McBryan said.
• A new 280-bed long-term care facility is set to be built in Lewis Estates for adults with complex care needs. The Good Samaritan Society will operate the facility, which will feature 20 independent households that will each accommodate 14 residents in private rooms. Construction is expected to begin later this year and take three years.
• CBC News got a behind-the-scenes look at construction on the Winspear Centre expansion project, including the facility's Music Box. "The Music Box is the jewel of the whole project," said Winspear president and CEO Annemarie Leenhouts-Petrov. The space will include a motorized platform that can descend into the floor, or raise for tiered seating. "This room will be able to pretty much do it all," she said.
• Churchill Square is once again home to Realtors Row, a series of plaques commemorating milestones in Edmonton's economic development, after they had been damaged during transit construction in 2022. The REALTORS® Association of Edmonton oversees the plaques that tell the city's story from the late 1800s.
• As the Edmonton Oilers prepare for their home opener at Rogers Place on Oct. 9, star players Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl say they are determined to win the Stanley Cup this season after narrowly losing to Florida in Game 7 of the finals. Draisaitl has secured a new long-term contract and the team is focused on building on their success last season. "We haven't gotten the job done yet, which makes it even more special," said Draisaitl. "We're going to do this together."
• Edmonton Elks players Loucheiz Purifoy and Jake Julien were named to the CFL Honour Roll for week 18 of the season. Purifoy was recognized for his performance as a kick returner with a grade of 68.4, while Julien made the honour roll for his punting skills with a grade of 78.2.

On this day in 1971, one of Edmonton's most enduring landmarks reopened after reconstruction work.

That year, the High Level Bridge was shut down for several months to straighten vehicle approaches to it and replace the deck. To celebrate the reopening of the vital crossing, then-mayor Ivor Dent drove across the bridge in a car from the 1910s, linking to the bridge's original opening in 1913.

The High Level Bridge marked a turning point in Edmonton's history. The Canadian Pacific Railway was a vital link to the rest of Canada, but its tracks stopped short of the North Saskatchewan River in what was then the town of Strathcona. Edmonton's survival depended on moving people and goods across the river easily. In 1904, then-mayor William Short and a few business leaders met with CPR vice-president William Whyte (and yes, he's who the avenue is named after) to discuss building a new bridge. Newspaper reports noted that Whyte was "very favourable" to the idea of building a bridge.

Edmonton residents were favourable, too. In 1909, they voted overwhelmingly in favour of a bridge agreement between Edmonton and the CPR. The agreement created an ambitious project, as Edmonton politicians wanted a bridge for motorists as well as a train bridge. Fittingly, the High Level Bridge was the first in Canada designed to handle four modes of transportation: Trains, streetcars, automobiles, and pedestrians. As such, it was constructed to be strong, stable, and durable. More than 500 workers laboured on the project, and four died during construction. Work was briefly halted in 1912 during a strike by steelworkers seeking better pay and shorter hours.

When the High Level Bridge opened in 1913 it contained 7,700 tonnes of steel, was held together by 1.4 million rivets, and was covered in 19,000 litres of black paint. The first train crossed the bridge in June 1913, and the first streetcar followed that August. Drivers of automobiles, however, had to wait. There was a dispute over the final payment for the bridge and CPR barricaded access to automobile traffic until October, when it was paid an outstanding $37,000.

Since then, the High Level has been one of the main arteries connecting the city on either side of the river. It has undergone many rehabilitations and modifications over the years. The ways Edmontonians have crossed its spans have changed, too. In 1951, streetcar traffic stopped(and fortunately brought back by the Edmonton Radial Railway Society in 1997.) In 1989, the CPR trains stopped crossing the bridge. In 1980, two-way vehicle traffic was switched to southbound one-way traffic. And when the City of Edmonton took over full ownership of the High Level in 1994, they added a new pedestrian walkway and cycle track on the west side.

At one time, the city considered swapping the bridge's black paint job to gold to celebrate Canada's centennial. Luckily, that plan was scrapped. When it came time to celebrate Alberta's 75th anniversary in 1980, a much more realistic plan was devised — to turn the High Level Bridge into an artificial waterfall taller than Niagara Falls.

A more sombre side of the High Level's place in Edmonton was captured in a documentary by filmmaker Trevor Anderson in 2010. His film explored the bridge's history and the many suicides that have occurred from its heights. The film screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance, and others, and led to the city building better suicide prevention measures.

Just like back in 1971, Edmontonians are again facing a lengthy closure of the High Level. It's set to close down for a full three years for repairs starting in 2027. And it's one of several aging bridges set to be closed as the city repairs them in the coming years.

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

Here are some events happening today in the Edmonton area.

• Babes and Brews starting at 12pm at EPIC Market
• TELUS CSW Double Scoop! — AI: Accelerating Social Impact starting at 4pm at Amii
• Investing in Edmonton starting at 6pm at Fu's Repair Shop
• Green Drinks starting at 7pm at Bent Stick Brewing
• The Olive Reading Series starting at 7pm at Rooster Cafe and Kitchen
• Poetry Night starting at 7pm at The Carrot Community Arts Coffeehouse
• Dev Edmonton Society Monthly Meeting starting at 8pm online
• Winnipeg Jets vs. Edmonton Oilers starting at 8pm at Rogers Place

And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:

• Oct. 17-28: STARFest Readers Festival at St. Albert Public Library
• Oct. 19: EPL Gala: Books and Cooks at Edmonton Public Library (Stanley A. Milner)
• Oct. 23-24: AGE-WELL Annual Conference at the Delta Hotels by Marriott Edmonton South Conference Centre

Visit the beta version of the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.