Coprolithic 💩🪨🗺️

Good news. The cat that I rescued from a pack of coyotes in Blatchford is a #YEGbike cat.

Took part in my first #yegbike Critical Mass ride last night honouring Dr. Darren Markland, which involved riding some of downtown’s most miserable stroads, including 104 Ave, 101 street, Jasper Ave and 109 street. Participation was at least 120. Will ride again.

I don't really buy the notion of "vote splitting" in the #ABElection by-election in Calgary-Shaw. People were voting for the Tories because they didn't want to vote UCP. UCP vote greatly collapsed since Rebecca Schulz won that riding.

There’s no alt text on this, but basically in every region of Canada, including Berduh, more people feel Canada has more in common with Europe than with the US. Nationwide, 56% say Europe, 20% say equal, 16% US. 8% unsure.

It’s actually SK/MB which has the highest geographic support for US at 26%, but 51% still say EU. Except Atlantic and SK/MB, both equally exceeds the US. Atlantic stands out for having more unsure than US.

My other #yegdt hot take is that the arena was a bit underwhelming as far as revitalization went, especially relative to its cost. This isn't surprising, because this is the usual result, especially in North America. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This isn't to say that it's all bad. It did grow the tax base. It has a mixed use aspect and brought another grocery store. It has a place to skate in the winter. And it replaced a bunch of crappy parking lots and that terrible casino.

My other #yegdt hot take is that the arena was a bit underwhelming as far as revitalization went, especially relative to its cost. This isn't surprising, because this is the usual result, especially in North America. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

18,500 people dropping in briefly every few days mostly in the winter has an effect, but it's very different from having 8000 more people live there, especially when the venue is itself a huge competitor for local business.

My other #yegdt hot take is that the arena was a bit underwhelming as far as revitalization went, especially relative to its cost. This isn't surprising, because this is the usual result, especially in North America. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Some of it does spend money in the local neighbourhood. But when you're dealing with a short, immense pulse like that, a business is limited by space as to how much it can capture. For a restaurant it's usually a single sitting. Then the doldrums hit.

My other #yegdt hot take is that the arena was a bit underwhelming as far as revitalization went, especially relative to its cost. This isn't surprising, because this is the usual result, especially in North America. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

It fills up event nights, but most of the time it's a void, with traffic flying by on the adjacent stroad. It's hardly our only dead zone building. The Winspear and Citadel can be similar. But they generate much more modest pulses of activity when active.

My other #yegdt hot take is that the arena was a bit underwhelming as far as revitalization went, especially relative to its cost. This isn't surprising, because this is the usual result, especially in North America. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

And there is just a community building aspect. For all that people characterize big cities as impersonal, that changes once you get people out of their cars. It's not an uncommon thing that when I am out, I run into people I know, because it's basically a town within a city.

My other #yegdt hot take is that the arena was a bit underwhelming as far as revitalization went, especially relative to its cost. This isn't surprising, because this is the usual result, especially in North America. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

That flow on foot is important not just for the money people spend (and I am much more likely to step into a new cafe I walk past than I am to stop the car for one), but it directly improves the quality of the neighbourhood.

My other #yegdt hot take is that the arena was a bit underwhelming as far as revitalization went, especially relative to its cost. This isn't surprising, because this is the usual result, especially in North America. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Wîhkwêntôwin added another 7K easy, and barriers to flow between it and downtown went away with the demolition of the 105 Street overpass and the CPR yard west of 109th. So we had a combined pop of 30K in an area a lot of folks can just walk across. And those people tend to spend local.

My other #yegdt hot take is that the arena was a bit underwhelming as far as revitalization went, especially relative to its cost. This isn't surprising, because this is the usual result, especially in North America. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I'm thrilled that VIA Rail is getting an equipment update, and is moving away from US equipment. But it seems strategically important to Canada in this fuel crisis to have intercity trains that run more than twice per week and aren't a third the speed of driving. #viarail #trains

CN is already actively working to increase speeds and capacity between Edmonton and Vancouver, but it's at least as important of a project as expanding pipeline capacity to the coast. It's also actual climate action to shift transportation from road to rail.

I'm thrilled that VIA Rail is getting an equipment update, and is moving away from US equipment. But it seems strategically important to Canada in this fuel crisis to have intercity trains that run more than twice per week and aren't a third the speed of driving. #viarail #trains

The Canadian has a 3 hr station stop in Jasper that is mostly to get it back on schedule. A dedicated train from Edmonton to Jasper that reliably got there in 4.5 hrs is something I would take 100% of the time and I would go to Jasper more often, especially in the shoulder seasons.

I'm thrilled that VIA Rail is getting an equipment update, and is moving away from US equipment. But it seems strategically important to Canada in this fuel crisis to have intercity trains that run more than twice per week and aren't a third the speed of driving. #viarail #trains

Like if it ran regularly, wasn't interminably slow west of the corridor, held a schedule and would price similar to flying, and it had decent amenities that I didn't need some kind of Habsburg-class ticket to access, I would take it all of the time.