October 2011 Archives

Quoted from http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/City+council+approves+arena+deal/5609980/story.html:

Downtown Arena

EDMONTON - The Oilers could be playing in a fancy new rink by 2015 after city council gave the go-ahead Wednesday to a $450-million arena intended to transform downtown Edmonton.

“I think it’s an incredible opportunity for us to redefine our city,” said Mayor Stephen Mandel, who has spent the last five years promoting the project.

“It’s always easy to say no … it’s courageous for council to say yes.”

 

So, it sounds like I am going to get a new set of neighbors, though I am sure the deal is far from beign truly completed yet. I am somewhat skeptical of projects like these after seeing the boondoggles that have occurred in other public/private joint ventures in other cities. I also have ideological reservations about the the government becoming involved with a piece of infrastructure that would seem better left in the private sphere. Still, maybe they will prove me wrong and this will model for all other cities going forward in design and execution. I am not holding my breath.

I am consistently amazed by the level of construction in this city, though, and this announcement would further exemplify that. Even in the short time that I have lived here, the boundaries of the city have been pushed out by miles. It's encouraging to see the growth, but I think the urban sprawl is becoming a big problem. Driving from one end of the City to the other can take a long time, as I discovered while racing to the airport to catch my flight a couple of weeks ago. Extending the city boundaries out further and further can also cause a disproportionate burden on the tax base, as developing and maintaining that infrastructure can be quite expensive. Hopefully they start to promote more sustainable development soon. And that extends to what is going to be an expensive and massive development downtown.

Well, after an extended period out of the country, I am finally back home. I still feel like I am several time zones out of sync, but I suppose that will slowly wear off after a few more work days. It was, in truth, a fantastic respite from a frenetic schedule, and I am very grateful to have had it. It was so easy to disconnect in the Inner Hebrides. They are gorgeous in a stark way, with the dominant features being verdant fields, rock, and sheep. The picture above is from the Isle of Staffa, where Mendelssohn was inspired to write the Hebrides Overture after seeing Fingal’s Cave. Though it doesn’t appear so from the shot above, they are right before an enormous cliff. I got vertigo just from looking off of it.

We stayed on the Isle of Iona, which was the cradle of Christianity in Scotland, having a community founded there in 563 AD. Interestingly enough, the famous Book of Kells which I had seen earlier at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland was actually believed to have been written on Iona, and just later transferred for safekeeping after numerous Viking raids. The island now is less prominent, but still supports a thriving Christian community called the Iona Community which runs services in the Abbey Church daily (this is somewhat more recent, having been revived in the 20th century). They have a strong focus on social justice and were working on a theme of refugees during my stay there.

My time was largely consumed by various hikes around the island, services, and communal meals (which were fantastic). Bread was baked fresh daily. Enough said. I would like to locate a recipe book for a lot of what was cooked. They did a lot of traditional Scottish dishes, like Sticky Toffee Pudding, which were fantastic. There were also excursions and travelling shenanigans, like the aforementioned trip to Staffa. The time went quickly, but it was also deeply invigorating, so I felt prepared for the return. More to follow.