This sounded like a very interesting concept. Then we noticed that the theatre company putting it on is called: “CAMI – Christian Actors and Musicians International.” Also, the venue is a bapist church (or an evangelical church, depending on which day of the week, since it’s playing at two different venues).

We realized this before we paid for our tickets, but decided to risk it. It sounds like it could still be interesting, as long as it isn’t just an excuse for the churches in question to try and convince people that God is real. I’ll actually be OK with it being at least partially an excuse for that, as long as it is still a well-written and thought-provoking piece.

Are we going to be evangelized to for 90 minutes, or will it actually be an interesting play? Only time will tell, but I’m obviously hoping for the latter.

It’s finally warm here in Edmonton—hot even. And I’m loving it.

I’m walking a lot. Especially since I now work downtown, I walk everywhere. I walk on my lunch break. I walk on my coffee breaks (when I take coffee breaks). I walk to check the office mail at the PO box down the block.

In all of my walking, I’ve started to realize that the city is a nice place to be. At least, parts of it are.

I used to view the city more or less as an obstacle course to be crossed as I went between Point A and Point B. Now, the city is a place. It’s a place to spend time and to enjoy. I walk for fun. I sit and enjoy public spaces.

I don’t have much to say about it at this point. I haven’t given it any sort of philosophical thought at this point. I’ve just noticed it and figured I’d post about it.

Better still is buying coffee from a local roaster like Catfish, St City, or Transcend.

But, from now until May 30, 10% of the money from each pound of coffee that Second Cup sells in Alberta will be donated to the MS Society – Alberta Division. Simply by buying something you were probably going to buy anyway, you can help a good cause.

Of course, you can always buy some other type of coffee and just make a donation of your own to the MS Society (or any other charity of your choice, really).

And so, I braved the early May snowstorm that has struck the city and went to the bank. I replaced my card, changed my PIN, and made sure that there were no suspicious transactions on my account (there were none). It was inconvenient, but no big deal.

However, while this whole process was going down and I was making small talk with the teller, she noted that there have been a lot of people having to do the same thing today. In fact, she had done nothing but replace people’s compromised client cards all morning!

So, if you get a call from your bank, saying that your client card has been compromised and you need to replace it, do it. Of course, if the call seems suspicious or they ask for your account number over the phone, it’s probably a scam. If that happens, call your bank and find out what’s going on.

Now, if only I knew where my card was compromised…

Earlier today, @DuncanKinney tweeted a link to an article about long commutes and their effects on happiness. The general notion is that long commutes suck, and that they severely reduce our happiness.

[...] time in traffic is torture, and the big house isn’t worth it. According to the calculations of Frey and Stutzer, a person with a one-hour commute has to earn 40 percent more money to be as satisfied with life as someone who walks to the office. Another study, led by Daniel Kahneman and the economist Alan Krueger, surveyed nine hundred working women in Texas and found that commuting was, by far, the least pleasurable part of their day.

I find this interesting, because I was having a chat with some friends the other day about living in a Toronto suburb and commuting for an hour or more each way, 5 days a week, versus paying the same amount of money for a tiny condo in Toronto proper. My personal thought was that I would rather live in the small condo in the heart of the city.

I mean, what’s the point of living in or near a big city if you get all of the headaches (a long commute and traffic jams) and none of the benefits (walkable communities, easy access to arts and culture).

I feel this way about Edmonton, too.

I can’t imagine living out in the boonies. Living in Terwilliger or other far-away-from-downtown developments has no appeal to me. I want to be central. I want to be close to the core (or at least a quick LRT trip away, which could make those south side suburbs a bit more appealing to me in the near future). I want to live in a walkable neighbourhood.

Right now, I live close enough to downtown that I can walk to just about anything I need: groceries, movies, shopping… I can even walk to work when the weather is nice enough.

I can’t really imagine why anyone would choose otherwise. Though, according to the article I quoted from, it’s because humans generally use faulty logic when making choices.

Consider two housing options: a three bedroom apartment that is located in the middle of a city, with a ten minute commute time, or a five bedroom McMansion on the urban outskirts, with a forty-five minute commute. “People will think about this trade-off for a long time,” Dijksterhuis says. “And most them will eventually choose the large house. After all, a third bathroom or extra bedroom is very important for when grandma and grandpa come over for Christmas, whereas driving two hours each day is really not that bad.” What’s interesting, Dijksterhuis says, is that the more time people spend deliberating, the more important that extra space becomes. They’ll imagine all sorts of scenarios (a big birthday party, Thanksgiving dinner, another child) that will turn the suburban house into an absolute necessity. The pain of a lengthy commute, meanwhile, will seem less and less significant, at least when compared to the allure of an extra bathroom. But, as Dijksterhuis points out, that reasoning process is exactly backwards: “The additional bathroom is a completely superfluous asset for at least 362 or 363 days each year, whereas a long commute does become a burden after a while.”

That, I suppose, could be an explanation for a big part of why Edmonton—and so many other cities in Western Canada and the United States—grows outward instead of upward.

The question, then, isn’t why do people make the choice to live in a far-off suburb. The question is: how do we help people to realize that the choice they’re making might not be the right one? And, given the large quote I included previously, we’re not talking about the wrong choice for the environment or the community; we’re talking about the wrong choice for the individual.

If we can help individuals realize that the suburbs may not be the right choice for them personally, we’ll reap benefits both individually, socially, and environmentally. That sounds like a win-win-win situation to me. But how do we get to that point?

Read the full article from which I quoted at: Commuting : The Frontal Cortex.

Stolen from StrongMaker: A better urbanism.

Downtown is a work in progress. Glacial progress. But progress nonetheless.

I’m in almost total agreement with everything that Scott McKeen writes in today’s column. But, then, I think he and I share a very similar vision for the city, because it’s rare that I don’t agree when he writes columns of this nature.

Katz’s plan done properly will electrify downtown.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, it seems unnecessary, since most (all?) of the LRT park and ride lots fill up quickly every weekday morning.

On the other hand, there are people who will pay for these spots, and the revenue generated will mean more money in the pockets of ETS and, hopefully, better service in the long run.

18% of the stalls seems like a lot, though. Are there that many people willing to pay for guaranteed parking at LRT stations, or will this result in a bunch of stalls sitting empty, in effect discouraging transit use?

Man, this guy really loves his Eskimos. And his beer. And his chainmail.

This guy is definitely one of a kind.

If you know who he is, contact the Edmonton Eskimos on Twitter; they’re trying to track down this super-fan.

Twitter / Dave Cournoyer: Mayor Mandel to announce w ….