www.ChrisLaBossiere.com

As always, Mack Male has scooped me on a topic that I have wanted to write about for some time. In Old Media vs. New Media fashion, it was actually Edmonton Sun columnist Marty Forbes who called out the next generation of leaders, to identify themselves, which got this great response from Mack.

Typically I would defer 100% to Mack, as he embodies what I think the new leadership of Edmonton looks like. He is passionate about Edmonton, and well known by so many of us who use social media channels to work to a better Edmonton. Mack also puts his actions firmly behind his words by volunteering hundreds if not thousands of hours per year in the City.

My only criticism, if you can even call it that, is I would suggest that there are dozens and dozens of other great young Edmonton leaders who do not use social media as their meeting room, and we can't ignore them. I know Mack would agree with that and I certainly don't think that he was suggesting his list as definitive.

My bigger point, is that I think social media has significant power to amplify influence, more than ever before. If you added the collective social network influence of the 75 names Mack identified, you would have thousands and thousands of Edmontonians that could be within a "Tweet" or Facebook status update of said leader. If that tweet or status includes a link to well thought out blog post about the future of Edmonton, invites people to an event, or drives membership in a grassroots self-start organization, then it can start a movement. This is powerful influence, and I think more and more about how this influence can be wielded.

Also of interest, is that these people probably tend to represent a similar demographic and beyond that, a political or societal set of biases. It's this influence and the confluence of similiar wants for the future of the City, that I think are important.

So in all, I think that we are in an interesting time in our City, and our World for that matter. I think that the definition of influencer has changed as technology has allowed us all to be publishers, activists, thought-leaders or community organizers. But change to a City must come by exerting this influence and idea exchange into meaningful action. To do that, Edmonton's young leaders, people like Mack Male, need to get themselves into some of the meeting rooms they sometimes disregard.

Of course, the institutions, politicians and community organizations that ignore the power of this highly influencial demographic, better do more to reach out to the next generation of Edmonton leader, or they might not know what hit them.

So in a way, both Forbes and Male are right, and that's why these are fun times.

If you have been to Halifax during the summer months, you would see a bustling downtown with many pedestrian friendly streetscapes. In particular, a couple key arteries were bustling with restaurant, bar and cafe patios that extended onto the sidewalks. To facilitate this, the City has allowed the construction of "temporary wooden sidewalks" that extend into what would normaly be vehicle parking; allowing for pedestrians to walk around the sidewalk - turned patio. These temporary sidewalks are designed in many unique ways and add visual appeal to the streetscape.

I was alarmed at the simplicity of this idea, and yet the extra amenity provided to residents, commerce to business owners, and all for very little impact on the vehicle operator and no additional expense to the City.

This Transport Canada website tells the full story of the project very well, and provides both the rational and statistical success of the program. Here is an excerpt from the site on the Community Context for the program:

The culture of ‘al fresco’ dining and drinking contributes to the success of many streets and cities. Sidewalk cafés offer front row seats to the urban theatre of life. Outdoor cafés are an enjoyable component of the streetscape that engage people in street activities at a pedestrian scale. Streets with sidewalk cafés are destination streets with identity, instead of simply being traffic thoroughfares.

Many people in the Halifax community recognize that sidewalk cafés contribute to economic success and provide vibrant pedestrian environments. Sidewalk cafés operate in front of three businesses from May 1 to October 31 annually. Argyle Street is a three block one-way street that serves as a major pedestrian corridor in the downtown core. Argyle Street is used for a diversity of purposes including: cafés, restaurants, shops, upper level residential, hotel, theatre, newspaper publishing, tourist information centre, non-government organizations as well as City Hall, a public space called the Grande Parade and the World Trade and Convention Centre. The unique mixed-use nature of the street provides an ideal environment for outdoor cafés.

As you can see in these images, the sidewalk solutions, and the cafe style patio's they facilitate, can be visually appealing, and create a whole new destination style pedestrian amenity.

The program allows for businesses to apply for, construct and operate these patios / sidewalk bypasses from May 1st to October 31st, and the cost of the construction is borne by the restaurant or bar. They also pay a small lease fee to the municipality, but that is quickly recovered by additional sales and increased pedestrian traffic. Also, and this is a great idea, on Argylle Street, one of the main corridors, the whole street is closed off from time to time and live music and events brought to the street. As noted here, the pedestrian counts on the street has risen an annualized 29% in the first 10 years of the program.

The beauty of this program should be seriously considered for Edmonton and some of our key pedestrian destinations. My thoughts drift to:

• Whyte Avenue between Gateway Boulevard and 105 Street
• Jasper Avenue
• 104 Street between Jasper Avenue and 104th Avenue (The Downtown Market location)

As a winter city, this is the perfect non-permanent solution that uses our short summers to their maximum, help vitalize our pedestrian friendly area, and creates a "place to be" kind of buzz that we all love about great cities.

I came across this facebook Group this morning and was intrigued by the initiative. I am not at all affiliated with this group, I do not even know the founders. That said, I will enjoy watching the effect of Social Media on this grassroots, community based initiative. In my opinion, this is a perfect example of how we can take the online communities of our city and extend them back to our direct communities.

Basically, the Group is doing some initial research on any public interest for a Farmers Market in the Riverbend Area. They have published an online survey to try and determine the very initial level of interest.

You can visit the group here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=334147888361&ref=nf&v=info

And you can take the survey here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3HMDVX5

Best of luck to the group creators and congratulations on starting such an interesting community based discussion.

I was reading one of my favourite bloggers today, Dave Cournoyer, and was happy to see that the City has approved long-term plans for the expansion of the LRT system to the West and Millwoods. Let's face it folks, this is way overdue and no city the size of Edmonton can be truly great until it creates a transit system that can incentify people to stop building outwards, and start developing our existing communities.

Way too much has been written on the subject, and you already know I am a huge booster of the City, but particularly the development of transit friendly, pedestrian / urban environments. If I had my druthers, the Yardstick Software offices would be downtown, but if that's not possible, then you can bet that I will live in a transit friendly neighbourhood soon enough.

But what really made me piss my pants in laughter, was the excerpt from Daves blog where Councillor Tony Caterina went on a bit of a rant against some of his other Council buddies, "and Defending his decision to oppose LRT expansion, Caterina accused his fellow Councillors of":

...imposing their ideology on the city. Caterina also raised concerns that online bloggers had too much influence on the decision. “A number of bloggers — who knows where they come from — are treated as gospel,” he said.

I don't know the Councillor, have only met him in mutual meetings, but read about his steadfast opposition to the closing of the airport. He has a reputation of being a bit old fashioned, but that is not always a bad thing. I like old fashioned; but only when it's based on pragmatic defense of principals that make sense... not crazy shake your fist kind of old 'fashioned where it's progress being resisted, simply out of spite or fear of the unknown.

Concillor Caterina may have crossed that line with me, when he took an unnecessary shot at the "Bloggers" of the city. How can you take anyone seriously when they dismiss regular citizens, who have built influence by being community activists, just because the choose to use a blog as their tool of communication? What is the difference between a blog like this, and an active and outspoken person down at the community league hall?

TonCat better get with it, or as I suspect will be the case, he will go down screaming in the next election.... standing on his lawn shaking his fist at "them damn kids".