As you may be aware, the City of Edmonton is planning for a more sustainable future by encouraging Transit Oriented Development (TOD) around existing and future LRT Stations – almost 60 in total.

Transit Oriented Development refers to development that is planned and integrated around a transit station. Its aim is to create more attractive, liveable, and compact neighbourhoods based on pedestrian-friendly design and a well connected mix of land uses within roughly 400 meters walking distance of a transit station.

My work, alongside a team of talented consultants and committed community members, seeks to find out how TOD can strengthen and preserve the character of the McKernan and Belgravia neighbourhoods while capitalizing on the benefits of the existing LRT station. Put another way, we are looking at how we can make both community and LRT station work better together through TOD planning.

To date, we have conducted research on the area, spoken with local community leagues, and on November 22, 2011 held our first Public Open House Workshop at the McKernan Elementary Junior High School. We had an excellent turnout with about 120 people attending to hear about the project and share their own knowledge of the area with us. At the meeting, our team displayed some boards about the project followed by a presentation, a little Q&A, and then a series of break-out discussions based on a workbook we prepared to help facilitate things.

The information we collect will inform what policies, redevelopment concepts and design guidelines will best support TOD in McKernan and Belgravia neighbourhoods.

Overall I’d say we received excellent feedback from the Open House Workshop which we will post a summary of on our webpage when ready. This will help us ensure the project’s final recommendations are grounded in the community’s aspirations while reflecting local conditions, opportunities, constraints, and collective solutions. But don’t worry – there’s still time to have your say!

If you haven’t read the workbook and sent us your comments – please do! Alternatively, you can always share your thoughts here on this blog.

So I open it up to you… what do you think of the current area around the McKernan/Belgravia station? Do you walk and do errands in the area? How might the neighbourhood immediately around the LRT station change over time? What new uses or amenities could make the neighbourhood around the LRT station more interesting, attractive and liveable? What do you think? We want to know.

Forty years ago a unique planning process, the Mill Woods Development Concept, was set to transform urban development in Edmonton. The goal for Mill Woods was straightforward – create a place for people, a community with a strong sense of place, well connected to its surroundings.

Planning for Mill Woods began in 1969 to create a new city in a suburban environment that would one day be home to 120,000 people. Edmonton’s mayor at the time, Ivor Dent, described Mill Woods as having the potential to become a showpiece for urban growth. Mill Woods Town Centre was planned to be the urban heart of Mill Woods. Housing, shops, services and employment would be within a short walk of high speed transit and well connected through high quality public parks and open spaces.

This plan was never fully realized. The economy weakened through the 1980s. The pulse of Mill Woods Town Centre slowed as an LRT extension from downtown failed to materialize, residential densities came in lower then anticipated and commercial development took on a very car-oriented form.

Today there is new commitment to expand and invest in public transit. It is no longer a question if LRT service will arrive in Mill Woods but rather when. City Council has approved the concept of an LRT line to Mill Woods, and preliminary engineering work has begun. As a result we need to do things differently, plan our neighbourhoods better and encourage greater transit usage in more compact and walkable communities. 

Recently, we held our first public workshop to introduce the station area planning project for Mill Woods Town Centre. The Mill Woods Station Area Plan will explore opportunities for transit oriented development in Mill Woods Town Centre in advance of the arrival of LRT to Mill Woods. What we heard at our first workshop was a desire to firmly establish Mill Woods Town Centre as a focal point -a vibrant and exciting downtown – for Mill Woods. 

We’re excited to get underway with exploring how we as planners, in collaboration with residents and property owners, can begin to revisit and enhance Mill Wood’s urban heart.  Through the station area planning process we seek to transform the neighbourhood into something which better embodies the quality and character of the Mill Woods community. To quote from the 1970 Plan for Mill Woods, “The Mill Woods residents will look to their town centre for stimulation and enjoyment. Every effort should be directed to achieve this result.” Sometimes looking backwards provides the greatest direction to move forward.

Your comments are always welcome as we move forward with the Mill Woods Station Area Plan. Contact information and additional information is provided on the Mill Woods Station Area Plan webpage.

Welcome to the Edmonton this Week Podcast, an in-depth look at City of Edmonton programs and initiatives that affect your life. Each week, your host, Wade Sorochan, takes you inside City Hall and around Edmonton to speak to the people who operate our city.

Listen on iTunes

Listen to an interview:

• Salute to Excellence award recipient, Susan Morgan
• Homeless Outreach
• Fire Chief Ken Block on presumptive cancer legislation

The Edmonton This Week radio show airs every Saturday at 7:30 am and 6:00 pm on 630 CHED.

Please leave your thoughts and comments below, but note that it may take time to answer specific questions.

Kris Andreychuk is a social worker with the City of Edmonton and a member of a specialized Neighbourhood Empowerment Team working in the McCauley neighbourhood. Kris and his partner, Constable Chapman Lee work with the community to identify and implement ways to prevent violent crime from reoccurring.

We’ve now been in McCauley (A.K.A. Chinatown, Little Italy, Church Street, etc.) for eleven weeks. It’s hard to believe, but this marks the halfway point of our team’s violence reduction deployment.

Whereas a traditional N.E.T. is implemented over two to four years (a timeframe I am certainly more familiar with), Violence Reduction Teams are working with the community for a period of four months. During the deployment, teams investigate the conditions that lead to chronic crime and social disorder and identify and implement ways to reduce and prevent crime from recurring.

Smashed 40oz beer bottles are not an uncommon sight

Being that we only have four months, teams need to keep their area of focus narrow. There are undoubtedly some challenges with this timeline—but there are also benefits. Being aware that our ‘expiry’ date is December 31, 2011, we’ve been able to shave down our objectives and make them both realistic and achievable. With this focused approach we’ve had the opportunity to, in a short period of time, develop a fairly solid grasp of the problems in McCauley.

Based on what we’ve seen thus far, we believe there is much to be said about the ‘ducks’ and the ‘wolves’ in McCauley. Yeah… you read that correctly.

In their paper, Sitting Ducks, Ravenous Wolves, and Help Hands: New Approaches to Urban Policing, William Spelman and John E. Eck use this animal analogy to discuss the complex nature of crime and victimization. According to the authors, there are three key elements that are required in order for a crime to be committed: a perpetrator (wolf), a target (duck) and an opportunity to commit the crime.

In the case of McCauley, the ducks are the older generation of vulnerable community members. These folks have a long history of ‘living rough’ on the streets and have been in the community for years. The wolves, on the other-hand, are the younger, marginalized demographic who also ‘live rough’ but are relatively new to the area.

This accounts for much of the violence we’ve seen in the community; vulnerable on vulnerable. These young wolves victimize the ducks in the community’s most vulnerable locations; usually for alcohol, food, clothes or whatever money they may have.

A man sleeps on the streets of MCauley

It’s a sad and relatively unknown reality of the violence in our city’s ‘distressed communities’. It’s the vulnerable victimizing the vulnerable. This, of course, impacts more than just the victims who are directly involved. In a sense, we are all victims when it comes to violent crime. Beyond the obvious harm is causes, it escalates the fear of crime, causes us to perceive our neighbourhoods differently, and discourages community engagement.

Perception of crime is powerful. If you perceive your community as being unsafe, you’re less likely to participate. If you don’t participate in your community, the likelihood of it becoming unsafe (i.e. a vulnerable space) increases.

It’s a vicious cycle, but the good news is that it’s possible to turn the tide. Meet your neighbours, get involved in your community league, shop local, plan a block party, buy a dog and walk it. Crime prevention and community building do not have to be difficult—have some fun!

McCauley has its challenges—riddled with complexities—and there’s no way to sugar coat it. However, there are unquestionable strengths in this community as well. Compassion, history, culture, diversity, thriving local businesses—as important as it is to acknowledge and respond to the challenges in our communities, it is equally important to not allow these challenges to overshadow what we know, and love, about the people and places of McCauley.

Curious as to what will unfold over the remaining weeks? Follow my Constable Partner Chapman Lee on Twitter for real time updates and highlights.

Kris Andreychuk is a social worker with the City of Edmonton and a member of a specialized Neighbourhood Empowerment Team working in the McCauley neighbourhood. Kris and his partner, Constable Chapman Lee work with the community to identify and implement ways to prevent violent crime from reoccurring.

1 = 8… Seriously.

One 40 oz (1.14L) bottle of 10.1 % alcohol is equivalent to eight regular cans of beer. That means three of these bottles is equal to a flat (24) of beer, twelve bottles brings you to nearly 100 cans… you get the point. What’s crazy is that this isn’t even the highest alcohol 40oz bottle available.

Just as a point of clarification, 40 oz referrers to the volume of a single serve beer. They’re typically high in alcohol and are relatively inexpensive.

How does this relate to McCauley? Glad you asked!

In our past blog entry, I made reference to alcohol, specifically high alcohol single serve beer, as a ‘risk factor.’ It’s important to note that when I say risk, I’m referring primarily to victimization – not perpetrating violence. That being said, we have seen and heard plenty about violent behaviour associated with the consumption of these products – it’s just not as common as the consumers being victimized.

To date, we have had face-to-face interviews and dealt with over 110 community members consuming alcohol in public. This is a complex issue, and we’re curious about it, so we’ve been asking questions when given the chance.

Questions relate to what’s being consumed, why, what would be consumed in the event that the preferred product was no longer available, where people are shopping, the social aspects of drinking, what a solution could looks like, etc.

People have been very candid and their responses, insightful. The responses, related to ‘what,’ have shown a clear preference – inexpensive, high alcohol, and large servings. This speaks to the ‘why’ as well. Pretty straightforward.

The responses to other questions, however, are far more complex. They have already broadened our understanding of the issues and have informed our approach, both short and long term.

Over-service is the issue – whether it is regular or high alcohol beer. However, there are certain products that certainly are not part of the solution. Essentially, these bottles are power packed with alcohol in a large volume. This is something that we’ll be impressing upon merchants in the coming weeks and something my police partner Chapman and I have been communicating to community members since day one.

The goals of our Neighbourhood Empowerment Violence Reduction Team are to connect and build relationships with vulnerable people in McCauley, collect our findings to broaden the scope of the issues and communicate with you, the larger community, via social media. As simple as this seems, these three actions have ballooned into quite the undertaking.

We’re now a month and a half into this project. With two and a half months left we are left with a great deal to do. Again, if you spot us in McCauley, feel free to stop and say hi.

We’d love to hear your perspective on how we can work to make our City safer and more connected.

Want to know what we’re up to day-by-day? Follow my Constable Partner Chapman Lee on Twitter!

Last spring, Brad Smid, LRT Design & Construction Project Manager, took a helicopter tour of downtown and northwest Edmonton. The purpose? To get a bird’s-eye-view of the future North LRT route and bring back footage to help residents and City administration visualize where the North LRT to NAIT will run less than 2.5 years from now.

Check it out:

From ground level, it’s difficult to envision the future North LRT and what it will mean for the way we move in the city.  We focus on construction impacting traffic, businesses and neighbourhoods in the MacEwan, Kingsway and NAIT area, when the conversation should really be about how these areas will benefit from accessible public transit when the project is completed.

However, progress is being made. Kingsway has been relocated, the tunnel portal on 105 Avenue and foundations for Kingsway/Royal Alex Station and MacEwan Station are being built and track slab is being laid on 104 Street, Kingsway and 106 Street.

Relocated Kingsway between 102 St & 106 St open

Construction crews constructing tunnel portal on 105 Ave between 101 St & 103 St

Track slab laid on Kingsway & 104 St with starting of Kingsway/Royal Alex Station foundation construction in background

Hopefully the helicopter video and animated NLRT videogive you a better idea of what the North LRT will look like once it’s complete and in operation.

Aggressively expanding Edmonton’s LRT network will bring us one step closer to having a more sustainable, compact and environmentally friendly transportation system and a revitalized downtown.

For more information on North LRT, visit www.edmonton.ca/nlrt

Tell us your thoughts and hopes for the future of public transportation in our city by commenting below.

Kris Andreychuk is a social worker with the City of Edmonton and a member of a specialized Neighbourhood Empowerment Team working in the McCauley neighbourhood. Kris and his partner, Constable Chapman Lee work with the community to identify and implement ways to prevent violent crime from reoccurring.

Reduce the conditions of social disorder and better address the needs of distressed communities.

These were the instructions given to us following the announcement of the Violence Reduction Action Plan in August 2011 by the City of Edmonton, Edmonton Police Service (EPS) and REACH Edmonton in response to violent crime.

We’re a specialized Neighbourhood Empowerment Team (NET). These teams have played an integral role in community policing and crime prevention in Edmonton for the past 8 years and are the result of a four way partnership with the City, EPS, The Family Centre and the United Way.

Two weeks after the announcement of the Violence Reduction Action Plan, specialized teams were deployed to communities that have been identified as most in need of targeted crime reduction. We have started in McCauley (a.k.a. Chinatown, Little Italy, Church Street, etc), working with the community to identify and implement ways to prevent crime from reoccurring.

My partner, Constable Chapman Lee, and I are going about this by focusing on ‘risk factors’ – things that increase the likelihood of someone being either a victim or perpetrator of violence.

There is much to be said about root causes; however, the one factor we immediately picked up on is the over consumption of alcohol. This was based on our initial observations has been echoed countless times over the past month by residents, business owners, organizations and, yes, even those we’ve caught drinking in public.

There are a few products that we are particularly curious about – a few brands even – based on their prevalence and the loyalty of the consumer. In academic circles they’re referred to ‘harmful alcohol’ or ‘single serve malt liquor’; in pop culture they’re better known as ‘forties’. As the name implies they’re a large serving (1.14 L or 40oz), high alcohol (7-11%) and cheap, incredibly cheap (starting at $5).

As simple as a solution may seem, it is extremely complex. It is, after all, addictions driving this. So, instead of assuming we have the answer, we’ve decided to ask the question. Over the past month, we’ve been connecting and building relationships with our city’s most vulnerable people and connecting them to services based on need and locality. These connections have allowed us the opportunity to pose important questions about violence and risk, which has given us the chance to start to better establish the scope of the issues and consider possible solutions.

This is much of what we’ll be doing over the next few months: impacting the frequency and severity of violence by focusing on, and limiting, risk.

If you’re in McCauley you’ll probably see us around. If we’re not on the street, we’re most likely in one of the incredible restaurants in the area. Feel free to say hi – we would like to hear your thoughts on safety in McCauley.

We’re fairly recognizable. I have a ‘NET’ symbol on the back of my black jacket and vest and Chapman… we’ll I assume you know how to spot a police officer. Feel free to buy us a cappuccino or some green onion cakes.

Welcome to the Edmonton this Week Podcast, an in-depth look at City of Edmonton programs and initiatives that affect your life. Each week, your host, Wade Sorochan, takes you inside City Hall and around Edmonton to speak to the people who operate our city.

Listen on iTunes

On this week’s show:

• The City welcomes new UofA Traffic Safety Chair
• The City purchases first all electric vehicle
• New book: “Ride of the Century – The Story of the Edmonton Transit System

The Edmonton This Week radio show airs every Saturday at 7:30 am and 6:00 pm on 630 CHED.

Please leave your thoughts and comments below, but note that it may take time to answer specific questions.

Carpool Week
October 24 to 28, 2011

Carpooling, even once a week, could save you more than 10% of your commuting costs and a lot of traffic aggravation. You can save money on gas, parking and vehicle maintenance. Carpooling is also an efficient and sustainable way to help reduce road congestion and CO2 emissions.

You know carpooling is a good idea, but where to start? Finding carpool buddies is a lot easier than you might think.

5 easy steps to carpooling:

1. Visit Carpool.ca to find a match.
Don’t have anybody to carpool with? We can help you with that. Visit Carpool.ca to sign up and find others who share similar destinations and schedules.

2. Review your matches and get to know them.
Depending on your location, you may receive multiple matches. Send a quick email to your matches and have a brief conversation. This will help you determine whom you get along       with, share your preferences (driver, rider or shared duties) and decide on schedules.

3. Make the arrangements.
Carpooling is more flexible than a lot of people think. You can take turns driving or one person can drive depending on your agreed upon needs and desires.

Before you begin carpooling, discuss costs and determine how they will be shared. Establish the ground rules and create a backup plan just in case something comes up. Finally, set up a meeting location and time.

4. Ready, set, carpool!
Now you’re all set to begin carpooling.

5. Repeat step 4.

Depending on your schedule and lifestyle, you may be able to carpool every day or only once a week. That is okay; carpooling is there for you and you can use it when it works best for you. It’s that easy!

You can also consider carpooling with other families on your children’s sports teams, or start a grocery carpool with your neighbour—you’ll have more money for treats when you get to the store.

Visit Carpool.ca to sign up for free and get your matches. During carpool week, October 24 to 28, you can also enter to win an iPad 2, Kindle, free fuel or GPS systems!

Welcome to the Edmonton this Week Podcast, an in-depth look at City of Edmonton programs and initiatives that affect your life. Each week, your host, Wade Sorochan, takes you inside City Hall and around Edmonton to speak to the people who operate our city.

Listen on iTunes

Listen to an interview:

• Quesnell Bridge Completed 2011
• Historical Designations in Edmonton
• All New Online ETS Trip Planner

The Edmonton This Week radio show airs every Saturday at 7:30 am and 6:00 pm on 630 CHED.

Please leave your thoughts and comments below, but note that it may take time to answer specific questions.