In my late teens and throughout my 20s, I listened to a lot of hardcore music. (OK, I still do, but not as much. Scares the children.) The essence of the music is power. Not only is it loud and fast, but the lyrics are about the continuing power struggle between “the man” and everyone else. The musicians take the voices of the disenfranchised, bitter because their constant calls for changes went unheeded. When I moved to Alberta back in 1993, I quickly began comparing the people of this province to those angry punk singers. Here was a province that lived in...
A vibrant community with people walking the streets, businesses that have bright windows facing the avenue and patrons on patios is a community that deters crime. This week, more than 30 Avenue Top 40 Under 40 alumni, and community and city leaders gathered at Jack’s Grill to discuss Avenue’s 2012 Big Idea theme, “Making Edmonton safer.” My table included Edmonton Police Commission Vice-Chair Shami Sandhu and Coun....
As part of our ongoing look at how we can make Edmonton safer — which culminates in our October Big Idea issue — Avenue examines the roles bars can play in reducing crime. What do you think? We want to hear from our readers, to make our Big Idea for 2012 truly a forum for ideas. If you pick up any major city's newspapers, you can quickly learn the names of a few of its toughest bars. There would be stories about assaults, vandalism and possibly even homicides that occur outside — and sometimes inside — of those...
As part of our ongoing look at how we can make Edmonton safer — which culminates in our October Big Idea issue — Avenue examines the roles bars can play in reducing crime. What do you think? We want to hear from our readers, to make our Big Idea for 2012 truly a forum for ideas. If you pick up any major city's newspapers, you can quickly learn the names of a few of its toughest bars. There would be stories about assaults, vandalism and possibly even homicides that occur outside — and sometimes inside — of those...
Imagine that it’s 5 p.m. on a Tuesday. Thousands of people are filing out of the office towers downtown. There isn’t a bus to be found. The LRT isn’t running. Dozens of people are on every corner, waving their arms frantically, trying to hail one of the few cabs that zip by. But every cab looks to have its lights off — they’ve already got fares. Well, that kind of describes Jasper Avenue (and Whyte Avenue, for that matter) at 2 a.m. Saturday. Add up the capactity of Jasper Avenue's bars and there's room for 10,000 patrons. Add 10,...
Our annual Big Idea issue won’t hit the shelves until October, but we want to do things a little differently in the past. We want to engage our readers, hear their opinions and ideas, and work with them on this issue. We want to use our best resource — you, the reader. So, in a break from tradition, we are going to let you know what our next Big Idea topic is right now and, over the next few months, create online discussions that will help us form our story ideas for the big issue. ...
