Great Plains

Believe it or not, Edmonton was once the epicenter for the new world. Long before the vikings stumbled onto Newfoundland, and eons before Coloumbus ever set sail, Edmonton was the spot for one of the most important discoveries in the history of man, and no, it wasn't oil.  Just in case you think this is a joke, what I am about to tell you is a little known historical fact. According to Jared Diamond, who spoke at the windspear in Edmonton this some time ago, an amazing event took place but 14000 years ago or 12000 BC near Edmonton.  The event he speaks of is the arrival of Man (most likely prodded off the cave couch by women) through the ice corridor from Alaska.  In case you are too busy trolling real estate web sites to know who Jared Diamond is, he is currently professor of Geography and Physiology at UCLA and is the best selling author of "Guns, Germs and Steel," and "Collapse: How societies chose to fail or succeed."

He suggests that as people migrated southwards they did so via a corridor in the glaciers that would have been thousands of feet high.  They were most likely driven by their need to find more food.  In his mind the corridor ended somewhere in the vicinity of Edmonton, and it was a beautiful sight  for the new arrivals to the see plains with herds of bison, plenty of food and warmer, open spaces.  Now I know some of you may doubt his theory, however the renowned author and scientist has won the american National Medal of Science so I'm going to go with him on this.   

And now you know the beginning of the story of Edmonton on the world scene.

Summerside, Edmonton (photo from Edmonton Journal)

These associations or the agreements governing them are usually registered on title by way of a restrictive covenant. Some HOA’s are proactive socially and do lots of community events, while some are just doing the minimum to maintain what they are obligated to maintain. 

Recently one of our clients was contemplating not buying a home they liked because it had HOA fees, while some of the other properties listed for sale in the area didn’t have any HOA fees listed on the MLS® feature sheet. Our client wondered why some owners in an area have to pay fees and some don’t - they didn’t want to pay an HOA fee when their neighbours weren’t. In reality, everyone in the subdivision pays the fee, it just wasn't included on the information sheets for some of the properties. One more reason to make sure you see the title for a property before making an offer.

The education budget is determined by the province, but the levy is collected by the municipalities (along with property taxes) on behalf of the province. 

With huge class sizes and major layoffs last year, I can understand the need for the increase. So just how much is the education levy going to increase?

• Province-wide the increase is $120 million compared to last year
• In St. Albert the increase is $2.5 million, or 9.64% ($8/month more)
• Spruce Grove and Leduc will see a 12% increase (the maximum amount the province will increase the levy in any year)
• Edmonton - 10.8%
• Strathcona County - 9.8%
• Sturgeon County - 8%
• Provincial average - 6.4%

Residents have only lived in the building located on Grant MacEwan Blvd. for one year.

Fire Chief Ernie Polsom is quoted as saying the order was issued “after numerous, serious Alberta Fire and Building Code violations were revealed, yet were left unaddressed by the building owners. The City of Leduc has taken extraordinary measures to address several life-safety code deficiencies that have extended occupancy of this building,” the statement reads. “However, these measures are no longer sustainable.”

One such violation is an improperly installed fire alarm system that could leave the entire building completely without fire detectors or alarms.

I am not familiar with this complex, but have found some information on it:

• It was developed by "Voipus Developments"
• Phase 2 of the development was under construction and has been abandoned
• It was to be an "environmentally friendly" complex with rooftop gardens, energy efficient appliances and a community smart car that could be booked by residents 

A news conference is taking place this morning. I'll add more details as I find them as well as some tips to avoid this kind of situation when buying a condo.

I'm doing some background work right now and will update this story shortly.

Looking for something to do with your family on family day? There's lots to choose from in Edmonton this weekend:

• Horse rides, skating and kids carnival and the Legislature
• Drum and tambourine building sessions, face painting and airbrushed tattoos, a magician, and tours of the various gardens at the Muttart.
• Edmonton Valley Zoo is celebrating Polar Bears International Awareness Day with a lecture from U of A polar bear researcher Dr. Ian Stirling. There’s also an indoor petting zoo, face painting, a scavenger hunt, and polar bear crafts. At 2 p.m., zookeepers will walk two female Arctic wolves around the zoo.
• Metropolis winter festival at Churchill Square (last day), which will open at noon and wrap up at 9 p.m. Roving street performers, free skate rentals, hay rides, face painting, ice sculptors, and a chance to make your own fire-cooked bannock.
• Stanley A. Milner Library will screening Shrek at 2pm, and admission to the nearby Art Gallery of Alberta is free.
• Admission is also free at all other of Alberta’s museums and historic sites. At the Royal Alberta Museum, there will two performances of Project: Whooping Crane, a Green Fools Theatre production which combines puppetry, music and drama. Show times are 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
• At Lacombe Lake Park in St. Albert, there will horse-drawn wagon rides, skating, milk jug curling, and Special Olympics Canada Winter Games on-site from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. At the same time, Heritage Lakes Community Association will also host sleigh rides, human dog sleds, along with free hot chocolate.
• Londonderry Mall is hosting a paper airplane battle, with construction at noon and competition two hours later.
• Tuque tosses and skate races are scheduled for the Silver Skate Festival at Hawrelak Park, where there will also be demonstrations in orienteering, dog sledding, figure skating, and sledge hockey, as well as plenty of other family activities.

I was happily surprised when I checked our analytics yesterday. Our Edmonton MLS® Search web site - edmontonrealestate.pro - reached a new milestone and got over 1 million page views in the month of January! Thanks to everyone who uses the site to find real estate in Edmonton! We will continue to improve the site and add new features as long as people keep using it. With the average time on site over ten minutes, people clearly like it. Our clients enjoy extra traffic to their listings, since our listings are featured at the top of the results whenever they are included in a user's search. That's the beauty of the Internet - a small company that focuses on quality and details can kick the big guy's butts.

Other than that the year was uneventful until we found out we were pregnant. I say "we" metephorically for those of you who will point out that men can't get pregnant. In short order we found out we were having not one, but two. Ironically this news was delivered the same day my daughter entered her first day of high school. Needless to say it took me a few weeks to wrap my head around it all and just as we moved from acceptance to excitement we got some really bad news.

Sara's dad passed away suddenly at the beginning of December. John Maclennan was a former high school teacher, farmer, coach, hall of fame quarter back at McMaster University, conservationist and volunteer extraordinaire. At 74 John was in excellent shape, ate very well, and biked regularly. The week before John passed away my dad was taken to the Grey Nuns Cardiac care unit (to whom I must give koodoos to for excellent service and the care they gave my dad). He was in four 4 days while they deliberated the issues and the potential remedies.

So when news came about Sara's dad we were both in shock. The rest of the month was a whirlwind of travel back and forth to Ontario. The passing of John reminded me once again that life is so very precious, and it taught me a whole lot more than that. While I interceded the many phone calls that came to Sara's mom expressing their condolences, a message stuck with me because it was a recurring one: "You don't know me, and John probably wouldn't remember me, but he taught me at Nelson High School and I just wanted to say he had a profound impact on my life."
It just reaffirmed to me that we can make a positive impact on young people and strangers by the way we conduct ourselves and live our lives.

John's funeral was attended by politicians and business people from around Hamilton, farmers, teachers, neighbours and family. His friend who conducted the service told me there were over 500 people in attendance at the church service which was standing room only. There was an open mic session where former students and co-workers, neighbours, friends and family shared their favourite memories of John. Many of the students he used to have out to his farm to do "conditioning work" found that time they spent at the farm, and the time he gave to them was life altering, and many followed in his footsteps citing him as their inspiration.  Many people proudly displayed the official "license to hug" John had issued them and I myself am a converted "hugger" thanks to John. I found I had never laughed and cried so much in one day. On the night of the funeral I flew back to Edmonton and those on the plane around me must of thought I was nuts as I would recall something someone had said about John and either laugh, or well up with tears.

I share this because we realize we haven't been as attentive to the blog for the last while as we normally are, but we have tried our best and we appreciate the support and willingness of people to share their thoughts and views. We are into the new year now and are about 3 months away from welcoming two new additions to our family. So if I can leave you with one thought its this: you can make a difference in someone's life with a smile, a hug, your support, or your time, and most of all by just listening. I can't help but think if I and others were more like John the world would be a better place.

John Alexander MacLennan
December 18, 1937- December 3, 2011

John MacLennan paddling the North Saskatchewan last summer,
and 50 years earlier in the same McMaster Football Jersey.

p.s. John received many awards including being inducted into McMaster University's sports hall of fame, and coaching Nelson high school to numerous provincial basketball championships. John loved teaching and he loved McMaster University where this summer he toured my daughter and I hoping that she might one day consider going there. He loved teaching so much he dedicated his body to McMaster's medial research program to help train tomorrow's doctors. As a farmer and a teacher John was "outstanding in his field."

Then we saw the plans for the new Royal Alberta museum unveiled, with discussion about the airport lands. Gary Klassen the GM of sustainable development Edmonton pointed out that Downtown encompasses 1% of the land in the city but is responsible for 10% of the tax revenue.

Several projects have been discussed so far.

• Jasper Avenue revitalization
• Central Park in the warehouse district
• River promenade works
• Improved Dowtown LRT connectivty
• More bike accessability
• Infrastructure upgrades
• Capital blvd upgrade
• Arena and entertainment district.
• Grant Macewan university growth
• The federal building upgrade
• Centennial plaza
• University of Alberta Downtown campus And more.

I’ll add more detail as I can for each of these projects and their impact on the real estate market in Edmonton when I have a chance.

Most of the time my answers have been very general with the acknowledgement that I don’t have intimate knowledge of what is going on downtown. I do believe that the people who have good solid information can take advantage of the opportunities that might arise. So, if you are interested in the answers then this is where you want to be on December 15th, 2011 from 7:30am to 3:30pm: www.Edmonton.com/downtown.
This information session on downtown hosted by Economic development Edmonton is where we will be to get the answers to our questions. See you there.