Municipal Round-Up — August 6: Aspiring Yeg Mayor Says Don't Go Downtown!

All the News That's Fit to Tweet

Aug 06, 2021

Where to start this week? Maybe a fun mash-up of two municipal issues! The end of the pandemic has been declared in Alberta, and the provincial government would like to focus on anything anything but COVID-19. So we can expect to see more on equalization, and getting ‘a fair deal for Alberta’. These populist talking points are always a good distraction.

Paul Fairie @paulisci

"We must learn to live with equalization" would be a fun Alberta referendum slogan.

Mayoral Candidate Issues Travel Advisory…For the City He Wants to Run

This is a weird one. Coun. Nickel issues a travel advisory as a way to draw attention to concerns about crime in the core. When has a city councilor issues a travel advisory before? Especially while he has thrown his hat in the ring to run the city. We have questions. The main one is: Why did he make women the focus of the tweet, without mentioning that a lot of attacks that have made the news have been racialized women wearing hijabs? And what is the city going to do to combat racist hatred?

Notice also the central stat on animal abuse, and at the bottom of the graphic, and he also references that he’s using both citywide and downtown trends.

Mike Nickel @MikeNickelYEG

If we cannot protect our mothers, daughters, & sisters then what kind of city are we? Serious crime is on the rise, including attacks on women. After reviewing @edmontonpolice data, I am issuing a Travel Advisory when heading downtown. More to come. #yeg #yegcrime #yegcc

Naturally, this cherry-picked infographic ruffled some feathers. Fellow city councillor Andrew Knack tweeted a rebuttal, using a hashtag he deploys pretty much exclusively for correcting Nickel’s tweets.

Andrew Knack @AndrewKnack

#yegccFactCheck: According to the @edmontonpolice crime map website, #yegDT saw a decrease in crime from 2019 to 2020 and using the January to July numbers, 2021 currently has a lower number of crimes than 2020. #yegcc #yegvote #yeg #yegcrime

Many people felt like it was wrong to focus on crime statistics when talking about downtown and economic recovery.

Catherine Griwkowsky @CGriwkowsky

#yegDT travel advisory: Travel in groups of your friends and family and check out the surrounding farmers' market, art galleries and public art, the museum, restaurants and bars, concert venues, shops, festivals and community spaces.

Friend of Rage Puneeta McBryan, Executive director for Edmonton’s Downtown Business Association went on 630 CHED to speak with host J’lyn Nye about Nickel’s downtown advisory. To CHED, McBryan calls Nickel’s social media post incredibly frustrating. She says appreciates that Edmonton’s downtown is a key issue in the election, but that Nickel has not reached out to the DBA for a conversation about the challenges businesses are facing.