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Old Posted Apr 2, 2017, 12:51 AM
balletomane balletomane is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire View Post
^ I wouldn't consider unicity to be a failure. If anything, I'd say that Winnipeg should be expanded to include the lands surrounding the city which are effectively part of the urban area.

Your point about Old Winnipeg benefiting from having the largest tax base is well taken, but if anything, I think that would encourage an "anything goes" mentality in the suburbs to spur development there. Even if Winnipeg adheres to the idea pretty half-heartedly, there is at least some effort made to contain things like sprawl, suburban shopping areas, etc. However, if places like Charleswood or North Kildonan suddenly found themselves on their own, I'd imagine that they would be allowing virtually anything to get built to expand the tax base.
That makes a lot of sense, the fact that few US cities have undergone municipal amalgamations like Winnipeg, Toronto, Halifax, Ottawa and Hamilton means those satellite cities can have a "unrestricted" growth. That must play a big role in why many US cities have so much sprawl and low density. I feel like I've had an epiphany, I guess unicity had its merits, even if Old Winnipeg might've payed the cost in some instances.

A little extra info regarding pre-unicity Winnipeg,
In 1963, Old Winnipeg annexed the current Tyndall Park/Inkster Gardens area from the RM of Rosser.
In 1967, the City of St. James amalgamated with the Village of Brooklands.
In 1969, the City of St. James amalgamated with the RM of Assiniboia.

Demographics for neighborhoods in Old Winnipeg (1971, 2016, % change)
  1. Downtown 14,417 to 17,826 +23.6%
  2. River Heights 72,939 to 60,661 -16.8%
  3. West End 76,265 to 58,668 -18.8%
  4. North End 63,107 to 48,320 -23.4%
  5. Elmwood 18,819 to 14,713 -21.8%
  6. Tyndall Park area 609 to 18,337 +2911.0%
  7. Kildonan Park 90 to 0 -100.0%

Without the Tyndall Park area, the population decline in Old Winnipeg is much more dramatic, from 265,429 (1961) to 200,188 (2016), about a 25% decline. This is in line with many US Rust Belt cities. These neighborhoods are on the rise again, as their 2001 count was 189,801.

Last edited by balletomane; Apr 2, 2017 at 9:59 PM.
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