Winnipeg | Downtown | Portage Place | Redevelopment | U/C

[WinCitySparky]

^ lmao wtf grand boulevard

[EdwardTH]

Originally Posted by WinCitySparky

^ lmao wtf grand boulevard

Bro seriously thought that comparing Portage ave to the Champs Elysees made sense....

[Kinguni]

Originally Posted by EdwardTH

Bro seriously thought that comparing Portage ave to the Champs Elysees made sense....

Champs Elysees just needs some skywalks across it.

[Hecate]

Ever looked at a pic of portage avenue from the turn of the last century, or Main Street, when Winnipeg was one of the most important cities in the world? Easily a grand boulevard any city would be proud to have had. Only a fool would think otherwise.

[borkborkbork]

Well, they both have 6 lanes of traffic. Apparently Winnipeg's main arterial (pop <800k) needs to handle just as much traffic as Paris' (pop >10M).

[WinCitySparky]

Hey look not arguing Portage Ave used to be great but times have changed and it’s just not that way anymore, and probably never will be, because the momentum is now in other areas like Osborne, the Exchange, the Forks, etc. Momentum of course, being money.

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Portage Avenue 1948

[WinCitySparky]

Super awesome! It’s never going back to that though.

[thebasketballgeek]

Imo the closest comparison Portage Ave has in terms of ROW width, destinations, and current utilization as a thoroughfare for cars to the City Centre is Rue Sherbrooke in Montréal. And if you ever walked on Sherbrooke anytime of the day you’d know I don’t mean that as a complement.

Paris has also used their brains and constructed unidirectional protected bike lanes on all of their grand boulevards within the last 5-10 years. It’s the primary reason most urbanists believe Paris is the fastest growing and most improved cycling city in the world. The boulevards are also far more aesthetically pleasing due to their mature and heavily manicured street trees. Those trees do more then just look nice as they provide a very important buffer between pedestrians and traffic while providing nice shade when it gets hot as hell in Paris during the summer. To use a local example Broadway has the same ROW as Main St yet I much prefer walking on Broadway because of the improved public realm and signifiant canopy plus the massive sidewalk. The only other thorughfares that get it right in that regard are Inkster, Burrows, Kildare, and St. Anne’s, but even then they suffer from only having the 1.5m wide sidewalks.

We could (and should) make our massive ROWs like Portage, Main, Pembina, and Henderson to this standard. We have an advantage that a lot of cities in the world would envy by having 4 large thoroughfares (6 if you count Regent/Nairn and St. Mary’s) go right to the city centre. With full confidence I can say that adding protected bike lanes on these streets at the very least would make Winnipeg the most cycling friendly city in North America and massively improve the vibrancy in the city centre, slowly getting back to post-war levels. Ditto with cutting some lanes for dedicated rapid transit corridors on the street like the streetcars in Toronto (just don’t get them mixed in traffic plz). Or just get the damn rapid transit plan started already would be a great start, but yet this city is so damn carbrained all we think about is how to get as many lanes as possible so people can drive away from DT at 60 km/h or faster.

[Jeff]

I love that the news covering the mayor visiting Texas shows him handing his Houston counterpart the book "City Beautiful" by Randy Turner.. Too bad no one at city hall has probably actually even read it.

[peg]

Portage Avenue definitely still has potential and should be looked at as a grand avenue... even though it's far from that now.

The symbolism of Portage Avenue in Winnipeg is immense. We owe our existence as 'The city of Winnipeg' in part because someone set up a hotel (now the empty lot at Portage and Main: 416 Main Street), shifting the development north of Upper Fort Gary.

This eventually resulted in the original Portage Trail veering north to what is now Portage and Main. The first use of the name Winnipeg was to distinguish between the new cluster of development and the fort cluster. Winnipeg prevailed as the name of the settlement.

The source of this is Chapter One of 'At First Light' in the book: 'The Lesser Known - A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Continent' by Darren Bernhardt. I would recommend it, it's a great read.

Anyways, let's remember that we are a growing city and that Portage can make a comeback. I hope to god the eventual rapid transit extension down Portage includes a very in-depth public realm upgrade from Main St. to Colony St.

[peg]

Originally Posted by Jeff

I love that the news covering the mayor visiting Texas shows him handing his Houston counterpart the book "City Beautiful" by Randy Turner.. Too bad no one at city hall has probably actually even read it.

Unironically my favorite part of this book is the story about the goat skeleton that was stuck in the attic of city hall... floor boards were too old to remove it. How it got there...?

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Originally Posted by WinCitySparky

Super awesome! It’s never going back to that though.

It remained that way through the 80s. Not sure about the 90s.

[WinCitySparky]

I suppose never say never, but I doubt in my lifetime, which is already halfway over.

[Winnipeg Grump]

Originally Posted by WinCitySparky

I suppose never say never, but I doubt in my lifetime, which is already halfway over.

So you think ...

[pspeid]

Nothing new, but part of the story mentions an announcement on PP will take place before the end of the year (so pretty soon). Hopefully we'll have some encouraging news.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ndp-wab-kinew-post-election-promises-1.7005763

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by OTA in Winnipeg

It remained that way through the 80s. Not sure about the 90s.

It wasn't like that in the 80s much. The whole purpose of building Portage Place was to "revitalise" downtown, as urban decay was settling in, and the drop off in pedestrian traffic was quite noticeable by the mid 80s.

[NewIreland]

Originally Posted by pspeid

Nothing new, but part of the story mentions an announcement on PP will take place before the end of the year (so pretty soon). Hopefully we'll have some encouraging news.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ndp-wab-kinew-post-election-promises-1.7005763

Wouldn't be surprised if Chipman abandoned the project in light of what's been happening with the Jets. He stepped in to save Portage Place from becoming a conspicuous centerpiece of downtown Winnipeg's decline, he's investing millions in TNS, and his Project 11 community engagement initiative is one of the best in North America. So, how do we treat the man who brought NHL hockey back to NA's smallest professional sports market? We shit on him of course...

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by NewIreland

Wouldn't be surprised if Chipman abandoned the project in light of what's been happening with the Jets. He stepped in to save Portage Place from becoming a conspicuous centerpiece of downtown Winnipeg's decline, he's investing millions in TNS, and his Project 11 community engagement initiative is one of the best in North America. So, how do we treat the man who brought NHL hockey back to NA's smallest professional sports market? We shit on him of course...

Who exactly "shit" on Chipman? From what I understand from articles about the PP redevelopment plan, it has unusually broad support. The province is about to announce it's role, and I have no doubt the city will also announce some support, as Gillingham made the redevelopment of PP one of his election platforms.

From the article I posted a link to, the sale of PP will include commitments for rental of building space from a number of agencies, as well as what I understand is the most profitable part of the property, the underground parking. More income for TNSE, and a good news story for the downtown. i don't know why it has to be turned into a horror story?

[wags_in_the_peg]

Originally Posted by NewIreland

Wouldn't be surprised if Chipman abandoned the project in light of what's been happening with the Jets. ..

attendance is down, the entire True North square building are not tumbling down! the arena is packed with concert lineups! no one is waving the white flag