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Originally Posted by borkborkbork
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Oh for fuck sakes...
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In recent weeks, a number of Indigenous and community groups expressed concern about the sale, saying Portage Place Mall has become an important neighbourhood gathering place.
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Now, I've used Portage Place to meet before (when I still used to live in Winnipeg), but these groups have seen whats happened to Portage Place over the past couple of decades, right...?
The only thing Portage Place has anymore, is the food court, the fountain and the clock. Thats literally it. Shoplifting has destroyed multiple retailers in that mall, the dealing around its gotten insane, security is a joke, and there's almost no noteworthy retailers left (minus the Asian store on the 2nd floor) because everyone else has been scared off into greener commercial pastures... clearly the mall isn't doing well at all, anymore. The city knows that. The province knows that. Everyone that lives in Winnipeg or spent any time around Downtown, clearly knows that too. Plus there's no Indigenous
anything within Portage Place. Last time I checked, Portage Place security throws out Aboriginals at random, there's no notable First Nations, Metis or Inuit events at the mall - and, there's also the fact that it's hard to turn that into a proper "community space", if the mall owners can't even be bothered to invest into their own property...
So this is my proposal:
- force the Federal government to greenlight the sale
- salvage/preserve the current Portage Place centre court
- transform part of that space into an actual Indigenous "community space", or better yet, use the surface parking lot north of Portage Place as an actual Indigenous community centre, or maybe even transplant Neechi Commons into that space, since they weren't "financially viable" on Main Street.
That in itself, will give the Aboriginal and Metis community some space, AND provide a commercial incentive for Neechi Commons v2.0 (being away from Main Street, and in a secure building with ALOT more customer reach to make it financially viable).
- bulldoze the rest of Portage Place
- turn rest of Portage Place into condos and nightclubs
- force everyone else to either:
a) converge into CityPlace, and save that mall from Portage Place's fate
b) buy from retailers and go into the restaurants along Portage, Graham or Ellice
c) resurrect the "Promenade" and force some on-street retail, which Downtown Winnipeg desperately needs.
Results: a vibrant Downtown, revitalized Portage Place (I'd rename it "Portage Trail Complex"), CityPlace is spared certain retail death, the other places within a 10-block radius get a massive boost, the Aboriginal/Metis/Inuit community gets a massive boost as well, no more security issues, no more wasted WPS resources at the mall, no shoplifting either (as WPS would be on the streets around the mall, versus just sitting around drinking coffee, deterring more efficiently), and overall, everyone would be happier, and especially so, because the Federal government wouldn't screw up possibly THE greatest thing that could happen to Downtown Winnipeg, just in time for the 2020s.
Thoughts, anyone? Concerns? Or did I hit the nail, on this one?
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