Quote:
Originally Posted by Winnipegger
Thanks, I appreciate the kind words. I guess I just get so frustrated on the state of national discourse when it comes to issues like policing, colonization, and Indigenous reconciliation. So many "progressives" in Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa that want to advance "reconciliation" with nice blog posts, fancy PDF documents coming out of think tanks, hiring "diversity and inclusion" coordinators, posting on social media, celebrating [insert progressive initiative] day, etc., but so little tangible action on how to tackle these issues because so many of these thought leaders and policy wonks and progressive pundits are far removed from the every day reality of the poverty, addictions, and crime cycle faced by the Indigenous communities in Prairie cities.
It takes the combined Indigenous population of the Vancouver and Toronto CMA to equate to the number of Indigenous people in Winnipeg (~100,000), yet these CMA's account for 8.8 million people in total. The centres from which all this progressive reconciliation talk come from are detached from the centres where the effects of policy (or lack thereof) are most vividly felt.
And before someone says this isn't related to construction in Winnipeg, it absolutely indirectly is. A significant part of the image of our downtown, and therefore desire to develop and build there, absolutely hinges on the social and economic direction the neighborhoods immediately adjacent to our downtown are heading in. You won't build a vibrant Exchange District, Waterfront Drive, Centennial, South Portage, or Assiniboine-Broadway unless North Point Douglass, Lord Selkirk Park, Spence, Centennial, Dufferin, William Whyte, and Burrows Central are improving. Simply due to geographic proximity, what occurs in those neighborhoods spills over to our downtown, which affects safety, perception, and ultimately market desirability for employers and residents to locate there.
While infrastructure, walkability, architecture, transit, and urban fabric are all important components of downtown's ability to attract investment and people, no single issue will impact downtown's rejuvenation or decline more than the wellbeing of the primarily Indigenous neighborhoods that border our downtown. And many Indigenous people, who have been subject to the effects of colonialism, will be strongly affected by the resources and support provided or not provided to them by their community, municipal, provincial, and federal governments.
So you can make all the master plans you want, and you can redesign streetscapes and add bike lanes, and plant trees, and give out TIFs, and add funnelnators, and build rapid transit lines, but if Indigenous people in inner-city neighborhoods continue to suffer, poverty and crime will follow, which makes downtown feel unsafe, which drives away employers and residents, end of story.
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its not the issues within winnipeg that affect the city its also the economic and social neglect we have been doing to the north for he last 50 years.
and the its a fedral problem pass the buck im not paying for that bs the province and all provinces do, need to effing stop doing and is why jordans principle exists for instance
we wont have true reconciliation till we can share and listen
till we treat all children as sacread no matter the situation they grow up in
this idea its the parents responsibly bs needs to stop and is holding us back when we have a cfs system thats overtaxed and busted
reason its true its the parents responsability but wtf do we do when the parents have no skill and they them selfs are daling with substance abuse and all sorts other issues and strugle
thats when it takes community to raise a child to break the cycles witch takes generations but yea theres so many great minds wasted every year
and from an elder i was talking to
when we have kids that are the ring leaders of the shit distrubing perhaps we need to look at them and throw resources to guide the natural born leaders away from the substances and crime and towards art and working with the land and anything we can teach that opens their minds. these natural born leaders are missed opertunities contantly
many kids just want stuff to do and somewhere they feel safe
i started painting one of my houses that looks decrepid cause it is (use it for storage / wood owrking) and i had the worst kids in town showing up with initive to help so i rewarded them and i did this cause there had been issues with arson and was my way of focusing my anger frustration and angsiety into something positive. generaly ive never had issues with the kids in this town other people do
had som busted windows at decripid house but that stoped when i cut my hnd cleaning it up and some kids saw. no idea what i did to garner the respect i get but i do sit and chat with any of them if they ask
the true answer to wpg and mb's issues is invest in our kids again
call out the racists in the education system
put an end to the idea they will just go on welfare who cares
sick of hearing this from educators/ adminstation
teachers need more secondary supports up here
think ill renovate said decrepid house for a teacher or teachers aid to live
but what will hurt the city more then the fn issues is the meth epidemic witch is affecting allot more none fn people witch boils back to every child matters period
we need an iron fist with the meth issue and mental health programing institutionalization in some form as u cant get everyone to go clean but also need to get seriously tough with the supply chain
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