Winnipeg - Of Interest

[borkborkbork]

Originally Posted by optimusREIM

https://davidpennerarchitect.ca/wwf2050

Does anyone remember where this proposal came from? I feel like it may have been a part of an architecture or planning competition but I forget. I salivate at the thought of something like this getting off the ground. I vote for immediate adoption. This does bring back the whole water level regulation debate, but I don't believe it's a bad idea, especially if the province were to create artificial wetlands and stuff as mentioned in the blurb about the proposal.

I love the little sculpture of horses fording the river. In the winter they would be an amazing little homage to Guy Madden.

[esquire]

The number of articles in recent months about escalating crime and disorder is hard to ignore. The CBC ran a couple just within the last couple of days:

Worried about staff safety, some West Broadway businesses are locking doors during the day

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...fety-1.5091935

Norwood community members share concerns about property crime, meth

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...ting-1.5091676

It's to the point where you have to wonder how badly this is hurting attempts to encourage downtown housing, or even the appeal of non-downtown inner city areas like Norwood and West Broadway. WB in particular had the feel of an area on the rise that was starting to become attractive to a wide range of residents, but it is bearing the brunt of this sudden explosion in addictions.

It is discouraging that just when it felt like Winnipeg was starting to turn a corner, this all reared up and set progress back by several years.

[Hecate]

Originally Posted by esquire

The number of articles in recent months about escalating crime and disorder is hard to ignore. The CBC ran a couple just within the last couple of days:

Worried about staff safety, some West Broadway businesses are locking doors during the day

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...fety-1.5091935

Norwood community members share concerns about property crime, meth

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...ting-1.5091676

It's to the point where you have to wonder how badly this is hurting attempts to encourage downtown housing, or even the appeal of non-downtown inner city areas like Norwood and West Broadway. WB in particular had the feel of an area on the rise that was starting to become attractive to a wide range of residents, but it is bearing the brunt of this sudden explosion in addictions.

It is discouraging that just when it felt like Winnipeg was starting to turn a corner, this all reared up and set progress back by several years.

It’s sad. The meth issue isn’t just a problem in Winnipeg but in rural areas too. It’s the hopelessness of poverty and inequality. I live about a mile from the trailer park on 59 by birds hill park and it is there. It is rampant in Selkirk too. Until we address the issues that low incomes, high taxation and high rents create, nothing will change. There is too much hopelessness for our youth and other low income Canadians. Just look at how the government targets smokers. I can’t remember the exact numbers but around 18% of Canadians smoke. The majority of them are low income earners. Smoking is not good, regardless of that, how ethical is it to tax the lowest earning citizens for their vices. It’s wrong and does nothing to promote healthy living. It promotes food bank usage. People who are constantly under financial stress cannot be expected to make good decision for themselves or their families.

[Riverman]

Haha good point. It does seem to be the poor in MB that smoke, but there seems to be a lot more smokers in Ontario. And Quebec, it seems almost everybody smokes. So maybe the high taxes on cigs are a way of getting something back from Quebec?

[esquire]

About damn time:

City councillors want owners of chronically derelict buildings to face tougher penalties

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...nges-1.5098980

Members of the mayor's inner circle want city staff to suggest changes to Winnipeg's bylaws to make them tougher on owners of perpetually vacant or derelict properties.

"All across our city — and in some wards it's more problematic than others — we have properties that are not cared for," Coun. Scott Gillingham (St. James) told members of the executive policy committee.

"It becomes a blight on the community."

Gillingham introduced a motion April 9 asking the public service to report back to the community services committee on tools, strategies and tactics that could "promote voluntary compliance and deter repeat or long-term non-compliance" with Winnipeg's neighbourhood liveability bylaw and vacant buildings bylaw.

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by esquire

About damn time:

City councillors want owners of chronically derelict buildings to face tougher penalties

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...nges-1.5098980

I would hope it has enough "teeth" to be effective but the phrase "promote voluntary compliance" worries me that it will not work.

[cllew]

Looks like something will be coming up at the long abandoned Petro Canada lot on Henderson at Johnson as a "community site"

http://chalmersrenewal.org/243henderson/

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by esquire

About damn time:

City councillors want owners of chronically derelict buildings to face tougher penalties

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...nges-1.5098980

And what will the unintended consequences of this idea turn out to be, I wonder?

[cllew]

That the city will end with title to the lots and have to pay to either secure them or demolish them and try to put the land for sale? And loose money in the process.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by cllew

Looks like something will be coming up at the long abandoned Petro Canada lot on Henderson at Johnson as a "community site"

http://chalmersrenewal.org/243henderson/

A "public amenity" meaning what I wonder? Yikes, I hope not a park.

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

A "public amenity" meaning what I wonder? Yikes, I hope not a park.

Ugh. Could you imagine more green space? Terrible. Hopefully its something that uses lots of concrete.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by cheswick

Ugh. Could you imagine more green space? Terrible. Hopefully its something that uses lots of concrete.

You have to be sensible. Existing parks are not being maintained adequately and Elmwood Park and the old Kelvin CC are just blocks away. Not the right place for a park anyways, it would be as underused and undervalued as that little park on the south side of Portage. The location is much better suited for residential/commercial development and is served by two bus routes. Not sure if the land formerly being a gas station will affect what can be built there, though further up the land that sat vacant for 15+ years at Greene Ave. has been redeveloped for commercial purposes, and it is one modern building that I actually kind of like as it uses quality materials.

[vid]

What the city should do is seize and sell them to better owners, even if their property taxes are paid up. But that's unconstitutional, of course.

[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

You have to be sensible. Existing parks are not being maintained adequately and Elmwood Park and the old Kelvin CC are just blocks away. Not the right place for a park anyways, it would be as underused and undervalued as that little park on the south side of Portage. The location is much better suited for residential/commercial development and is served by two bus routes. Not sure if the land formerly being a gas station will affect what can be built there, though further up the land that sat vacant for 15+ years at Greene Ave. has been redeveloped for commercial purposes, and it is one modern building that I actually kind of like as it uses quality materials.

There are some type of requirements for letting the land air out. Either dig it all out or let it sit. Maybe I'm not remembering things right, for the third time this morning haha. But seems all the old gas station lots sit vacant for a couple decades at least.

The new Fort building at Greene looks pretty nice. Too bad half the lot fronting Henderson is parking. Same thing at the other building near Kimberly, on the old town hall land. That one is still pretty empty, and more parking lots on Henderson.

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

There are some type of requirements for letting the land air out. Either dig it all out or let it sit. Maybe I'm not remembering things right, for the third time this morning haha. But seems all the old gas station lots sit vacant for a couple decades at least.

This one here has sat for many decades. What you're looking at is a chimney still letting off fumes from the ground/soil underneath. Maybe that's why it's a banking drive thru. I heard there was a fire at this gas station in the 60s.

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Por...!4d-97.1726364

[bomberjet]

Thanks. I always think of the one at Waverley and Grant. The City took a portion of it to add a right turn cut-off for Waverley.

[Biff]

The Henderson property - 775 Henderson has been vacant since 2003 sometime....so 15-16 years.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Biff

The Henderson property - 775 Henderson has been vacant since 2003 sometime....so 15-16 years.

Yes, the old Dunrobin Esso.

[Biff]

Lived just down the street from there. Got my NFL Pro-Line tickets there every Sunday.

[Gm0ney]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Thanks. I always think of the one at Waverley and Grant. The City took a portion of it to add a right turn cut-off for Waverley.

That one sat for years - just an empty lot with a big chain link fence. The city must have been planning to use a piece for the cut-off?

But on the opposite corner they put up that Carpathia Credit Union shortly after the Shell station closed. Tim Hortons anchors that strip mall where the Esso Roadrunner was at Stafford and Corydon. There's a dentist office at Corydon and Waterloo where another Esso was. Some of them don't sit for long.