Winnipeg - Of Interest

[1ajs]

this is interesting

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
REIT shell games are destined to implode
By: Fabrice Taylor / Inside Track
Posted: 03/26/2011 1:00 AM

Investors love real estate, whether it's buying a home, a rental property or stocks. Why? In part because it's easy to understand and tangible: They can see it and touch it. But investors behave in a curious way when it comes to what they tolerate from their real estate investments.
If you invest in property directly, you'd never, say, buy a rental that generates $50,000 a year in income and then pay yourself $75,000. You couldn't, in fact.
Yet, investors routinely buy shares of companies -- real estate investment trusts -- that do precisely that: pay out more than they should.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bus...118700519.html

[1ajs]

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Living working playing downtown
By: Staff Writer
Posted: 03/27/2011 1:00 AM

Fresh revolution
THE first thing we noticed when we entered Mondragon Bookstore and Coffee House was the spicy, exotic smell coming from the kitchen. The second thing we noticed was the guy sitting in the corner by the window whose laptop featured a sticker saying F... the f...ing f...ers.
It was a sentiment we had already braced ourselves for. After all, Mondragon describes itself as a radical and politically charged bookstore, and it is also home to the Sacco & Vanzetti organic grocer.
It sounds like a lovely name for an Italian grocery store, but the real Sacco & Vanzetti were anarchists who were executed in Massachusetts in 1927.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...118730679.html

[Bdog]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Living working playing downtown
By: Staff Writer
Posted: 03/27/2011 1:00 AM

Fresh revolution
THE first thing we noticed when we entered Mondragon Bookstore and Coffee House was the spicy, exotic smell coming from the kitchen. The second thing we noticed was the guy sitting in the corner by the window whose laptop featured a sticker saying F... the f...ing f...ers.
It was a sentiment we had already braced ourselves for. After all, Mondragon describes itself as a radical and politically charged bookstore, and it is also home to the Sacco & Vanzetti organic grocer.
It sounds like a lovely name for an Italian grocery store, but the real Sacco & Vanzetti were anarchists who were executed in Massachusetts in 1927.

1ajs, I am disappointed that you did not follow proper article posting protocol here. You did not provide the URL link, tisk, tisk... Please see protocol on the main page thread, or I will report to the moderator to have this removed promptly... oh wait... LOL

[1ajs]

lol woops damn i must still be tired

[vid]

No posting articles about conspiracy theories like you did at SSC, either.

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by vid

No posting articles about conspiracy theories like you did at SSC, either.

??????????

[vid]

That "Stephen Harper guilty" thing.

It's just like in 2008 when a bunch of people flipped out about him "breaking the law" by calling an election after he made a law saying the next election would be 2009 or something. It's just a silly theory made up by left wingers to make him illegitimate.

[roccerfeller]

From the blueprint room hidden away by the unused elevator shaft in the dungeons of Portage Place

[Andy6]

Interesting article from La Presse if you read French.

It's part of a two-part piece on the richest and poorest ridings in Canada (Don Valley West in Toronto and Winnipeg Centre, respectively).

Anyway, the writer interviews a lady who runs a convenience store around Main and Logan. Rob would love this part:

Les autorités ont fait des efforts pour revitaliser le quartier. Plusieurs de ces maisons de chambres ont ainsi été détruites dans les dernières années. De nouveaux bâtiments ont été érigés à grand renfort d'argent public. Il y a deux nouvelles constructions juste à côté du dépanneur. L'une d'elles, flambant neuve, loge des bureaux de l'UNICEF.


Mais Mme ----- n'en a pas encore profité. «Les gens qui travaillent là ne viennent rien acheter chez moi, se lamente-t-elle. Ils arrivent travailler le matin dans leur voiture, mangent leur lunch à l'intérieur, puis retournent chez eux. Ils ont peur de sortir. Ils ont peur de Main Street. Je n'en ai jamais vu un seul marcher dans la rue.»

My translation:

The authorities have made an effort to revitalize the neighbourhood. Many of the [skid row hotels] have been demolished in recent years. New buildings have been built with the help of government money. Two new ones are right next to the corner store. One of them, brand new, houses the offices of UNICEF. [should be United Way?]

But Mrs ----- hasn't profited from it. "The people working there never come in and buy anything here", she laments. "They come to work in the morning in their cars, eat their lunch inside, then go home. They're afraid to go out. They're afraid of Main Street. I've never seen a single one of them walk down the street."

[Riverman]

I've noticed that too. ALL government buildings seem to have a smoking area out front (make that all office buildings), but no one is ever standing out front of those two buildings smoking. Maybe the owners have provided an indoor or rooftop smoking area?

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by roccerfeller

From the blueprint room hidden away by the unused elevator shaft in the dungeons of Portage Place

nice man nice

[trueviking]

Wheat board faces extinction
With majority in hand, Tories vow to end monopoly

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bus...121234974.html

[Bdog]

Originally Posted by trueviking

Wheat board faces extinction
With majority in hand, Tories vow to end monopoly

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bus...121234974.html

I've always found it strange that while most farmers support keeping the Wheat Board, the rural areas where they live invariably support the party that wants to dismantle it...

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by Riverman

I've noticed that too. ALL government buildings seem to have a smoking area out front (make that all office buildings), but no one is ever standing out front of those two buildings smoking. Maybe the owners have provided an indoor or rooftop smoking area?

Indoor smoking areas at workplaces are illegal in Manitoba...

[1ajs]

re: weat board

what should happen is the weat board should not be abolished butthe monopoly should be changed to allow for some compition

[flatlander]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

re: weat board

what should happen is the weat board should not be abolished butthe monopoly should be changed to allow for some compition

Funny how that wasn't an issue during the last election ... neither was Biomed City.

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

re: weat board

what should happen is the weat board should not be abolished butthe monopoly should be changed to allow for some compition

then its demise just takes longer....

[flatlander]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

re: weat board

what should happen is the weat board should not be abolished butthe monopoly should be changed to allow for some compition

Then what's the point?

[1ajs]

one needs to look back at why it was created in the first place

[rgalston]

Funny seeing a board that was a big piece of what helped deflate Winnipeg's importance in the 1920s, being defended--in the pages of the Free Press!--90 years later.