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Originally Posted by GreyGarden
Interesting, I didn't know that about Stephen Juba Park.
I definitely did not intend to make it sound like I thought the West End is a desolate place. I think it's a special spot and like someone previously said, it's the go-to for food from around the world. Further, you always hear about already gentrified cities missing those great small businesses that aren't all designed around appealing to upper income people and Instagram. I'd be bummed if I found out my favourite pho spot on Ellice was replaced by a brewery or something like that.
I think I agree that areas like Wolseley, West Broadway and Osborne are already occupied by middle-upper income people and in my opinion even those areas have a ways to go in terms of offering a good walkable urban experience on par with other Canadian cities. So I think there's no need for that trend to expand into the West End. However, to the extent that gentrification exists in Winnipeg, I do foresee the area slowly becoming more like Wolseley from the south up given it's proximity to Wolseley and downtown, housing stock and road layout. But in the long term. I'm no expert in managing gentrification and offsetting it's impacts, but it seems like given it's slow pace here, there is the potential to manage it to a certain extent and protect people.
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I agree with everything you're saying. There's already a push northward in parts of the West End of what appears to be people who'd normally end up in Wolseley but couldn't afford it. That trend will unfortunately be likely to continue.
I would also love to see certain improvements to the West End. For example, the sidewalks often feel narrow during busy times. Given the number of cyclists in the area who don't feel comfortable riding on the road, either Ellice, Sargent, and/or St Matthews should get a bike lane, at least east of Wall/Erin. Safe injection sites and other support facilities are in high need as well. There's also some vacant lots that would be great to see some nice, new fine-grained urbanism, perhaps some small businesses and organizations catering to local needs with some affordable apartments above. There are many housing sites too that are dilapidated that would benefit from a sort of municipally or provincially funded renewal grant, provided protections were in place to control rising rent/property values that would then price people out of their block. I just worry any improvement to the West End will help spur gentrification (which is already occurring south of St Matthews in particular) and therefore improvements need to be coupled with extremely tight protections for the low-income population.
And for sure, places like Osborne and West Broadway still have a ways to go before becoming very good walkable urban neighbourhoods. Wolseley I'd say is already there. It's not bustling per se, but it works as a quaint and cutesy neighbourhood that is very walkable. Osborne as the city's premier urban drag is kind of mediocre compared with Edmonton's Whyte or Calgary's 17th, especially when you consider how much better the legacy built form is in Winnipeg. Similarly sized Hamilton and Quebec City also have far better main streets. I think Osborne struggles from being one of the few key arteries into downtown from the south end. It's something akin to Edmonton's Whyte Ave, which is the only major east-west artery on the southside for a considerable geographic area. But Osborne could really use a road diet as its pedestrian realm is abhorrent. West Broadway is better for the streetscapes, although less vibrant than Osborne or Corydon. It appears that Sherbrook is where the bulk of main street improvements are happening, as opposed to Broadway, which is fine, I think.