Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
PERSPECTIVE: Walking down Main
Exclusive print-only feature
(KEN GIGLIOTTI WINNIPEG FREE PRESS )
Editorial writer Tom Oleson recently strolled the 1.8 kilometre stretch of Main Street from Selkirk Avenue to Portage Avenue — the infamous Main Street Strip — and found it a better place than you might think and for reasons that you won’t guess.
The Manitoba Liquor Control Commission’s outlet at Main Street and Pritchard Avenue, hardly a frog’s jump north of Selkirk Avenue, is the only liquor store in the city that is open six days a week at nine o’clock in the morning.
Since Winnipeggers, whether they are in the Main Street area or have simply sunk to the depths of sipping sherry 24/7 in their Wolseley and River Heights homes, all work different shifts, live different lives and keep different hours, it is peculiar that liquor stores, or at least some of them, aren’t open 24/7.
But they are not. The closest the city comes to that is the liquor store at 1005 Main Street, and that is for a very particular reason. Some years ago, John Rodgers, who was then head of the Main Street Project, and members of some other organizations devoted to improving the lives of the drunk and the indigent on Main — the Non-Potable-Abuse Committee, as they were collectively called — approached the MLCC and asked it if it could open the Main Street store a little earlier than the puritanical 10 a.m. which is the opening hour most days of the week for every other liquor store.
For the full story, see today's newspaper or our fpNews electronic edition.
- Rate this

-
-
We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high. If you thought it was well written, do the same. If it doesn’t meet your standards, mark it accordingly.
You can also register and/or login to the site and join the conversation by leaving a comment.
Rate it yourself by rolling over the stars and clicking when you reach your desired rating. We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high.
The comment period for this story has ended.
Ads by Google
- Back to Top
- Return to Latest News
-
CON >< CUSSIONS
Examining hockey head injuries
-
Random Acts of Kindness
Your encounters with goodness
-
Open Secrets
Red River students mine government data banks
-
Ski with WFP
Register here to ski Asessippi with the Winnipeg Free Press
-
Miss Lonelyhearts
Maureen Scurfield offers life advice
Poll
Most Popular
- She's not laughing anymore
- Ile des Chenes couple wins St. B Hospital lottery
- Gesturing rudely at OPP while in possession of stolen goods: not a good idea
- Jesse James apologizes to wife Sandra Bullock, his children
- Should youth convicted of serious crimes have their names made public?
- Humane society nabs dogs roaming wild after owners' death
- Teen robbed, sexually assaulted at bus stop
- Weather improves flood outlook
- Balmy weather ends today with snow, rain
- Play nice in your neighbour's dust
- She's not laughing anymore
- Crusader up for Nobel Prize
- Mild again, but enjoy it while it lasts
- Freedom for Li expected
- Six-year-old leads RCMP to attacker
- Off-duty officer stops assault on Transit driver
- Man shot after chasing car thieves
- Gesturing rudely at OPP while in possession of stolen goods: not a good idea
- New cutting machine breaks through ice near Selkirk
- Grand Forks declares flood emergency
- Olympic-sized hypocrisy
- Crusader up for Nobel Prize
- Not wrong, just illegal
- Teacher's lapdance caught on tape, watched by world
- Students could be punished
- Second video of lap dance uncovered
- Mr. Matas a worthy nominee
- What should happen to two teachers who performed a sexually suggestive dance routine in front of students?
- Oprah's on, and so is our Jon!
- She's not laughing anymore
- She's not laughing anymore
- Play nice in your neighbour's dust
- Gesturing rudely at OPP while in possession of stolen goods: not a good idea
- City may open diamond lanes to more users
- Environmentalists attack Hydro line route
- Provincial Tories lead in latest poll
- Toews reintroduces law to beef up sex-offender registry
- Changes won't deter youth crime: professor
- Violence reaches 'epidemic levels'
- Lobby groups target province on BiPole issue
- She's not laughing anymore
- Freedom for Li expected
- Man shot after chasing car thieves
- City may open diamond lanes to more users
- He can escape her verbal abuse
- Greyhound apologizes for stranding passengers
- Gesturing rudely at OPP while in possession of stolen goods: not a good idea
- Liberals say cutting MP mailings would save $10 million a year
- Eagles, Dixie Chicks to play stadium in June
- Charges considered in machete attack
- Teacher's lapdance caught on tape, watched by world
- She's not laughing anymore
- Students could be punished
- Police shoot and kill suspect
- Freedom for Li expected
- Second video of lap dance uncovered
- More ominous issue underlies Youth for Christ flap
- Wielding a weapon costs a life
- Mounties hook ice-fishers for open beer
- Youth centre sparks dispute
- Police probe travel agent over fare flap
- Is jet a trophy or just bad PR?
- Giant Wal-Mart's footstep feared
- Gesturing rudely at OPP while in possession of stolen goods: not a good idea
- Lobby groups target province on BiPole issue
- Fraud arrest creates turmoil
- Ile des Chenes couple wins St. B Hospital lottery
- Wind turbine maker AAER faces uncertain future with second round of layoffs
- Duo dropping Cluster bomb on city arts scene Students launch multi-disciplinary festival to explore sound, light, dance, architecture
- She's not laughing anymore
- Eagles, Dixie Chicks to play stadium in June
- Grand Forks declares flood emergency
- Condos at ex-Penthouse
- New cutting machine breaks through ice near Selkirk
- It's the Sharks vs. the Jets in a jazzy rumble
- Man shot after chasing car thieves
- Iceland airline bullish about Winnipeg
- Former prosecutor ambushed on CBC
- Ice-cutting machine to stay submerged until spring
- Prairie proliferation
- Text of Shane Koyczan's opening ceremonies poem, "We Are More"
- Teacher's lapdance caught on tape, watched by world
- Olympic-sized hypocrisy
- Cabela's to open across Canada
- Oprah's on, and so is our Jon!
- Online drug pioneer tumbles
- Mounties hook ice-fishers for open beer
- Not wrong, just illegal
- No listings for buyers flooding the housing market
- Second video of lap dance uncovered
PREVIOUS

1 Comments
Posted by: CeeCee
June 7, 2009 at 11:26 AM
yes, and opening liquor stores early has done such a wonder for the "locals" on Main st....