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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Downtown dreams remain unfulfilled

By: Nicholas Hirst

12/03/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 6

My office window looks across Main Street onto three parking lots. One next to the Canwest building, an adjacent lot beside the Whiskey Dix nightclub in the old Royal Trust building and a third, multi-storey lot on Albert Street that feeds the buildings around Winnipeg Square.

The lots, and the many others like them, are a silent reminder of how this city works. As the consulting firms Altus Clayton and Urban Strategies Inc., pointed out in their recently released report, one in four residents of metropolitan Winnipeg works downtown, but only about 13,000 live there.

Those downtown workers get to their offices by car. I'm one of them and that's exactly what I do. My offices are in the ornate building at the corner of Lombard Avenue and Main Street above the Birks jewelry store.

It's a great place to work. Cheap, medium-priced and expense account lunching is available by walking briskly through the freezing wind into Winnipeg Square. Banks, legal firms and accountants are all less than five minutes away. The professional associations and arm's-length government agencies that deal with my business are also within easy walking distance, even in the coldest weather. The same goes for many other businesses.

It is exactly the kind of concentration of talent, professionalism and services that urban experts wax eloquently about.

Its disadvantage is that after 5 p.m., there is hardly a car left in the Rory Street parking lot where office workers park. The parking lots across Main Street are deserted and unless there is a game at the Canwest ballpark or the MTS Centre, you could shoot the proverbial cannon down the street and not hit anyone.

Downtown working in Winnipeg has not translated into downtown living, nor has it spurred, so far, the development of easy mass transit to bring folk from home. The question is why not?

Why is it that Winnipeg has developed like so many American cities? Houston and Dallas in particular come to mind. The downtown is relatively busy during the day, but it is as if the streets were rolled up after dark.

Like many American cities, Winnipeg has also developed the beginnings of an interesting boutique-type retail district in its downtown. That's mostly in the west Exchange District. It appears to be flourishing, but despite a few loft-style developments, it has not, as yet, helped spur the type of downtown living that has occurred in larger centres.

Despite the concentration of downtown workers and a relatively low office vacancy rate, downtown Winnipeg still has a depressed feeling. There are still empty buildings on Portage Avenue, the city's main thoroughfare and dotted throughout the Exchange District.

In short, the downtown is still not what it could be.

The new Manitoba Hydro building will help bring more people during the day, but the likelihood is that those people will drive out after dark just like the rest of us. It seems that the downtown has become an intractable problem. It can have new headquarters, many people working there, a new ballpark and a hockey arena and yet it has still failed to become a truly vibrant centre: the opportunity always seems to be waiting just around the corner.

Winnipeg has many things going for it, but without that vibrant downtown it remains a city without a soul: more a collection of suburbs, shopping malls and big-box sites than a true urban centre.

How can it change? Improvement to mass transit is one crucial step: not just a link to the University of Manitoba, but improvements to regular service. It has to be possible to get in and out and around downtown without a car.

I strongly believe that little changes could mean a lot. Former mayor Glen Murray had a great idea when he held summer concerts at Portage and Main -- it made the place feel alive and innovative.

The downtown needs small steps: a shuttle service that runs along Portage, bicycle rentals, a car-sharing service and more loft conversions. A pub for the University of Winnipeg would help keep more students in the evening and the same goes for Red River College.

Perhaps the opening of the Manitoba Hydro headquarters could become a downtown celebration. For some time, the downtown has been close to the tipping point that would shift it from its depressed state into a vital catalyst for the city. What are still lacking are champions either from politics or business to sell a vision and to make it happen. Who, then, will step up?

 

Nicholas Hirst is CEO of Winnipeg-based television and film producer Original Pictures Inc.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 12, 2009 A11

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6 Commentscomment icon

You hit the nail on the head - after 5pm and weekends, downtown becomes a ghost town. Not only should transit be improved, but there must be corresponding disincentives to driving, i.e., carbon taxes (which can be used to fund transit). In addition, we need to stop sprawl through provincial legislation, and provide tax incentives for downtown residential units. Idealy, these buildings would mainly be 3-4 story structures with small scale commercial on the ground floor, and residential above. We can no longer waste time trying to achieve these badly needed changes through education and voluntary measures alone. We need to lay down some new rules to make our city healthier, happier and safer.

Living downtown is pretty great, actually. Rents are not outrageous, it's reasonably safe, and nearly everything you need is within walking distance. Bus service is surprisingly reliable and easy to use. I enjoy amazing dinners at unique little restaurants that charge less than faceless chains -- and I cannot understand why such wonderful places are nearly empty in the evenings! Downtown has so much potential, but it's neglected and underappreciated. You can easily envision it becoming more vital. All that's needed is some leadership, commitment and vision. Right now, it feels like my own little secret.

I'm sympathetic to Mr. Hirst's observations,and his recommendations are bang on, but he overlooked the most obvious solution. Get more people living downtown, not just visiting daily. When people live downtown, the rest will come naturally. As a former downtown resident (now a downtown resident in Calgary) I spoke highly of living in downtown Winnipeg. It was terrible news that Crystal Developers backed down from their apartment development [edited]. I would have been delighted to welcome new faces to the neighbourhood.

When you mention downtown, you are referring to 2 different areas with 2 distinct characters. I see nothing wrong with the business district becoming a 9 to 5 operation while the Exchange District realizes its potential as a Bohemian community similar to Osborne Village. I believe development incentives like getting rid of red tape, huge property tax breaks, better parking and skywalks connecting all of downtown would go a long way to drawing business people to downtown & tourists and residents to the Exchange District.

I live downtown and work downtown. It is great to be able to walk everywhere. The negatives: At night once all the business people go home it becomes not dangerous just you have to be aware of the people that will harrass you on a daily basis in the walkways, etc. The downtown biz is great to walk you home at night except that they are done too early in the evening when i get off at midnight. Grocery stores are plenty but the prices are much higher. I happen to live in an old amazing building that has no parking at all so you are fighting during the winter for parking on only two streets that are about 2 blocks long that allow overnight parking. There is much to be done to make it a better place to live.

I would love to live downtown, I wouldn't have to drive then I could walk everywhere. The only problem is I don't know what sides are good what ones are bad what building is a 'crack' building and what ones are acceptable. Maybe with a little guidance and a little less "Fully Furnished" sketchy apartments (with who knows who in and out and all over the place)

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