Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Plan? Winnipeg?
We don't know what we want as a city
One day Manitoba Hydro is helping rebuild the downtown with its new headquarters, the next it is planning to gut buildings in the Exchange District for an electricity substation. Then, amidst howls of protest, it changes its mind.
There's no collective consciousness about what our priorities are. IKEA wants to come to Winnipeg and build on a site designated industrial by our planning authorities. No problem. Improved roads are needed. Sure. Go ahead.
It's not that I'm complaining about IKEA. With all the shopping development that has already gone on along Kenaston Boulevard, the site at Sterling Lyon Boulevard looks like a great fit. Nor as an advocate for the downtown do I object. IKEA is the quintessential supplier of urban furniture for downtown dwellers of small condos. You can't get more urban than IKEA. On the other hand, you can't build an IKEA downtown.
The IKEA concept needs a big parking lot, access to highways and, in most cities, access to public transit because in other cities many of the people who shop there don't own cars.
What I'm complaining about is that the city never seems to anticipate development, it always plays catch-up. Maybe that's about to change.
The mayor wants to rework Plan Winnipeg, the basic blueprint for the city. It's a thoroughly good idea and a great opportunity. First introduced with the amalgamation of city in 1972, Plan Winnipeg has been updated many times, but the plan itself often seems more of a curiosity than a working document.
A new plan, however, cannot be drawn up in isolation. It's great that Mayor Sam Katz has also promised to set up a new transportation authority because a plan for the city needs to go hand-in-hand with proposals for how to move its citizens from one place to another.
But more is needed. Consultations and seminars are fine. Mayor Katz understands the need for public input to make Winnipeg a better place. It's just that we have been down this route several times already without coherent objectives emerging.
Academic Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, gave a stirring speech at a conference organized by former mayor Glen Murray. Mayor Katz has already had a conference on the future of the city and there were many more in earlier years. But still our contradictions continue.
As a city, we don't seem to know what we want -- whether in the downtown, development trumps heritage or heritage trumps development or even whether the downtown itself is truly a priority.
There's not even a consensus about how what we want the downtown to be. Is it a pedestrian-friendly place to live and work or a corridor for cars to get through as fast as possible? The barriers at Portage and Main argue one way. Waterfront Drive and the redevelopment of Market Square point another. Development of the downtown, like most of the rest of Winnipeg, is a mish-mash without true direction.
We pay lip service to wanting some sort of rapid transit, but it is always car transportation that wins out. We say we want a green city, but our waste recycling is among the worst in the country. We have fewer bicycle trails and fewer taxi-cabs than other cities with a bus service that tries hard, but is inadequate for most people's needs.
What the city lacks is an overall plan that brings together transit, parking, suburban and downtown development in a precise but flexible document that recognizes the unique challenges we face (it's really cold) and charts an integrated course into an energy-restricted future.
If, as a city, we want to plan for less car use then we have to integrate that idea into all planning decisions: where we build houses, shops, schools and factories. At the moment, one thing rarely seems to have much to do with another. A new Plan Winnipeg should change that. It should preserve where possible, demolish when necessary and build in a way that enhances neighbourhoods. If Winnipeg were clear about its future, Manitoba Hydro would never even have thought of building a sub-station in the Exchange District.
Consultations are fine. But they work best when they are in response to proposals. The mayor and council need to work on priorities and a vision so that we all have something to discuss.
Nicholas Hirst is CEO of Winnipeg-based television and film producer Original Pictures Inc.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 5, 2009 A13
- 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 The View from the West
-
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
- Gesturing rudely at OPP while in possession of stolen goods: not a good idea
- She's not laughing anymore
- Ile des Chenes couple wins St. B Hospital lottery
- Teen robbed, sexually assaulted at bus stop
- High Canadian dollar here to stay, economists say
- Joannie Rochette receives permission to perform in made-for-TV 'Thin Ice'
- Violence reaches 'epidemic levels'
- North Dakota's ramping up for a flood battle. Are you concerned about what will happen north of the border?
- City may open diamond lanes to more users
- Grand Forks declares flood emergency
- 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
- From poster couple to problem couple
- 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!
- Is this the worst Olympics ever?
- She's not laughing anymore
- Gesturing rudely at OPP while in possession of stolen goods: not a good idea
- City may open diamond lanes to more users
- Violence reaches 'epidemic levels'
- Man shot after chasing car thieves
- Lobby groups target province on BiPole issue
- Play nice in your neighbour's dust
- Environmentalists attack Hydro line route
- Car thieves meet resistance, shoot man, 59
- Freedom for Li expected
- Freedom for Li expected
- She's not laughing anymore
- Man shot after chasing car thieves
- He can escape her verbal abuse
- Greyhound apologizes for stranding passengers
- City may open diamond lanes to more users
- Liberals say cutting MP mailings would save $10 million a year
- Gesturing rudely at OPP while in possession of stolen goods: not a good idea
- Eagles, Dixie Chicks to play stadium in June
- Lesbian teen faces classmates after school cancels dance over her request to bring girlfriend
- Teacher's lapdance caught on tape, watched by world
- MP may regret taking aim at Christian youth centre: Mayor Katz
- 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
- U of M freezes executive salaries
- An intellectual prisoner?
- Fraud arrest creates turmoil
- Inner-city clinic gets boost from Tolkien Trust
- Gesturing rudely at OPP while in possession of stolen goods: not a good idea
- Eagles, Dixie Chicks at Stadium June 22
- However you roll it, cabbage comes up winner
- Ile des Chenes couple wins St. B Hospital lottery
- City to study house-sale plan further
- High Canadian dollar here to stay, economists say
- Eagles, Dixie Chicks to play stadium in June
- Grand Forks declares flood emergency
- Indian Act changing to treat descendants equitably
- 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
- 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

0 Comments