A core concern A series exploring downtown Winnipeg

As part of an ongoing series, the Free Press is turning its focus to Winnipeg's downtown area, exploring the state of the city's core, and what can be done to improve it.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/12/2022 (1359 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As part of an ongoing series, the Free Press is turning its focus to Winnipeg’s downtown area, exploring the state of the city’s core, and what can be done to improve it.

Once more into the downtown

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
                                A peaked roof pokes out above storefronts, a vestige of another time, at Kennedy Street and Graham Avenue in Winnipeg.

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In the opening decades of the 20th century, optimism for the bustling Portage strip, and the blocks lined up neatly around it, was overflowing. The City of Winnipeg was growing, booming with new European settlers and new business, signs of the wealth being extracted from the land in a young colonial country, and the promises of more wealth to come.

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It will take more than office workers' return to get downtown back on its feet

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
                                More foot traffic is needed for a vibrant and safer downtown, says Aimee Peake, owner of Bison Books.

Posted:

The plastic is still on the newly purchased couch.

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Too many U of W and RRC Polytech students are still fleeing the inner city as soon as classes end

SUPPLIED
                                The latest addition on Elgin Avenue houses 10 new programs, marking the most significant scale-up of the institution’s academic offerings in its history, and is surrounded by a new pedestrian corridor.

Posted:

There are no traces of the University of Manitoba’s downtown campus, a collection of science and arts buildings that once stood where manicured grounds now host family picnics — and, during the winter months, piles of snow — on Memorial Boulevard.

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An artist thrives in a precious, temporary gallery space in the increasingly unaffordable art heart of the city

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
                                The struggle to create is Jedrick Thorassie’s calling. Finding a place to make and sell it alongside other artists is getting tougher. He found a precious temporary reprieve in a gallery space on Arthur St. and hopes he can find a way to stay in the neighbourhood.

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Jedrick Thorassie sits cross-legged on 123-year-old floorboards, surrounded by paintbrushes, finished works, and dozens upon dozens of sketchbooks, each page filled with the pictures he’s seen and the ones he’s created.

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Inner city has lowest housing stock, increasing pressure to help homeless

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Downtown resident Brian Pincott enjoys the beauty of the city’s core, but he also laments what it could be.

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Brian Pincott lives in a home on Spence Street. He loves downtown Winnipeg — he was a city councillor in Calgary for a decade before moving here three and a half years ago and was immediately struck by what he calls some of the best “urban bones” in the country.

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Scouting for a younger Jets fan

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Eleven years after Winnipeg won back an NHL team, True North is facing off against inflation, lack of options and fear of crime.

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There was a time when a seat at a Winnipeg Jets game may have rivalled any night out at a pub or bar for some of the city’s younger fans.

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Amid a toxic drug crisis, Winnipeg and Hamilton go in starkly different directions

Stations for clients to safely use drugs at Carole Anne’s Place at YWCA Hamilton in Ontario.
CARLOS OSORIO FOR THE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Posted:

In Hamilton, there's a pair of supervised consumption sites in operation, with a third on its way. In Winnipeg, there's a patchwork approach to harm reduction as advocates try, at the very least, to make it safer for users on the streets.

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Hosting services of many faiths, Knox United quietly models what downtown can be

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
                                A welcome sign at Knox United Church, an intercultural church and community hub in the heart of the Central Park neighbourhood of Winnipeg.

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It’s the last Sunday before Christmas, and though the weather outside is bitter, the inside of Knox United Church is almost a little too warm. Mostly, that’s the fault of the building’s overzealous old radiators, which minister Lesley Harrison jokes have a mind of their own; but also, it’s that the church is filling up with the global village of faithful who make it their home.

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Greening the concrete jungle, in Winnipeg and Edmonton

SUPPLIED
                                City of Edmonton’s Warehouse Park is set to be completed in 2025.

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In the leafy shade of Edmonton’s living-cities victories, Winnipeg advocates see hope for easing the grey expanse of 150 downtown surface lots to an urban oasis

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History

Updated on Sunday, January 1, 2023 3:03 PM CST: Adds link to Knox United story

Updated on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 6:43 AM CST: Adds link to concrete jungle story

Updated on Wednesday, January 4, 2023 12:40 PM CST: Rearranges stories

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Teenage e-scooter driver in critical condition after crash

Chris Kitching 6 minute read Preview

Teenage e-scooter driver in critical condition after crash

Chris Kitching 6 minute read Wednesday, Sep. 16, 2026

A teenager riding an e-scooter suffered life-threatening injuries when he was struck by an SUV in southwest Winnipeg on Monday night.

Witnesses provided first aid to the injured rider, who police said is under 18, after the collision happened at Waverley Street and Arbour Meadow Gate/Lake Crest Road at about 9:30 p.m.

“It feels like it happened in slow motion,” said driver Audrey Vanderspek, who was waiting at a red light when she witnessed the incident. “Maybe it’s because you’re helpless, that it just feels like everything slows down in the moment.”

Police said the electric scooter rider was crossing Waverley and was hit by a southbound 2010 Honda CR-V. The posted speed limit on that stretch of Waverley is 70 kilometres per hour.

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Wednesday, Sep. 16, 2026

‘She was looking to destroy me’: convicted harasser faces new charges

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

‘She was looking to destroy me’: convicted harasser faces new charges

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Yesterday at 6:54 PM CDT

When Agnieszka Ciochon-Newton moved into the 55-plus apartment building on Stradbrook Avenue last year, she came across as “timid, soft-spoken and sensitive,” said building manager Tanya Owen.

Little did Owen know the meek-looking 58-year-old woman would soon turn her life and the lives of many of her tenants upside down and threaten her career and family.

“She was looking to destroy me for a simple tenant disagreement,” Owen said Thursday.

Court records show Ciochon-Newton was arrested earlier this month and charged with seven counts of criminal harassment, two counts of uttering threats and one count each of fraud, breaking and entering, attempting to obstruct justice, intimidation of a justice official, mischief and defamatory libel.

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Yesterday at 6:54 PM CDT

Canada-U.S. trade relationship is broken, but the damage can — and will — be repaired

Tom Brodbeck 5 minute read Preview

Canada-U.S. trade relationship is broken, but the damage can — and will — be repaired

Tom Brodbeck 5 minute read Yesterday at 1:35 PM CDT

Canada needs to get serious about diversifying its trade beyond the United States. But at the same time, Canadians should expect relations with the U.S. to normalize after Donald Trump is no longer in the White House.

For generations, Canada-U.S. trade was considered almost a fact of geography. The two countries share the world’s longest undefended border, deeply integrated supply chains and a century of commercial relationships.

Canadian manufacturers depend on American customers. American manufacturers depend on Canadian suppliers. Energy, agriculture, automotive production and countless other industries operate across the border as though it barely exists.

That isn’t going to change dramatically, even in the midst of a bitter trade war unleashed by the U.S. president.

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Yesterday at 1:35 PM CDT

Kinew delivered what most of us wanted; now we’ll have to deal with the consequences

Dan Lett 5 minute read Preview

Kinew delivered what most of us wanted; now we’ll have to deal with the consequences

Dan Lett 5 minute read Yesterday at 4:35 PM CDT

Premier Wab Kinew has decided to adopt permanent daylight savings time, which means a permanent end to the spring forward, fall back tradition of adjusting our clocks. And absolutely no one is surprised.

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Jets suspend goaltender Hellebuyck for failure to report to training camp

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Jets suspend goaltender Hellebuyck for failure to report to training camp

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 4:20 PM CDT

WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Jets suspended goaltender Connor Hellebuyck on Wednesday night for failing to report to training camp.

The team said general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff would address the media Thursday morning. It did not specify the length of the suspension for the U.S. Olympic star.

Hellebuyck, a three-time Vezina Trophy winner and 2025 Hart Trophy winner as NHL MVP, publicly requested a trade from the team on Aug. 27.

In a statement posted on X by his agent, Ray Petkau, Hellebuyck said he had privately requested a trade “several months ago” and that he gave the organization time to address it “quietly and respectfully.”

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Updated: Yesterday at 4:20 PM CDT

What to watch as puck drops on Jets training camp

Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe 10 minute read Preview

What to watch as puck drops on Jets training camp

Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe 10 minute read Wednesday, Sep. 16, 2026

Welcome to a Winnipeg Jets training camp like no other — one where the on-ice storylines and battles threaten to be trumped by what’s happening away from the rink.

Yes, the dark cloud that is the Connor Hellebuyck situation looms over the organization as it prepares to try and turn the page on a terrible 2025-26 campaign which ended with a 26th-overall finish.

It’s not going to be easy, especially in a highly competitive Central Division and Western Conference and with such a major unresolved issue.

But the work starts now, and Free Press hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe get you set for what to expect ahead of the 84-game regular season, which begins Oct. 2.

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Wednesday, Sep. 16, 2026