Dropping In: A place they can now call home

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/12/2010 (5420 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The three young women meet every day in a basement classroom of an adult education centre on Broadway.

They live in the neighbourhood, coping with the petty thefts, the rising rents and the occasional burst of ugly violence, and they hold onto their dreams — get their Grade 12, go to college, get a good job and a real life.

Rebecca, 23, has lived here the longest — 13 years. Valerie Windego, 34, the oldest, moved into the neighbourhood eight years ago when rising rents forced her and her son to leave the Wolseley area.

Kate, 21, the youngest, moved into the area only two years ago, fleeing the high rents in St. Norbert.

At one time, the violence of West Broadway was so ugly and so common the neighbourhood earned the tag ‘Murder’s Half-Acre.’ It remains a trouble-plagued community but one with a bright side: Crime is down, developers are converting old apartments into condos and young, married couples are buying older homes and fixing them up.

Data from the Winnipeg Police Service CrimeStat said there were no reported crimes during the week that ended Dec. 4; three robberies the week before; and three residential break-and-enters and one car theft in the two weeks before that.

“The area has gotten a lot better in the past 10 years,” Rebecca said. She should know. She joined a street gang at the age of 13 but turned her back on that life four years ago with the birth of her son.

Now, Rebecca wants to go to college, become a youth worker and return to the streets to help kids find a different way.

Valerie didn’t want to move into West Broadway. The North End was more affordable but too violent. West Broadway was a compromise.

“Two years ago, during the lunch hour, a 12-year-old boy was stabbed in the laneway near my house. There was blood everywhere,” Valerie said. “This past summer, a man was literally set on fire on my back porch.”

Kate said she didn’t want to move into the neighbourhood either but, like Valerie, was fearful of the North End and opted for West Broadway.

But Kate likes living here. She walks everywhere or takes the bus. “I can walk and get groceries. The rent is cheap.” But, the neighbourhood lacks feeling, the woman said, a sense of place. It needs more events to bring neighbours and people together, they said.

The women said the community needs better lighting. “That would certainly cut down on the drug deals,” Rebecca said.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

Dropping In is a ‘random act of journalism’ that starts with a thumbtack on a city map and ends with a story from the street