Demolition simply not a downtown vision

There’s a scene at the end of the old movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit where the suspense and horror of the would-be freeway developers ceases to terrorize the cartoon citizenry of Toon Town. A backhoe breaks through the wall of a warehouse that shields this world from the world of the “toons,” and reveals a sunny, goofy, musical, dancing cartoon world. The backhoe is promptly hit by a cartoon train and whisked out of frame while multitudes of goofy characters sing and dance in the background.

I felt like I’d briefly glimpsed this world as I turned up Edmonton Street from Broadway en route to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet building on Graham Avenue. Something has changed in the usual view of the glass facade at Portage Place. I can see the lower-level windows have been removed, and there’s a view straight through to the sun-bathed Central Park. And while there’s no singing or dancing or convenient trains coming to wipe away the vestiges of failed consumerism, the clock tower stands cartoonishly regarding its exposed ankles; the face that once looked out over our long gone “gingerbread” city hall stares agape at another demolition.

Having reason to visit downtown outside of work hours is rare for many of us, with shops and amenities dwindling. Those of us who only visit for arena events enjoy the company of only one another on the streets. During off hours, it really is becoming a ghost town.

Earlier this week, the Free Press spoke to business owners regarding changes to Graham Avenue. These changes were supposed to be part of CentrePlan 2050, an ambitious idea to bring folks back downtown and promote it as a place to linger, not merely pass through. Part of this plan involves creating a pedestrian corridor along Graham Avenue. Drawings of the plans show a bustling streetscape with a variety of shops, amenities and entertainment options.

Predictably, city council voted to delay further development of this plan until 2027, but has moved buses off Graham and closed two blocks to vehicular traffic in the meantime. With nothing drawing people there, the changes have had the predictable effect of emptying the streets of what few people there were sustaining the area in the first place.

We have left the visioning of our city in the hands of developers, and primarily to True North Sports and Entertainment, who are key drivers in the redevelopment of Portage Place. Along with many other Winnipeggers, I’m grateful that someone (anyone) has some vision and the resources to envision a downtown we’d be proud of and want to spend time in, but I’m concerned the lack of co-ordination on the area as a whole has rendered parts of it palliative, Graham Avenue in particular.

The city-led changes to downtown are not a “revitalization.” This is the continued slow decline and death of downtown at the hands of incompetent city leadership. The circulation of people on buses, the lifeblood of downtown, has been cut off. The patient is laid open, halfway through a surgery we can only hope will save its life.

I’m struck by a memory of standing at the foot of that clock when Portage Place first opened. I was just a little kid, and was there with my father. We were reading the text on a granite-encased time capsule, and he told me that by the time it was opened, he’d be long gone and I’d be a little old lady with a cane. Neither of those things have come to pass, and yet here we are demolishing our past optimism for downtown in the hopes a new optimism can replace it.

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There was a time our downtown sidewalks were full, when buses unloaded shoppers and diners, when we felt ownership of our city’s core, when we felt welcomed and embraced by the shops lining Portage and Graham. At the end of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the rights to Toon Town are restored in perpetuity to “those lovable characters, the toons.” If only the residents of Winnipeg could be so lucky as to have our downtown restored to us, too.

rebecca.chambers@freepress.mb.ca

Rebecca Chambers

Rebecca explores what it means to be a Winnipegger by layering experiences and reactions to current events upon our unique and sometimes contentious history and culture. Her column appears alternating Saturdays.

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