Fiddling while Winnipeg burns: setting priorities

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/08/2024 (582 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Friday, we told you about two Transcona residents facing fines, one for putting a face on the trunk of a boulevard tree, and the other for putting a planter-box around another tree. (City’s bite worse than decorated bark, Aug. 23.)

The rationale behind removing the tree faces and planters does make sense: nailing things into trees can certainly do them harm. But it’s hard to see small things getting instant attention from the City of Winnipeg, while larger municipal issues simply languish.

It’s all, of course, spelled out on the city’s “Non-standard Boulevard Treatment” webpage, which cautions, “Inspectors regularly monitor boulevards throughout the city. Residents with non-compliant boulevards can expect to be contacted directly by the city. It is important for residents to know that once a boulevard is beautified, all items and vegetation on it become City of Winnipeg property.” (Looking forward to harvest-time, when the city decides to collect the corn growing on the boulevard on Ruby Street for a city corn-boil.)

It’s probably unintended hilarity that the city claims it owns the boulevard and anything you put or plant on that land, but also that, if you fail to maintain the city’s property to the standard to which the city has become accustomed, they’ll fine you $150.

It also smacks a bit of fiddling while the rest of Winnipeg burns.

It would be nice to know that the city was regularly monitoring other city issues as diligently as tree faces, especially in areas where it’s the city’s responsibility to address them.

You, as a homeowner, can be fined for putting up garage sale signs too far ahead of time. But the city has no problem leaving its warning signs and barricades strewn around for weeks or even months after hazards or repairs are all but forgotten.

The city also occasionally posts inaccurate and contradictory parking signs that can cause confusion and inappropriate ticketing, like the sign in the photograph attached to this piece. At this location, there’s no parking between one set of hours, no stopping during another set of hours, and no stopping — ever.

Estimated repair time after the city received a complaint about this sign? Three months.

Double standards abound.

If your front walkway is cracked or uneven, the city can issue you a $200 ticket for “improper surfacing on walkway.”

This, as the city is trumpeting its investment in technology to help it spot problems with sidewalks — while there are city sidewalks that have obviously caved into sinkholes and have sported city warning signs for months.

The city knows there are issues, but dawdles about fixing the problem. In other places, sidewalks are coming apart into their composite sand and gravel, an erosion that has been taking place for years. No technology needed to see that problem.

There’s a face on a tree — that certainly requires immediate attention.

Yet burned-out buildings stand for years and vacant lots overrun with weeds and garbage last even longer. City sewage flows into our rivers on a regular basis, breaking federal and provincial laws, but that’s barely worthy of a municipal shrug.

Don’t get us started on the safety issue of properly painting lines on streets: it’s looking more and more as though the city won’t be able to even complete putting lines on the city’s major thoroughfares this painting season.

We get it: the city is a huge machine of moving parts and unconnected operating systems, each toddling off in its own direction and under its own guidance.

And perhaps we should be congratulating the city on its quick response to handling the Transcona tree miscreants.

But the saying “penny wise and pound foolish” springs to mind instead.