On moving to West Broadway
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/09/2017 (2019 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
In August I moved to West Broadway. It has been an interesting lifestyle change and experience, even as someone who has attended the University of Winnipeg’s downtown campus and who has frequented Osborne Village for quite some time.
For the past three years I lived in the Talbot-Grey part of Elmwood with a relative. It’s a working-class and very residential area, with many single family homes sprinkled in with some apartments and duplexes. The neighbourhood has a legacy of heavy industry, with some current manufacturing sites nearby. as well areas that formerly housed manufacturing (brownfields).
While it’s not a new outer suburb by any stretch, there is a vastness and car-dependent nature to parts of Elmwood that could intimidate pedestrians. There are grocery stores and shops in the area but they are few and far between.
Moving to West Broadway, to a place very close to work, has been very convenient for me as a pedestrian. I find the access to groceries is better, although a few of the stores have steep prices for people with low incomes (a fact that led to parts of neighbourhood being labelled a “severe food mirage” in a study by the Institute of Urban Studies).
I am quite busy, and the time I don’t spend at work is spent between many trips running many errands. When walking, you get to see many of the interesting features of your neighbourhood. Most neighbourhoods have beautiful features when illuminated by the summer sun (this was certainly true of Elmwood). The older, two-storey homes on narrow lots and the tree canopy of West Broadway’s residential streets are quite beautiful in summer.
I live in a rooming house — a type of housing that is often stigmatized by suburban, single-family homeowners.
There can be issues with particular rooming houses, just as there can be issues with any accommodations that serve people without access to other segments of the housing market.
Despite this, I find living in a rooming house serves my purposes and lifestyle. Preserving types of housing such as rooming houses that can serve people on low incomes, in spite of problems in some, should be an important urban policy objective.
Overall, I quite like the new neighbourhood. I am sure the strains of winter, such as fierce winds and sidewalks caked with black ice, will temper my experience. For now, however, I am enjoying the streets lined with trees and unique houses.
Dylon Martin is a community correspondent for West Broadway.
Dylon Martin
West Broadway community correspondent
Dylon Martin is a community correspondent for West Broadway.