Understanding the changes in West Broadway

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This article was published 25/08/2020 (941 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

West Broadway is a unique and lively neighbourhood in Winnipeg.

Modest in geographic size, the neighbourhood is located between downtown and Wolseley.

To be more exact, its borders are Portage Avenue (north), Maryland Street (west), the Assiniboine River and Cornish Street (south) and Colony Street (east). Nestled between two iconic neighbourhoods, West Broadway is fascinating in its own right.

The community has undergone changes in the last decade, with many new shops opening along Sherbrook Street.

One feature that likely helps local shops is pedestrian traffic. West Broadway is, at least compared to other Winnipeg neighbourhoods, easier to get around without a car. When finding a new residence a few years ago, it was a top choice for me, as I did not own a vehicle.

Winnipeg’s 2016 neighbourhood census profiles reflect this. An impressive 63 per cent of West Broadway residents commute to work by non-car means compared to only 23 per cent for Winnipeg overall. Non-car modes include busing, walking and biking.

As an older community near the downtown, West Broadway features a mix of housing.

There is a significant number of old, shoebox apartments and other multi-family dwellings in the area. Nearly 92 per cent of neighbourhood residents are renters, compared to 35 per cent for the city as a whole.

Like many central neighbourhoods in Winnipeg, the West Broadway population also has more modest incomes. The median individual income in the neighbourhood was $21,866 for 2016, which is over $13,000 less than the city at large. Comparing 2016 data with that from the 2006 census, however, reveals changes.

From this data, we can see that the median income of the neighbourhood grew 52 per cent between 2006 and 2016. This is much more than the income growth for the city overall, which was 35 per cent.

The share of residents with some sort of post-secondary credential also increased by 11.8 percentage points, to over 52.1 per cent of the neighbourhood. This is on par with Winnipeg overall but the change between 2016 and 2006 is much greater.

One potential explanation for the growth in post-secondary education is that West Broadway is attractive to students and recent graduates.

As West Broadway continues to attract new people, it will be important to retain or replace low-income housing to ensure the neighbourhood is socioeconomically diverse.

According to a 2014 Institute of Urban Studies report, with the proliferation of rooming houses in decline, mixed income apartments such as the West Broadway Commons will be important for ensuring affordability.

Dylon Martin is a community correspondent for West Broadway.