Tales From The Hick-Belt Hilton

World Class?

2010-01-19T01:45:00.001-06:00

There has been a lot of media and civic attention on selling Winnipeg developments as "world class". Lets call a spade a spade.

If Winnipeg were "world class", it wouldn't feel the need to trumpet its every miniscule accomplishment as such. Does Rome? Does Amsterdam? Does New York? Does Montreal? Does San Francisco? Only the desperate declare their efforts "world class."

If Winnipeg were "world class", the Downtown BIZ and CentreVenture wouldn't exist and every surface parking lot downtown would be replaced by a mixed-use 3-6 story building of architectural repute.

If Winnipeg were "world class", the residents of suburban Winnipeg would be clamouring to live downtown because they weren't at the centre of a fashionable, creative and vibrant city.

If Winnipeg were "world class", people would flee southwest Winnipeg out of banal boredom, instead of flocking to it.

If Winnipeg were "world class", people would greet IKEA's arrival with a yawn, pointing out the one-of-a-kind custom-designed furniture they paid a premium for.

If Winnipeg were "world class", neither the suburban-teet-sucking provincial NDP nor the provincial Tories would have any say whatsoever in the fate of this city.

If Winnipeg were "world class", we wouldn't be discussing a police helicopter, we would be discussing how better to educate, encourage and befriend our disadvantaged youth.

If Winnipeg were "world class", Sam Katz wouldn't be mayor.

If Winnipeg were "world class", it would celebrate its innovators.

If Winnipeg were "world class", the NDP would lose the next election because of Waverly West.

If Winnipeg were "world class", Manitoba Homecoming wouldn't exist.

If Winnipeg were "world class", you'd dress better.

If Winnipeg were "world class", it would acknowledge the racism of its police force.

If Winnipeg were "world class", it would stop treating aboriginals like second-class citizens.

If Winnipeg were "world class", the barriers at Portage & Main would've been torn down by now.

If Winnipeg were "world class", you wouldn't care about parking because you'd sell your car and ride rapid transit.

If Winnipeg were "world class", I wouldn't have to write this.

Portland's Mayor on Twitter

2009-12-03T15:42:00.002-06:00

The mayor of Portland - perhaps the most progressive and far-sighted city in the US ... if not North America, is an active Twitter user. And using it well.

Sam Katz? Stefano Grande? Where are your pages?

Entrepreneuralism

2009-03-29T13:50:00.002-05:00

Currently in Calgary. Gonna be quick.

But even in the bowels of a depression, the deep entrepreneurial spirit of this city is so readily evident. Winnipeg needs young people to take chances, open business, build something, engage the city, animate the city.

Here, businesses everywhere, people everywhere, decent design is slowly gaining a foothold, the arts are starting to thrive, the music scene is catching the innovation bug (there are some cool bands doing new stuff)...

Winnipeg seems stale these days.

A Winnipeg wish-list

2009-01-14T18:52:00.001-06:00

I turned 30 years old last week. For 23 of those years I've lived in Winnipeg. Which is sometimes a very frustrating experience. I chose to live downtown, love downtown, but have seen the world and studied enough to know that what we have built is a bad joke of a city. It doesn't have to be this way. With some political forsight, some willpower to challenge this city to break its bad habits, and a bit of patience, we can honestly make it an urban place to feel proud of, instead of an urban place that feels like an accident.

What I've done is compile my thoughts into a nice handy list. Some are admitted long-shots, while many could be implemented tomorrow. There are lots of ways for our leaders to start making this place a better place to live. I'm tired of being embarrassed about this city. I'm tired of traveling the country and having to defend its modest intentions to people who can't help but laugh at our collective ineptitude.

Seriously, its gone on long enough.

I've moved away, and moved back, and moved away, and moved back again. And now that it looks like I'm going to be here for a while, I would be ever so grateful if you could start doing the things that will make this a properly functioning city. Because right now it behaves like a child in a small town. I'm tired of watching this place settle for second-best, for average, for mediocre. I want to excel at what I do, and I want to see those around me excel. And I think we can do a much better job.

a) A plan.
Where does it state what kind of developments we would like to have in which parts of the city core?
Where does it state that certain kinds of developments simply are not allowed?
What are our urban design values?
What do we want this city to look like?
Will these plans include the broader neighbourhoods surrounding downtown?
Will we communicate these plans with industry to effectively bring them to fruition?
Will we have the courage and will to see the plan through?

Will we give the organizations that oversee this development the proper tools and powers to enforce our standards and plans?

Strip-malls on Corydon, parkades on Main, a sea of surface parking lots: none of these should be acceptable. We must respect our urban environment.

b) The end of Unicity.
Seriously. Its been 35 years that the suburban votes have dictated the fate of this city. And we are the poorer for it. Recent mini-revolts amongst the commuters against various residential projects has sealed the deal. I no longer want my beloved city at the mercy of people who have no idea how cities are built, how they function, or the little things that go into creating a vibrant urban experience.

The boundaries should be returned to their original lines. Let Fort Garry or St. James or North Kildonan voters pay their own taxes for their own hideous sprawl. This has been borne at the expense of the inner city for too long.

c) Residential at the Forks is a natural fit.
Build it! This also applies to every damn parking lot and open corner of unused space in this town. Until its full of people, not full of cars, it will continue to be a dysfunctional and embarrassing downtown. (Note to the kneejerk anti-development crowd: a parking lot is not green space. You're not preserving anything but your need to drive everywhere.)

d) The end of Centre Venture.
This organization used to do so much good, when run by Annette Stenning. Now they've become a publicly-funded demolition company for everything north of City Hall. Combined with a penchant for insultingly benign architecture, they have now proven their uselessness and have outlived their mandate. Get rid of 'em.

Barring a complete dissolution of the organization, a new board and a new CEO with a more positive and community-building vision would be a good place to start.

The irony that their most incensitive projects have been for organizations funded by the provincial government is doubly frustrating.

e) Rapid transit.
Can Katz convince the slow urban minds of the provincial NDP that Light Rail is even more beneficial than BRT? BRT is a good start, but it doesn't go far enough, and we all know it. Katz surprised me by supporting BRT, but has surprised me more by rightly saying LRT is the way to go. Will he seriously work to make it happen?

LRT is more environmentally friendly (not diesel dependant).
LRT will inspire Winnipeggers much more than BRT, which will just be another half-hearted joke.
LRT has the opportunity to seriously attract development that can be designed and graciously integrated into the urban fabric. BRT is a much harder sell for condos/apartments/commercial.

f) Living downtown should be a job requirement for anyone involved in downtown revitalization organizations.
If you don't have a personal stake in the neighbourhood you're trying to improve, how can you fully understand the intricacies or connections or history that has made it what it is and will shape it in the future?

g) Waverly West
That the NDP acknowledges that Waverly West turned out to be a complete sham and that they apologize and will now build the equivalent number of residences downtown. (Hey, a man can dream, can't he?) That a provincial government got in cahoots with a private developer for a piece of land 30 years in the sprawl-making to pull such a fast one on the citizens of Winnipeg is insulting.

I should make my old emails with Tim Sale public (then the Minister in charge of the project). The level of backpeddling by the NDP has been unprecedented.

h) The End Of Rent Control
You say "But haven't you always been a renter?" Yes, I have. But I'm also aware that artificially suppressing the market has not resulted in anything but problems. People manage to afford higher rents in other cities just fine - and funnily enough, those apartments are better maintained. Rent control has stymied new infill in city centre neighbourhoods and encouraged more single family homes in the suburbs.

By trying to supposedly help Winnipeg's poorest citizens, rent control actually gives them fewer options because more apartments get turned into condo's or outright closed up.

Playing hopscotch with basic supply and demand economics has resulted in the current housing crisis where vacancy is dangerously low. (While the government builds houses in the 'burbs). Yet more insultingly, when a developer does try to build apartments (see the Upper Fort Garry/Gord Sinclair/Manitoba Club fiasco, North Kildonan NIMBY's, or holding back The Forks) the city shuts them down.

A more effective program to assist the poor can be created to ensure that no one is left out in the cold. Rent control must end.

i) Infill on downtown surface parking lots.
No building should be torn down downtown until 75% of the current surface parking has been built upon. Anyone who has travelled can connect the dots between surface parking and embarassing (ie: deadsville) downtowns quite quickly.

Very simply, they need to be taxed higher. And at the same time the city needs to create a an enticing incentive program to encourage 3-5 storey streetfronting mixed use developments throughout downtown.

Every block needs to be filled in.

j) Give the Downtown Design Review Board back its teeth
The current WHRA building on Main Street has now been publically decried a fiasco. Understandably so. The Design Review Board was created to prevent situations such as this, and in their report requested many changes. None were implemented. CentreVenture got their monstrosity, and a provincially funded health organization got the ugliest new offices in Western Canada.

I met with Ross McGowan (CEO of CentreVenture) several months before demolitions began. He has become a professional at giving lip service to historic concerns and understanding what makes vibrant streetscapes. His quote in the FreePress saying the new building is an improvement should cost him his job.

The Downtown Design Review board's catchment should be extended to include St. Boniface, Crescentwood/Fort Rouge, Osborne Village, The West End and Point Douglas. The core of this city needs a cohesive vision, and complementary urban design values.

k) Term limits for City Councilors
3 terms max. And even that feels generous. Anything beyond that and they all start coasting. This city NEEDS new ideas, new energy, fresh blood and invigorating debate. Too many counclilors have spent too long doing too little.

Without a government/opposition framework at city hall, there needs to be more democratic accountability. The current system is not working.

Pay raises me be in order as well, to help entice more professionals into City politics.

l) The Province MUST stop building/funding projects with insensitive parkade demands.
Here's the catch: provincial employee unions require parking in their agreements. So its not even a political issue as much as a labour one. Funny that these unions require their members to make this city and this planet a more polluted and less pedestrian-friendly place.

The provincial government needs to take some urban planning courses.

Waverly West, WRHA, Sport Manitoba's proposal, a parkade on King Street proposal, supporting BRT instead of LRT -- all of these show that the NDP is actually quite suburban and stuck in the 70's.

f) A quaint, well-designed 3-4 story street-fronting mixed use building built by a private developer to replace the rent-a-car lot at the corner of Ellice & Sherbrook.

De-evolution

2008-11-20T02:14:00.003-06:00

Every so often, one has a day in Winnipeg that utterly defies description.

Where every corner you round, instead of meeting friendly smiling faces, you see broken souls. Mental health disorders. Disollutionment. Poverty. Violence. Forgotten people going about forgetting themselves.

Today was one of those days. Its depressing.

And then, to cap it off, on the way home seeing a group of 5 or 6 young guys jumping (literally) on someone.

What has happened to the people in this city? How has everyone gotten so messed up?

The Hicks Are At It Again

2008-06-24T01:35:00.002-05:00

Its hard not to laugh (or cry?) when politicians and businessmen start using the words "football stadium" and "revitalization" in the same sentance.

A giant building surrounded by vacant parking lots, used a mere 11 days a year? This dead-zone for 355 days a year sounds like a deathknell for any neighbourhood trying to get back on its feet.

While other cities have learnt from their mistakes and now understand land use patterns and their affect on neighbourhoods and liveability, Winnipeg continues to try the same old 'solutions', somehow expecting different results? [ed: This sentance ripped off from The Rise & Sprawl.]

High crime and decreasing inner city property values? Lets sprawl out further! Revitalize the neighbourhoods we abandoned 50 years ago? Give them a football stadium!

Though they wish it weren't so, our leaders continue to ignore the only way this city's core will ever truly see renewed vitality: by filling in our gap-toothed downtown with multi-use developments (residential with streetfront retail), actively encouraging pedestrian life, and investing in an effective and efficient rapid transit system.

Silver Starling - Fuck, These Cats Are Good

2008-06-20T22:42:00.010-05:00

Silver Starling

I'm going to perilously tip-toe out onto the ledge of being a music blog. Count your blessings, I'm not going to post an mp3 -- their record isn't out yet anyways. But do remember me when they're huge in 2 years. I'm firing the first warning shot.

Marcus Paquin is building a wonderful empire out yonder in Montreal. These songs are drilling holes into my head and burrowing deep. Stoic. Profound. Simply elegant.

Local Politics

2008-06-20T12:47:00.004-05:00

It seems like a scary proposition. A mine field, even.

The left populated largely by out-of-touch, self-important idealists. The right, by play-it-again-Sammers singing the same old tune and dooming this city to eternal suburban despair. Some good people on both sides, but you gotta wade through a tonne of BS to find the happy heart.

Its hard to trust anyone.
Seems like everyone in this town (hell, myself included) always thinks they have the answers. Yet nothing works properly, change is glacial, and creative ideas remain anathema.

Ack. Gasp. Sputter.

Sam Pie

2008-05-30T11:19:00.011-05:00

I need to start baking subway-shaped cherry pies to throw at Mr. Sam Katz when I attend the Mayor's Luncheon For The Arts in June. Thanks for the invitation.

Rapid transit has been too long in coming to this sleepy burgh.

While LRT would be ideal, and the best long-term solution, BRT is a vital step in the right direction. There are a bunch of subway fanatics kicking around the cyberweb, but I'm afraid the only subway this city will see in our lifetime is the restaurant chain. Perhaps they should just hang out there from now on. Yes, I'm talking about TRUWinnipeg. Could a group of idealistic washups do any worse a job of selling their vision?

Pray For Me (a.k.a. Ignorance Is Bliss)

2008-05-15T23:32:00.006-05:00

I've enjoyed getting to know some of the characters in my neighbourhood. I think its important, on various levels -- a daily reality check being perhaps the most powerful. There are many people living around me who face much more difficult challenges on a day-to-day basis then I ever do, and I try to be sympathetic to their histories and broader cultural challenges that have landed them here in The West End.

For example, I've befriended Barry who squeegee's car windows with much comedy at the corner of Maryland & Portage. We share a chuckle every now and then, and I'll often pick him up a coffee or bagel. He's a good guy. The cops harass him needlessly (there are far more serious things going on around the corner that could use their attention), and I once had a squad car chase me down after I flipped them the bird for sitting in the Shell station parking lot (idling their car no less) just watching Barry. For fuck's sake guys.

There are also the two groups of children often found playing in my back lane. One, full of elementary boys, is constantly breaking bottles or rocking the dumpsters and generally getting up to no good. The other, a family with children young through teens, plays tag and hide & seek. I wonder what each group's home life is like? Their differences in behaviour is astounding.

...

Tonight, Patrick & I were walking downtown along Portage Ave after rehearsal. There were a good number of people out, and the bars seemed active. A good sign for a Thursday night. As we passed the APTN building a man sitting on the concrete bench said "Excuse me...". I kept on walking, as I didn't feel the desire to talk to a homeless guy tonight. There was lots of that on the weekend in The Exchange, and I was enjoying my conversation and didn't want to be bothered.

But I looked over and Patrick was gone. He had stopped back at the man who had patiently waited for his attention. Patrick was giving him the space to speak, himself patiently letting the conversation begin. Neither of us had any change, but Pat gave him a cigarette, and then asked him his name.
"Philip. What is yours?"
"Patrick."
"Thank you for treating me with respect. Nobody treated me with respect today."
"I'm very sorry to hear that."

They continued on for a bit. I introduced myself and we shook hands. And as we were about to leave, Philip paused and looked at his feet for a few seconds and then looked up at us and said,
"Please pray for me."

...

It was a powerful moment. And while neither Patrick or I subscribe to any formal deity or religion per se, the implications of the request were not lost on us. And for the rest of the walk home I thought about Philip and the life he may or may not have lead and wondering how he ended up here, at 11 pm on Portage Avenue, in Winnipeg, asking my friend and I for not just change, but for compassion and grace.

A vital reminder about the humanity we are surrounded by and the way we relate to those on the fringes of our society.

Bike To Work Day & Music Snobbery

2008-05-13T01:45:00.001-05:00

Apparently the City of Winnipeg has deemed June 20 to be Bike To Work Day.

Its funny, in Amsterdam there are parkades full of bicycles instead of cars. We still have a long long way to go, but I must commend City Hall for at least taking a rare step in the right direction. (Though the 80% cut to the public art budget may negate this one good deed.)

That said, while North Americans (particularly us in the hick-belt) have a lot to learn from European cities, they don't always get it right.

... ... ...

I had a really good conversation with a MARIA staffer today about the state of the local music industry. Sometimes I get my panties in a knot because there is little local infrastructure in place for new music. No, not classical new music (oddly enough, it has a strong foothold here). I suppose art-rock could be the term. Or hell, even just indie-rock. I'm becoming snobby in my old age, and am tired of all the boring folk acts and derivative rock bands in this town. Everyone is rehashing the same old. There seems to be a wave of bold and challenging new acts coming out of Eastern Canada, and there are labels and agents and a fan base to support them. I keep on wanting someone to blow it all wide open locally.

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

... ... ...

There are some disheartening stories starting to spread about the assholedom of Paul Simon. Its hard to listen to Graceland when there is such thievery at its roots.

Introductions

2008-05-08T12:49:00.003-05:00

Good afternoon, faithful readers, and welcome to Tales From The Hick-Belt Hilton. The title is a nod to Guy Maddin's seminal Tales From The Gimli Hospital, combined with Winnipeg's precious place atop the hick-heap. Between Chicago and the west coast, is there another city that wants sooo badly to be approved of and loved, but does everything in its power to make you hate it?

I'm excited to dive into my new blog, and looking forward to tackling a wide variety of subject matter. From downtown development in Winnipeg to music and arts to day-to-day life in the West End.

I was asked by a good friend recently why I've never owned a car or cell phone. I'm a busy busy beaver, after all. A man on the move needs these things, doesn't he? Well, I used to own a cell, but I prefer to be unreachable every now and then. A car though? Now, why on earth would I own a car? Its like throwing money away, while buggering your city's livelihood, all at the same time. We need people walking the sidewalks, and all the skywalks, parkades and ill-fit downtown redevelopment schemes aren't going to help that.

People living in the neighbourhood and walking around. Easy. Thats all it is.

I rarely go to the suburbs. I walk everywhere, by choice. I take the bus if I'm in a hurry. (Oxymoron? Perhaps, in this town. But one can plan out one's day's transportation quite easily.) I bike. I'll take a cab if I've gotta move gear to a gig, or get a bandmate to pick me up.

But why the hell would I choose to contribute to the absolute mess this city has become, as devised by automobiles and the culture surrounding them?