The carrot and the stick

Coming to a billboard near you: the Minister of Vegitable Production and Distribution, reminding all of us that state collectivism is warm, fuzzy, and maybe even a little fun (carrot as a microphone? Zany!), provided the serfs continue to work for the "good of the industry as a whole."

(H/T)

We have taxis? Hot-diggity!

Another day of Winnipeg's yahoo bumpkin mentality shining bright and true.

Taxis double parking in front of the Palomino Club or Northern Hotel at 2:00am, when there is no traffic on Portage or Main's other seven lanes, is simply unacceptable and something the police should crack down on.

Drunk driving, speeding through construction zones, drag racing on North Main, meanwhile, are perfectly acceptable acts that should be ignored by heavy-handed authorites.

This enforcement probably has less to do with enforcing the Highway Traffic Act than it does with male WPS officers wanting to get a chance to pull up to the curb so they can creep on young drunk girls exiting clubs.

Call in the professionals

"Police are cautioning the public not to use a drug that was lost in downtown Winnipeg last Monday."

This will be tough, since most people take whatever drugs they find lying around downtown sidewalks. Or at least that's what I do, but I guess I'm just curious that way. Thanks for the warning, Winnipeg Police Service.

"Police said a quantity of methadone - used to help drug addicts - was lost in a clear plastic bottle somewhere downtown between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m."

Well then, a thorough search of all clear plastic bottles downtown seems to be in order.

"The drug looks like an orange liquid."

...but is actually a green solid.

*Update: the story has been edited to the point of not being as funny anymore. Oh well.

One small step

It arrived with little fanfare; no Business page feature, no agency glad-handing, but over the past few weeks, the first grocery store within the political boundaries of the Exchange District has opened up at 333 Garry Street, just south of Notre Dame. Tropica General Food Supply appears to sell goods typically found in the central city's corner grocery stores: cigarettes, bottled water, basic grocery items, international calling cards, et c.

This small store might not be the magical giant chain supermarket everyone believes will be the panacea for the Exchange District, but for people who actually use the Exchange and see it as a place that could one day be a fully functional place with a great quality of life (as opposed to those that see it as an endless expanse of brick parkades and bike lanes), this tiny little grocery store is a definate step toward that end.

***
I must also give credit to the Giant Tiger outlet at the corner of Donald and Ellice, which for some four years has sold a small selection of groceries, which past and present residents of the Exchange District that I have spoken to swear by.

You don't say!

"Jessica Siddle is 20 and has lived with the effects from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder her whole life." - Winnipeg Free Press, Sept. 10, 2009

Identifying a need.

It appears that the United Way building under construction on Main Street will be set well back from the sidewalk on both the Main Street and Pacific Avenue sides of the building. This is a good thing, since Main Street has too strong of a compact urban form in this neighborhood, and suffers for want of yet more meaningless, undefined and void spaces. The more downtown Winnipeg starts to mimic the physical form of suburban Winnipeg, the better off it will be.