The misguided puritans

More reaction to the stabbing in front of the Woodbine Hotel, which was "just one of a number of violent altercations that have taken place outside low-rent bars in the downtown recently," (three being the number, occurring in three separate neighborhoods, one of which is the North End, another being in what is only nominally downtown at Main and Henry Ave.)

"Downtown: Dealing with drunks, pushy panhandlers" - WFP

Similar to how the Downtown BIZ deals more with homeless men and women who walk into the Tim Horton's on Fort and Graham instead of dealing with the bangers brazenly slinging crack in Portage Place and along Portage Avenue from Carlton to Edmonton, people will go after the owners of these old vestiges of Winnipeg's growth and prosperity because they're easy targets: they don't golf together, they don't sit on boards together, they don't have money and favors tied up with each-other, and hotel owners don't buy advertising. Political allies didn't have a hand in creating those hotels, their owners don't control the funding taps, and downtown was not "reborn" when they opened.

No one is willing (or able) to begin to see the problem at it's core, which is the state of moral and economic decline of downtown Winnipeg, which began long before gruff and intimidating panhandlers became a fixture on Main Street, nevermind Portage Ave.

One relatively easy thing that could be done to mitigate the problem being complained about by Centre Venture or David Rattray, is to end the antiquated monopoly of the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission, who fuse the worst aspects of socialism and Victorianism, and play gangster and cop all at once. Imagine if Al Capone and Elliot Ness worked together: that's the MLCC.

As someone commented on the Free Press story: "Many other provinces separate the liquor licensing agency from the liquor distribution agency. Probably we in Manitoba should do the same thing. Have the MLCC only handle licensing and control. Have a new Manitoba Liquor Distribution agency to handle liquor imports and sales."

Far better yet would be to get the government out of the distribution and sales industry altogether. Separate the conflict between selling beer and enforcing laws, and Winnipeg will have not only a more responsive liquor commission, but a freer market that un-slums the business of buying and selling alcohol downtown.

Making the owner of the Garrick or Woodbine the whipping boys will do nothing. Close them down, and the unsavory characters move over to the Vendome, the Windsor, or the McLaren. Close them all down, and the use of non-potables rise (higher than it was prior to the introduction of $2 king cans several years ago), and the decline of the big, nice downtown hotels will only accelerate their current decline. (Tragically, the gorgeous Marlborough Hotel is currently in a state the McLaren Hotel would have been at circa 1970.)

***
It's best not to take too much stock in comments on CBC Manitoba, but here's some from yesterday's story on the Woodbine:

"I am much more wary of going to Portage Place than I would be of walking by the Woodbine, because there are far more incidents that happen at Portage Place. I would like to see something done about the crime there, starting with cleaning up the drug dealing that goes on in the food court."

"Why not focus more on the drug dealing and violence happening in and around Portage Place? That's a much bigger concern for me as a downtown resident."

"There are more incidents at Portage Place than at the Woodbine but Centre Venture stays silent on that."

"The Woodbine has its share of sketchiness, but I'll add my vote to those who would make Portage Place a priority, after seeing someone blatantly shoplift a large purse in front of me this past weekend, then waiting fifteen minutes while security casually made its way to the store in question..."

"I also agree... that Portage Place is a serious problem... and will not go there AT ALL!! Geez they have shootings there at 1 in the afternoon. The last time I was in the Food court, I counted 5 drug deals go down and one of them was to a security guard for the mall!!"

At least they did something

It can be assumed that the argument-turned stabbing that occurred in front of the Woodbine Hotel on Main Street earlier this week, has re-kindled downtown booster's wishes to shut down the 131-year-old bar and its hotel rooms upstairs. Sure, the present owner has put lots of his own money into restoring the place over the last six or seven years, and puts an effort into running a relatively friendly bar, but we'd rather see it in one of our friend's hands...

It's nice to imagine something along the lines of The Fyxx coffee shop, which occupies the back half of the building on Albert Street, but let us not pretend there's a history of successfully converting Winnipeg's old single-room hotels. How is Ken Zaifman, that golden boy to the downtown booster crowd, doing with the St. Charles Hotel? (The "insanitary" sign the City put up in the window a month ago is the most action I've seen there in a while. ) How is the sale and redevelopment of the Bell Hotel going? What's new at the Royal Albert?

You can loathe the Woodbine Hotel's existence all you like, but at least the owner has done something with his property.

Photo from Digital Agent on Flickr


***
Edit: Am I good or what? This story was just put up on CBC Manitoba: "Woodbine Hotel hurting Exchange district's changing image: residents"

I wonder: is Mr. McGowan searching for buyers for the comparatively more sketchy, statistically more dangerous, yo-yo nightclubs in the vicinity? Or is he just looking for a whipping boy? After all, dodgy bars like the Clarendon Hotel and Times Nightclub left Portage Avenue years ago, so what excuse can be made for the Avenue Building remaining a vacant civic embarrassment? Who owns that one?

***
Also worth noting, is the renovation and commercial development presently going on next door to the Woodbine Hotel.

The people's mall

And you thought Eaton/City Place was a vacant ghost town of a shopping mall now...

Cityplace acquired by Manitoba Public Insurance

H/T: TGCTS

Related: Policy Frog - "A one-stop shop for all your government schwag"

Atlas is shrugging

President Obama's whole economic recovery plan hinges on the richest two per cent of the country staying as wealthy and productive as they are now. What would happen if they disappeared?

Interesting comment over at GMU professors Donald J. Boudreaux and Russell Robert's Cafe Hayek blog, on Obama using the top 2% of American income "earners" (makers), to pay for a trillion dollars of aid to the other 98%:

"I'm in the target group to do the paying. I won't do it.

"I own my business and, unlike an employee, I have the option to work as much or as little as I like. At some tax rate, the marginal dollar won't be worth earning. I'll fire some employees, scale down the business or retire altogether and stick my money in tax advantaged muni bonds and do all the traveling and relaxing I can't do now. The tax advantage of muni bonds will NEVER go away because municipalities will scream bloody murder. If I'm not ready to retire and the tax rate gets too high, I may just immigrate to another country because it's very easy for me to get almost instant citizenship in any other country. I respond to incentives and I'm not incentivized by enslavement and neither is anyone I know. The specialness of this country is the lack of totalitarian regime and individual liberty. Once that's gone, this country is no longer all that special. You can call me evil or "not doing my part" because I'm not willing to work myself into the grave for your family instead of mine, but the reality is that unless you plan to start a Gulag, you can't make me.

"The question is, why should I be expected to work and risk more than you to provide you with the lifestyle to which you have become accustomed.

"Yes, it's sustainable to raise taxes on the most productive. However, it's not sustainable at a high standard of living. It's sustainable only at ever decreasing standards of living. France and Germany are good examples.

"There's a difference between the natural altruism that occurs between family members and confiscation by the state. I feel great when I donate to charity. I feel really crappy when I write the check to the IRS. Maybe I should figure out how to receive one instead. Seems a lot less time consuming."

And a response from another commenter:

"I've done a lot of rewarding things- working in inner city schools, coaching youth sports, and helping develop an innovative new part-time school model.

"What I haven't done is paid hardly any taxes for these 20 years or created hundreds of new jobs like I did in the 80's. [Jobs the grads of the schools he volunteered to help can make use of their degrees, diplomas, or certificates with, mind you.]

"Several years of paying mid six figure income tax bills convinced me that the marginal utility of earning over a million dollars a year just wasn't that great. The biggest difference in lifestyle for me between the big dollar days and now is having to fly commercial- but I don't need to travel much anyway.

"I'm not sure how you could get empirical evidence... I don't think making big money is that interesting to those who have already done it so why bother if a huge chunk goes to the government."

It's tough to feel much sympathy for the very rich, but it would be tougher still to "stimulate the economy" (and not drown the nation in debt) without them.

(Incidentally, sales of Ayn Rand's massive novel Atlas Shrugged have tripled.)

The moonbat wishlist

Beneath every "centrist" New Democratic Party government, there is a kooky fringe waiting to break free. The party faithful gathered in Brandon for the annual party convention, with this year's theme being: if you could come up with one kooky piece of legislation, what would it be?

Suggestions include:

-Give Manitoba a new flag (this one from a Liquor Commission employee), as the existing one is an "outdated... relic from the days of our former British colonial heritage." Not unlike the legislative building, which force-fed Western classicism (and masonic symbolism) upon the indigenous landscape. Let's get something that looks a little less white and tabular, and something that's more green and non-cultural. Lots of curvy walls, and other tricks of goofy geometrics.
-Get people to use snow tires "either a subsidy or legislation." Start with subsidies, then after people continue to get into accidents in winter conditions, enforce it.

-"A ban companies from hiring replacement workers during strikes." It will do wonders for the economy. But shouldn't that say scabs? (This one came from last year's conference.)

-"Develop a "repopulation" plan for rural areas." Where are the subsidies for people that use typewriters instead of computers?

-"Make labour history a mandatory part of the high school curriculum." Right now (or ten years ago, at least), all of high school history teaches children that it was British protestants and (and protestant Metis) that were an evil of this provinces. A good start, but let's get more specific here: it was the British protestant capitalists.

The state of the Union Bank

There has been a great deal of wishing and hoping that a new press release will come down from the Red River College administration office, announcing they are once again going to save downtown, and are ready to get to work retro-fitting the Union Bank tower at Main and William. Meanwhile, the current owners of the 105-year-old structure seem to be letting it decline to the point where it is likely in violation of the City's Vacant and Derelict Buildings bylaw.

Through the winter, the ground floor windows became covered by a wall of ice inches thick. Warmer temperatures a few weeks ago melted the ice, revealing black mud on the interior walls, and a large puddle of water on the floor of the once great banking hall. The roof-top entrance is apparently ajar, and the exterior is becoming littered in graffiti tags.

Union Bank tower, c.1980. Photo from the U of M's Winnipeg Building index

The building is presently co-owned by Guy Hobman at Greentree Homes (remember them?) and Joe Bova from practically-a-crown-corporation ManShield Construction. (As chair of the North Main task force, Bova led the second-most recent demolition spree on Main Street: the wrecking of the block between Higgins and Henry in 1999. Does his disdain for buildings extend down the street to banker's row?)

A prominent building on Main Street, that is famously Western Canada's first skyscraper (though I made a case for the long-forgotten Merchant's Bank (1900) at Main and Lombard being the first), that overlooks Market Square and City Hall should not be in the position of becoming the next Epic Theatre or Ogilvie Flour Mills. With every season of neglect, of letting water, pigeons and vandals in, and the costs of Red River Colleges plans for the building go up. (But I suppose the greater the costs, the greater the construction contract that ManShield can bid on.)

The failure of Waverley West

Here's an article that was published in today's Free Press:

Over the past six years, Winnipeggers have heard much about how Waverley West would be a panacea to civic woes.

The development industry believed it would be good for economic growth by keeping jobs in skilled trades from exiting Winnipeg for Alberta. The Provincial NDP, a major land owner and potential developer, argued it would be economically “just” not only by keeping housing prices low, but through some of the profits funding programs in impoverished core neighborhoods.

The sounds of cement mixers and nail guns could not be heard soon enough. In March 2006, planning firm ND Lea said the shortage of available lots in southwest Winnipeg had reached a "critical stage," and Winnipeg Real Estate Board spokesperson Peter Squire said stalling on Waverley West would be "totally counterproductive" in creating a sustainable city. By September, things had become so grim, that Garth Steek, then the president of the Manitoba Homebuilder’s Association, warned south Winnipeg would “run out of building lots in two years.”

After all that pent-up demand, and months after building lots were alleged to have disappeared entirely, the Free Press reports that only 75 houses have been built, or are in the process of being built in the new subdivision.

Market demand is not the only thing that is underwhelming...
Continued

Good-bye, Rae & Jerry's?

Rumor 'round the dinner table tonight is that Rae & Jerry's Steakhouse on Portage Avenue at Omand's Creek, will become the location of a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, which bills itself "the world's largest fine dining company." It was not known if Rae & Jerry's will continue at a new location (hard to imagine), or if Ruth's Chris plans for a new building.

A scene from Martin Scorsese's Goodfella's--not shot in Rae & Jerry's, but close

Anyway, Rae & Jerry's is a legendary spot for Winnipeg's almost-at-the-top social classes, and a vestige of late '50s and early '60s restaurant decor (and service, often) that looks every bit 1960 today as it did in, well, 1960. They also happen to serve the best Black Russians in town. And for this, I would miss this old institution were it disappear.

***
It may also be that Ruth's Chris is planning to open up somewhere downtown (their four existing Canadian steakhouses are in downtown locations). In any event, two things are fairly certain: that Ruth's Chris is coming to Winnipeg (as far as chain establishments curing civic inferiority complexes, how high do pricey steakhouses rank?) ; and that Rae & Jerry's is great, especially their Black Russians.

EDIT - Turns out that Rae & Jerry's is not going anywhere, as there are no plans to re-locate, sell, or close down. So, the white shoes will continue to pad across the red carpet into the future.

An impressive list...

Browsing the Manitoba Historical Society website a couple of days ago, I came upon a notice of a fund-raising luncheon for Heritage Winnipeg, to be held at the Fort Garry Hotel on March 20. The announcement included the following:

"Heritage Winnipeg feels that our built heritage has been under particular seige recently. In 2008 the organization has made at least eight appearances before Winnipeg City Council advocating protection for - among others - Kelly House, the St. Charles Hotel, the WRHA building on Main, and the Business Block on Albert. It has lobbied for tax grants and incentives for owners of heritage buildings and for improvements in design processes."

Sounds impressive, but was it true?

There was no formalized plan to demolish the St. Charles Hotel in 2008.

What was meant by 'the WRHA building on Main' (unfortunately not threatened by demolition) was, I'm sure, the buildings that were demolished to make way for it (one being a Grade II building on the City's Heritage Building Conservation list, three others on the Historical Buildings Inventory). All of these structures were de-listed within the span of a few weeks, but there does not seem to have been any public opposition of any kind, never mind a formal appearance at City Hall, on the part of Heritage Winnipeg in 2008.

The Business Block on Albert Street was threatened by demolition by the plan of St. Charles Hotel (located next door) owner Ken Zaifman to put a surface parking lot in its place. But on April 25, 2008, the Free Press reported that Heritage Winnipeg backed off from opposing the demolition after Mr. Zaifman canceled the plan to build a driveway to the parking lot, and after much of the heritage crowd in Winnipeg deemed the value of the ASBB was too far gone.

The article, entitled "Heritage advocates support new plan", reported:

"The Albert Street Business Block, a rundown retail strip that contains the remains of a 131-year-old home, likely faces the wrecking ball now that a tenative compromise has been reached between Heritage Winnipeg and Ken Zaifman...

"'Those are significant changes he's made," said Heritage Winnipeg director Cindy Tugwell, whose organization opposed the demolition of the ASBB as recently as one month ago. 'I believe everyone is on board.'"

Interestingly, the Main Street demolition was a Centre Venture initiative, while the St. Charles/ASBB plan was strongly supported by them. The one building on Heritage Winnipeg's list that they did (and continue to) defend, is the Kelly House, which happens to be one that Centre Venture does not want to see demolished.

It's great to see such team-work and the wish for "win-win solutions" between Heritage Winnipeg and Centre Venture, but it is misleading for Heritage Winnipeg to expect to raise money from the public (such as members of the venerable Manitoba Historical Society) by taking credit for opposing demolition plans that were actually: not substantiated; they were silent on; or they were actually in favor of.

At the time of publishing, an email to Heritage Winnipeg director Cindy Tugwell was not returned.

***
Also at the luncheon, we'll hear about the place Heritage Winnipeg worked the hardest for in 2008: "An update will be given on the Upper Fort Garry project."

So, most definitely, bring your chequebook.

I'd take the attic of Wesley Hall, thanks.

One of the most common features of the contemporary fads of architecture is the arbitrary contortion of the shapes of buildings. As the languages of architecture and craftsmanship have been lost since the Depression, employing "wacky" elements to the buildings is the only thing one can do to to mitigate the lack of architecture.

And since, banality is less noticeable on a small scale, this trick is especially used in the design of large institutional buildings, like the window-deprived McFeetor's Hall student residence under construction on Langside St. between Portage and Ellice.

"Student residence no sterile setting" - WFP, Feb. 17, 2009

A box is still a box when it's flapping in the wind. Take the curve effect away from McFeetor's Hall, and what is there that is notable about this building, it's texture, it's form? Only fitting that the public slumlords at Manitoba Housing Authority are a partner in this project, since it resembles the junk they were putting up in the North End and Central neighbohoods in the '60s and '70s. But even the MHA's "high-rise" at 269 Dufferin--a building of a similarly scaled mass--probably has a higher wind0w-wall ratio.

Unfortunately from a design perspective, McFeetor's Hall is not much better than the parkade of the WRHA's Main Street office: it's geometry is an affront to the surrounding streetscape.

Nothing new at the University of Winnipeg, which since it's formation in 1967, doesn't enjoy a great track record for adding to the urban quality. (As one very recent example, the architect of the yet unbuilt Science building had to fight hard to bring the proposed thirty-foot setback from the Portage Avenue sidewalk down to ten feet.)

Winnipeg, 1874

An entertaining look at life and development in Winnipeg of 1874, from the Manitoba Nor' Wester, courtesy of manitobia.ca, which is currently down. (On Louis Riel Day? Sacrebleu!)

July 20
"Remember the promenade concert to-night in the Pacific Hotel. Tickets only 25 cts. Big time."

July 27
"The side walk is being progressed down Notre Dame Street. Whoop la! we know a youthful genius who won't have to walk through the mud any more."
August 3
"Apropos of drunkenness.--A tipsy Good Templar named Cameron, the other night pushed his way into the Davis Hotel [the vacant lot on Main next to Canwest tower] at an untimely hour. Having created a disturbance in the house, and forced his way into several of the boarders' rooms, ladies' included, he was finally kicked into the street by the indignant proprietors."

August 17
"We object to Aldermen getting their animals out of the pound without paying charges."

"Wolseley House at Point Douglas is now in full blast. The Hotel is one of the best in the city."

"Buffalo are reported to be plentiful on the Saskatchewan. we [sic] hope so for the sake of those who have gone out to trade this fall."

"The Mennonites all seem to be struck with the hardware business. The hardware men like such strikes. Stoves, &c., they are after."

"The Free Press is continually sticking its nose down the Artesian well on Main Street; it is long enough for the purpose, alway stirring up the mud without doing any good. "

"It is reported that Albert Sargeant, better known to old residents as "Butts," was married yesterday at St. Andrews. Full particulars of the disaster are not known."

August 24
"We are pleased to observe a change for the better in the architectural appearance of many of the buildings now going up in the city."

"Fort street is beginning to rival its neighbor, Main street, in fine buildings and business traffic. Already it has two first-class hotels and several handsome private residences."

"Mr. Carpenter, our much respected Stage and Express Agent, has built himself a house at Point Douglas which for neatness, compactness and architectural beauty takes a first prize. Mr. Carpenter, can it be possible?--ahem! nuff ced."

"A runaway took place on Monday evening bringing up at Brown's Bridge [at present-day Main and William]. The buggy was pretty well smashed up, and the harness torn from the horse, Chief of Police Ingram took charge of the horse. No lives lost, the driver haveing jumped out before the horse started to run."

The Manitoba Free Press was not without their own observations:

July 25
"The Mormon preachers whose arrival we noted Wednesday, are making preparations to convert the Gentiles of Manitoba to the faith of the true prophet. They are the original Mormons and do not believe in polygamy and other Utah innovations. They say that the Lord appeared unto their Chief and told him to send up some people to establish a colony here, and further, that the Lord said the Government here would give them land."

"In walking the streets now-a-days, citizens of some years standing find that they know only about every tenth man they meet."

"The first through ticket from Fort Garry to the old country, was bought Saturday at the Telegraph Ticket Office by John Hacket, father of the baker, for $66,50, via Quebec & Allan Line to Glasgow. Now is the chance for some of the old settlers to visit the old country cheap."

October 12
"The Manitoba college lately removed from Kildonan to this city is now in full operation the fall term having commenced last week."

"Who shall now say Winnipeg is the second wickedest place in the Dominion? A Y.M.C.A. was formed in the city on Monday evening."

"Prairie chickens are coming into the city in immense numbers. Our sportsmen who have leisure are enjoying the glorious weather and the not less glorious sport upon the prairie."

October 26
"The Point Douglas Proprietors" have determined to present to the city the twelve acres set apart for a market [between Euclid and Henry Avenue?] provided the corporation plant the property with trees and transform it into a park."

November 9
"Alderman Cameron is becoming a terror to evil doers. He runs the Police Court with rare good judgment, tempering justice with mercy in such a way as to win the approval of disorderlies themselves, his own conscience and society at large. He is ably assisted by A.M. Brown, Esq."

November 23
"Beef and pork from Minnesota in the quarter and hog will soon be in active competition with our local butchers' stocks. It is to be hoped the consuming poor will benefit from the competition."

November 30
"The crop of drunks Friday was much heavier than usual. John Sullivan was committed for one week on refusal or inability to pay fine of $5. Margaret Corcoran was also drunk and disorderly and got one week."

December 7
Business circles have regained their normal condition, St. Andrew's day being fairly "gone and past" for another twelve months."

January 25, 1875
"We understand Mr. Ashdown intends to erect a large three story brick building on the old site of his present store, which has been removed a short distance to the north. It is evident Mr. Ashdown is determined to keep up with the times."

February 1
"It ain't so much fun to race horses through our principal thoroughfares after all, is it? The young sports who tried it Thursday don't think so, anyway. Police Court, you know."

Get used to disappointment

After all that. Six years of pent-up demand in a corner of the city that was going to run out of residential lots two years ago, and only 75 houses are being built?

Even David Witty, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, has dropped toeing the line for the U of M's real estate interests (and selling out his discipline), and now expresses disappointment in what Waverley West is becoming.

Meanwhile, elected officials at City Hall once again prove their collective ability to look at things with foresight:

"The feeder main to carry water in will cost $11 million. The main sewer pipe will cost $4.6 million. The tab for community centres, policing and fire protection is $39 million. And along with the $60-million Kenaston extension, there are plans to widen Waverley Street, extend Bison Drive and improve other components of southwest Winnipeg's transportation network at a cost of more than $300 million, not including the $327 million southwest bus corridor former mayor Murray hoped would service the new suburb.

The capital costs of the suburb are undeniably higher than the $119 million projected in 2004, when the city and province conducted a pair of cost-benefit analyses that came up with widely different earning projections: the city predicted $74 million over 60 years, while the province envisioned $228 million over 23 years. [*]"

(You mean, it's not going to magically appear for free? Why would the developers of Waverley West lie to the City via some cooked-up ND Lea study? I thought they were simply pushing the City to ammend Plan Winnipeg and allow Waverley West to be nice. What happened?)

"We look to government to be innovative at times." said St. Norbert Councillor Justin Swandel.

Get used to disappointment indeed.

***
The failure of Waverley West is not that it will (well, duh...) not end up being a cutting edge model of new urbanism, but that it will not slow residential development outside City limits. People that wish to live outside City boundaries will continue to do so. It was not that a "tight" market pushed them out of the city in recent years, it was that a healthy seller's market offered much to choose from. Waverley West will not eliminate City property taxes, lower crime rates, or make lot sizes bigger--the primary reasons why people who choose to move out to the bedroom communities of surrounding R.M.s do so.

What Waverley West will do, however, is bring commercial amenities (such as its pathetically-dubbed "town centre") closer and closer to the R.M.s where people are moving to (Oak Bluff, La Salle, et c.), making it more desirable for builders to develop, and buyers to live there. And so it goes, with the City losing residents and the property taxes needed to pay its increasing stack of bills.

The people who don't mind living in the City (and its pre-Unicity suburbs) will be held to paying higher taxes for this, while watching municipal services in their own neighborhood decline. Not only sidewalks, transit, sewers and parks, but quality of life: Waverley West's apologists imagined "a walkable neighborhood where a bus stop is never more than 400 metres away and cafes, libraries, shops and recreation centres are around the corner. [*]"

Sounds like what any neighborhood in central Winnipeg was--before being bludgeoned by ghettoization not only from a City government sleeping on the job, but from a Provincial government on the make.

The facade of mediocrity

This article was published in this week's issue of The Uniter.

The key to demolishing a building in the Exchange District today is patience.

For the Reiss family’s Bedford Investments company, it has taken more than 15 years of willful neglect to finally win approval to demolish the Ryan Block for a parkade. Keeping the facade (or simply talking about it) is simply becoming another method, and the City of Winnipeg is giving $1.5 million in municipal heritage grants to Bedford Developments to rebuild the facade of the 114-year-old warehouse and incorporate it into the parking structure.

Illustration by Robert Huynh

Facade-retention is increasingly seen as a supposed “win-win,” but is really just an excuse for continuing to gradually thwart the vibrancy of the Exchange District by adding more to its over-saturated parking supply. Urban spaces are not simply a collection of nice facades propped up like movie sets, but living and dynamic organisms: at their best when they are dense and complex in their uses...

the rest

A post sure to attract new readers

Who needs bloggers and anonymous internet commentators to "denigrate aboriginal culture [sic] beliefs... and trot out outdated stereotypes and misinformation"--the folks at the SCO are doing a good enough job themselves. No wonder many young Aboriginals follow their chief's "take and take but never own" ethos and live lives of violence and street gangs.

Racist online remarks anger native leaders - WFP

"Swan Shannacappo and Chief Russell Beaulieu of the Sandy Bay First Nation called the media after university student-leaders came to them with the results of monitoring news sites from April 2008 to this month... So, the leaders are asking for help to prevent racism in blogs either by public pressure or criminal deterrence.
...
"Robinson added, "As Canadians, we don't pay taxes to create a platform for hate speech.""

...we just pay taxes to monitor anonymous comments on the internet, and sue the companies that host "racist" ones. This goes along with paying taxes to keep armchair thugs like the SCO, who think the internet is part of their chiefdom (or a "federal responsibility," as Intergovernmental affairs minister Steve Ashton thinks), living comfortable.

Steve Ashton, meanwhile, seems to support the stifling of (particular) opinions:

"Let's avoid the problem before it happens."

But if a thought is never expressed ("it happens"), how do we know whether or not it will offend certain people ("the problem")?

Best to just never say anything at all.

***
Legal threats in reaction to this post? Please send them to:

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Phone: +1 650-253-0000
Fax: +1 650-253-0001

Any guesses?

...what this might mean?

"...Ms. Oswald anticipates the inquest will reveal, once and for all, what went wrong during the 34 hours Mr. Sinclair sat in the waiting room.

She also suggested that the inquest will find that one of the ER's mistakes was kindness."

A field big enough for political games

It seems to have dawned on the Winnipeg School Division that regulation sports would not fit in the triangular lot bound by Portage Ave., Borrowman Pl., and Broadway. As I said before, that doesn't seem to be the point: "they can still have a field, for Pete's sake... We won't use that as a reason to stop the momentum we have," said local activist Nancy Chippendale, who last August dreamed in the pages of the Free Press of G.B.H.S. having a football team again, and maybe even space for her own favorite sport, Ultimate Frisbee.

Some interesting comments on this matter were recently left on a post from October 6, 2008: "This is political staging and Gordon Bell is being used for that purpose. Last spring the school was interested in establishing a butterfly garden at the Sherbrook Street Community Garden which is now owned by the West Broadway Development Corporation. WBDC is a project of Neighbourhoods Alive, which recieves core funding to the tune of almost 1/2 million per year. It serves primarily as a training ground for youngsters who want a career as policy analysts. They are children of old time NDP'ers. And they all hope that they can move into the $85,000 jobs as policy analysts down at the legislature. The Sherbrook Street Community Garden has been at 198 Sherbrook Street for 20 years. A truly community effort. The West Broadway Development Corporation, as owners, would not permit Gordon Bell to establish a butterfly garden on their property. Notice the school was not up in arms against this and is standing by while the property is planned for development? The School did not unilaterally decide to lobby for the Canada Post Site. It was some body else's idea. The School, after checking with their Masters, just probably are going along with it. It smells so badly of NDP politics."

There was no publicity-driven campaign to buy the former Midway Chrysler lot when it was on the market last year. There was also no rallies in support of getting land across Maryland Street from G.B.H.S. when it was changing hands in the earlier years of the decade, when that block (big enough for sports, I'm sure. And was, point of interest, a potential City Hall site in 1959) was developing into that visually abysmal "Little Suburbia" tract--complete with a Tim Horton's and McDonad's Drive-Thrus, Pharma-Save, Palatal Express, et c.

And this at a time when East Wolseley was still something of a slum/Inner City Community, thereby in more of that theoretical "need" for green space. Where was the outcry then?

Was he being ironic?

“For too long, our city has built out its suburbs, with new housing develop­ments and commercial-retail proper­ties, then later struggled with the impacts this growth has on our trans­portation infrastructure,” said Winnipeg mayor for the past four years, Sam Katz.