Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Exchange of....World Class?
Did the Washington-based International Downtown Association take into account that in Winnipeg, we destroy the very buildings that would garner us such a status for parking structures?
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Spoke Impact, Tour for Life
I'd like to let my readers know about a feat of great physical and mental strength happening right here in Winnipeg.
Tomorrow will be the final day of the 23-day Tour for Life lead by ultra-cycling-marathonist Arvid Loewen. The Tour for Life is designed around the start and end dates of the Tour de France, and starting early Sunday morning, Arvid will embark on a 24-hour marathon day to raise money for a Kenyan orphanage. A whopping $69 dollars will be pledged for every kilometre Arvid packs on during the final 24 hours.
You can check out the Tour for Life page right here.
Of course it doesn't end there, the more physically active readers out there can participate in Spoke Impact as well.
On Spoke Impact, you can contribute to the charities by keeping track of your physical activity. It works by pledging a nominal amount of your choosing, per kilometre or per minute you run/bike/swim/whatever it is that you do. You can sign up at spokeimpact.com.
I have decided to pledge 5 cents per kilometre I run, which should work out to around 8 or 9 dollars per month.
Tomorrow will be the final day of the 23-day Tour for Life lead by ultra-cycling-marathonist Arvid Loewen. The Tour for Life is designed around the start and end dates of the Tour de France, and starting early Sunday morning, Arvid will embark on a 24-hour marathon day to raise money for a Kenyan orphanage. A whopping $69 dollars will be pledged for every kilometre Arvid packs on during the final 24 hours.
You can check out the Tour for Life page right here.
Of course it doesn't end there, the more physically active readers out there can participate in Spoke Impact as well.
On Spoke Impact, you can contribute to the charities by keeping track of your physical activity. It works by pledging a nominal amount of your choosing, per kilometre or per minute you run/bike/swim/whatever it is that you do. You can sign up at spokeimpact.com.
I have decided to pledge 5 cents per kilometre I run, which should work out to around 8 or 9 dollars per month.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Putting the Cart Before the Horse
It seems this is the attitude our councillors take towards Winnipeg's downtown.
Despite downtown being first in Plan Winnipeg, despite that urbanism will be the focal point of "Our Winnipeg," despite that the Mayor and other councillors swear allegiance to downtown, what is left of it slowly gets stripped away, building by building.
Council voted 9-6 in favour of approving the demolition of the Grain Exchange Annex....even though the plans for the parkade do not encroach even an inch onto the Annex footprint. Reminds me of the Friends of Upper Fort Garry.
In other words, council voted in favour of approving the demolition of a perfectly viable building for absolutely nothing.
How does this make our downtown better? We gain parking, but we lose a building that could potentially be occupied. This isn't about heritage status, it's about keeping the buildings that exist now. On Lombard, there are plenty of other surface parking lots that could have had a much bigger parking structure built on them. Unfortunately for the owners of those lots, they don't have pseudo-historic buildings on them that could be torn down and pitched to council as supporting more parking.
More parking for what? Now that the Annex will be gone, that is one less place somebody could possibly go to on Lombard.
This is putting the Cart before the Horse. The "cart" being parking. The "horse" being businesses, restaurants, bars, offices, and entrepreneurs, who are the working horses of downtown, the ones that create a demand for parking, the ones who make it a place that we all want to go to.
Council in Winnipeg seems to be easily won over by any proposal including getting rid of an old building and constructing a parking lot, it seems to me, under the guise that this will somehow fuel economic development. As if the cart, somehow pulls the horse along. As if the cart makes it more attractive for prospective entrepreneurs to open up shop downtown. With fewer buildings to open up in, will they build a new one? Of course not.
Can somebody tell me, who in the hell opens up a shop or business downtown, with parking as part of their business model? Who, in any downtown in any city, opens up a business in an urban environment with available parking as one of their biggest bullet points? That's like opening a business in suburbia expecting that your business will come from foot traffic.
Horses pull carts, but in Winnipeg, 8 councillors and the Mayor pull the cart and wonder why they have no horses.
Like Regan Wolfrom, I have no confidence in not only Heritage Winnipeg, but the Downtown Biz as well. Centre Venture too, who have remained quiet on this. And now, I have even more cynicism towards "Our Winnipeg" and the "Speak Up Winnipeg" process. Did they all forget that we are in the process of writing a new, progresive and sustainable plan? This kind of thinking should be in the forefront of their minds. When our new planning document is drafted, I fear councillors will read it and put it on the shelf, and continue to rubber stamp the demolition of what we have for the construction of more parking. Forgetting that we even have a plan in the first place, just like they do now.
In 100 years from now, will a future Heritage Winnipeg be fighting to keep Heritage Parking structures from the Sam Katz era as a prime example of backwards thinking? Or perhaps the WRHA building will be on the Heritage chopping block, to be saved as an example of monumental urbanism failure?
Despite downtown being first in Plan Winnipeg, despite that urbanism will be the focal point of "Our Winnipeg," despite that the Mayor and other councillors swear allegiance to downtown, what is left of it slowly gets stripped away, building by building.
Council voted 9-6 in favour of approving the demolition of the Grain Exchange Annex....even though the plans for the parkade do not encroach even an inch onto the Annex footprint. Reminds me of the Friends of Upper Fort Garry.
In other words, council voted in favour of approving the demolition of a perfectly viable building for absolutely nothing.
How does this make our downtown better? We gain parking, but we lose a building that could potentially be occupied. This isn't about heritage status, it's about keeping the buildings that exist now. On Lombard, there are plenty of other surface parking lots that could have had a much bigger parking structure built on them. Unfortunately for the owners of those lots, they don't have pseudo-historic buildings on them that could be torn down and pitched to council as supporting more parking.
More parking for what? Now that the Annex will be gone, that is one less place somebody could possibly go to on Lombard.
This is putting the Cart before the Horse. The "cart" being parking. The "horse" being businesses, restaurants, bars, offices, and entrepreneurs, who are the working horses of downtown, the ones that create a demand for parking, the ones who make it a place that we all want to go to.
Council in Winnipeg seems to be easily won over by any proposal including getting rid of an old building and constructing a parking lot, it seems to me, under the guise that this will somehow fuel economic development. As if the cart, somehow pulls the horse along. As if the cart makes it more attractive for prospective entrepreneurs to open up shop downtown. With fewer buildings to open up in, will they build a new one? Of course not.
Can somebody tell me, who in the hell opens up a shop or business downtown, with parking as part of their business model? Who, in any downtown in any city, opens up a business in an urban environment with available parking as one of their biggest bullet points? That's like opening a business in suburbia expecting that your business will come from foot traffic.
Horses pull carts, but in Winnipeg, 8 councillors and the Mayor pull the cart and wonder why they have no horses.
Like Regan Wolfrom, I have no confidence in not only Heritage Winnipeg, but the Downtown Biz as well. Centre Venture too, who have remained quiet on this. And now, I have even more cynicism towards "Our Winnipeg" and the "Speak Up Winnipeg" process. Did they all forget that we are in the process of writing a new, progresive and sustainable plan? This kind of thinking should be in the forefront of their minds. When our new planning document is drafted, I fear councillors will read it and put it on the shelf, and continue to rubber stamp the demolition of what we have for the construction of more parking. Forgetting that we even have a plan in the first place, just like they do now.
In 100 years from now, will a future Heritage Winnipeg be fighting to keep Heritage Parking structures from the Sam Katz era as a prime example of backwards thinking? Or perhaps the WRHA building will be on the Heritage chopping block, to be saved as an example of monumental urbanism failure?
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
The Myth of Parking
See Rise and Sprawl as well.
There exists in Winnipeg a myth. A myth that parking is not available in ample quantities downtown. A myth perhaps rivaled by world-class counterparts such as the Loch Ness Monster and the Yeti.
Not like this is a new subje'ct, oh no, far from it. I've blogged about it several times, most notably here. What will no doubt be a rubber-stamping of approval for demolishing the Gran Exchange Annex building will represent another nail in Downtown Winnipeg's coffin.
For IF ONLY WE COULD PARK OUR CARS, downtown would be a THRIVING place!
I went down there. I saw for myself. I got out of my car and walked from Main Street to Waterfront, right past the aforementioned building. What is beside the Grain Exchange Annex, you ask? PARKING! What's across the street, a little closer to the river? PARKING! Let's ask ourselves a more revealing question about the nature of downtown and the myth of parking.
What is full in downtown Winnipeg?
......
Not parking lots. Not parkades.
If Winnipeg has such a parking shortage, then shouldn't every parking lot be full? Shouldn't every parkade be full? Every street spot, every metre, maxed out? Shouldn't parking be 5 dollars an hour?
But they aren't full. Even during the day, for you "oh it's true, the horror, I cannot find parking downtown during the day" people who leave such comments on my website. I was downtown just the other day, and witnessed with my own two eyes, surface parking lot after surface lot, half empty, only a single block away from Graham Mall. The Bay Parkade, easily half empty. I'm sure Portage Place Parkade was empty too. Every parkade I see downtown, has but a few cars in it, barely used, only ever full out of necessity during a sell-out event at the MTS Centre.
You need parking at the Grain Exchange building? For what? Where are you going to go? No parking in the East Exchange? Seriously? What's there that you're going to go to? Oh yeah, I forgot...
IF ONLY WE COULD PARK OUR CARS, downtown would be a THRIVING place!
Remember when I said I got out of my car and walked from Main Street to Waterfront? How many people even DO THAT?! The truth is, we could put up 6 parkades on every block and City Hall would still bulldoze historic buildings for parkades, because apparently, in Winnipeg, if your store doesn't have it's own parking lot then there is no parking available. I maintain that this attitude stems from the fact that everywhere else in this city, that is, suburbia, one drives their car directly to their destination and parks their car for free.
How is it that Corydon Avenue is devoid of parkades yet enjoys the most pedestrian traffic of anywhere in Winnipeg? How is it that Osborne Village is devoid of parkades yet is full of busy businesses?
....How is it that DOWNTOWN, an URBAN environment...is FULL of parking and parkades and is devoid of ANY pedestrian traffic?
We all know that downtown is currently basically a giant parking lot, where people come to during the day, and leave after they are done working. How do we change this to a place where people come to work during the day, and stay after to shop or enjoy themselves? By adding more parking?
The fact is that if we add more parking, then all we will have is MORE parking lots. LESS places to WALK TO! Who wants to walk by parkade after parkade, surface lot after surface lot? That's why people don't walk in between big box stores, they DRIVE! There's nothing to see here, move along! With all this parking there is no cohesiveness, there is nothing making downtown a single, unified destination.
How is it that in Winnipeg, we want a "revitalized" downtown with all kinds of little shops and restaurants and bars and such to walk to, how is it that we want an urban environment so bad, and destroy any chance of that ever existing by putting parking lots up everywhere?
The fact that anybody is even considering the idea that more parking downtown would somehow benefit Winnipeg, is pathetic. What really turns my stomach is something that Rise and Sprawl linked to the other day, from the Downtown Biz. I mean, these guys are supposed to be for downtown, right? You'd think they have a handle on the fact that Winnipeg is being choked to death with parking lots, but apparently not:
There is a strong desire for downtown parking to more adequately and further act as a tool or an enabler to further community economic development and downtown revitalization.
A tool? Ya don't say. Guess what, Downtown Biz people? Destroying your already existing streetscape for a parkade is not a tool for further economic community development, it's a tool for deconstructing an urban environment. If Downtown Biz was right, the WRHA building at Main and Logan would be a bustling centre of economic community development, what with that parkade and all. Who wants to walk beside a parkade? Even the Civic Centre Parkade is so horrendously atrocious it is more attractive to avoid walking on that side of the street.
Parkades are symbolic. They are symblolic because they represent something that will never change as long as we keep building parkades: the habit of Winnipeggers to park, go to their destination, return to their car, and leave. To continue building parkades is to continue to say "we don't want our downtown to be our destination, we want our parking spot to be."
It seems as though I be saying "downtown as a destination" forever.
Corydon is a destination. The Forks is a destination. Osborne Village is a destination.
Why isn't downtown a destination?
Consider this, Downtown Biz. How likely is "downtown revitalization" to happen if there are more parking spaces downtown than people living downtown?
There exists in Winnipeg a myth. A myth that parking is not available in ample quantities downtown. A myth perhaps rivaled by world-class counterparts such as the Loch Ness Monster and the Yeti.
Not like this is a new subje'ct, oh no, far from it. I've blogged about it several times, most notably here. What will no doubt be a rubber-stamping of approval for demolishing the Gran Exchange Annex building will represent another nail in Downtown Winnipeg's coffin.
For IF ONLY WE COULD PARK OUR CARS, downtown would be a THRIVING place!
I went down there. I saw for myself. I got out of my car and walked from Main Street to Waterfront, right past the aforementioned building. What is beside the Grain Exchange Annex, you ask? PARKING! What's across the street, a little closer to the river? PARKING! Let's ask ourselves a more revealing question about the nature of downtown and the myth of parking.
What is full in downtown Winnipeg?
......
Not parking lots. Not parkades.
If Winnipeg has such a parking shortage, then shouldn't every parking lot be full? Shouldn't every parkade be full? Every street spot, every metre, maxed out? Shouldn't parking be 5 dollars an hour?
But they aren't full. Even during the day, for you "oh it's true, the horror, I cannot find parking downtown during the day" people who leave such comments on my website. I was downtown just the other day, and witnessed with my own two eyes, surface parking lot after surface lot, half empty, only a single block away from Graham Mall. The Bay Parkade, easily half empty. I'm sure Portage Place Parkade was empty too. Every parkade I see downtown, has but a few cars in it, barely used, only ever full out of necessity during a sell-out event at the MTS Centre.
You need parking at the Grain Exchange building? For what? Where are you going to go? No parking in the East Exchange? Seriously? What's there that you're going to go to? Oh yeah, I forgot...
IF ONLY WE COULD PARK OUR CARS, downtown would be a THRIVING place!
Remember when I said I got out of my car and walked from Main Street to Waterfront? How many people even DO THAT?! The truth is, we could put up 6 parkades on every block and City Hall would still bulldoze historic buildings for parkades, because apparently, in Winnipeg, if your store doesn't have it's own parking lot then there is no parking available. I maintain that this attitude stems from the fact that everywhere else in this city, that is, suburbia, one drives their car directly to their destination and parks their car for free.
How is it that Corydon Avenue is devoid of parkades yet enjoys the most pedestrian traffic of anywhere in Winnipeg? How is it that Osborne Village is devoid of parkades yet is full of busy businesses?
....How is it that DOWNTOWN, an URBAN environment...is FULL of parking and parkades and is devoid of ANY pedestrian traffic?
We all know that downtown is currently basically a giant parking lot, where people come to during the day, and leave after they are done working. How do we change this to a place where people come to work during the day, and stay after to shop or enjoy themselves? By adding more parking?
The fact is that if we add more parking, then all we will have is MORE parking lots. LESS places to WALK TO! Who wants to walk by parkade after parkade, surface lot after surface lot? That's why people don't walk in between big box stores, they DRIVE! There's nothing to see here, move along! With all this parking there is no cohesiveness, there is nothing making downtown a single, unified destination.
How is it that in Winnipeg, we want a "revitalized" downtown with all kinds of little shops and restaurants and bars and such to walk to, how is it that we want an urban environment so bad, and destroy any chance of that ever existing by putting parking lots up everywhere?
The fact that anybody is even considering the idea that more parking downtown would somehow benefit Winnipeg, is pathetic. What really turns my stomach is something that Rise and Sprawl linked to the other day, from the Downtown Biz. I mean, these guys are supposed to be for downtown, right? You'd think they have a handle on the fact that Winnipeg is being choked to death with parking lots, but apparently not:
There is a strong desire for downtown parking to more adequately and further act as a tool or an enabler to further community economic development and downtown revitalization.
A tool? Ya don't say. Guess what, Downtown Biz people? Destroying your already existing streetscape for a parkade is not a tool for further economic community development, it's a tool for deconstructing an urban environment. If Downtown Biz was right, the WRHA building at Main and Logan would be a bustling centre of economic community development, what with that parkade and all. Who wants to walk beside a parkade? Even the Civic Centre Parkade is so horrendously atrocious it is more attractive to avoid walking on that side of the street.
Parkades are symbolic. They are symblolic because they represent something that will never change as long as we keep building parkades: the habit of Winnipeggers to park, go to their destination, return to their car, and leave. To continue building parkades is to continue to say "we don't want our downtown to be our destination, we want our parking spot to be."
It seems as though I be saying "downtown as a destination" forever.
Corydon is a destination. The Forks is a destination. Osborne Village is a destination.
Why isn't downtown a destination?
Consider this, Downtown Biz. How likely is "downtown revitalization" to happen if there are more parking spaces downtown than people living downtown?
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
I can't even read it if I wanted to
You know, the one time Gordon Sinclair Jr writes a piece I might actually want to read, given by the article title "Our new Bombers up to same old tricks," it seems intriguing.
So I said to myself, I will attempt to stomach this one. But oh my GOODNESS. Holy grade 2 creative writing class, Batman. Gordo's piece today looks not like it came from a newspaper, but rather from a texting conversation between two teenage girls.
I got three lines in, I swear. I can't read this garbage.
Is Gordo writing a newspaper column or a freeverse poem?
So I said to myself, I will attempt to stomach this one. But oh my GOODNESS. Holy grade 2 creative writing class, Batman. Gordo's piece today looks not like it came from a newspaper, but rather from a texting conversation between two teenage girls.
I got three lines in, I swear. I can't read this garbage.
Is Gordo writing a newspaper column or a freeverse poem?
Thursday, July 2, 2009
So...how serious are we about this new Plan Winnipeg?
Here's the first test.
City councillors? You can get on board the new plan. Before it's even drafted.
Save the Grain Exchange Annex from doom. We all know the last thing we need downtown, is more fucking parking.
The city's historic buildings committee says it's a rare downtown example of 1920s architecture, but council's Lord Selkirk-West Kildonan community committee supports the owner's plan to demolish the Annex to make way for a parkade.
The committee did not have quorum on Tuesday, so the hearing is now slated for July 13
Seriously, these kinds of shit plans only send our downtown into further debauchery. If the easiest thing to do in this city is bulldoze an old building an erect a parkade, then no wonder our downtown isn't a bustling centre. One only needs to use half their brain to figure out that something BETTER than a parkade can go on an empty lot or old building.
Ultimately the new Plan Winnipeg will not have room for this kind of stupidity of putting up parking lot after parking lot after parkade. So why not get a head start on things?
Isn't that what we want downtown to be? Better?
City councillors? You can get on board the new plan. Before it's even drafted.
Save the Grain Exchange Annex from doom. We all know the last thing we need downtown, is more fucking parking.
The city's historic buildings committee says it's a rare downtown example of 1920s architecture, but council's Lord Selkirk-West Kildonan community committee supports the owner's plan to demolish the Annex to make way for a parkade.
The committee did not have quorum on Tuesday, so the hearing is now slated for July 13
Seriously, these kinds of shit plans only send our downtown into further debauchery. If the easiest thing to do in this city is bulldoze an old building an erect a parkade, then no wonder our downtown isn't a bustling centre. One only needs to use half their brain to figure out that something BETTER than a parkade can go on an empty lot or old building.
Ultimately the new Plan Winnipeg will not have room for this kind of stupidity of putting up parking lot after parking lot after parkade. So why not get a head start on things?
Isn't that what we want downtown to be? Better?
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