Red River Co-Op to Move Into Portage Place

The signage has gone up and the parties have confirmed it. Portage Place will have a ground floor grocery and a pharmacy. That store will be Red River Co-Op. At 22,500 square foot store and a 6,500 square foot pharmacy and a staff of 57. This will be the 10th store in the Winnipeg region for the Co-Op. The timing of the opening is 2029. Construction has been ongoing all this year and the building of the Pan Am Clinic is the first priority. 

The Bay is also under intense construction and there hasn't be an update on where they are at but it is ongoing. Housing and offices will eventually be in place there and nearby and the need for the grocery store will be apparent. Initial response that a Red River Co-Op going is has been positive. There are five national grocers with their huge suppliers. It was thought that a Sobeys/Safeway had the inside track. However, the Co-Op is local and likely pushed hard to expand their store size after a near death experience back in 1983. The entire grocery business was shut down along with anything not related to fuel sales. It was a painful recovery.

Munther Zeid from Foodfare questioned the economic reasons and said if there was a market for grocery, Safeway or Safe on Foods would have moved in. He has a point save for one thing. Grocery store size. The companies he mentions builds new stores that are 40,000 square feet. The South Osborne Safeway has a legacy store at 19,000 square feet. It is hanging on because it has no competition and a parking lot.

None of the biggies want a store with no dedicated parking lot. So why does Red River think they can do it? The pharmacy. There are only a handful of pharmacies downtown even with a few thousand residents living nearby. The few Shoppers and Rexall are all south of Portage Avenue. Red River Co-Op notably kept their pharmacy as a stand alone location on Main when Giant Tiger took over their lease (which they have since abandoned) on Main Street. Pharmacies make money. And they are built with layered security everywhere. 

Know what Foodfares don't have? Pharmacies. Zeid knows groceries better than anyone. He has been on the frontline for decades and fighting shoplifting harder than anyone. He knows what he talks about when it comes to trying to make a living in the grocery business. The pharmacy and its safes and locked areas is a good cushion for profitability. Thousands of students at the University of Winnipeg, student housing across the street by the Winnipeg Art Gallery, housing behind Portage Place and new housing onsite atop Portage Place provides the population base to build a store customer base. 

The lack of a food court in Portage Place should discourage the type of congregating for the purpose of drug distribution. And thousands of patients a day at the new Pam Am Clinic should create the safety of crowds that is seen when hockey and concert events happen downtown. Harassment of people will have dozens of people calling 911 and filming it. Likewise, True North properties have zero tolerance for encampments or people taking up residence of doorways. Seriously. Watch security make themselves present if people linger in the Square for purposes other than commuting or commerce. Also, get in a fracas at Canada Life Centre, find yourself banned for life from all events there. Malls like Polo Park also institute bans so I expect to see Portage Place ban people from the property if they are violent or shoplifting. Technology will be used to identify people who are consistently a problem.

Low income people have to be protected and the work with the community patrols will help with people who need assistance. Housing geared to income is part of what is going up in the area but success with come from a mix of people which could include tourists in hotels, visitors for concerts, conventions and sports. 

In keeping with the standard set ups for most urban groceries, there will be one entrance in, delivery, deli, bakery, meat, dairy and produce sections. If there is any area I feel they might skimp on, I would say sections of ethnic and specialty stuff. This probably suits some of the ethnic convenience stores that have tried to carve out new niche areas for themselves downtown and elsewhere. Self checkouts are likely to have two forms of control. The first will be scanner exiting the checkout and the next will be receipt control. It is unclear whether the store will exit to the front street or inside the mall. Staples found it was better inside. One thing is clear is that there will be another line of security for the mall and apartment entrances. And street patrols will be plainly visible.

Things have to be a multi-pronged approach to make the area successful for housing, retail, recreation and healthcare. If people feel there are no go zones where they could face danger, they will resist going there. In some cases though, you will have no choice. If you have a knee surgery at Pan Am, you will be there are 8 AM. Likewise, many people work downtown and not some suburb. They need to know they can ride the bus without fear, park their cars and find them later and go outside for lunch without the chance of homicide or being swept up in arrest.

I suspect there will be a lot ways this happens and it will be black by block that are reclaimed as neighbourhoods. A grocery is essential to that and the amount of spending to convert Portage Place and the former Bay building tops $1 billion. This isn't just a luxury mall and luxury housing. It is a comprehensive reconstruction and not a trip down nostalgia lane. It is trying to build housing in the area and make sure there are services to support it. The mistake at Portage Place is the investment stopped after the 1980s. The money earned was delivered to The Forks for their ultimate success.

Gen Z Leaving Winnipeg

Gen Z is often considered to be people born between 1997 and 2018. Everything they do as of late is drawing attention. It is a generation that is changing alcohol consumption, shopping and education because they don't do what previous generations do. To that end, each generation does their own thing. In some cases, like the Baby Boom generation, the generation is so large that it crashes through each decade like a bulldozer. Sometimes they are so small, like Generation X, they are not mentioned at all.

So if a place like Winnipeg can draw students (along with the province), how do we lose them? Jobs, wages and opportunities are a big factor. Perhaps the biggest. We can't compete with mountains and weather. 

One of the things that attract Gen Z to Manitoba has been post secondary education. From Brandon to Winnipeg and through the province there fairly decent post secondary schools. 

Gen Z in Manitoba is leaving in substantial numbers and questions are being asked as they always are about why people are leaving. The simple truth is that continued job and education opportunities await further afield. It is very competitive in that area and always has been. Alberta today probably has over 200,000 people originally from Manitoba who have re-located there.

CBC Manitoba had a panel January 13 of Gen Z students. Most of them said they are not leaving per se but did explain the rationale for those that do. In terms of higher education, sometimes Masters and Doctoral programs are elsewhere. Research money is elsewhere. To its credit, the University of Manitoba had a successful year this year in recruiting Canadians to the campus and the increase in research money has been among the highest in Canada.

The University of Winnipeg has had a decades long program of building student housing. So has Canadian Mennonite University. The University of Manitoba has lagged while private builders have begun to take on the job. However, affordable housing means units need to be built all the time with no 10 or 20 year gaps as we have seen.

One of the things the CBC panel mentioned over and over was transit. It is easy for those who have cars to dismiss those who take the bus. Young people are too young to drive or too poor to drive. The penalties and costs of campus parking has been a decades long agony for students and faculty. However, the priority on housing has been painfully slow even with so much land available.

So riding buses that require multiple transfers or require long walks or waits is looked on unfavourably. Trips to Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and elsewhere make the difference clearer when young people take trains and subways. If you don't have a car for any number of reasons, you long for good transport and affordable cost. Some would just like bike paths that connect them to parts of the city or walkable trails.

Young people, when not in school, are looking for those first employment opportunities and wage growth that help pay for rent and future home ownership. Manitoba has been known for low pay and the excuse has been lower cost of living. But it also comes with slow advancement. For those who advance in companies such as banks, insurance companies and government the promotion sometimes means a move to places like Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa. This, in and of itself, doesn't always represent a problem. While some who go away never return except as visitors, some return for a variety of reasons.

In the 1980s during the recession, Winnipeg and the province lost massive population as big employers shut down. Many people had no choice to leave as they had no job. And tens of thousands didn't come back. Calgary and Edmonton surpassed us in population. As did Ottawa. And almost Hamilton and Quebec City. The decline has ebbed since but most of Winnipeg's growth has come from immigration and birthrate and not transfers from other provinces.

Gen Z is more mobile and while there are good reasons for them to stay such as family, higher education and family, the lower wages, lack of advancement and general fewer amenities in recreation and transportation to name a few. Various interviews reinforce Gen Z observations.

As mentioned, Winnipeg can't change its climate or geography and create oceans and mountains. However, it can make sure that it corrects its missteps on buses. Buses that drive back busy stops of students, buses that are never on time, buses that don't work with student schedules, bus shelters that are broken, unsafe, bus travel that can result in violence. And as far as fast or convenient, it pales to many other places.

Up until the last few decades there were deeply affordable housing in Winnipeg. Osborne Village was known for where many people started in their first rentals. There were a few areas around town like that. While there are some less costly areas to live, the rent has gone up and the availability gone down. Since 2005, new buildings don't have any rent control for 20 years and there is a $13,500 tax credit per unit. Not surprisingly, there is apartment building going up all over the city. 

However, it takes 20 years of consistent building where you start to see deeply affordable housing at sufficient capacities. Keep in mind though that even when rent was affordable, we lost young people to other provinces because of job opportunities, wages and perceived exciting city life. Still, a commitment to affordable housing often draws back people who live elsewhere for a while and wish to get more bang for the buck. Winnipeg and the province can't take a hiatus from building as they did for nearly 20 years.

In the U.S., Gen Z is re-populating mid size cities like Raleigh and Madison. Perfect climate and geography have been less important that being able to walk places, shop locally and have things to do. In Winnipeg, The Fringe Festival and Nuite Blanche are exactly what that population likes to see. Food truck weekend, bike event and the like are high on their lists.

For work, they want flexible workplaces, clear directives and commitments with opportunities for growth. The generation is prepared to come and stay in places like Winnipeg. This is not a case of big cities and nothing else will do. The generation will respond to an authentic and dedicated appeal to them.

What they won't respond to is a city they can't travel in, afford in housing or prepared to cut them the moment there is a business rationalization to maximize profit at their expense. They are looking at communities and at their present ages, they can't see it in long commutes to suburbs.

There are things that Winnipeg is doing to appeal to Generation Z. Some of them are here already but patience in improving wages, opportunities and transportation might be too slow to keep them here initially.

The End of Stylus 2025

Is it the end of Stylus, the music magazine founded in 1989 at the University of Winnipeg? The answer is maybe. There is no budget for another issue according to CKUW, the campus radio station that took over funding the magazine in 2015.

The reduction in students has meant the University of Winnipeg Student's Association and CKUW have less revenue. This has resulted in funding disagreements that seem to go on every year. University politics. It seems the associations are often trying to lift funding for various reasons. In this case, the reduction in international students has dropped funding so the radio station has had to make painful choices.

It is possible some fundraising might save the publication. However, other music magazine like Pitchfork and Vice have had to make cuts. Few music publications in Canada are as old or continuous as Stylus. Exclaim! started in 1991. Many reporters across Canada, including the Free Press, started off at Stylus.

Love it or hate it, musicians would be at a performance hall and pull out Stylus and and read about themselves or others. There really wasn't anything quite as local and music related. And no, it won't be replaced with a TikTok show. A 30 second clip is not enough information or as curated as a publication. There isn't anything wrong with it but it isn't the same. It might be the preference for young people but I can't imagine they play games that end in 30 seconds so why would they consume journalism that short either?

The comeback of vinyl records would suggest that sometimes old formats find new audiences. It has gotten to the point that when you are entering any bookstore or bar, there is no news stand.  Invariably, that has led to people using their phones at all the time? But where is the local in that?

The thing about Stylus was that it was super local. Perhaps it's greatest strength. It is possible it could go digital. Some former newspapers like Music Express have gone digital in Canada after a hiatus. The advertising dollars have disappeared and are now being used the AI and their parent companies. Rolling Stone is now suing AI for taking their work and not paying for it. New York Times just made a settlement.

Smaller publications and podcasts routinely have their work pillaged. The only way content will continue to exist if large companies like Google and others are forces to pay it. This won't help in the near term. Only a rescue could help. It seems awful that the student's association and radio station can't figure this out. Perhaps there is an outside investor who can help.

The world is changing quite a bit but they day music journalism ends will be a sad one.

New City of Winnipeg Housing Money Approved for

 

Even with many apartments being built in the last few years we have had several places closed for various reasons such as fires, engineering reasons and the like. The Parkview at 440 Edmonton was a personal care home right off Central Park that had deteriorated so bad that it was better to close it than keep it open in the pandemic.

Central Park had being seeing improvements a few years ago but has once again fallen into a slump. Security is an issue everywhere as addiction creates desperation and unsafe atmospheres. There is no shortage of apartments in the area but affordable places are hard to find. The Parkview will now be home to 180 units of transitional and social housing. The 13 storey apartment has been empty since 2022. The new owner is the University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corporation 2.0 which has had a lot of success building apartments downtown.

All around the Winnipeg Art Gallery are University of Winnipeg housing complexes. This is a complete change from the 1980s when the university washed their hands of their men's and women's residences and turned them into faculty use. The feeling is students didn't need university built housing. It was a terrible mistake but back then the U of W didn't have two pennies to rub together. How things have changed. If only the University of Manitoba did the same. The Fort Garry campus has done not very much despite having the land to do it. They have a huge swath of land where the Southwood Golf Club was. Perhaps in 2025 work will begin on the land they bought there.

An empty lot at 225 King Street and 231 Princess Street will become 54 apartments downtown. There has been significant housing built around here in last several years. Just down the street from there an open lot will be made into 128 apartments.

Around the art gallery at 530 St. Mary Avenue and at 252 Good Street will go 165 apartments and 50 apartments of affordable housing. And at 125 Garry Street, nearly empty building will be turned into 126 units of apartments.

Several other apartments will go up from Transcona to St. James as well. The applications were literally over-subscribed and many other worthy projects are looking to next year if the program continues. This came as a result of the federal accelerator fund via the city but if the money stops with the next government, the momentum could end.

Still, it is a lot of empty buildings and surface parking lots that will become housing. The Manitoba government has committed to a $10 million fund with with Business Council of Manitoba. This commitment echoes the important conclusion in the much shared Foundations UK essay about what is needed to get Britain out of its stagnant economy. The argument equally applies to Canada and by extension Manitoba. The idea is that business leverages what government does. Investment is the key for housing, infrastructure and energy. And government can't do that by itself.

Private investment has to drive growth and clearly, it has taken a NDP government to do that. The federal government has only recently gotten back into getting housing infrastructure built. They had been involved in the 1970s but the provinces pushed them out. The provinces themselves used their transfer payments for others areas such as tax cuts. The aging housing infrastructure and lack of new buildings has stretched into years. And the housing built was not the right housing as it was not near transportation routes, had not enough bedrooms and so on. 

Public investment needs to be focused on what gets housing built and not just one kind of housing. Capacity helps keep prices down but government seems to have lost focus and people start to think of there houses as an investment that beats the market and helps fund fabulous wealth in the future. This ignores the fact that people need need places to live after they sell their houses and will have to rent or buy in a high priced market. For some they can't sell because there is nothing to buy.

The government should only be concerned about capacity. If they try to help home owners achieve huge wealth through property, it will only backfire as it is still a market. As seen in the U.S,. cycles will tank property prices around every ten years. Canada has avoided this mostly by better banking and federal mortgage rules. However, it is not immune from it and house prices have reaches inflated heights and are already starting to lower. The question is whether rate cuts will start to raise prices way up again.

Building capacity is the one thing the government can do. It means financial supports to builders, zoning adjustments that don't force builders to build cars spaces or limit height onerously, that don't skimp on safety but drop rules that are a hundred years old and unnecessary, to help landlords and homeowners upgrade to energy efficient appliances and insulation and to infill vacant land and convert vacant buildings or demolish them for housing.

The city, the province and the Feds all seem geared to work on the housing crisis. It remains to be seen whether they stay focused on it. Too often it is one of the things cut by governments and it has become obvious that private business alone can't solve this. In Winnipeg, the people living on the riverbanks is an indication that we don't have the right type of housing. Zero vacancy affects everyone. It will remain one of the top priorities for Canadians. It should be the same for government.

More Student Housing Outside University of Manitoba

Of the 15 major universities across the country with medical schools, the University of Manitoba has the fewest student housing option of any of those listed. The Fort Garry campus even up to the 1980s was a far into the suburbs as possible and even then it was light on residential units. In the 1980s, the University of Winnipeg closed down all their student housing. Brandon University and Canadian Mennonite University have been better for housing than the two biggest campuses in Manitoba.

Pembina Hall was added to the University of Manitoba to make way for major work to expand academic teaching space into Tache Hall. It was imperative for the university to build housing to unlock donation money that came in. That will has died off waiting for the next capital campaign. It has only been private investors who have filled the void and it has taken a while for these projects to get done.

The Toronto-based Campus Suites began the process eight years ago and acquired land and began to build the first of two 16 storey mixed use towers across from the University of Manitoba. At the southwest corner of Pembina and Bison Drive, the first tower began to take shape around 2017. A spectacular fire just as it reached the top floor delayed the project but eventually the ARC was completed. It made for a fairly bold skyline just at the curve on Pembina Highway was in front of the university.

The purpose-built student residence is the tallest apartment in front of the U of M but was not the only one built over the the previous years. Surrounding and bordering the Real Canadian Superstore are a series of apartments from 4 to 7 storeys. Students have moved into these apartments although they are not designed for them in the way the ARC has been. Part of the student housing is amenities such as furnished apartments as well as price point are a strong draw for U of M students, especially international students.

Over the last several years, the Chinese population along Pembina has grown substantially. The university has been one of the main reasons. With 368 units and 570 beds, the ARC represents a good chunk of new student housing within walking distance of the campus. The 2023 enrollment at U of M was over 30,000 with around 7,000 international students, a 2.9% increase. Were it not for the private apartments, the university would be in no less a jam than some others across the country.

The curved building of the ARC has a Little Pizza Heaven and a dentist office in it. And just open now is Meltwich. The mixed development is being seen in more and more apartments. The first floors of many places are often the least desirable for renters/owners, especially women. It would appear that some shops and restaurants are giving the first floors a chance.

The Arc now has about 70% student residents living there. It was so successful that Align, the second phase 16 storey tower 397 units and 554 beds will be ready just as school starts. A Dairy Queen and a Subaru dealership occupied the spot the two towers are on. A rail track runs behinds the buildings. The two towers share a similar colour scheme and are only slightly set back from the sidewalk. 

The 16 floors of total space are not the only apartments that have gone up in the last little while near the University of Manitoba. As mentioned, there are three building sites called Bison Pointe already completed by the Superstore. A number of condos and apartments have gone up on Chancellor Drive and further down Pembina Highway. The apartments further down are also 15 and 16 storeys.

It is the University of Manitoba that sits on the largest chunk of land. Their present footprint plus the former Southwood golf course represent one of the biggest opportunities of providing housing to the 30,000 students and growing Fort Garry area. It has been a painfully slow process and pretty much all concerned hope the first of a number of projects are announced. The biggest university can score a big advantage over others in Canada if nearby and affordable housing is available for students, faculty and others in the area. 

Valedictorian Speech Calls for Ceasefire

Doctor Gem Newman seen in the above picture was chosen to be the Valedictorian address for the medical students at the University of Manitoba. In his speech he decries settler colonialism in Canada and around the world and calls for a ceasefire while identifying Israel as targeting hospitals in Gaza.

https://www.tiktok.com/@ajohn095/video/7370362916882631978

I have not the entire speech but don't no if he criticized the October 6 attack on Israel by Hamas forces. He only mentions Palestinian deaths which the Hamas health authority has provided. Around 1,200 Israelis were killed by terrorists and 250 were injured in the attack that day.

Free Speech is the hallmark of academic freedom and this goes for the administration as well. Dr. Peter Nickerson, dean of medicine expressed his disappointment in the address. He was uninvited by some university groups to graduation events. In turn, one of the major donors of the university expressed his dismay at the speech. His family name happens to be on the building. Ernest Rady says he is appalled and calls the speech hate speech. The word genocidal has disappointed many.

I previously wrote that campuses in Canada have been fairly quiet in comparison to U.S. universities. There have been encampments at both University of Winnipeg and University of Manitoba but students have, by and large, finished school and only graduation ceremonies are left so it is quiet there. The weather has been cold and rainy much of the time which is not fun in a tent. And probably less motivating when no one is there at the campus. Events are coming in the next several days and it remains to be seen whether some students will try to disrupt activities. 

I'm not entirely sure what Dr. Newman's view of the state of Israel is. Since he uses the work colonial and settler, it feels like he is stating Israel is an illegal state with no status. This is certainly the viewpoint of some of the Palestinian supporters who believe that the solution to all the problems is for Israel to cease as a state and all Jews forced out. The River to Sea chants is a call to push Jews into the sea.

Canada favours a two state solution which is the official policy of the government. Hamas does not favour this and has been fighting other Palestinian groups as well as Israel ever since. They favour a Muslim state and a trans-national one at that. Most of the protestors don't seem to want to bring this to the attention of anyone.

The call for a ceasefire seems to apply only to Israel. Attacks from Hamas seem to be condoned. Many in Israel want to have a ceasefire but we hardly hear about hostage returns or cessation of of violence from Hamas. It is very one sided. We never hear about the rape and violence committed against Israelis or if we do, are told they had it coming.

A Valedictorian speech doesn't have to be a boring thing filled with platitudes but calling out genocide is very much likely to bring the fight out in people. The International Criminal Court is trying to make a case for arrests of Israeli and Hamas leader and it remains very much an open question whether the three judge panel is going to make an equivalency argument. The prosecutor has already said Israel has a right to defend itself.

Benjamin Netanyahu has done a poor job on military intelligence and defence and the Gaza hunt for Hamas has been less helpful at hostage recovery than the short ceasefire and exchange for Palestinians for hostages. The areas that were taken by Israeli Defence Forces have still seen rocket attacks launched. It makes the statement that Hamas can be totally defeated seem less likely. On the home front, some of Netanyahu's coalition is pushing for Jewish settlements to return to Gaza and to get Palestinians to leave. Even the prime minister seems to know this is a security risk and provocation that even many Israelis are just not willing to take.

Given the history of Israel when it comes to this type of breech of security, an Israeli prime minister is usually defeated in the next election. Already, there is evidence that the war cabinet is breaking apart but when an election happens is anyone's guess. Israel is as polarized as other western nations. Netanyahu works best in this highly charged atmosphere but there does seem to be a reckoning coming. What seems unlikely is whether the International Criminal Court is going to be his undoing. The case for self defence will remain and even the prosecutor will have a tough time untangling that one.

The thing about Israel is that it is a democracy and they debate these issues. It isn't a monolithic view. And it certainly isn't one that seeks never-ending war. Israel has made peace with neighbours and exchanged land for security in the past. A two state solution has been discussed and moves have been made to achieve that but Hamas has never agreed to two states. They push for the violent overthrow of Israel and elimination of them as a people in the region. Sadly, some of their supporters also support this.  And not just in Israel but everywhere.

Netanyahu has been unprepared for the defence of Israel and has squandered the goodwill that so many had following the terrorist attack. But it is hard to say to that his government is singularly responsible for genocide. A unilateral ceasefire is probably not going to help Israel's security. And Palestinian supporters are uncritical of the awful governance of Hamas or it's attacks on Israel. 

Meanwhile in Winnipeg, a Valedictorian speech that accuses Israel of deliberately targeting hospitals and genocide probably inspires Hamas to keep fighting. Some students might have taken inspiration from the speech and feel persecuted for their free speech. However, free speech runs both ways so people should not be surprised by counter criticism.

Israel and Gaza need food and health agencies who are able to earn the trust of people in areas of conflict. Taking sides makes it impossible to do the work. A Valedictorian could have made the point that rendering aid for non-combatants is in the good offices of anyone who calls themselves doctor. It doesn't support any side except the vulnerable.

Certainly doctors can be political but their ability to navigate through tough political water often depends on their good work. Red Cross has been able to help get hostages freed because both sides have trusted them to do this work. If Red Cross blamed one side or the other, it would just eliminate one more arbiter of the conflict.

Sometimes people identify with one of the parties and assumes they are the underdog. It is far more complicated than that. The ceasefire calls and blaming Israel don't seem aimed at the ending the conflict and getting hostages returned. I'm sure there will be more speeches made in graduation ceremonies in the next little while and there will be likely just as much countercriticism.

One thing is for certain is that the Israeli people will decide in an election what the future. Many of them are looking for clarity as well as a reduction on hostilities. The big question is whether Gazans get that choice from Hamas as well.

 

Protests Mount at Campuses in U.S. While Canadian Universities Largely Quiet

Perhaps it is that the university year is mostly coming to a close in Canada but, by and large, campuses in Canada have mostly been quiet in regards to protests on Gaza and the Israeli response to the terrorist attack back in October. That is not to say there have not been rallies, public awareness campaigns and the like at universities but thus far, in Manitoba, we have not seen police involved in ways we have seen in the U.S. At McGill, protestors set up camp on campus over the weekend but the larger group of supporters went home. A contingent is left and the university has said the tents should be removed but their protests otherwise are permitted so long as they follow campus rules.

In Manitoba, the campuses have been devoid of occupations. Calls for divestitures of school funds from areas protestors have identified as supporting the war hasn't seemed to have cropped up here. The just $60 million investment fund at University of Manitoba is reviewed annually and has a mechanism in place to identify problem areas. So far no one has stepped forward on this issue. In terms of Israel, it is possible there is nothing direct at all.

The various protests in Winnipeg over Israel/Palestine have been usually off campus. Some have resulted in anti-Semitic and violent language. There has been some physical confrontations but so far no police involvement. No one want a repeat of some past protests that have resulted in occupations and vandalism mixed in with violence. This isn't just restricted to the present conflict overseas but over Covid and indigenous protests of that last few years. The Legislature is no longer the easy to access property it once was. Security greets people at the road entrance now and it isn't easy to get inside to talk to your own MLA.

Some protestors about Israel's response to Gaza devolve to Anti-Semitism all too easily. Other question Israel's right to exist. And others say Israel got what it deserved in the attack in October. It is hard to go anywhere with that type of hatred. It offers no solution except extremism.

Canada, like many countries, support a two state solution and the Oslo Agreement came close to that objective when extremists left things where they are now. Hamas, which controls Gaza, has no interest in two states. This wish to eliminate Israel and create a Muslim state covering the entire region. The group is considered a terrorist organization all over the world. However, for some people in Canada they are heroes despite the fact they have no interest in a peaceful solution and attack, rape and kill.

Israel is a democracy and even now the population is split of what to do next. Historically, a prime minister who was in charge following a major security breach lost their jobs. Netanyahu probably doesn't survive an election when it comes. The failure of both military and intelligence to thwart and respond to the October attack is squarely a leadership issue. The lengthy Israeli attempt to end Hamas is probably not going to work, especially if a long term occupation is the end strategy. 

Sadly, the recovery of hostages has been nearly impossible except during ceasefires. Far fewer have been recovered in military operations. The big question is whether Netanyahu will seek to pull back and negotiate if he loses his job in an election. Oddly enough, the protests against Israelis that lean towards violence and anti-Jewish sentiment overall probably helps Netanyahu.

As the school year ends in Manitoba and much of the rest of Canada, we are not going to see a campus occupation. Places like University of Manitoba will be in summer mode with Bombers games on site. There is no hay to be made on a sleepy campus. It remains to be seen in the fall if there is a rise of protests. However, by that time, we might see a cooling of hot war going on and protests will have no fuel to begin anew. Hostages are probably only going to be negotiated for with a ceasefire. As for Hamas, they are no doubt going to have to be removed by the Palestinian people themselves.

Fire Damage to Kirkwood Block on Portage Avenue

The second floor of the Kirkwood block is gone. The Korean-Canadian owned Eben Grocery and residence is gone after 24 years. The West End Business offices are likewise done.

Taj East Indian restaurant had their doors open surveying the damage. It is unknown how bad it or whether the demolition of the Kirkwood will affect their structure.

The University of Winnipeg and McFeetors Hall next door to the fire were first to report seeing smoke and flames.

Not a Doughnut, The Rippers band, Spades salon and the former Spades nightclub are all a total loss. Security surrounds the building as a plan for demolition is made.

Kirkwood Block Burns Down

In April 11 of 2021, on one of my walks I took in the block in between the University of Winnipeg campus. It was the one time home of Club Morocco and formally known as the Kirkwood Block at Langside and Portage Avenue. From 1957 to 1989, Harry Smith's nightclub was was of the largest in Canada and only the swanky paying a cover charge could come to dinner and dance. At its height, the club might have 200 couples dancing the the likes of Duke Ellington himself.

In the picture above McFeetors Hall, the large campus residence stands opposite. It appears the entire 575 Portage address will be demolished as a result of the fire that appeared to start in a church on the premises. There were many businesses located in the building. The West End Biz also lost their offices. Keystone Hobbies was at one time a tenant of Kirkwood Block. A pharmacy was also located there for many years. And even before Club Morocco, apartments were on the second floor.

Some of the businesses were closed even before the fire such as Spades nightclub that had a few incidents of violence over the last few years. However, with university life set to return...sometime, it seemed the block would find small businesses that would benefit from the student traffic up and down the block. Over the years, students would always find their way to the building. Prior to 1989, university athletes were head to Club Morocco for their Friday all night all you can eat Chinese food buffet.

The 1912 building was designed by John D. Atchison and was a handsome building. In recent years minority owned businesses have been the lifeblood of business in the spaces on Langside as well as Portage. The University of Winnipeg has slowly surrounded the block as the campus expanded but the retail reflected the new immigrant community, particularly the black business owners.  It remains to be seen whether the building next door which has an Indian restaurant, a Thai restaurant and a minority-owned salon will survive the damage. It is a terrible day for all these small businesses for the terrible loss they must be feeling.

The University of Winnipeg is literally across the street from the Kirkwood and were the first to spot the fire. Across the street is the former Union Centre and the former McDonald's converted into three restaurants. The CBC headquarters is just down the street. All in all, it is a very busy area with houses up and down the streets.

After twenty-two hours, the fire fighters are still pouring water on the scene. Temperatures are -32 C. Not great for exhausted crews. And the heavily damaged building will probably have to be torn down before the end of the weekend as it will be simply too dangerous to leave up. It is unlikely anything similar will go up on the site and the biggest danger is that a parking lot goes up...forever.

Post pandemic, had the block survived, the businesses located in the building would have benefitted from a return of students as well as a new residential construction down the block. The city is likely to resist a parking lot being the permanent solution for the spot. However, an empty spot with a fence for a number of years is very much a possibility.

It is is very sad, devastating for the businesses involved in the fire. However, the loss for the city feels painful as well. What will happen to this block? It is hard to tell if the entire thing end to end might be bulldozed as two days later the trucks are still thing hitting it with water.

What we could without is another building setback from the curb like the University of Winnipeg building seen above. It is a waste of space. Full stop. The university never effectively uses it. Potentially, the space could be used as a patio in front of Elements but it seems to have only bike racks. Parking a bike out front is an invitation to lose it. Patio sets ups have worked at Brown's and Canada Life Centre because they are more secure for staff and customers.

Any new building should have retail and restaurants on first floor and some street presence. It should also be more than two floors and have a residential component. Given the number of apartments the University of Winnipeg has built, it doesn't seem beyond reason that students could see another residential tower on the site. It could be the only bright spot in this tragic fire. 

It has been a brutal time for fires this winter. There are so many ongoing investigations and a few indications of a surge in arsons and deaths. This could have been unrelated to the deliberate fires but there have been quite a few heritage buildings, houses and shops and constructions sites razed. It doesn't feel normal. 

University of Winnipeg - The Early Days

The above picture is from 1926 and shows the present University of Winnipeg Collegiate and behind it Sparling Hall. In the time of the photo, it the building fronting Portage Avenue was Wesley College. The building was built in 1894-95 and is one of the Canada's historic buildings and remains an integral part of the University of Winnipeg campus. The building behind is Sparling Hall but at time of construction was called the Annex. It took the name of J.W. Sparling, the founding principal of Wesley College. He would die the year Sparling Hall was built.

Portage Avenue was not very busy with cars in 1926. The stretch of retail on the north side consisted book stores, pharmacists, hardware stores and the like. Angle parking was the norm on the street. Streetcar lines are in the middle of the road.

Wesley College's founding was 1888 and several students were taught in Grace Church till money was raised and construction began on property that was acquired on Portage Avenue. Manitoba College, Wesley College's some time competitor/sometime partner was founded in 1871 and in 1882, built on Ellice Street, kitty corner to what would be Wesley College 12 years later. Manitoba College would eventually be sold to St. Paul's College when Manitoba finally joined Wesley College. The site presently is home to under utilized research laboratories of the National Research Council built in 1985 with a second lab built later 2006.

The former Manitoba College in 1932 which St. Paul's High school beside. The buildings would gall to the wrecking ball in 1964 after St. Paul's College went to the Fort Garry Campus of the University of Manitoba and St. Paul High School would go to Charleswood. The land thereafter law fallow for decades.

The picture above shows the United College (Manitoba and Wesley Colleges) in 1948 right in the middle along Portage Avenue. The Hudson Bay Company store built in 1926 in seen on the right side. Immediately above on the top of the picture are the grounds of St. Paul's College and St. Paul's High School (formerly Manitoba College).

United College shows an enormous field behind it that was used for a variety of sports such a soccer and football. It also had a baseball diamond.

Here is the field looking northward from Wesley College in the 1920s. Quite the baseball game going going on.

Winnipeg Art Gallery/U of W Housing

The 14 storey Art District renderings above. Taking over a parking lot and retail strip mall containing Perth's and Dessert Sinsations immediately behind University of Winnipeg's other 14 storey residential unit. The 119 suite complex faces out to the corner of St. Mary Avenue and Colony Street. The building.

The whole housing project is made possible from a federal loan of around $26 million. With a similar loan for the the 102 suite Downtown Common apartment built in 2016 behind the Buhler Centre, the total amount of money comes to around $51 million. The University of Winnipeg is responsible for paying. Presumably, the varied rent and other supports will pay the loan off.

The new as well as the 2016 apartment are for students, faculty and are designed to for income levels that are low income to high. It is a new concept rather than bunching certain income levels together. Going up an elevator there, no one is aware of whether it is a premium renter or someone who has income assistance. It is an experiment to see whether this lifestyle creates a community interested in better care of their environment. In other words, is it a good place to live for everyone there.

The Commons featured some balconies for some suites as noted in the picture above. The Art District will feature a terrace for residents several floors up.

The terrace will have quite a few for students. No word on the amenities for it but I'd gather a bbq and other seating and socializing arrangements. Both buildings are white which follows a pattern all the way back from the Buhler Centre, through the Commons to the new Art District.

One of the good things about the apartments is that they filled areas used for parking or low density retail. There is little doubt that more housing for University of Winnipeg students has been needed for years.

The name Art District is being adopted for the apartment and although at the onset, it looks like musicians are more the focus, it shouldn't be lost on anyone that next door is the Winnipeg Art Gallery. In 2020, a four storey expansion to the WAG will be complete costing $65 million and adding 40,000 square feet to the existing building. The new wing will house the Inuit Art Centre.

Things are so spread out in Winnipeg that it takes a long time to connect the pieces. The U of W and WAG have been set apart as islands for so long. Now they have reached out and are beside each other now. It is difficult to imagine it not being part of future synergies.

It used to be Winnipeg was one step forward two steps back as one crisis after another meant neighbourhood collapse if not acted on. There are still major problems to deal with but less of the buildings being demolished, fewer surface lots being created that defiantly are a thin layer of bumpy gravel and areas such as The Forks or the BellMTS Place that people are likely to be found in strong numbers.

Affordable housing is a huge issue and it is good that is being looked at. It doesn't help to revitalize an area and not have people who can't pay for the overpriced and oversized spaces created. Having a mix of people in a building with good security creates residential safety and price. More street activity from places like Stella's and other shops makes sure people are always around. The old saying there is safety in numbers is not wrong. One of the things that generally makes The Forks better is that there is always activity happening. Harder to misbehave if it is where multiple folks will call you on it and hold you accountable.

It will be interesting to see if the U of W and Winnipeg Art Gallery buildings don't have a corresponding business and residential bump afterward.

Winnipeg Fire and Winter Cold

Winnipeg emergency services in deadly winters cold is a pretty miserable task. And a deadly one as well. Over the years Winnipeg firefighters have been hurt or killed trying to do their jobs. In recent weeks we have seen several residential apartment hit by fire and in some cases the damage looks greater than the structure can withstand. The heavy ice on a burnt out building is something to behold.

And so it was in 1987 when the Young United Church kitty corner to Broadway and Sherbrook Street burned down a few days after Christmas services on December 27. Most of the church was destroyed save for one tower which remains to this day.

In the 1980s many of the residential buildings in this areas had been converted to rooming houses. It was a tough area and on the verge of collapse as crime and arson plagued the area. Violence was common. Young United served this community as poverty and despair looked to move further west into Wolsely and down Sherbrook and Maryland towards Misericordia Hospital.

Alcohol was a huge factor but ritalin mixed with other things became a problem as a street drug. Police were up and down Furby and Young Street near the church not to mention ambulances and fire trucks. It was not difficult to see the entire city at the cusp of failure as the 1980 recession dragged.

In this time money was poured in from the Core Area Inititative, The Forks was just about to kick off as well as North Portage with Portage Place, Investors Group etc. Still, it was easy to feel like it was putting one finger in a dike only to have something else happen and not being able to stop the flood.

I walked past Young United Church regularly from 1983 to 1988 and again in the 1990s. If you missed the Academy bus, it was possible to walk from the The Bay and into River Heights before the next one came. Many times I just walked back from University of Winnipeg to home as a matter of course.

The church was a beautiful building. A few churches in the area were like that though. You just took it for granted. When I started back to school in January in my final year at U of W, the icy remains of the church looked incredible. However, the loss of the church itself struck me even though it was never one I attended.

One tower was preserved and the re-built but there was no way to restore the glory of the old building. I miss it. The above picture is from 1966. As you can see there has been a Shell station on the corner for decades. The top picture from 1987 shows gas was 39.9 cent a litre.

At least there were no human fatalities in the fire at Young United. In so many other cases in winter fires, firefighters and citizens have lost their lives.

Portage Avenue 1960s

In the 1960s it was so hard to get a parking space on Portage Avenue.

Well, not really. This picture was taken across the street from what was the Mall Hotel and Centre which was complete in 1964. A British American Gas sign logo marks where one of their stations was once and a Perth's in the retail block ahead of it. Kitty corner is the University of Winnipeg. The 7 floor Mall office building housed the corporate headquarters of Winnipeg Supply. It was also where the 16 bay bus terminal was.

Sadly by the 1970s the Mall Hotel was one of the most dangerous hotels in the city and one of the seedier ones.

The Gaiety Theatre from Famous Players was later to become the Colony Theatre in the late 1970s. In 1964 it had the longest marquee of any movie house in the province as well as 700 seats in stadium style. A Red Rose Tea sign sat atop the theatre in the 1960s. For a time after 1973 and Gaiety was an adult movie house showing soft porn. It lasted maybe four years before becoming the Colony and showing regular fare again. In mid 1980s it was demolished in favour of Investor Group headquarters which moved from Broadway.

Winnipeg had a fairly lax billboard law in the 1960s and signs were everywhere. Looking way down to Portage and Main a Coca Cola clock sign can be seen. It would be a few years before the Richardson Building and Winnipeg Inn (Fairmont) would be built. The same corner had a Royal Dutch Shell clock sign on the buldings that eventually became the Trizec development (marked with TD logo today).

Overhead of the street are trolley bus wires. One final observation. Look at the awesome VW van parked on the north side of the street.

Let's Talk About Langside Street - University of Winnipeg

Once upon a time the University was one block square. Portage Avenue was it's beautiful face although for years it was a bit crumbly despite green verdant land right to the street. Balmoral was one tough border street with belching buses idling at the station and and even toughener Mall Hotel with seemed to be a permanent police presence right through to the 1980s. Furby Street was greener and a had a few private apartments where students stayed and older residence that were slowly decaying, one filled with dozens of cats. The rump end of it all was Ellice where Lockhart hall rose high up to the street but unlike the front of the campus had no curbside appeal despite it being one of the newest part of the campus.

Welcome to the 1980s. The building phase of the University of Winnipeg in the 1960s and 1970s was over. The decade of cuts began even as student enrollment began. Classes were cut, programs cut. Men's hockey team...gone. Men and women's residences...shut down. They became offices since there was no budget for new infrastructure. Infrastructure was aging every year, tuition going up and a recession was smacking Winnipeg harder that anything since the Depression.

Despite all this University of Winnipeg coped, had excellent instructors and and enjoyed a strong reputation even as students had to attend a year or two more to get the courses they needed because of aid cuts, tuition cuts and courses that were not offered the year a student wanted and needed them.

The University of Winnipeg's sports facilities might have been the worst in Canada, Riddell Hall basement where the school volleyball and basketball teams shocked rivals across North America was a disaster. For a dozen years the university begged for funding but everything was frozen in 1977. It was only in 1982 that a new government allocated spending of over $8 million for what became the Duckworth Centre. The University of Winnipeg Student's Association was so committed to the new building that they allocated money from students via a vote.

Flash forward to 2018 and the U of W has spread across four blocks and more of the city. It has seen the return of student residences, one of the largest downtown daycare centers, restored facades and re-construction of Wesley Hall and top notch Collegiate, a science building, enhanced student dining, better bookstore and and grown its programming and student services. It isn't perfect but until 1984 when the athletic fieldhouse was built, the university was in decline.

There have always been businesses near the university that students patronized but there was no student bar per se. Students and faculty sometimes went to the Union Centre down the street for cheap beer. A close by Legion served the same purpose. But it was haphazard and was not truly a center of student life. The three main cafeterias on the one block campus is where people ate and then left.

As for stores, there were a few across the street like Mother's Music that students went to the 1980s. Supreme Racquet Courts also had students who were members played but campus life was such that very few actually lived in the area. As a result, nightlight was quiet in the proximate area of the university.

This has changed with students living downtown and the numbers keep growing. I will save the discussion about south of Portage Avenue for later. For now, let us focus on north Portage surrounding the university, specifically the west side.

The stretching out of the campus along Portage west has begun a transformation of the street.

To be fair, business has been on the street for eons catering to local neighbourhood and ethnic communities, However, what we are seeing now are changes that seem to reflect that students don't just come to school for classes but live in the neigbourhood.

The stretch of street along the southside of Portage Avenue between Young and Langside would appear to affected by changes in the campus now surrounding them. Some businesses have been there for decades but other are popping up to serve the university. Take the case of Langside where some tiny businesses such as book store, hair salon and a restaurant have set up opposite Richardson Science Hall and McFeetors Hall.

Arzate Hair Salon, Elemental Book and Curiosity Ship and the new Not A Waffle (replacing Yo Tea) sit small and pretty across from the university. Just on Portage itself in the same building is a convenience store, nightclub and most importantly for students, a cellular phone store.

It takes a while for a neighbourhood to change organically. It can come in stops and starts but the presence of a local population and one not prone to a bunker mentality to change things.

Without a doubt, the move of the University of Winnipeg westward down Portage Avenue is changing thing. Further down the street in the block after the science complex, the Good Will restaurant and entertainment space would seem to be a good example of the change we can expect a larger student population can bring.

Everyone will have to keep an eye out for how things are being transformed on what once was a commuter campus.

Long and McQuade Pembina Highway Opens

This past week saw Long and McQuade make the massive move from their location at 851 Stafford to 1854 Pembina Highway. The massive new store near the University of Manitoba will be an improvement over their rabbit warren old location that was just north of the Pembina underpass.

Long and McQuade started in Toronto in 1956 but one of their first moves of Ontario was to Winnipeg in 1971 when they bought Winnipeg Piano on Osborne Street. It was the third store for the entire company at the time. By 1975, they have moved to Corydon and it was there for many, many years that they supplied and taught so many artists in the province. By 1997, they were bursting at the seams and moved to 651 Stafford until this past week.

The musical instruments and lessons store also has a second location on Wall Street from the time they took over Gorden Price/Mother's Music in 2011. Long and McQuade did a complete reno on that shop in 2014. Mother's will long be remembered for their location on Portage Avenue near the University of Winnipeg before they moved to Wall Street in 1993.

The location at Stafford served the store well but the building was soon bursting again with rentals, repairs and sales work. It was obvious a building that was tailor made was in order.

This week near the University of Manitoba, Long and McQuade has opened their new store and by the looks of it, is a beauty. Anyone driving down Portage Avenue can't miss the pass with huge sign up.

Long and McQuade is all across Canada but this store for Winnipeg has to be the most prominent address they've ever taken up. One can imagine a whole generation of artists will pass through their doors.

Banh Mi King Coming to 510 Portage Avenue

510 Portage Avenue has had many things operate out of it over the years from the Label store, UPS store, University of Winnipeg offices and for a while now...nothing.

I saw something going up in the window a little while ago and now it is confirmed via Twitter picture from Dave Shorr that a restaurant will be going up.

The sign for Bahn Mi King Vietnamese Eatery indicates they are opening soon.

People in Winnipeg have gotten a taste of bahn mi style food at Chosabi restaurant in the Exchange. It seems a good bet that the University of Winnipeg students and faculty will likely embrace this new entrant opposite the school.

Stella's, Sushi Gen and Long Island Cafe coffee are down the street, Subway is next door. Casa Burrito is a few doors down. This is the making of a solid selection of a restaurant row.

The only thing missing are more patios.

Old Broadway Campus University of Manitoba

Right, University of Manitoba Broadway Campus 1932

A story in this week's Free Press talks about connecting university campuses to downtown and core areas of the city. Up until 1950, the University of Manitoba had a large campus across from the Manitoba Legislature consisting of science and arts buildings. The site is what we now know as Memorial Park.

Land was set aside in 1899 along Broadway in 1900 and a science building went up for classes. At the time, the Manitoba Legislative Building was not even in the planning stages.

1901 Science Building

The provincial legislators called the Old Parliament Building on Kennedy Street home.

Old Parliament Building on Kennedy Street

There were fewer than half the elected officials of today so for some time smaller quarters for the government assembly were appropriate.

The Old Parliament Building on Kennedy was a handsome building and from the start, trees were planted and grew to make the site prettier.

The Old Parliament Building literally built on bald prairie

In essence, the science building by the University of Manitoba along Broadway was the first move by any institution to push downtown's boundaries westward. There was no Legislative Building and no Hudson Bay building. Those came 20 years and more later.

Starkly bare grounds of new Legislative building

Provincial leaders dreamed of a Legislative campus along Broadway but the truth was that University of Manitoba builders had beaten them there years earlier.

Dream of a Legislative Campus

Instead what happened was that the University of Manitoba continued buildings its downtown campus even as the Legislative buildings and HBC was going up north and south of it years later.

Look at all those cars!

And the building went on and on for 50 years.

Adding to the Science and Arts for U of M

More building

Winnipeg Auditorium newly constructed by U of M

Ready for class downtown

The University starting making use of other buildings downtown including the old courthouse.

part of the old court house used by U of M

Following World War II, enrollment at the University of Manitoba had exploded. The dream of having all colleges and departments together on lands fitting for a university campus proliferated. In truth, many of the buildings on Broadway were nearing the end of their useful lifespan without major work.

There were other factors as well. Wesley College and Manitoba College merged together in 1938 and together became United College (later University of Winnipeg). It was on Portage Avenue where the future lay for a downtown university campus as well as Bannatyne Avenue where the University of Manitoba had the medical school close to what was to become Health Sciences Centre.

Financially insecure colleges really had no choice but join and become part of a larger grouping. It was also too hard to splits arts and sciences students between downtown and Fort Garry.

By 1950, the Broadway campus was abandoned and students moved to the expansive Fort Garry site of the University of Manitoba.

The provincial government occupied the former science and arts buildings until the 1960s when they started moving into other buildings that were being constructed along Broadway. By 1962, the government razed the building and twinned Memorial and built a park that has served for protest and celebration alike over the years.

For many people it is hard to imagine that large university buildings ever existed on Broadway. One wonders what it would have been like to have seen the University of Manitoba stay on Broadway and be the main campus. How fascinating would that have been?