Ellice Liquor Store

Ellice Liquor Store

Ellice Liquor Across from Centrepoint

The schism between urban and suburban has been growing for many years now. Politically, culturally and economically the differences are becoming easier to see and harder to reconcile.

The war between urban and suburban is played out in the anonymous comment section of the Free Press and CBC every day. A lot of those comments have to be tossed because they amount to personal attacks or cross into intolerance based on any number of factors.

In addition, the limited amount of characters of Twitter are ideal for snark and it is generally easy to heckle and be boorish when done anonymously.

What is generally seen in regards to suburban commentary on urban areas is that people there are all scumbags and criminals. The urban commentary generally runs along the lines that suburban people are selfish users and takers.

Thoughtful commentary is often shunned for one liners.

The fact of the matter is that if a city is to function well, all of it has be to considered not just one tiny corner of it. The solution isn't to just keep fleeing farther and farther till the city reaches provincial borders. Nor is the solution to bulldoze large swaths of the city to create some sort of doughnut hole.

That is not to say that some bulldozing can't, shouldn't and won't happen. While some mourn the loss of the Wagon Wheel restaurant, the objective of a higher density mixed use land covering almost one block is excellent. The fact of the matter is the block in question has been under utilized the last decades despite some private efforts, specifically when it comes to the hotel/A&B Sound/MTS Exhibition Hall.

Long standing businesses shut down such Discreet Boutique or moved like Wild Planet. The complaint of their owners and those of Kraut King about aggressive street life was that it was driving them out. Happy to report that the former Kraut King location at 295 Garry Street is impressing as the Famena's Famous Roti/Curry and even out of town guests are writing glowing reviews.

But look what is just down the street from Famena's...

Famena's Famous Roti-Curry

The Garrick Hotel's clients are generally on the sidewalk out front most likely as a result of the smoking laws.

This little block seems to struggle. Sonar Night Club shut down and is now a gay club called Fame. Aqua Books shut down. A few storefronts remain stubbornly vacant.

Connection to Garrick? Think many would say it is.

For this reason, CentreVenture has been on a crusade to rid the downtown of small drinking establishment based out of hotels. They have bought a few over the years and that process has accelerated with the construction around the Winnipeg Convention Centre.

I have no problem with confronting drinking establishments that cause trouble. If you have murders inside or outside the establishment, chances are you need to look at how things are run. And it doesn't have to be down and out dive bars. It could be nightclubs that attract a bad element along with its regular crowd. It could be hotels, it could be sports facilities.

Public drunkenness and aggressive panhandling can't be ignored and there does seem to be more patrols on the street to address this issue. However, the police in the city have been lukewarm on community work and still favour cruiser cars.

This is what one retired city cop had to say:

The problem was, general patrol (the officers in cars), considered the ownership officers glorified social workers and would not only avoid having anything to do with them, but would resist helping out when transportation of a drunk was needed, or the transportation of an arrested person or just any kind of assistance.

Was it just me who felt this? No. When we got together, all 20 of us had occasion to run into resistance from our sergeants and from general patrol (there were a few exceptions)

At the end of the day, crime and the perception that downtown is unsafe will die down if the police foot patrol is constantly there, always watching, always ready to stop a crime, move a drunk to the tanks, arrest an assailant.

That is pretty harsh stuff. Officer needs assistance being ignored due to the fact they think he is a social worker?

The work has been handed over to cadets as kind of a way to earn your stripes to police constable and a car. And perhaps this is the cheaper way to do it. Still, you wonder if there is strong value in having ground coverage for problem areas by the Winnipeg Police Service itself in a meaningful way.

Serious questions are mounting about the costs of policing and the promises that crime will drop for every 50 officers hired.

The amount of overtime, ticket quotas and higher crime respective to the rest of the country gives people pause. I am no expert in policing but hearing some officers say they didn't feel supported seems to indicate a conflict inside the organization.

Which brings us back to the Ellice Liquor Store. Is this store the source of problems in the area? And by this I mean: Is the store itself a source of public drunkenness and panhandling?

I can't answer that. I don't know. I won't go into the greater issues of alcohol, poverty and homelessness. My question is more specific: is this store the cause of trouble surrounding the area or it is a mere inconvenience for a nice new development across the street?

If the answer is yes, the store is the source of problems...is the first answer not to serve intoxicated customers, patrol the parking lot and seek assistance from police in ensuring public security?

The Ellice Liquor Store, celebrated in song by a ska group in the last years along with the Royal Albert Hotel, has a small parking lot that seems to serve downtown commuters intent on quick service. This cannot be fulfilled by Cityplace with a mall location. Likewise, there are many apartments and condos going up in the area who probably might find things like a local liquor store convenient.

It is a fine balancing act that CentreVenture does but it is worth remembering that Osborne Village has had its share of ups and downs but the liquor mart was not driven out. The client base changed over the years and the location there reveals a full realized neighbourhood with grocery, drug marts and liquor store for the community.

Centrepoint under construction. Liquor just north

Kudos to the Longboat and Artis for their investment across from the MTS Centre. The offices of Stantec Engineering, the Alt Hotel, Glasshouse Condos, parkade and restaurants Milestone's and Chino Libre are going to be the biggest thing to hit Portage Avenue in decades.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves by clearing out places like the Ellice Liquor Store before seeing how one development interacts with established businesses.

Downtown Winnipeg will be won over one block at a time. Some of it will be organic such as Famena's carving out a home on Garry Street. Other times, it will be a development like Centrepoint transforming a larger area.  Let's give it all careful consideration as we proceed. But while we do it, let's make sure we have the people on the ground to ensure security and civility.

What makes you feel safer, a police car headed west down Portage Avenue or two patrols walking down the street? If the answer is the latter, should that not be what we are doing more of?

Lovecats (acoustic/unplugged) - The Cure

A little late for Valentine's Day but a great song about love cats from The Cure.

A Desperate Plea for Grocery Stores

Urban Fare Yaletown, Vancouver

Sobey's Urban Fresh, Jasper Avenue, Edmonton

Sobey's Express  Roncesvalles, Toronto

A desperate plea is rising from people downtown and immediate surroundings. The closing of three grocery stores even in neighbourhoods that seems to have housing such as Notre Dame and on Main Street is accelerating.

Today's Free Press had a contribution from a resident of a senior's apartment behind Portage Place who sounded the alarm.

Over the last several months, we have lost the Wagon Wheel, the Paddle Wheel, Zellers, including its grocery store, the youth hostel, the NRC Centre, and several and sundry smaller venues within the Portage Place complex.

We are fast becoming inundated with the losses.

Add to that the Winnipeg Film Group and Gio's niteclub in the last day.

Now, some of this is not all negative. The Wagon Wheel makes way for a fairly expansive and innovative mixed use of offices, hotel, parking, restaurants and condos. We can be sad for the end of an era but happy about the possibilities on a boutique hotel and condos might bring.

Gio's appears to be making way for some development...possibly apartments. This is a good thing. Gio's has had a few locations over the years. The takeover of their present location was made possible by the closure of a pizza joint and the fact of so much empty land. Hard times made for a good spot to operate and the gay and lesbian community now find that their efforts to bring people downtown have made their property valuable for other urban reclamation projects.

I suspect that Gio's will find a way to come back, perhaps to some place along Portage Avenue although one blogger suggested the Free Press Cafe.

The Winnipeg Film Group is also looking to move. Part of it is expansion mode but some is not. This is what appeared in The Uniter.

...surveys have shown concerns about parking and night-time safety are preventing Winnipeggers from attending screenings.

Night-time safety. Not good. I don't think theaters goers for screenings downtown are overly sensitive either.

Just one more indication that increasing the feeling of safety and security must continue.

It isn't an impossible task. The Forks is generally considered safe and not part of downtown. We need to increase that envelope of security through better lighting, more patrols and better planning.

It is easy to feel insecure and vulnerable if the lighting is poor, sight-lines are awful and where there is little pedestrian traffic.

But back to grocery stores...

We are seeing more people move downtown. Waterfront Drive now boasts a population where none existed five years ago. Hotels are being converted back to apartments and condo conversions are taking places in warehouse space and offices. New apartments are coming as well.

And yet fewer choices or no choices for grocery stores.

It seems to me that if the government ends up having to take over The Bay downtown, it would do well to go out of their freaking way to make sure that a Sobey's Express, a Safeway or any other grocer out there be located in the basement. They would probably love to be a in large government building.

Moreover, perhaps a few restaurants wouldn't mind being in the building at ground floor as well. If and when The Bay takes flight, the worst thing would be if the whole 600,000 feet becomes government offices and you need to go through security checks just to enter the parkade.

We NEED grocery stores if urban living is to succeed. Osborne Village is partly the success it is today because it has a large Safeway in the center of it.

If downtown condos can get a tax break, maybe a large new grocery store can too.

Otherwise, we are going to have a migration out of the urban areas of the city despite best intentions.

Royal Bank Building

220 Portage Avenue Royal Bank Building

Artis, the Winnipeg-based owner of what most Winnipeggers know as the Trizec building, looks to gobble up another Portage Avenue property in a deal that will cost $40 plus million. The property in question is one of Winnipeg's oldest modern office towers at 220 Portage Avenue: Royal Bank Building.

The tower pre-dates the Richardson Building and was built in 1966 and stands 17 stories. It was last renovated in a major way in 1997 and has had award winning energy savings upgrades in the last few years. The blue chip tenants are Royal Bank as well as some grain companies, accountancy firms and lawyers.

While the building has no parking, it is connected to 360 Main Street (Trizec) and the three level underground parkade. Likewise, the building opens onto the Concourse, Portage and Main and Winnipeg Square.

Armin Martens runs Artis but he is no stranger to Winnipeg real estate. The Martens family has owned Marwest within the family for years and has developed many a property in the city.

With the Royal Bank building joining the Artis fold, there is very little now at Portage and Main that is not owned by a Winnipeg company (aside from the historic Bank of Montreal branch at 335 Main Street).

Artis is working with the Chipman family's Longboat to develop the property north of the MTS Centre. It is likely this isn't the last work we have seen from either company in developing property in this vicinity.

Paula Havixbeck

Paula Havixbeck

There has been a lot of cheering for Paula Havixbeck in the last while after her stand on the city budget. Sam Katz gave her the heave ho and suggested she was difficult to work with and the reason she was off the Executive Policy Committee was because she changed her mind on issues that she had previously convinced her colleagues on.

It was suggested Justin Swandel left EPC because he wanted to chew his own arm off rather than be in the same room with the councillor from Charleswood-Tuxedo. In the last few years, Swandel has been a tad tetchy and has not suffered critics lightly. He probably hates Havixbeck more than any other city elected official there is.

The thing he doesn't like about Havixbeck is she has questioned the way council does things. She resigned from the police chief selection committee when it was revealed that Phil Sheegl alone would make the choice. It was likely that alone made her a source for scorn from Katz and Swandel.

Swandel does not like doing laundry in public. He has said it is not the way things are done.

The problem as we have seen is that these behind closed doors decisions can come back to haunt you. The fire hall issue struck many people as side stepping oversight, consultation and an actual vote. It was presented as a "done deal."

City Circus showed a speech by Havixbeck and it wasn't of an unhinged and hysterical woman as Katz and his insiders might have wanted to portray. The sad fact is that we had a tax increase at the same time the council was choosing to have their budgets increased. Special funds for council and the mayor to spend as they wish seem more attuned to getting re-elected than meeting budget responsibility.

There is room for policy and staff support for council. They need support in terms of keeping aprrised of what is happening in the city. The administation running roughshod over elected officials will deepen if councillors don't have the right information and policy options. The problem is an increase in budget to fund pet projects is left in place making the whole thing unpalateable.

Havixbeck has pointed this out among other things. And she has gotten turfed.

I did not vote for Paula Havixbeck. I felt she was too connected to the Progressive Conservatives and was too much the choice of Katz and supporters. They must have felt the same since when she was elected, she was escorted to the big table that other councillors can only dream of. And now she stands on the outside.

My one dealing with Paula Havixbeck was in regard to sub-standard asphalt on Sterling Lyon Drive in front of the new IKEA. Like many drivers, I felt it was not a good job and I called the councillor to take a look for herself. I got a hold of her assistant.

The response after that was a curious one. I received a call from 311 giving me the contact number for the contractor. I thought: what?

Still, not ones to let it rest, I called the contractor and was told they felt the asphalt was good as it was. I asked if an inspector had looked at it. The contractor said no but that in the new year (as it was getting too cold to do any continued road work), work would resume in and around the area. I was told they would look into the matter then and that an inspector would sign off on the work. I said I didn't think the work would pass muster and in the end, it didn't.

The asphalt along Sterling Lyon was scraped down and re-done.

I can't say my Councillor helped in this matter.  And I was surprised my number was handed to 311 when I didn't call them.

In the end, I acted myself and to the contractor's credit, they re-did the work.

Now, this was early on in Havixbeck's term. I realize there is a learning curve but I was disappointed.

In the last while, there has been a small rallying cry for her to challenge the mayor (if he runs) in the next election. I'd welcome more Councillors throwing their hat in the ring. Most won't if the mayor runs again because the patent unfairness of them having to resign their Council seats while the mayor retains his.

I can't say if Havixbeck is ready. The reason I didn't vote for her aside from her close ties to the PCs was that she had less of a defined policy platform than her competitors. An equally run campaign for mayor won't likely sway me.

For the moment, I will stand up and cheer a more outspoken counterpoint to what we have seen in City Hall the last little while. Things need to be better and it won't happen if Councillors keep getting blindsided by a lack of information.

Let's hope this promises to be an interesting year in city politics.

The Liberal Leadership Race

Liberal Leadership Race

I didn't attend the debate at the Metropolitan Theatre having had to work that day. I was interested in what was to be discussed but the format sounded fluffy.

There are some interesting ideas some candidates are proposing but this wasn't a debate and it should have been. The party does need to thrash out ideas amongst themselves and to distinguish themselves from the other parties.

A very small Idle No More protest occurred. Not surprisingly, it led the news stories. However, if the protest was an attempt to embarrass the Liberals or help increase support for the movement, it failed.

By all accounts, the Idle No More campaign needed the Opposition including the Liberals through interim leader Bob Rae to help end a hunger strike that may have ended in someone dying only a number of weeks before.

As some political panels have noted, all the leaders have called for change in First Nations relations and they have all said talks must happen and action to take place.

One column by the bright and interesting writer Ethan Cabel suggests that protestors revealed the irrelevance of the Liberals. The inference being that it is a polarized world out there and one can't reason with such an angry person.

We don't know who this protestor is. We don't know if he represented the movement at all. It might have helped to find out. Many people are now far too cynical to not ask these questions. The penchant for mischief is too strong to ignore and politics runs through everything including opposing First Nations factions.

I do have to correct one item from that column that states the Metropolitan Theatre sits on Treaty 1 land. The land where the theater sits was ceded to to the crown "forever" if my understanding is correct.

I'll be the first to say that treaty obligations have been poorly fulfilled but the land the theater sits on is not reserve land as per treaty agreement.

Also, I don't know if I agree that the Liberals are turning to the right. On economic policy, they have staked that ground since the 1990s.

I wish the Liberal leadership race was more interesting. I have donated money and support Marc Garneu. I like his character, his work and political experience and like his policies on economics and democratic reform.

I don't think he is irrelevant.

And while the leadership race lacks the substance that I would like to see, it should be noted that the NDP race was also a little lite on grit and ideas. And yet the NDP have been solid in second since Tom Mulcair took over.

Canadian might have their own ideas about relevance.

In a poll this weekend, conducted to see where Justin Trudeau was thus far in the race.

If a federal election were held in Canada today and Justin Trudeau were at the helm of the Liberal Party, they’d win a strong majority in the House of Commons, says a Forum Poll for the National Post. 

Forty-one per cent of poll respondents said they’d vote Liberal in this scenario, granting the party 164 of the 308 seats in the house. The Tories would get 30% of the vote and 93 seats, and the NDP would get 20% of the vote and 45 seats.

With six per cent of the vote, the Bloc Quebecois would get five seats. Two per cent of the vote would go to the Green Party, which would retain its single seat.

Surprisingly, much of the new support for the Trudeau-led Liberals came from other parties: 35% from the Greens, 25% from the NDP and even 10% from the Conservatives.

To recap: Liberals elect Trudeau leader:

Liberals 41%
Tories 30%
NDP 20%
Bloq 6%
Greens 2%

Likable leaders seems to be what Canadian want, what they really, really want.

And that isn't irrelevant.

Able Wholesale Apartment Conversion

Able Wholesale Erin & Notre Dame

Able Wholesale Looking North from Erin

Able Wholesale on Notre Dame

Able Wholesale Looking West on Notre Dame

Some projects that come across the city's desk truly are innovative and bold.

One of the last projects with excitement to it was the Avenue and Hample apartment conversion. That $12.4 million dollar construction took a few years to get done and needed $3.8 million in city and provincial funding to be completed.

It is probable that had government not helped that these two buildings would have continued to decay along Portage Avenue.  It has certainly inspired the developers to continue to build and they are doing work along Princess Street now.

The problem with the downtown housing development is that it is so expensive and risky that government money is always involved.  That is not to say that government money is not used in the suburbs as well. A new suburb like Waverley West receives a huge amount of infrastructure support in the form of roads, water, sewer, policing, paramedics, fire and the big ticket item: schools.

The developer does the initial layout but the costs quickly mount especially as the density is lost and the suburbs stretch out many kilometers from city center.

We are increasingly hearing exasperation from Bridgwater and South Pointe about the lack of schools for a quickly growing child population. The province should not be surprised as they are the developer of much of the land in the area.  In the end, the slush fund of money the NDP government expected from developing Waverley West is going to be eaten up by building at east six new schools for the area.

The subsidy to help bring people to where existing infrastructure is doesn't seem as bad when seen in retrospect.

But it doesn't always have to be that way.

In the meeting of Executive Policy Committee this week, we see two proposals to approve infill housing. One of them I already described in regards to Charleswood off Laxdal where 23 houses are proposed. It is an excellent use of the land and will help Royal School down the street with future students.

The other proposal is for land off Erin at Notre Dame. The Free Press mentioned a bit about the proposal in December. It has been refined a bit to finally go before council.

In a nutshell, it is to turn the former Able Wholesale building into around 72 rental apartments. Wintec Services is acting as developer and said they expected the conversion to cost around $4.5 million. That seems a little low for an older building but I expect we will hear more in the next days.

I expect the city will approve this development which doesn't appear to ask for money and which will be able to use existing infrastructure and schools. In short, it is a good use for an old building and helps increase density and better efficiencies for the city.

Floor Plans for Able Wholesale

Able Wholesale Conversion

Other things are happening along Notre Dame as well.

Spa Investments also wants to develop a strip mall across the street from Able Wholesale. Presently, it is home to Robin's Donuts. I have not seen anything in the form of a plan for what is said to be 20,000 to 30,000 square feet of space. Perhaps the housing across the street will help dictate what goes in the mall.

Farther down Notre Dame, the conversion plans for the Christie Biscuits/MWG Apparel building into the Specialized Services for Children and Youth Centre proceed. The Christie building is a fine building and this sounds like an excellent use.

It is easy to get discouraged sometimes in regards to the city. Despite the fact so much is available in terms of information on certain things the city does, it is poorly communicated.

Often some developers toil in obscurity, only revealed in zoning changes or once their projects are complete. No extra money is asked for and yet the city benefits greatly from the work.

Wintec's other apartment work was snapped up by Health Science Centre workers at Beverley and Notre Dame.

Beverley at Notre Dame

30 Apartment Beverley Street Block

So hats off to business people who have seen a need and have invested in their work and who make the city a better place.

Freeloading at City Hall

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

The empty civic parkade begged the question: Where did those displaced find parking spaces?

I had heard of some councillors getting rental space in the very tiny Centennial Centre indoor parking. Other councillors found space at the Bedford Parkade two blocks away on King Street. Many staff had to take a commuter bus from the Centennial Library even further away.

The Centennial Centre was renovated as recently as 2010. I can find no listing of how many spaces are there but I can't imagine it is more than a hundred. And most of the those spaces are allocated already to provincial employees of either the Museum or Concert Hall.

The mayor and a few councillors managed to get space there. The rest managed to find spots in the recently built five floor parkade at King Street (There is also a heated underground part of the lot).

I'll bet city councillors would have never bet they would need the Bedford Parkade this badly when they gave it $1.5 million three years ago. The parkade also got $500,000 for CentreVenture. This created 160 parking spaces in a building the city had allowed to fall apart in years previous.

The Civic Parkade was a 450 stall parkade. The Centennial Centre's possible 100 and Bedford's 160 stalls barely scratch the surface of what was lost.

The Grain Exchange Parkade has around 270 spaces but that has a lot of stalls spoken for by the Portage and Main crowd and it isn't exactly that close to City Hall. Nor would it be appropriate for city police cars.

The police and some city fleet vehicles have had to take over the space on James Avenue for the 134 cars they have lost space for. There is also an underground component to the Civic Parkade that is used for an undisclosed amount of police cars. I am still not sure what the structural integrity of that underground portion is.

How did we get here?

It was years of a tax freeze and taking money from the parking authority to balance budgets without fixing city owned infrastructure. The fire sale auction of the Winnipeg Square Parkade is directly related to the city's need for money and not wanting to invest in upgrading the lot.

And are we talking about what will happen next? No.

The budget is passed and I assume that what we are waiting for is the police to move to their new building on Graham Avenue. At that point, maybe some hard questions will come in regards to what to do with Public Safety Building and the Civic Parkade.

It has been pointed out the land must remain public and the city has no right to sell it off. Once the police go, the buildings are likely to be cost a lot to maintain as we have seen from the Kapyong Barracks debacle.

Ultimately, the decision to do something will have to come down to council.  If they were even more inconvenienced, that decision might be sooner. But how inconvenienced are they? A heated spot at Centennial and underground walkway to council is not bad. A little more inconvenient at Bedford Parkade but perhaps a little less bitter in the underground heated part.

A bus trip from Centennial Library daily would probably have resulted in an emergency meeting and a budget of tens of millions for a new parkade.

In some cases, free loaders have the best space in town.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

The Free Press picture of Phil Sheegl is the inevitable conclusion of the question of where are city officials parking now.

It is hard to believe that no one considered it. Or more likely they didn't care or figured it would not be important enough for people to care. How anyone thought parking permanently at a loading dock made good business sense, political sense or safety sense is beyond me.

I am sure the reaction from the top official is suck a lemon.

There are 450 parking spaces no longer in place for City Hall campus. If Joe or Jane Citizen need to do business with civic officials, they are fresh out of luck for spots close by. It isn't good enough telling people to use public transit. One day we might have that type of public transportation system but that day isn't here yet.

It is highly likely that if the Public Safety Building and Civic Parkade come down that we will see at least a $50 million structure.

The Tecumseh Parkade completed in 2009 cost $40 million at Health Science Centre.

Tecumseh Parkade at HSC

You can bet that we won't hear this bitter pill till after the next city election. However, a decision will have to made when people here it costs hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions to keep the decaying ruins of these buildings up.

Bud Light Swear Jar

Something for Superbowl Sunday.

Sir John Franklin Bus Loop

Sir John Franklin Bus Loop

The Number 12 Fire Hall on Grosvenor Avenue is relocated but the land continues to cause controversy. The land for the fire hall and the bus loop that wraps around it was acquired in 1955 from Sir John Franklin Community Club for $1. The club has since merged with two other clubs to form the Central Corydon Community Club.

At the time of the fire hall Shindico fiasco a number of parties indicated they might be interested in the fire hall if they had known it was on the market. The club indicated they wanted to make the field regulation size for soccer which meant getting that property back.

By all accounts, Sir John Franklin should have the first crack at it but they should have a good plan in place if they want to acquire the land. After all, the city use for it has not yet ended. It is still the only place to turn around buses on Grosvenor Avenue.

Over the decades Sir John Frankin has had three locations. The first was at the old elementary school in 1922. By 1940, they had moved to Wellington Crescent and in 1955, they moved to their present location. At no time was the soccer field adjacent to the bus loop ever regulation size. It hardly seemed to matter since the pitch was used by children.

In any event, there were a few other fields used over the years. The soccer pitches at the Kapyong Barracks were regulation size, a soccer field was used through the 1970s in the green space at Park Boulevard till Tuxedo residents chased it away and Joe Malone Park was an old stand by although it is unclear if the community club ever was in possession of that land or whether the city just let the club book soccer and tennis there.

As mentioned, a spokesman for the club said Sir John Franklin would like to get the land back to fulfill a plan to make the soccer pitch regulation size. I have not seen that plan nor why the club feels it needs the land to go ahead with it.

On January 23, River Heights City Councillor John Orlikow presented the second plan for relocating the bus loop. The first plan for putting the loop in front of Westworth Church seems to have no gained any momentum.

This second plan involves extending the bus route down Grosvenor past Westworth Church and crossing the old rail line between the new condo development and making a right turn onto Lockwood Street and then a left turn onto Tuxedo Avenue and heading towards the Rady Jewish Centre and turning around at the loop at Edgeland Boulevard.

The extension is to take another six minutes passing through the bus only passage between the condos and past Carpathia School on Lockwood and dropping passengers off at a transfer point at Kenaston and then past the Rady Centre to the bus loop at Edgeland.

Grosvenor past Westworth Church

Squeeze past the condos to Lockwood

Six minutes sounds hard to believe knowing what I know about the route.

Travelling west down Tuxedo at Kenaston is a blink and you miss it traffic light. It already can get crowded there and cause you to wait for a few light cycles to get through. Only two cars usually get through and often it is so narrow that two cars barely squeeze beside one another.

Throw a bus into the works that picks up and drops passengers means the light will have to be longer. There is no way a bus can accelerate fast enough before the signal changes.

Heading past down Tuxedo east past Kenaston is busier and although the light is longer and cars and buses often take a few light cycles to get through.

Tuxedo and Kenaston

From Tuxedo and Kenaston, the proposed route is to the Edgeland Boulevard bus loop.

Edgeland Blvd Bus Loop

I'm not sure what the demand for this extension would be as it goes through a low density area of River Heights.

The much better solution might be to leave well enough alone, keep the old bus loop and sell the fire hall to someone who can use it in keeping with the neighbourhood.

However, IF Sir John Franklin requires the section, the bus route should go down an extension of the gravel road between the Burlington Northern tracks to Corydon, past commercial areas, past higher density housing and condos and through the much better intersection of Corydon and Kenaston, to Edgeland, past Manitoba Housing to Tuxedo, down Tuxedo to to Kenaston and back down Kenaston to Corydon.

 What road up to between Grosvenor and Corydon am I talking about?

This road:

Looking north from Corydon on road between tracks

Looking south from Grosvenor on road between tracks

These rail tracks are used infrequently. How infrequently? Well, there are no crossing barriers on most of the streets the rail passes by.

How difficult would be to run a bus down the center?

And if not here, why not an extension down Sir John Franklin Road?

Or here?

Green Space from Grosvenor to Corydon

Green space from Corydon to Grosenor

I think the point is that there might be some better high density pathways for the bus to extend across Kenaston.

Is anyone even considering these ideas?

Beau Hajavitch Webcam 3 - Bags From 1970s Downtown Winnipeg Record Stores

Quite a few record stores listed here.

Does anyone have the full list?

I used to work at A&A Records Madison Square  in the 1980s. It was one of the larger stores in town.

Sears in Winnipeg to Close?

Sears Winnipeg in 2003 after $16 million Renovation

The rumours have been flying so much in the last weeks but there may be something to it. Sears many be looking to sell off the lease on their Polo Park location.

Sears department stores have been in free fall for a few years now. They had an absolutely terrible Christmas and Target is opening stores across Canada in only a couple of more months.

Manitoba doesn't figure too large in the grand scheme of things for Sears. There are only four department stores in the province all within Winnipeg. The company also runs Sears Home and Sears Hometown stores and have numerous catalogue pick up locations.

It is a pretty light covering of Manitoba compared to rivals such as Walmart and now Target.

By all accounts Sears Polo Park is a flagship store. It has done very well for Sears over the years. I have not see store breakdowns from this December but I suspect it has been a challenge this year compared to the glory years of past. However, this store was only just renovated in 2003 for $16 million. Can it still be successful in years to come?

Sears has already closed locations in Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa to allow for the opening of Canada's first Nordstrom stores. These lease buy backs netted Sears $170 million.

The head office of Sears has indicated they are prepared to close even more stores, particularly under performing ones. But what about ones that perform well?

There have been whispers about Nordstrom's coming to Winnipeg. One store's downfall can be another's opportunity. Look at Woolco's sale to Walmart for that in 1994 and Zellers closing to make way for Target in 2012 and 2013. Could Sears be next?

To be frank, the only Sears location in a mall Nortstrom's might be interested in would be Polo Park. The store there is between 250,000 and 300,000 feet and anchors the largest and most profitable mall in Manitoba

Sears has already indicated they are struggling with apparel and home decor but do well with "hero" categories of appliances, mattresses and baby goods. Is this enough for them to hang on to such a large location in Polo Park? Probably not.

A better strategy might be to retreat from the mall and use the money to build on the Sears Home brand in Manitoba. The company already has a location close to Polo Park. They could stand to have more in the city and the province.

Polo Park owner already has a 97,000 square feet of space to fill with Zellers closing. The mall is already in a knock down drag out battle for U.S. retailers with St. Vital Centre and Cadillac Fairview, owner of Polo Park, might be looking to grab Sears space as well.

The retail landscape is changing quickly and Sears is struggling badly. They still have some options compared to Zellers laying down and dying. The time to execute those option is quickly coming.

Perhaps we really will hear that the rumours of Sears at Polo Park is closing are true.

The Cityplace Casino

CityPlace with MTS Centre at Right.

CityPlace with Walkway to MTS Centre. Photo by Bryan Scott.

CityPlace

CityPlace was Winnipeg's first downtown mall built in 1979. It emerged from the ashes of the closure of Eaton's catalogue division in 1977 and initially was called Eaton Place.

It would be wrong to say it was not a success at the start. It was. The mall and office portion of the building were a going concern and Eaton's beside it did well.

The opening of several more malls all in a matter of years including Portage Place had an impact on shopping everywhere. However, the writing was on the wall and with the movement of multiplex movie theatres to the suburbs, the younger crowd that inhabited the mall left as well.

In 2001, Eaton's closed for good and it is a wonder we didn't see Eaton Place go as well. However, the newly re-branded Cityplace had the income from its offices to sustain it as well as generous revenue from the parkade and parking lots. The building has increased in value in every decade since it has been open unlike Portage Place.

The mall is a shadow of itself now. The connection to the MTS Centre built in 2004 did not help the mall in a meaningful way other than ensure that the restaurants still had people to come to them. The extended walkway in 2010 also helped in that regard as people from the Winnipeg Convention Centre came over to use restaurants.

The mall continued to serve a very niche local business area but it was not a destination mall nor did it have a huge retail anchor. The prospects for Cityplace all changed when the Winnipeg Jets returned last year.

While the Manitoba Moose were appreciated, they drew a smaller crowd, more of a family crowd and one with a more limited budget.

The arrival of the Jets and some rushed renovations to upgrade from True North drew a commitment from the province of Manitoba for further investment in the MTS Centre in the form of video lottery terminals. At present, those VLTs are in the Tavern United across the street with revenue going to pay off the arena.

Public support from the city and the province will rise to $11 million a year with all the revenue from tax discounts and VLTs added in. I don't know the economics of this. I have to suspect that the province makes a lot of money back on sales tax for liquor and merchandise sales, food and for parking. The city has fewer revenue streams but if the property values around the MTS Centre have risen, it may be worth the investment.

The fact that Longboat and Artis are building a large complex across from the MTS Centre indicates that the investment in MTS Centre is paying off. By my reckoning, the increased tax from off site might well make up for the discount the arena gets. However, I am not a accountant so I can only guess. It would be nice if someone actually did an economic impact study of the subsidy and how it affects government and business for Winnipeg and the province.

Back to the casino though...

I have long advocated a return of a casino to the downtown. I had said it would be a great way to get the Winnipeg Convention Centre the expansion they wanted. In the end though, the three levels of government stepped up and work is being down now.

All that was left was to fulfill the promise the NDP government made to True North about more VLTS to pay for improvements to the arena. The rumour had been that a sports bar was coming and the talk was the Shark Club, a sports chain in every western province except Winnipeg. But wait, we have a Shark Club. Doh, wrong club!

Like the problems we faced with Calgary's Cowboys coming to town, someone has registered and is using the Shark Club name on Lombard. If the Shark Club wanted to come here and use their name, they would likely have to make a deal with the Winnipeg club using the name these last years. Ask the The Brick how they feel that worked out for them when they sued Brick's Fine Furniture.

We finally know some of the details about what the province is planning. We are not just going to see the Tavern United's VLTs combined with new VLTs in a new restaurant. We are going to see a full restaurant and casino with 140 slot machines, 2 poker tables and 4 blackjack tables.

Holy big difference from VLTs, batman!

Some local bloggers have indicated there are a strong gains that can be made to the facility that holds a casino. We can expect this is going to trigger a property value increase as well as help elevate the value of all surrounding property in 2013 and beyond.

Some of the negative comments from bloggers and people posting to Free Press and CBC pages is in regards to gambling.

No argument there. Still, prohibition comes with ill effects too.

Would eliminating gambling and drinking cause more crime than regulating and taxing said vices? I think there is strong evidence to support that it does.

The provinces online gambling site is now love today. I think that might have a bigger impact than the casino.

As more details come available, we will see what the name will be, what the look will be and how the casino will be in relationship to the MTS Centre.

My view is that there is more good in this decision than bad. It will be interesting if in later years what the Jet Effect will actually be.

New Neighbourhood For Charleswood

Charleswood Forest Area - 23 Homes

The City's Favoured Option

Presently Forest and Dumping Ground

Charleswood is a strange neighbourhood with developed and undeveloped land scattered throughout. Some areas are sometimes reserved for future roads such as the lands along Haney Street. Other land is awkwardly situated or awaits a unique infill proposal or neighbourhood plan.

In and around Varsity View Community Club, many houses were constructed from around 1997 and for about ten plus years after into new subdivision Bloomer Crescent. Prior to building, the land was brush and fingers of forest extending into Charleswood.

While many deer roam the area, the land was and has been a dumping ground of trash. Walk down any one of the trails in and find an old sofa or lumber just strewn about. The dirty little secret of the brush areas in Charleswood is that they are often not just pristine forests and meadows but potential places to step on a nail.

At some point in a very dry season, we are going to lose a large section of forest and possibly homes as they fall to fire. The Assiniboine Forest was badly ravaged by a wind storm about five or six years ago. There is quite a lot of deadfall and leaves and the fingers extend into several neighbourhoods.  It is a disaster waiting to happen.

Now this doesn't mean we should pave the whole thing as a safety measure. However, it doesn't mean that every stand of trees needs to be a park.

Charleswood has always been a bit of a different bird with ditches and a lack of concrete roads. However, in recent years, there has been a move to improve older housing stock and to infill where possible. The density has increased incrementally.

For those drivers commuting down Laxdal Road between Roblin and Grant, there has been some new developments. A very tiny bungalow near Varsity View Community Club was torn down. There are still many 1940s and 1950s houses scattered around the neighbourhood, some with no basements and with little prospect save for developing the land. It is hard to believe that some of them are even still standing.

Laxdal Road, knocked down and ready for a house

It is the rare occasion that you see something salvageable from some of these houses as many didn't even seem built to a particular code. One house on Elmhurst was lovingly restored but it was a long process and appeared driven by passion of the work rather than sound economics.

However, back to Laxdal Road...it is a very well used street for a variety of reasons. The corner of Laxdal and Grant has a traffic light and is home to Royal Elementary School, Charleswood Shopping Centre, a bus park and ride and a number of daycares. It is a busy place and drivers use it to move from Roblin to Grant and vice versa.

In addition to the tiny bungalow knocked down this past summer, we have seen a zoning sign go up on the west side of Laxdal between Parkin and Grant. It has already been vandalized so it might not be clear what is going up. I am here to report it is 23 or 24 homes between Bramble Drive and Laxdal Road.

From the air it looks like this:

Scrub forest between Bramble and Laxdal

I have walked through these woods many a time and emerged at Geraldine off of Bramble. The houses on Bramble were built all through the 1980s.

At some point, it was probably planned for houses in the area between as Geradine dead ends right at the forest.

City officials have okayed one of the plans presented by the developer. It is for two roads accessing the some infill development. Geraldine Drive would pass from Bramble to Laxdal Road giving fire and emergency vehicles two points of entry and exit.

Now, I am in favour of the development. I see no reason to preserve this particular isolated area of forest. It has been a dumping ground for decades, the trails are not particularly noteworthy and it is not connected to Assiniboine Forest save for the deer who roam the streets around Varsity View taking particular delight in gardens.

To be frank, we have enough on our hands preserving the bulk of Assiniboine Forest. It is 287 acres of mainly aspen trees with various extension of wood and brush beyond that. There are few places anywhere in the world that have incorporated an urban forest in their city.

The city is not losing precious green space approving this deal. It is gaining density (albeit just a little bit with bungalows) and a new tax base from land that sat fallow.

Royal School's future is more solid with families choosing to live nearby. The bus route on Grant will be better used with students using it to travel to nearby junior and high schools.

It is a good use of the land.

I have no idea what the houses will look like. Suffice to say that it is difficult to find character homes without a lot of money having to be spent. Let's hope they are attractive in their own way due to the people living in them.

My only concern will be traffic. My personal view is that if Geraldine goes through from Laxdal to Bramble that many people will use Laxdal as an entry and exit route to the homes beyond Bramble.

Why? Well, the reason is the traffic lights. It is easier to turn at the lights than it is at Bramble where a bus might be in the curb lane near the school or a car is tailgating you. I see driver's making the choice to just turn on the street with the light.

The city may have to deal with  a lot more traffic on the street and a line up of cars turning left onto Geraldine.

Still, this is not enough to say no to this deal. I say go ahead with it but remember to follow up with the driver habits that may follow.

An Unexpected Briefing #airnzhobbit

Air New Zealand to Middle Earth

Tow, Tow and Keep Towing

Towed in Winnipeg

I have been towed once. I went to Manitoba Theatre Centre to a play and missed signs up indicating they would be removing snow banks. It was a little upsetting as I didn't see the signs and thought that any clearing would take place after 11 in any event.

Lesson learned. Whenever I park for something like the theatre now, I usually look for a parkade or check for signs.

Winnipeggers got a free pass for the winter storm earlier this year. The new system was still getting into place. There was confusion about zones, about garbage pick-up and about everything it seems. People were told there would be no similar latitude given for a future snow. Afterall, there is some personal responsibility to try and find out when streets will be cleared around you.

There still seems to be confusion on putting garbage out in the bins on assigned days that may also be plowing days. The city needs to sort that out. However, it is a separate issue from parking.

Let's be clear: If it is three or four days since the storm and your car is still piled high with snow and not been moved, don't act shocked if it is hauled off to the impound.

And let's face it, there are cars all over town like that. They are snow covered and parked on every street. Drifts are around them as their owners probably lie on a beach in Mexico somewhere.

It is time these thoughtful citizens came back home and found out their cars are no longer there. The tickets should be coming out fast and furious and the cars towed off to an impound. Act like a dick and pay a couple of hundred dollars for it.

There are so many drivers who get off scot-free for making the roads a mess. It is said that 800 cars got towed in a 24 hour period. We need to do even better than that for people who think they got away with parking this time around. Even now, I see cars piled with snow, no ticket and no tow.

The lack of courtesy, the awful state of curb lanes and reduced parking will only be dealt with by a severe penalty for lack of compliance.

I'm sorry if you got towed in the last days. Did you not think it was even a possibility when you left your car out?

Take responsibility people.

New Stores and Restaurants

7/Eleven and Little Caesar's to be Joined by Five Guys

Original Joe's to Unicity

Five Guys Burger and Fries has built in the east of the city and the south of the city. Well, St. James...you are about to get your big burger joint for your own. Located at Rouge and Portage, it next door to D-Jay's which recently got the squeeze in its parking lot by a landlord next door. A McDonald's is almost directly across the street as well.

I think in this neck of the woods, there will be no limit to your burger choices.

My recollection is that there used to be a Japan Camera location at this corner and maybe a Presto Pizza. In the last years, Japan Camera has retreated from the market of Manitoba. Likewise, Presto Pizza might be one of the casualties of the Pizza Wars as they are no longer in the western part of the city after abandoning Charleswood and St. James.

Another new arrival to St. James is Original Joe's. They will be located in Unicity adjacent to a Domo gas station. It would appear that Original Joe's, a western based restaurant chain has found success in the old Grapes location on Kenaston and is ready to expand to Portage Avenue.

As for the menu of Original Joe's, it is a mix of burgers, chicken finger, poutine and the like. More for adults who want a drink and after work or sport social occasion. I don't know if kids are not allowed but word is that some places like this and Earl's are not the place to bring them. Heard Hooter's has high chairs though.

It really looks like the secondary stores and restaurants are close to throwing there doors open. Bouclair's is probably ready soon although their signage is not up. Last week, worst kept secret that Dollarama will be next to Ikea was revealed. They sought approval for a sign on the fascia. They will be located next to Bouclair's.

Cabela's at the back of the site very much looks like the exterior is nearly done. Completion is expected within four month.

For those concerned that HMV was going to close, they had a very successful Christmas in Canada and now looked to to rescue troubled parents HMV UK which has gone into bankruptcy. It just goes to show that people still do like DVDs, music and accessories in a store front if priced and arranged properly. One wonders what might have happened if more successful Blockbuster Canada had taken over mismanaged Blockbuster USA.

Some have made the case that there is no business model for non digital rentals or purchases. Red Box has proved there is a business model for renting. However, I think Blockbuster blew it by not putting kiosks outside their stores. And by outside, I mean right outside their doors and every other location willing to host a machine. Not everyone wants to pay a subscription fee for Netflix if they don't watch more than two movies a month.

Harvey's Restaurant fight to take over the old Chicken Delight location at Stafford and Corydon has reached an ending. Council has approved the takeover by Harvey's. Site improvements are part of the deal.

The restaurant had been on site since 1981 but the rules on drive thrus changed after it was open which prevented any others from opening. The location could be used for the same use but only if it was done within one year of closure. That deadline passed by two months.

There may have been some trickery to prevent a seller and buyer from meeting.

I don't like trickery and it appears council felt there might have been some of that happening. The deal was approved despite opposition from civil servants.

I didn't want to see a repeat of what happened across the street when a gas station closed and the old building remained there for YEARS. Nothing was developed there for a long time. More than a year empty was long enough for the Chicken Delight building.

Corydon in recent years has received a lot of pushback from residents about business on the street,. It remains to be seen if a Harvey's will be a good neighbour. I think an empty lot with decaying building is a worse neighbour.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Original Joe's is opening opposite St. Vital Shopping Centre. The Wendy's is up and running in the same area opposite the mall.

Edit: Updated on Council vote today on Harvey's.