BlogWinnipeg

I was startled to see how much time has gone by since my last post on BlogWinnipeg. But that’s what happens when you’re finishing a film project–spring turns to summer turns to fall, etc. etc. etc. There are so very many things to catch up with (for example, the billions of leaves left unraked in the yard) and this blog is one of them.

Still, I’m happy to report that BlogWinnipeg: The Movie is now a reality. We’re making plans for its upcoming broadcast on MTS’s Winnipeg on Demand (available to MTS TV subscribers) and will be announcing other public opportunities to see it.

The idea for this film project was to capture the essence of the conversation that Winnipeggers have about their city–that strange and wonderful love/hate thing we have going on. Have I succeeded? I guess that remains to be seen. But I sure had a good time doing it.

Thanks, all you bloggers out there, who inspired the premise for this film–I’ll keep you posted on its debut.

It’s been a while since I last posted. My project, BlogWinnipeg, has entered a new phase which is to bring together elements of this blog with a film that speaks to our passionate angst about this city. I’ve truly been inspired by the blogging community I have followed since starting this project, who make it a priority to offer ideas, prod consciences, rattle cages, ruffle feathers and otherwise vigorously debate the issues that confront the city of Winnipeg.

I also appreciate those comments I’ve received about this blog and my plans for fusing together the contexts of film and new media. That experiment is underway now, and I’m curious to see what the result will be. In a larger sense, the growth of a city is also an ongoing experiment, transforming itself through trial and error. Since its incorporation in 1873, Winnipeg has evolved through a series of human choices and urban imperatives, shaping the surfaces around us, molding the ground under our feet, privileging culture and art as a lens through which we see/imagine ourselves.

So while it used to be said that Winnipeg never changes, you only have to look at the old photographs and talk to the people who remember the “way back when.” They reveal a different story, that we are in the midst of a work in progress, not mired in a condition of dispiriting stasis. The citizen-driven urge for change is reconstructing aspects of our living space—maybe not as consistently or as quickly as we’d like, but there’s action and there’s the desire for more. I like to think the Winnipeg of memory is not being replaced, but restored, as we explore a new identity that still retains our essential character. Our Winnipeg-ness. The city we see projected in front of us, will be visible in the real. We will walk through it and marvel that we ever doubted the experiment at all.

What’s struck me recently is how much of the recent civic discussion about Winnipeg’s future has been articulated by younger city dwellers. Urbanists often remark that young people are highly mobile and well aware that they have options when it comes to choosing a place to work and live. They can get online and see what other urban centres have to offer, compare it to what’s available here and make a choice based on their personal liveability index. As we all know, it’s not unusual for young professionals to experience several cities as they move through formal education and follow career opportunities.

And yet there so many urgent voices coming from students and other young Winnipeggers–some of them newcomers–bringing a vital energy and curiosity to the debate about our city’s future. This is especially evident when you look at the online edition of The Uniter which defines itself as “Winnipeg’s weekly urban journal.” Reading the features, comments and blog posts, it’s impossible not to see just how deeply engaged the writers are with the urban questions that confront Winnipeg, and how much potential they have to shape the dialogue.

Their interests range from the influence of past decision-making on our city’s future (“Winnipeg as We Know It”), to urban development strategies (“Will it Really be Our Winnipeg?”) to a survey of the urban blogging landscape (“Winnipeg Blogs”). One feature, “Lost Winnipeg,” examines the history of civic decisions that have shaped our neighbourhoods—and I appreciate the author’s sharp, engaging blend of history and commentary in this four-part series.

Whether these young writers wind up staying in Winnipeg for the long term is up to them, of course. But right now, this community is fortunate to have their ideas and their commitment to participate in the urban culture. Let’s hope they stick around a while.

I’m thinking of a conversation I had some years ago with a friend whose grandparents lived in rural Manitoba just west of the city. Every now and again, they came into Winnipeg to do some shopping. They would invariably head downtown to the Bay or Eatons, because that’s what they were used to doing. That’s where people went in the “way back when”–downtown. But instead of driving their car downtown and trying to find a place to park, this couple would leave the car near the outskirts of the city and hop on the Portage Avenue bus. It took them about 20 minutes to get downtown. No need to contend with rush hour traffic, or one-way streets, no need to wrestle in and out of a parking lot or parkade. It was an early version of the park-and-ride approach to transportation in an urban area.

I thought of this story after reading posts on both Rise and Sprawl and Progressive Winnipeg, which tackle the whole question of parking downtown. Progressive Winnipeg remarks in a positively incendiary post: “How is it that Corydon Avenue is devoid of parkades yet enjoys the most pedestrian traffic of anywhere in Winnipeg? How is it that Osborne Village is devoid of parkades yet is full of busy businesses?” Rise and Sprawl also investigates the issue on the ground in a July 14th post, Phony Demand.

Once again, I find myself seriously impressed by the genuine voices of Winnipeg’s blogging community: the consideration of issues, the time taken to express an opinion, to do some research, to speak out in the most public forum available.

(I think this post comes under the category of “What Do We Change? What Do We Leave Alone?” which was one of the original questions on the list I posted on May 18.)

I started this project, BlogWinnipeg, because I was so interested in how blogging has become such a widely democratic way for people to share their passions and enthusiasms on very broad range of urban issues in Winnipeg. It’s obvious, of course, that our local civic concerns are universal concerns about how we are inhabiting this planet—how we use our resources, how we get around, what kind of world we want for future generations.

And throughout this project, I have been learning a lot from other bloggers, several of whom I have interviewed recently for the film that’s going to come out of the whole experiment. I have learned, for example, from Mr. Christian at his blog, This Was Winnipeg, that during the early 20th century’s population boom in western Canada, a person could use the Eaton’s mail order catalogue to order a house—more specifically, the design plans and specifications for a house of your choice.

Maybe you’re living in one of those Eaton’s houses right now that someone once ordered up from the catalogue. Turns out that designing our urban future is a little more complicated.

I also discovered an interesting photograph at the blog site Waverley West and Beyond, which shows a never-before-seen perspective of the Strathcona Hotel. Why is this important? Because the Strathcona was one of the locations for strike leader Helen Armstrong’s soup kitchen for women workers who walked off the job during the 1919 Strike in Winnipeg. It speaks to our tradition of remembering the defining moments in our city’s history.

And in a recent conversation with Laurel, Emma, and Aaron of Winnipeg O’ My Heart, I found out how wonderful it is when three newcomers look at what Winnipeg has to offer and find it a good place to live. I think the genuine interest in their blog is that those of us who grew up here also want to feel that way about the city.

Maybe it’s just that simple. We want to be excited about possibilities that have a real chance at realization. We want to be inspired by a civic vision that puts people first. We want a city that achieves its own extraordinary potential. And Winnipeg’s blogging community is speaking to this defining moment.

How we get around in the City of Winnipeg, in fact, how we travel anywhere, is a seriously hot topic right now. For another interesting perspective on local transit, I recommend checking out the Transit Riders Union blog which advocates the revival of the subway system design proposal by renowned civil engineer Norman D. Wilson for Winnipeg in 1959. I didn’t know that a subway system had ever been seriously entertained in Winnipeg, but somehow I’m not surprised. We know how to dream up big ideas.

In fact, the blogosphere is crackling with responses to a civic initiative called Speak Up Winnipeg.com which consists of a real-time dialogue between our city and its citizens on the very issues that have become part of our everyday conversation such as urban design, sustainability, arts and culture, and transportation. It’s fascinating to see the effort to build a consensus and establish what Winnipeggers want for their city and how to get us there.

The posts and comments on Speak Up Winnipeg.com seem to reflect a real hunger to achieve something extraordinary for this city. I particularly appreciate the information offered up on various posts which describes the urban progress of other cities, offering them as a model for our own future growth.

The point is, we are passionate about this place. That’s where it starts. And I like to believe the debate itself is what really matters, a sign of healthy engagement in our community. The challenge is that we’ve been doing this for many decades, and many plans, like Norman Wilson’s subway system, have come and gone without ever taking shape in the real world

Will it be different this time? Will we see a more dynamic, more accessible, more innovative city in the next 5, 10, 20 years? I’m hoping.

What do you think?

I am not in Winnipeg as I write today’s post. The last time I saw the city was from an airline window climbing to 30,000 feet. Below, there was the familiar sight of a flat plain and a cluster of buildings springing from it like a tuft of prairie grass. I have seen this sight many times, but particularly love the aerial view of Winnipeg at night, when I’m flying home—it makes me think of a glittering jewel set against a dark velvet cloth spread out below me. How’s that for romanticizing?

Thanks to Chris for his very interesting comments in recent days. Replying to my post, “Once Upon a Time in Winnipeg,” he notes that “the rise in street crime, the shifting values of property, and the suburbanization of society” make the idea of the five-minute walk to local amenities nearly unattainable. He also remarks that neighbourhoods may have originally developed that way because automobiles were scarce in the “way-back-when” (a phrase I love, by the way).

Perhaps because I was thinking about the idea of the five-minute-walk, I was particularly struck by a recent piece in the Globe and Mail (Saturday, June 2nd) by columnist Margaret Wente: “Object of Desire or Necessary Evil?” She talks to Toronto city dwellers who are deciding to live without cars, choosing instead to walk to work, or take the subway—“Maybe our love affair with cars is over,” she writes.

Is it possible, after all, that we may get back to the “Way-Back-When” in Winnipeg? Maybe if fossil fuel becomes as scarce in the future as automobiles were in the past, we may not have any choice.

In response to my earlier post, “City of Dreamers,” Chris also writes “This city was created by fur traders intent on being able to monopolize traffic on two major rivers, not by visionary dreamers…” I think there are several interesting ideas in this statement. Yes, it’s important to remember that fur trading with First Nations people, the original inhabitants of this place, created the conditions for commerce and settlement of the city of Winnipeg.

However, in the early years of the 20th century, a grand vision did emerge for Winnipeg, and you can see it clearly articulated in the old souvenir pamphlets. I ran across many of them at the City of Winnipeg Archives and, more recently, found one reproduced at the National Gallery’s online exhibition, “Canadian Souvenir View Albums.” The language is imbued with a sense of confidence in Winnipeg’s future, that it is a city destined for great things.

Many still want to believe in that destiny, albeit in an entirely different context. For evidence of this, all you need to do is visit “Winnipeg Dreams,” created by George Siamandas, which invites all of us to boldly consider what we want for the future of our city. His other fascinating blog is called “The Winnipeg Time Machine.” Here’s someone who also believes in the relationship between our history and our future.

Chris’s comment also inspires thought about the intersection of our two major rivers, the Red and Assiniboine—in the most essential way, these rivers are the reason the city even exists, even though they have threatened its existence on many occasions. The rivers are our constant connection to the natural world and the power it will always have over us. They keep us humble, while at the same time, building our resilience as a community.

So, onto another of those questions I asked in my first post: If Winnipeg is the “Heart of the Continent,” as the slogan tells us, then where is the heart of Winnipeg?

I propose that the heart of Winnipeg is the intersection of its two rivers.

What do you think?

Reply to this question by leaving a comment or posting a reply on your own blog!

Last week, I wrote about Winnipeg as a city of dreamers, imagining a place that genuinely reflects the energetic, vibrant, and creative community that we truly are.

However, we are also a city of pragmatists, renowned for our ability to find a bargain, stretch a dollar and make ends meet, all extremely useful qualities in the current economic climate.

Raised by a single parent, I learned that food was never to be wasted. That’s just the way it was. Leftovers were always creatively recycled, a habit I follow to this day. And as we did not have a family car until I was about 11 years old, it was normal for us to walk or take the bus anywhere we needed.

So I was very interested in a video item I ran across on Policy Frog called “What-if-everything-was-just-a-five-minute-walk?” Originally appearing on YouTube, this video describes an approach to city planning called “The New Urbanism.” I think this is fascinating, because the New Urbanism is a revival of traditional neighbourhood design or what I like to call “Once Upon a Time in Winnipeg.”

The kind of urban density that’s described, with essential amenities within a five minute walk or a hop on public transit, is what I grew up with and (now that I reflect upon it) took for granted. We had grocery stores, corner stores, a butcher shop, the local library, a neighborhood park and two elementary schools–and I could walk to all of them.

This goes to the heart of a question I’ve mentioned before: Can our history help shape our future? And once again, I suggest, the answer is, unquestionably, yes.

Presumably many neighbourhoods in Winnipeg were originally created with the five-minute walk approach to urban planning (including the residential neighbourhood that was once part and parcel of our downtown).

And perhaps this old/new urban strategy is worth pursuing as we consider what Winnipeg will look like in 25 or 50 years.

What do you think?

Reply to this question by leaving a comment or posting a reply on your own blog!

A rainy Monday seems the perfect time for a new post at BlogWinnipeg. It’s time I acknowledged the return of Doug Henning from the spirit world to remind us that Winnipeg, from his unique perspective, is a magical place. Thank you Doug. I believe this to be true. There is the city as it exists and there is the city of our imagining: many of us live in the space between the two. There is a kind of magic in that, it seems to me.

In fact, Winnipeg is filled with magicians, people who see a particular kind of city in their mind’s eye, and search for ways to conjure it into being. The city’s founders were the same, envisioning Winnipeg as a diamond in the rough, a jewel on the prairie that would one day sparkle and shine. Their optimism was boundless, and some of that vision remains with us today, even though for some, it’s become a tantalizing illusion that stays just out of reach.

What also remains, after more than a hundred years, is the sense of isolation that Mr. Christian refers to in his comment on my first post (he says “our isolation has been our saviour and our bane”). Yes, we are isolated–many have suggested that this is why we are also such a creative community. Left to ourselves, we are continually in the process of defining this place and how we want to live in it. That’s a purely creative act, if ever there was one.

And Laurel’s comment is fascinating too: she asks, “Is it common to look outside of Winnipeg to decode Winnipeg, or does the city tend to look inwards when trying to figure itself out?”

One way to answer this is to visit Average City and read the May 15th blog, “Regina Gets It” which discusses Regina’s new master plan to rejuvenate its downtown.

It seems clear that we do look to other cities for inspiration, that magic bullet for the issues we face here. But our own solutions still need to be developed in the context of our own evolving identity–how we see ourselves, regardless of what anyone else may think.

In the meantime, miraculous things do happen around here. Check out West End Dumplings for great photos of the abridged version of “Strike! The Musical” by Danny Schur, that played on Saturday, May 23rd in front of City Hall. History lives.

And this week, at Winnipeg O’ My Heart, an important question has been asked: What’s your favourite local? (The WO’MH-ers truly have an enchanted perspective on our town.)

In Winnipeg’s early days, a favourite local watering-hole was the Queen’s Hotel at Notre Dame and Portage Avenue, known as the “longest bar in the West.” it was the length of a city block, so the story goes. I don’t know if that’s a true story, but it’s a good one and, sometimes, that’s what really matters.

One final thing. In my last post, I asked a series of questions that came to mind, when I thought about Winnipeg. I’m going to have a go at one of them.

Question: Can our history help shape our future?

Answer: Absolutely. The dreamers who came up with the idea of a creating a city on a floodplain in the middle of nowhere should inspire us today-with a wave of the wand, we can make anything happen.

What do you think? Reply to this question by leaving a comment or posting a reply on your own blog!

Okay, so what is BlogWinnipeg?

BlogWinnipeg is a place to explore our passions about this city we love to hate, and want so much to love. It’s a place to ponder the question: what is it about Winnipeg anyway, that keeps us obsessing, keeps us guessing, makes us want to figure it out?

Consider this an invitation to contribute your own thoughts about why Winnipeg always manages to push our buttons, and why we keep coming back for more.

The other thing is, BlogWinnipeg is not just a blog, it’s going to be a movie. Yes, that’s right. We’ll actually be filming this blog from time to time, and sometimes creating audio recordings of the text you contribute.

We’ll put everything in a blender with scenes and images of the city, as well as some fantastic archival footage of our past. And we’ll invite people to talk to our camera: people who live here, people who left, and people who’ve just arrived.

I’ve got some questions to start the dialogue, and if you’re interested in becoming a guest blogger, let me know.

(We’re not looking for full-on rants. There are other places that you can go for that. But humour is absolutely welcome.)

So if you want to comment on this blog, it may become part of my movie. If you want to be interviewed on camera, then reply to this post. It’s an experiment, that’s what BlogWinnipeg is. Be part of it. I’ll go first.

Does Winnipeg have a mythology?

Can our history help shape our future?

Why are we so passionate about Winnipeg?

Winnipeg’s best-kept secrets–do you know one?

Why did you move here? Why did you leave?

Do you think newcomers feel welcome in Winnipeg?

If Winnipeg is the Heart of the Continent, then where is the heart of Winnipeg?

What should we change about the city? What should we leave alone?

What do you think Winnipeg will look like 50 years from now?

(All photographs on this site are provided courtesy of the City of Winnipeg Archives and Records Control Branch.)