Winnipeg's Exchange District | East/West | Development

[drew]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Awesome.

I agree, James is a bit wide in its current form. However, that will allow for generous sidewalks. I can't wait until something happens with it.

With the pump house hopefully getting redeveloped, a new "urbanish" parkade, plus reducing the street width with new benches, trees, etc. That stretch of James would be completely transformed from its current "Burnell Street-esque abandoned post-industrial chic" into something much nicer.

[steveosnyder]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

http://www.winnipeg.ca/PublicWorks/M...-28-BOARDS.pdf

Open house for next phase of streetscaping.

So they are keeping Lily 40 feet of automobile lane width, that's a good decision for pedestrian friendliness. The only reason to keep it somewhat wide is the buses turning off Pacific onto Lily.

[steveosnyder]

Originally Posted by drew

With the pump house hopefully getting redeveloped, a new "urbanish" parkade, plus reducing the street width with new benches, trees, etc. That stretch of James would be completely transformed from its current "Burnell Street-esque abandoned post-industrial chic" into something much nicer.

I think I've asked this before here, what is the building connected to the Warehouse Theatre? It has 5 or 6 garage doors and a 0-grade curb along James... Will they have to accommodate those garage doors with any change they make to the north side of James?

[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by steveosnyder

So they are keeping Lily 40 feet of automobile lane width, that's a good decision for pedestrian friendliness. The only reason to keep it somewhat wide is the buses turning off Pacific onto Lily.

Lily is the main route of travel through the area. There will be 2 - 3.75m travel lanes. The others are parking. There's bump outs at the intersection to limit the road to just the travelled lanes, to help make pedestrians cross the shortest possible distance. There's also a raised crosswalk at Lily and James. I don't know if Lily should be converted into a narrow pedestrian roadway. All the other streets I would be totally fine with that.

I think that's a pretty good plan though. Basically there will be two traveled lanes on every road in the exchange, with parking on one or both sides. The streets other than Lily have a 3.5m lane width. There's bump outs at most, if not all, intersections. Besides removing roads or reducing down to one lane, there's not a heck of a lot that could be different. Or go with a John Hirsch type roadway/pedestrian walk. There's no curbs from what I can tell.

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by steveosnyder

I think I've asked this before here, what is the building connected to the Warehouse Theatre? It has 5 or 6 garage doors and a 0-grade curb along James... Will they have to accommodate those garage doors with any change they make to the north side of James?

Mtcw building has a shop at the back of its stage with big doors at each end the other building beside it does not touch u can walk between them actualy and is some sorta province or civic building prolly left over from the steam plant days

[Urban recluse]

Originally Posted by drew

With the pump house hopefully getting redeveloped, a new "urbanish" parkade, plus reducing the street width with new benches, trees, etc. That stretch of James would be completely transformed from its current "Burnell Street-esque abandoned post-industrial chic" into something much nicer.

All of these streets within a few blocks of each other need a lot more trees, and landscaping to make the area feel residential, as opposed to what you described, which is very accurate.

[steveosnyder]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Lily is the main route of travel through the area. There will be 2 - 3.75m travel lanes. The others are parking. There's bump outs at the intersection to limit the road to just the travelled lanes, to help make pedestrians cross the shortest possible distance. There's also a raised crosswalk at Lily and James. I don't know if Lily should be converted into a narrow pedestrian roadway. All the other streets I would be totally fine with that.

I think that's a pretty good plan though. Basically there will be two traveled lanes on every road in the exchange, with parking on one or both sides. The streets other than Lily have a 3.5m lane width. There's bump outs at most, if not all, intersections. Besides removing roads or reducing down to one lane, there's not a heck of a lot that could be different. Or go with a John Hirsch type roadway/pedestrian walk. There's no curbs from what I can tell.

Do you think Lily requires a lane width that's greater than Pembina? 3.75 meters is crazy wide -- if I remember right that's the same width as the lanes for the proposed Chief Peguis Trail extension. You don't need 3.75 meters of lane to operate a vehicle safely at 50, and even if you did, you don't have to drive down this street at 50, it's 400 meters long, the difference between driving 50 km/h and 30 km/h is less than 20 seconds. If we make the environment a place where people will naturally drive less than 50 km/h people wouldn't even notice they were driving slow.

[bomberjet]

No I don't haha. Just saying it's the main access for the whole area is all. Maybe they have it wider for the trucks coming and going from the various theatres and the museum? I'm not sure. But yes, 3.50m- 3.70m is a typical lane width.

[oftheMoon]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

No I don't haha. Just saying it's the main access for the whole area is all. Maybe they have it wider for the trucks coming and going from the various theatres and the museum? I'm not sure. But yes, 3.50m- 3.70m is a typical lane width.

Winnipeg Transit buses loop around using Lily so not sure if that has anything to do with it.

Having said that, the entire East Exchange benefits from any traffic calming. I dislike how Waterfront becomes a main rushhour access road also. I'd like to see that somehow change especially considering it's proximity to Main St.

Same applies on the west side with King and Princess.

[buzzg]

Overall I think this is a great plan an looks like it'll fit the area well, and I'm excited for it. A few complaints though, haha:

- Like I guess it's good that they're going to be fixing up John Hirsch again, but at the same time, what is the point? If this came along with a real plan to engage building owners to properly use the street, instead of it being a fancy back lane/parking lot/dumpster zone, I'd be so on board. As I've said before, Boon Burger should have a patio back there, not cars... and hopefully any future development of those parking lots requires some focus to usability of JHP. If nothing is being done to encourage better use, it's going to fail again.

- I'm really shocked at the complete lack of bike lanes on any of these streets, especially on Lily, since it's the main route through that area. I just don't get it.

[TimeFadesAway]

Originally Posted by steveosnyder

I think I've asked this before here, what is the building connected to the Warehouse Theatre? It has 5 or 6 garage doors and a 0-grade curb along James... Will they have to accommodate those garage doors with any change they make to the north side of James?

I think it originally was a Public Works building of some kind. I've peeked in the windows recently and it looks like it's just being used as storage for the Manitoba Museum now. It dates back to the early days of the Disraeli project, when traffic coming down Main was routed east down James and Lilly was pushed past Pacific to meet James and carry the traffic towards Disraeli. A residential terrace would have been bisected, so was removed and replaced with this building. The whole area was re-engineered again with the coming of the Centennial project at the end of the 60s.

[TimeFadesAway]

Originally Posted by drew

That stretch of James would be completely transformed from its current "Burnell Street-esque abandoned post-industrial chic" into something much nicer.

This is the funniest thing I've read all week.

[esquire]

^ It tickled my funny bone as well

[biguc]

Originally Posted by buzzg

- I'm really shocked at the complete lack of bike lanes on any of these streets, especially on Lily, since it's the main route through that area. I just don't get it.

Indeed. Pacific should also get fitted out with nice bike lanes since it could serve as a bike-access route to the Exchange from NW Winnipeg.

[bomberjet]

I'll bet if someone asked the city about the bike lanes, they'd say there's no room. After the travel lanes, parking, sidewalks. They'd say no room. But I guess it's whatever the priority is. Seems cars are ranked highest.

[esquire]

The wave of good news continues... our pal Murray McN tells us how Bedford Investments is finally filling its spaces on King Street with Chosabi being among the latest batch of tenants

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bus...365613481.html

[Urban recluse]

A friend suggested converting long-vacant space in Bedford building to residential; Bedford's response was "Or you could buy your own building and build apartments, if that is what you want to see in the Exchange."

Very classy.

[Labroco]

Originally Posted by Urban recluse

A friend suggested converting long-vacant space in Bedford building to residential; Bedford's response was "Or you could buy your own building and build apartments, if that is what you want to see in the Exchange."

Very classy.

Well your friend appears to be a little sensitive if it warrants the comment by you...

The cost of conversion is high and they may take the position to wait for a commercial Tennant is better for them. Many property owners take the position put your money where your mouth is.

It's very easy for people with no financial stake to tell others what to do.

Your friend should not be so indignant but rather purchase a little home in Point Douglas to renovate. With that experience they may become a little thicker skinned and have a more credible voice to add to the discussion on the urban revival in the core...

I hear there are grants for that.

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by Labroco

Well your friend appears to be a little sensitive if it warrants the comment by you...

The cost of conversion is high and they may take the position to wait for a commercial Tennant is better for them. Many property owners take the position put your money where your mouth is.

It's very easy for people with no financial stake to tell others what to do.

Your friend should not be so indignant but rather purchase a little home in Point Douglas to renovate. With that experience they may become a little thicker skinned and have a more credible voice to add to the discussion on the urban revival in the core...

I hear there are grants for that.

Good advice

[oftheMoon]

Not sure what hours they're keeping yet, but Forth coffee (aka Dogwood Coffee Co) at 171 McDermot is going through a soft opening over the last few days at least.