RE: North Portage
I wasn't around in the good old days (1970s) when that side of Portage had a Porn Theatre and several broken down buildings to be replaced by Portage Place, but apparently, it wasn't much to look at.
As my father explained to me.. "On the Eatons and Bay side, you had dignified old ladies wearing fur coats shopping, and on the other side of the street where Portage Place, Investors Group, and the Air Canada Buildings are you had Bladerunner. That's why those buildings are there."
The 'Portage Village Inn' formerly 'Clarendon hotel' (1903:
http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/clarendonhotel.shtml) -> later A&B Sound -> later Alt Hotel was one of the most famous drug dens in the city.
There is no point in pining for some lost magical neighbourhood that never existed.
