Selkrik ave. is a great example of how things should work, and how they don't in Winnipeg.
Those empty storefronts with cheap rent should be snapped up as cultural spaces--music venues, galleries--which would increase traffic and build demand for restaurants and maybe even shops.
But, by and large, for cultural spaces to make it, they have to be able to sell alcohol, either at a bar or at events. Manitoba's government, through the liquor commission, makes this prohibitively difficult and expensive. And their colonial attitude means they they would basically never allow alcohol sales--even if the money and qualifications were there--in the North End.
The result: few bother, culture stagnates, and the community dies.
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Originally Posted by esquire
I suppose that social breakdown is "culture" in much the same way that favelas generate plenty of authentic culture.
On the social supports thing, though... No matter where you live in this province you get access to health care, education, recreation and emergency services. Obviously the level of access to those things varies depending on whether you're in a city or a tiny isolated town, but the point is that no one has to fend for themselves. And the services are roughly on par with what one could expect across the country... it's not as though PEI or BC deliver 5 times more across the board than Manitoba does.
So if that's not enough... how much more is needed? How high is the price tag for enough social stability so that people can go down to The Forks on a national holiday without getting stabbed? A lot of people aren't interested in hanging around long enough to find out the answer, as we can see from provincial outmigration numbers.
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1. The current conservative government cut social spending. Things got worse. The answer to how much more is needed is obvious: more than what exists.
Is 1% higher PST worth it to make The Forks safe? Manitoba used to have that, and The Forks was safe.
2. "health care, education, recreation and emergency services" are not the breadth of social supports. Manitoba isn't BC or PEI. It has problems that BC and PEI don't. It needs solutions that BC and PEI don't.
3. Manitoba has these solutions, but their funding has been slashed. Those store-front social services you mentioned in Winnipeg's West and North Ends; they provide critical support to vulnerable people: addicts, the mentally ill, and the abused.
These organizations have diverse sources of funding, but the Cons cut the provincial component. These services have, therefore, lost staff and their ability to provide the solutions that vulnerable people in Winnipeg need. That breeds despair, and desperate people do desperate things--like steal catalytic converters and stab people.
4. You say "It's not like we all consciously opted for what is there now" but plenty of people consciously opted to move to the suburbs and elect a bad government. Plenty of people consciously opted to turn their backs on the North End and to not give a shit about what goes on there, past tutting at the news and locking their doors when they drive along north Main.
That you, a thoughtful and well-informed citizen with a distant connection to the community, don't know what goes on in those store-front social services speaks to the disconnect.
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