Quote:
Originally Posted by Winnipegger
I get that downtown isn't in the same place as it was pre-COVID, and Winnipeg's downtown has struggled with poverty and homelessness. But I get the sense that people's expectations for downtown Winnipeg are closer to what they'd see in cities triple our size. I'm not saying improvements can't be made, they absolutely can. But let's be realistic and compare apples to apples. Almost North American cities, especially mid-sized ones, have their downtown struggling. Winnipeg isn't some statistical outlier in North America.
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I agree that our expectations are high and that we tend to compare ourselves to the larger Calgary, Minneapolis, Ottawa type places. Possibly because at one point our downtown delivered something that was roughly on par with those downtowns.
But if you shrink the cities you are comparing downtown Winnipeg to, the picture doesn't get any more flattering. I mean, I've been to Regina, Saskatoon, Halifax and Victoria this year and all four have downtowns that, even in their pandemic state, whoop downtown Winnipeg in most categories other than maybe office space square footage. The urban experience is arguably better in any of those four places, at least in terms of being able to walk down pleasant, clean, orderly streets, with shops, businesses and people throughout.
So whose downtown is Winnipeg still markedly better than? At this point I think you're getting down to places like Thunder Bay, Moncton, Nanaimo, Grand Forks...