Winnipeg Construction X

[biguc]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Time zone wise. It depends on the tasks. If you can parcel something out and just say send me this back when you're done, time zones aren't as big an issue. If you need to be on the phone with people regularly, it becomes challenging.

We work with South Africa more than Australia due to time zones.

Yeah, I briefly did west coast Canada to Central Europe remote work this summer. I had to start work at 6AM to catch the last hour of their workday in case they needed something urgent. Then I had the rest of the day to figure shit out. It worked in that context, but wasn't great and would have been reasonable long term, with longer meetings involved. I have a friend in Berlin who does the reverse--his weekday evenings are never free and that's just to get a few hours overlap with his team.

Point is, I don't see anyone in India or Vietnam taking my jerb, even if they could do what I do.

Originally Posted by WestEndWander

Man, have you guys never heard of technology? Smartphones, tablets, laptops?

You can be out doing things not related to work and still be available. Somedays for people work consists of nothing but phone calls and emails, spread out throughout the day. Why would people sit in a room staring at a computer waiting for something to happen on those days?

You do realize people can organize their work day as they see fit, provided they are completing their assigned responsibilities, right? In the end if they are not doing an adequate job they will be relieved of their duties. Fairly straight forward.

This disdain shown on here by some for people and their jobs who no longer want to be, or need to be, tethered to a desk or computer for 8 straight hours is laughable.

Not your style, that is fine, move on. Don't rail against and belittle those who have the ability to effectively manage their work life without the traditional 8 hour day at a desk.

Yes, I use all of the above. I work exactly like you've described. But I get paid for the work I do, not on the assumption that I'm present 8 hours a day. And, see above. I'm speaking from experience about time zones. Laptops and smartphones don't magic away time itself.

I don't know you (like you don't know me) so there's no need to take anything I say so personally. I'm not talking about you.

So, for everyone who's really smug about pulling down a full-time salary for 10 hour weeks, watch out. The gig economy will take your jerb.

Your employers might be stupid, but nobody is so dumb they won't eventually realize that a freelancer can also do your 10 hours of work for 10 hours of pay. And if you aren't contributing any of the intangibles of being part of a team by actually being present with the team, they'll have no reason to keep you on the team.

Go to work. Forge connections. Share ideas. Make yourselves invaluable. Make sure that someone at least knows who you are.

Or spend all summer polishing your boat like Authentic_City's neighbour. It'll look great on kijiji when his unemployed ass has to sell it.

[Riverman]

I don't get the difference in time zones as making any difference. Has no one heard of shift work? If someone in India is employed to to work in Toronto then they work Toronto hours. Simple as that.

[bomberjet]

The people in India are employed to work in India. Sometimes if they're in service, such as IT, they'll work evening or overnight shift to adjust for time.

The people I work with in South Africa, or Australia, work normal day time hours for their location. Just like I work 8-5.

[(sub)urban]

Originally Posted by Riverman

I don't get the difference in time zones as making any difference. Has no one heard of shift work? If someone in India is employed to to work in Toronto then they work Toronto hours. Simple as that.

I mean I think this is how it works, generally speaking, if you work remotely for a company based out of X -- you operate under X time zone. A friend of mine recently started working for a Toronto start-up (remotely) and they work 9-5 EST (8-4 here, ofc).

I would think these weird examples cited by people here of people just working 9-5 locally no matter what, even with people across the world, has to do with businesses hiring separate contractors that technically work for another firm. Or at least this is how it works where I work currently.

Though many companies offer employees the option of 'flex time' even with regular in-office work like I know MB Hydro does this -- you can start your 8.5 hour day anytime between like 7am and 9am or something along those lines.

[cllew]

Originally Posted by Riverman

I don't get the difference in time zones as making any difference. Has no one heard of shift work? If someone in India is employed to to work in Toronto then they work Toronto hours. Simple as that.

I guess all the scammers I get calling me from offshore must be working the evening shift then.

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by cllew

I guess all the scammers I get calling me from offshore must be working the evening shift then.

Are you suggesting people calling from the "Bank of Europe" are scammers?

[BAKGUY]

So, back to the topic heading for this thread...
As Linda Richman would say.."I'll give you a topic to discuss"
More than one...10 at least

Any more news/details on the possible new office tower we heard of a few days ago?
Any more details about 285 Smith St residential project?
Any news on the empty lot for over 40 years @ 416 Main?
The Bradburn building expansion on Portage Ave?
The Boyd Building? Is the residential conversion happening or???
The Pantages Theatre> a couple purchased it from the City before covid, yet to hear a word on what is going on?
The near rotting St Charles Hotel? Ken Zaifman needs to be called out loud & hard for this...14 years done nothing but barest of minimums..hping it falls so a parking lot can happen. If u don't intend to follow through on you promises, to reno it, sell it to someone who actually wants it and will renovate it.
The Mclaren Hotel addition?
A re purpose of The Wawanesa 9 floor building on Broadway?
The Market Lands Development?
Alexander Docks eyesore?
The status of the Hampton Inn, former Charterhouse B Western Plus reno/addition?
Forget the rhetoric, will Sutton Place ever actually get built?The inflation issue does not help?
The Public Market Lands or whatever the name is in St B?
Any word on the progress @ The former Bank of Montreal Metis museum conversion?

[cllew]

The crane that was at the west side of Boyd Building was taken down a few weeks ago so I don't know if that is progress on the site or the crane company had a paying job they could move it to instead of waiting for work to restart

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by BAKGUY

So, back to the topic heading for this thread...
As Linda Richman would say.."I'll give you a topic to discuss"
More than one...10 at least

Any more news/details on the possible new office tower we heard of a few days ago?
Any more details about 285 Smith St residential project?
Any news on the empty lot for over 40 years @ 416 Main?
The Bradburn building expansion on Portage Ave?
The Boyd Building? Is the residential conversion happening or???
The Pantages Theatre> a couple purchased it from the City before covid, yet to hear a word on what is going on?
The near rotting St Charles Hotel? Ken Zaifman needs to be called out loud & hard for this...14 years done nothing but barest of minimums..hping it falls so a parking lot can happen. If u don't intend to follow through on you promises, to reno it, sell it to someone who actually wants it and will renovate it.
The Mclaren Hotel addition?
A re purpose of The Wawanesa 9 floor building on Broadway?
The Market Lands Development?
Alexander Docks eyesore?
The status of the Hampton Inn, former Charterhouse B Western Plus reno/addition?
Forget the rhetoric, will Sutton Place ever actually get built?The inflation issue does not help?
The Public Market Lands or whatever the name is in St B?
Any word on the progress @ The former Bank of Montreal Metis museum conversion?

Brilliant

[Biff]

I was down in Fargo for the first time in years and what they have done to their downtown is nothing short of incredible.

Now, I understand they are only 250K and their downtown is small compared to ours, but the sheer number of 4-6 storey multi-family apartment buildings that have gone up in and around the Broadway area make Winnipeg look like a ghost town. After driving around the area a bit I actually felt a little bit embarrassed for Winnipeg. They must have been 10 to 15 new buildings of the scale like on Waterfront Drive and Tache across the river in ST B.

It really made Broadway and it's side streets lively. I would love for Winnipeg to have even one street as nice as Broadway. Their new tallest is also a beautiful building.

There should be some kind of incentive program, tiff, tax break, fund per unit to have more of these surface lots targeted with these types of developments. I was just imagining south Main, Graham, Donald, Fort and Garry lined with these types of building. Likely in the 90-120 or so unit range. The program should have some basic type of parameters to outline the desired type of buildings.

In my most recent travels to Atlanta, Vancouver, Minneapolis, San Fran I notice this scale of buildings and the vibrant neighborhoods that came with them.

Build it and they will come.....

[Biff]

This is the type of stuff I am talking about

[Kris22]

^^Totally agree. I think most of us on this forum have arrived at the point where we would prefer a lively mid-rise urban environment than just the odd tall tower scattered around. I want a livable city and not just a skyline that looks nice on a postcard.

[WinCitySparky]

Originally Posted by Kris22

^^Totally agree. I think most of us on this forum have arrived at the point where we would prefer a lively mid-rise urban environment than just the odd tall tower scattered around. I want a livable city and not just a skyline that looks nice on a postcard.

Same

[trueviking]

Haven’t been to downtown Fargo in a while but I have lamented in the past that they have a downtown shopping street and we don’t.

Minneapolis is the same. Tons of buildings like that. Few towers. It makes great neighbourhoods.

Also. Please don’t post images like that. I opened it on my phone and thought those were new Winnipeg projects. Until I zoomed in and read your comment.

[trueviking]

Also. I couldn’t agree more with your post.

[esquire]

I haven't really visited Fargo (i.e. more than just driving through) in over a decade... I was aware that good things were happening there but I didn't realize the scale. I will have to check it out at some point.

[Winnipegger]

I don't think most people outside this forum realize just how much suburban growth in Winnipeg has sucked up most development in the last decade. Outside pandemic years, Winnipeg is growing much faster than Fargo obviously. Fargo grew by roughly 6,600 people between 2016 and 2021 (5.5%) whereas Winnipeg grew by 44,363 (6.3%) over the same period. What affects built form is obviously all about where these new (and existing) people went.

I don't know much about built form and urban structure in Fargo, but I do know that in Winnipeg, the vast majority of dwelling construction, and therefore population growth, has occurred in the Bridgwater area, followed by Sage Creek, Bonavista, Amber Trails, and River Park South. Below is a rough estimate of where the ~40,000 people who moved to Winnipeg between 2016 and 2020 went based on dwelling construction and Statistics Canada people-per-dwelling estimates. Of course I don't actually know with certainty where everyone went, and it could be that people moving to Winnipeg displaced people in existing areas who sold their homes to move to new areas, but it gives you an idea.

Map in spoiler due to image size.

The basic conclusion from this exercise is that suburban growth has vacuumed up nearly all growth in the last 5 years, with Bridgwater being the major concentration. If Bridgwater (and other suburban developments) were never approved or significantly scaled down for whatever reason, I'd imagine two things would happen: we'd see a lot more mid-rise developments in inner-city areas that everyone here is clamoring for, but at the same time it would be partially offset by exurban flight with people who want suburban dwellings opting to move to La Salle, Oak Bluff, Headingly, Niverville, and East/West Saint Paul.

The City is kind of in a tough spot IMO. Yes, you can incent denser development on surface parking lots and in inner-city neighborhoods, but municipal property tax breaks (the only incentive) likely don't change the development equation much since they only make up a tiny fraction of development costs. And if the City doesn't approve suburban development, people will just demand it be built in the outlying municipalities mentioned above who are more than happy to accommodate growth (for now) and commute to Winnipeg, putting pressure on city roads and services without the benefit on municipal taxes. Like it or not, people have preferences and prairie dwellers love big houses and yards, so even if policy tries to force denser development, the market may not support it and cause other negative spillover effects.

Food for thought!

[Jeff]

the development at Regal and St. Anne's has a great street front retail component. it gave me a glimmer of hope when i drove by yesterday. makes the stucco finish on the top portion more acceptable. those few blocks of St. Anne's between Fermor and St. Mary's have some potential.. as compared to ugly mess that is the rest of that street to the south.

[biguc]

New suburbs don't have to be auto-oriented sprawl. The whole SFH tract-housing thing isn't that typical on a global scale. In the US you get more exurban sprawl on unserviced land. In developing countries you get the same thing but the houses are shittier and closer together so they call them slums. In some places the city provides services with the idea that the new area will be more city, not auto-centric sprawl. The approach to these districts' construction varies, but they tend to follow transit provision and lack SFH zoning. In Winnipeg's case, we could still allow new greenfield SFHs without legally enshrining them in perpetuity. So, if someone wants to build a 3000sf house in Bridgwater and move their entire extended family in, they could. Later, they could convert it to MFH or rip it down and build new MFH.

[Biff]

I didn't want to turn this into how shitty suburbs are because Fargo is the poster child for far flung suburbs. The extent to which the city has expanded to the south west is crazy...and anyone who says the hate Winnipeg's "stroads" would return from a trip to Fargo thinking that our big roads were cart paths compared to the 6 lane monstrosities in SW Fargo.

My point was that with all of this massive suburban growth there, they some how managed to lure multi-family developers to their dilapidated downtown in droves...and they seeded an awesome downtown area.

Something someone from the city here should investigate.