A core concern A series exploring downtown Winnipeg
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/12/2022 (727 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
As part of an ongoing series, the Free Press is turning its focus to Winnipeg’s downtown area, exploring the state of the city’s core, and what can be done to improve it.
Once more into the downtown
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In the opening decades of the 20th century, optimism for the bustling Portage strip, and the blocks lined up neatly around it, was overflowing. The City of Winnipeg was growing, booming with new European settlers and new business, signs of the wealth being extracted from the land in a young colonial country, and the promises of more wealth to come.
It will take more than office workers' return to get downtown back on its feet
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The plastic is still on the newly purchased couch.
Too many U of W and RRC Polytech students are still fleeing the inner city as soon as classes end
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There are no traces of the University of Manitoba’s downtown campus, a collection of science and arts buildings that once stood where manicured grounds now host family picnics — and, during the winter months, piles of snow — on Memorial Boulevard.
An artist thrives in a precious, temporary gallery space in the increasingly unaffordable art heart of the city
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Jedrick Thorassie sits cross-legged on 123-year-old floorboards, surrounded by paintbrushes, finished works, and dozens upon dozens of sketchbooks, each page filled with the pictures he’s seen and the ones he’s created.
Inner city has lowest housing stock, increasing pressure to help homeless
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Brian Pincott lives in a home on Spence Street. He loves downtown Winnipeg — he was a city councillor in Calgary for a decade before moving here three and a half years ago and was immediately struck by what he calls some of the best “urban bones” in the country.
Scouting for a younger Jets fan
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There was a time when a seat at a Winnipeg Jets game may have rivalled any night out at a pub or bar for some of the city’s younger fans.
Amid a toxic drug crisis, Winnipeg and Hamilton go in starkly different directions
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In Hamilton, there's a pair of supervised consumption sites in operation, with a third on its way. In Winnipeg, there's a patchwork approach to harm reduction as advocates try, at the very least, to make it safer for users on the streets.
Hosting services of many faiths, Knox United quietly models what downtown can be
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It’s the last Sunday before Christmas, and though the weather outside is bitter, the inside of Knox United Church is almost a little too warm. Mostly, that’s the fault of the building’s overzealous old radiators, which minister Lesley Harrison jokes have a mind of their own; but also, it’s that the church is filling up with the global village of faithful who make it their home.
Greening the concrete jungle, in Winnipeg and Edmonton
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In the leafy shade of Edmonton’s living-cities victories, Winnipeg advocates see hope for easing the grey expanse of 150 downtown surface lots to an urban oasis
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History
Updated on Sunday, January 1, 2023 3:03 PM CST: Adds link to Knox United story
Updated on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 6:43 AM CST: Adds link to concrete jungle story
Updated on Wednesday, January 4, 2023 12:40 PM CST: Rearranges stories