Downtown safety involves much more than library By: Editorial Posted: 7:00 PM CST Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/12/2022 (734 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than a week after a fatal stabbing on the premises, the Millennium Library is beginning a phased reopening.

City officials said effective Friday morning, patrons will be able to pick up books they’ve placed on hold and return borrowed materials. When other library services will be available remains unknown.

The city also announced it is conducting a “comprehensive risk assessment and safety audit” and considering a permanent redesign of the lobby “that supports a controlled environment without the use of hostile architecture.”

How the amorphous idea of “safety” will be achieved in the longer term is unknown. Will we see a return to airport-style security scanners at the entrance? Will there be an increased presence of security guards during opening hours? A more frequent police presence?

At a bare minimum, the public needs to know when this essential downtown space will be fully reopened.

The public deserves to be kept apprised of what measures are being considered. At a bare minimum, the public needs to know when this essential downtown space will be fully reopened. The library’s extended closure creates a whole new set of safety concerns.

As temperatures plummet, those living unhoused in the city’s core have lost a free and accessible place to warm up. The library’s intended use isn’t as a shelter but, by virtue of its location, it has become an important resource for some of Winnipeg’s most vulnerable — a place to escape the cold, yes, but also a place to access computers, reading material and, since this summer, social supports.

Sadly, as has already been shown in this still-young winter, lack of accessible warming spaces can be deadly for those without shelter.

In an interview with the Free Press, Main Street Project executive director Jamil Mahmood challenged the city to step up. “Expecting not-for-profits and charities like ours to be the sole response in extreme weather is not a fair expectation, when the city has recreation centres, libraries, all these other places — they should all become warming centres in the extreme cold,” he said.

The city needs to decide soon on its plan for next-phase reopening. It’s unacceptable for a public amenity such as the Millennium Library to remain closed indefinitely.

Once the doors are reopened, Mr. Gillingham and his city-council counterparts need to start a serious investigation into addressing the root causes of safety issues in the city’s downtown core.

Last week, community activist Sel Burrows called the slaying of 28-year-old Tyree Cayer at the library “the canary in the coal mine” for downtown Winnipeg — an indication of deeper, more complex issues plaguing the neighbourhood. If Mr. Cayer’s untimely death is the canary, public officials are beholden to act on that warning.

The area is suffering from an identity crisis, and the people who call it home are on the losing end.

The area is suffering from an identity crisis, and the people who call it home are on the losing end.

Downtown remains the city’s main business and entertainment district, with thousands of people flocking temporarily to office buildings and venues every day and on many evenings. In recent years, the neighbourhood has also seen a wave of investment in high-end apartments and shops.

Unfortunately, such developments are designed to attract a certain kind of visitor or affluent resident, while largely overlooking the downtown area’s core population. From affordable housing and grocery stores to schools and greenspaces, downtown Winnipeg is starved of many of the key elements that make an area liveable.

If the city is serious about improving safety at the Millennium Library in the long run, it needs to commit to improving the liveability of downtown as a whole. One way forward is by prioritizing investments that support the existing community, rather than green-lighting projects that serve an imagined one.