OT: Sutherland Hotel burns to the ground.

[TheDeuce]

I don't know what the solution is but at least we know what it isn't:

 

[ps241]

This is not a just a WINNIPEG thing in case people here are wondering.

A good friend of mine sits on an urban district improvement council in our city and he attends North American conventions on strategies to elevate urban areas. Almost every city big and small in North is dealing with this crisis and yea its trajectory is similar everywhere. If you think it’s because of our demographics then think again. It’s ravaging inner cities with completely different demographic mixes than ours.

Enemies:

Addiction
Mental health crisis
Opioid meth crack cheaper more lethal
Housing insecurity

The question I ask myself is am I a spectator watching, complaining, and booing or am I a player in the game trying to help.

 

[Jets4Life]

This is not a just a WINNIPEG thing in case people here are wondering.

A good friend of mine sits on an urban district improvement council in our city and he attends North American conventions on strategies to elevate urban areas. Almost every city big and small in North is dealing with this crisis and yea its trajectory is similar everywhere. If you think it’s because of our demographics then think again. It’s ravaging inner cities with completely different demographic mixes than ours.

Enemies:

Addiction
Mental health crisis
Opioid meth crack cheaper more lethal
Housing insecurity

The question I ask myself is am I a spectator watching, complaining, and booing or am I a player in the game trying to help.

I can tell you that the homeless problem is far worse in cities like Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver. Edmonton, in particular is downright scary now, if one were a few blocks east of where the Oilers play.. With the provincial Government they have right now, I have no doubt the problem is going to get much worse.

 

[Al Camino]

I work downtown Winnipeg for the past 28 years. That area has become significantly (to my old eyes) worse, especially since Covid.

I appreciate your optimism, and I too wish to see that lengthy stretch be revitalized - but realistically, really don't at all see it happening. And hey, a "safe" injection site is opening right in that area too quite soon. Ask BC how that has worked out for the challenged section of the population who use locations like that and the surrounding dis-advantaged population residing there.....


This is accurate.

I am sure the insurance companies holding the coverage on these structures will be doing some extra digging to find the cause of loss.

I thought I read there was no coverage on the hotel. But I could be very wrong. Either way I hope people will quit burning buildings down.

 

[LucianoBorsato]

One of my friends lived not too far from it in the early 2010s. We'd sometimes get beer from the vendor, that was always a risky venture after dark

 

[Jets4Life]

Same here, and I agree. Despite the monumental effort put into improving the area, it has become progressively worse and worse. 30 years ago downtown was a legitimate shopping destination on par with any of the malls in the city. Now the marquee shopping destinations, such as they are, are MEC, Giant Tiger and Dollarama.

This is not true. I was a teenager in the mid 1990s, and Downtown was a dead zone after 6 PM. In fact, Portage Place was a failure from day 1. The food court, in particular was always depressing, becoming a hangout for homeless people and gang members even 30 years ago. The two other malls, Eaton Place and Winnipeg Square were also dead zones after 6 PM.



You may be thinking of the 70s. By the 80s, it was clear that malls like St.Vital and Polo Park were thriving, while the Downtown Bay and Eatons were losing money, and stores were closing down on a regular basis. In the 90s, all the movie theatres were losing money, and eventually would close. IMAX never drew well. The last reason to visit Portage Place for me, was McNally Robinson book store, which also moved in the late 2000s.

 

[jetsmooseice]

This is not true. I was a teenager in the mid 1990s, and Downtown was a dead zone after 6 PM. In fact, Portage Place was a failure from day 1. The food court, in particular was always depressing, becoming a hangout for homeless people and gang members even 30 years ago. The two other malls, Eaton Place and Winnipeg Square were also dead zones after 6 PM.

Maybe Portage Place wasn't living up to original expectations, but the point was that downtown Winnipeg was still a full-on retail destination. You had the two largest stores in the province, Eaton's and The Bay at either end, and Portage Place in between back when it was still full of retailers. You could buy pretty well anything you needed downtown, much like at Polo Park or any other shopping mall.

That really only changed once Eaton's closed for good in 1999. Then at that point the pace of store closures and downgrades (e.g. chain clothing store to mom and pop cell cell phone accessory shop) accelerated until it became what it is now.

 

[Jets4Life]

Maybe Portage Place wasn't living up to original expectations, but the point was that downtown Winnipeg was still a full-on retail destination. You had the two largest stores in the province, Eaton's and The Bay at either end, and Portage Place in between back when it was still full of retailers. You could buy pretty well anything you needed downtown, much like at Polo Park or any other shopping mall.

There was a mass exodus of people shopping in Downtown Winnipeg decades ago, from what I hear, the late 70s/early 80s. I used to go downtown very often in the 90s, and it was always dead. In fact, the whole concept of Portage Place, was to "revitalize" downtown, and bring it back to life. In retrospect, it never made sense, and was destined to fail. Downtown already had two malls that were performing relatively poorly, why build a third one?

Portage Place, as seen in the CBC video 9 months from it's opening in September 1987, was a white elephant. What is truly ironic, is there were serious considerations to build a new arena for the Jets on the land Portage Place is on. Eaton's and The Bay were not doing well, to the point that both stores cut their hours, and closed early, from 9 to 6 on most weekdays.

That really only changed once Eaton's closed for good in 1999. Then at that point the pace of store closures and downgrades (e.g. chain clothing store to mom and pop cell cell phone accessory shop) accelerated until it became what it is now.

Again, this is not true. The whole reason Eaton's closed downtown, is it had been losing money for nearly two decades. The Bay was not fairing any better, and it was really a question of when it would shut down. I'm just surprised that it stayed open for as long as it did. This would be obvious to anyone who spend considerable amount of time at both suburban and downtown malls.

There was no comparison. Unlike downtown, places like St. Vital mall and Polo Park were always jam packed from the 80s onward.