The Metropolitan Corporation of Greater Winnipeg—Planning Division April 1, 1969
The effects on the Downtown of the flight from the central city have been to leave behind as the residual resident population the poor and the aged of the city; to leave a high proportion of floor space either vacant or occupied at very low rentals by, in many cases, marginal tenants; to leave large site areas either vacant or used as surface parking lots; to create serious over-congestion on the Downtown streets and on the major arteries between the residential suburbs and the Downtown employment centre, particularly at peak hours; and to spread a general air of deterioration and neglect, even of abandonment, over the entire central business district.
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The plan for the Downtown is based on two premises: firstly that there are certain key areas which, if appropriately developed, will determine the function and character of the Downtown, and secondly, that if these keyareas are appropriately developed, whatever occurs in the rest of the Downtown can be accommodated without undue concern as to whether it is “planned” or not.