Is your neighbourhood a community? Mine isn't.

Different residential areas breed different types of social relationships. Some neighbourhoods breed tight knit communities of caring neighbours, many others are just places to live with no real sense of community or relation to ones neighbours.

I'd argue that I live in the latter.

I can only name one other person who lives in my building, and he's the caretaker. I rarely if ever talk to my neighbours, and they do the same. It's not that we dislike each other, we know nothing about one another, that's just the way it is in this apartment building and as well as many of the other buildings I've inhabited in central Winnipeg.

Osborne Village was better in this regard than Broadway/Assiniboine. Unlike in the Village there are very few small businesses in the neighbourhood, and therefor very few places that encourage neighbours to mingle amongst one another.

I don't have any statistics supporting my theory, but I'm willing to bet that the majority of people living on Broadway and Assiniboine Avenue between Memorial Osborne and Main Street don't work in the same neighbourhood. Likewise when they choose to go out to eat they most likely head south to Osborne Village or Corydon, or north to Portage Ave. and the Exchange District, or maybe even to the Forks.

I occasionally run in to the same people at the convenience store across the street, but no one lingers there, at least not anyone you really want to get to know.

I don't do most of my grocery shopping at the closest grocery store. The IGA on Donald is terribly lacking in decent produce, I'd rather get groceries at Sacco and Vanzetti's on Albert St. or any of the stores in the Village. The Forks comes to mind as the best place for area residents to purchase produce and other food items, except it's seen as primarily a tourist attraction and the Main Street entrance to the Forks is uninviting pedestrians.

Broadway doesn't suffer the vacant building problem that is so prominent on the streets north towards Portage. Its primary problem is that it lacks sufficiently small spaces for niche markets to emerge to support the area's residents. The area needs better options for groceries

I'd love to see Broadway/Assiniboine become more of a self sustaining neighbourhood where you didn't have to leave to go about your daily business, unfortunately I don't see that happening any time soon.

Bartley Kives admits the return of the Jets has made the city a sunnier place.

Seeing the (Blue) LIGHT:

We were doing fine without the NHL, I protested to the expats in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary, where half of Winnipeg now lives and romanticizes its past. We were humming along as a medium-sized city where the locals were finally comfortable in their nowhere-near-world-class skins. I felt Winnipeg didn't need this weird media phenomenon to reattain legitimacy in the eyes of elsewhere. And I was a little pissed.

But then something happened that I did not expect. I wound up with a small share of season tickets, thereby joining Winnipeg's new overprivileged clique. I started watching the games on TV, even though I had not watched the NHL since the original Jets left town in 1996. I started reading league and team statistics online after every game. I acquainted myself with some of the math involved in playoff probability projections. I became a bit obsessed.

I thought this was an especially good piece by Bartley Kives of the Winnipeg Free Press.

Kives isn't blind to the favouritism the City has shown True North, or the jingoist undertones in the Jets franchise. That however, doesn't mean he can't enjoy the NHL's return.

Reconciliation through hockey

David Jacks, Hockey Lives Here: In the Straight of the Great Spirit:

I think we should do what many other organizations in Canada are beginning to do. Prior to, or immediately following the singing of the National Anthem, we should officially acknowledge at the beginning of each Winnipeg Jets home game that this wonderful sport and coming-together of people is being played on traditional Assiniboine, Dene, Cree, Dakota Sioux, Ojibway, Metis, and Inuit territory.

I couldn't agree more. As was shown by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report, Canadians need to be better educated about our history and residential schools. A gathering of 15,000 hockey fans is a good venue for reminding Canadians where our country came from and who we share it with.

The NHL already has several ceremonies honouring the Canadian Forces, the Royal Canadian Air Force, Police and Rescue Workers, and other groups, it only makes sense that Winnipeg have a ceremony to honour the local First Nations.

Do you need a bandaid for that booboo?

CBC News:

Walking around Winnipeg in the winter is now a little safer, thanks to a new online bulletin that grades sidewalk and street conditions. Surefoot.org, a website launched by the City of Winnipeg, provides daily updates based on observations from city street maintenance staff.

I don’t want to dismiss the project, nor Coun. Harvey Smith’s unfortunate accident. I’m not going to argue that such a resource as Surefoot.org isn’t necessary, after all traffic reports have been around for a long time and are a helpful resource for motorists. I will however argue the likelihood that Surefoot.org will have much impact on the safety of city streets.

Slippery sidewalks are a reality in any winter climate city and how to deal with them is difficult. As a carless Winnipegger living in the Downtown core I have to deal with slippery sidewalks pretty much every day during the fall and winter months, yet I honestly can’t see myself using Surefoot. How many Winnipeggers are actually expected to use the site, especially those in the target demographic of Winnipeggers over the age of fifty? It’s easier to look out the window, if you see snow on the trees, buildings, and cars it’s quite likely the streets are slippery.

Commenters on the CBC story mocked the project as a waste of taxpayers’ money, however it seems, at least to this writer, like Surefoot was created as a concession with the knowledge that a real¹ solution would be much more costly. Web resources like this are really just a bandaid. It’s an easy answer to a hard problem. When someone comes crying to City Hall about how they think something needs to be done about the slippery streets just send them a carefully worded acknowledgement and pop in the link to Surefoot. Now nobody can complain the City doesn’t care.

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¹The real solution being regularly removing snow and sanding the heaviest traffic and most problematic sidewalks. This is already done to some extent but not to the same degree that streets are cleared for motorists. Obviously this would put more strain on the City’s swelling snow removal budget.

Running reds and amber light durations

Buried within this Winnipeg Free Press article about photo radar at intersections is the mention of Winnipeg's shorter than average amber lights.

The best piece of journalism in the Free Press' story is actually in the comments section (much to the dismay of this writer who has not been shy to voice his distaste for comments on news sites).

Todd Dube:¹

The City of Winnipeg is the only city in Canada that does not adhere to the formula for determining minimum, safe amber times. Winnipeggers "run" red lights at our 80kph camera intersections at a rate of 600% more than the other camera intersections - for the simple reason that those ambers should be 5.5 seconds and not 4 seconds. That is not only profitable but dangerous. The increase in collisions is due to the unnecessary crisis presented to drivers due to the short amber itself. Winnipeggers must read the facts to learn that our true safety has been traded for profit.

As a pedestrian I witness drivers speeding through amber lights and running reds on a daily basis. The southbound lane of McMillan / Corydon Ave. at Osborne St. is one of the worst intersections I've seen. Stand there for five minutes and you'll likely witness more than one car blow through the red.

Frankly I'm shocked their haven't been more accidents involving pedestrians who started crossing when the pedestrian light came on without first checking to make sure there wasn't a car still barreling through the intersection. I personally have become accustomed to waiting a couple seconds after the light to start crossing, even still I've had several close calls where speeding vehicles have disregarded the already red light.

I'm not sure if it's actually as nefarious as some City Hall plot to increase profits, but it is another example of the City's disregard for pedestrian safety.

UPDATE: The City published a report a year ago on March 8th, 2011 that states

Today, the Public Service recommends maintaining the current practice of having four seconds of amber light time and adopting a formula to calculate the all-red light time, as this provides a safer scenario than having a longer amber light time.

They go on to reference research from the State of Georgia legislation. Why are decisions being made based on data from a foreign State, especially one that is geographically different than Manitoba?

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¹ It should be noted that Todd Dube is no stranger to this issue, he runs the site WiseUp Winnipeg which is dedicated to "publicly expose the deception within the photo enforcement program and to draw attention to Winnipeg’s traffic infrastructure inadequacies (including amber times, speed limits and signage) that are being deliberately exploited by the program to generate maximum “violations” from otherwise safe driving behaviours."

Independent music at its best

Friday night I attended the CKUW Fundrive wrap-up event at the Lo Pub here in Downtown Winipeg. It was a great night of local music featuring the bands of the new Winnipeg record label, Disintegration Records, cofounded by Greg MacPherson and Cam Loeppky.

The room was packed when I showed up fashionably late. I missed Slow Dancers but Nova was just getting started. Unfortunately I was distracted by friends and procuring beer and forgot to take any photos of them, but I can assure you they rocked.

The room was already buzzing, but when Cannon Bros. took the stage everyone in the crowd took note. The two piece consisting of Cole Wood and Alannah Walker always seem to stand out despite their quiet personas. They played most of their recently released album, Firecracker/Cloudglow. If you've never seen them live, Cole and Alannah take turns on guitar and drums, switching off every couple of songs depending on the set list. Alannah's singing has a hint of Tegan and Sara, whereas Cole's reminds me of Stephen Carroll's work in the long defunct Painted Thin. Cole usually steals the show with his stage presence, whether he's pounding on the drums like John Bonham, or making up awkward dance moves.

After stepping outside for some much needed fresh air it was back up to the front of the stage for my friends Haunter. If you've been to any local shows in the past couple of years, especially at Lo Pub, you've probably heard Matt Williams belting out over the microphone with a guitar in one hand and a beer in the other. You may also recognize some of his bandmates from earlier on in the evening (Cole as mentioned earlier in Cannon Bros./Slow Dancers, and Marie France of Slow Dancers). The guitar section lead by Jory Hasselman makes frequent use of vibrato, and exploit the distortion and feedback of their amplifiers. Like so many rock bands before them, I think Haunter's goal is to be the loudest band in town. But they aren't just about volume, Haunter is a hard working band that make honest music. Their late night anthems compel you to down your drink, raise your glass in the air and then have another for the road.

Conclusion, it was a great night of local independent music in one of the best venues in town. If you dig music with a bit more meaning and heart than whatever's being recycled on the Top 40 you should support community radio like CKUW.