Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy6
The more I look at these photos the more it seems to me that downtown's demise can be dated to 1979-80 when St. Vital and Kildonan Place malls opened. Through the 1970s there was kind of a stay of execution as Winnipeg somehow made do with only one major shopping centre for much longer than other similar cities did. The loss of the Tribune in 1980 and the very painful recession of 1980-81 compounded the problem.
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I think you are probably right. As a glazier (Pilkingtons) in the 70s and 80s, a crew of two (sometimes more) were busy doing service work downtown almost the whole week. After killing ourselves when some nut thought building Eaton Place and St. Vital Mall at about the same time was a fine idea, we were downtown less and less after that. Some of this could be a result of new work requiring tempered glass but I suspect more that downtown Winnipeg began to spiral into a non destination and a who cares attitude.