Old and new, bleak and beautiful. I thirst for the brick in this city like a dog lusts for the dripping bone.
Winnipeg is a city of extremes.... It is near the center of North America, and is both Canada's hottest (summer) and coldest (other 9 months of the year) city.
There is a lot of historical wealth ("old money") here, and this continues to help spur local development. Contradicting this are massive pockets of blight and poverty; some areas of Winnipeg are arguably the roughest in the nation, and correcting this problem with limited funding - and at the same time avoiding mass gentrification - is proving to be the city's largest challenge.
Poverty, prostitution, the hard drug trade, and resulting gang violence continue to present hurdles for inner city growth, yet there is hope for the city. Both the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg are growing in campus size and student body. Immigration is increasing due in part to a stable economy and affordable housing. Large ethnic groups within the city include French Canadians, aboriginals, Ukrainians, Mennonites, Jews, Filipinos, and a growing populace of English speaking and francophone people from across Northern Africa.
Our metro area is host to roughly 760,000 inhabitants, I believe. New developments include rapid transit proposals, a tentative football stadium, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and an ultra modern international airport terminal. Construction will also soon begin on a 'world class' arctic - themed zoo exhibit.
The city is frustrating to live in at times, as the municipal government seems to lack clarity and vision. Projects are continually delayed and downsized, and in many ways development can appear backwards, aloof, and unsustainable. Recently, however, there has been renewed interest to revitalize the core. Some derelict buildings are under conversion and renovation, and hopefully better mass transit may reduce our abundance of downtown surface area parking lots. Recent construction includes a pedestrian bridge linking the French Quarter to downtown, a new hockey arena, the LEED certified Manitoba Hydro Building - the city's 4th tallest - and large a scale expansion of the downtown campus of the Red River College.
Without further ranting, here's a brief tour; generally the following will be inner city shots, with a few exceptions. I've only lived here a few years and I'm not a great photographer, but I do really dig this city.
As promised, you won't find one bloody lemur in the whole tour:
Central downtown:
A view from a few stories up:
Looking North:
The Royal Winnipeg Ballet building, with the Manitoba Legislature in the background:
The Manitoba Hydro Building:
The foreground shows the printing house for the Winnipeg Free Press, the city's only real newspaper. [There is also a tabloid posing as a newspaper; it's called the Sun, and mostly features bikini clad gals and drug busts as seen through the eyes of overworked, undereducated beat cops]:
To the immediate northwest of downtown's financial core we find the Central Park / Centennial neighbourhood:
Part of this building collapsed and fell to the street below during a horrific storm; luckily nobody was hurt:
It simply amazed me that this building exterior looked the same even after the mescaline wore off:
This remarkable structure includes an authentic southeastern Asia - inspired corrugated metal green roof:
Urban myth holds that this statue was carved by an ancient master craftsman named Maldvander after he founded the Concrete Guild of Minneapolis:
This city has the topography of a chessboard, so you have to clime a rare, distant hill - or be in a highrise - to really capture any nifty views. Here's the western bit o'downtown:
These are the tallest buildings in the city's Osborne Village area; supposedly the third densest population wise in the country. The Village is a trendy area filled with shops and restaurants located south of downtown across the Assiniboine River:
In the foreground we see the University of Winnipeg, the city's second largest post secondary institution. The downtown campus includes a wonderful "castle like" administration building. The rest of the buildings look like Stars Wars styled bunkers on the outside, and on the inside it's like the 1970s overindulged in gin and blow and threw up all over the hallways:
Looking east from the Health Sciences Centre:
I wanted to capture this rare image before the structure inevitably gets torn down or falls victim to arson:
Yep:
The taller four buildings to the left hover over the famous intersection of Portage and Main, in the worlds of Pope Pius IX "gang-banging the fuck out of this cold, inaccessible, counter-intuitive navigation nightmare." End quote:
Looking southeast:
I like being redundant:
A more all - encompassing view of Osborne Village:
I actually think we have a decent skyline for a metro area of under one million people:
I like to call this shot "Jar of Transgendered Marmalade:"
Our currant football stadium:
Meanwhile, in Canada....
Yep again:
The southern portion of downtown:
Racist cars:
South - central neighbourhood; Polo Park / St. James area, I believe:
Towards the North End, the city's beautiful and historic eastern European / Jewish neighbourhood. Today parts of this vast area suffer from social ills such as poverty and decay. I will explore this area further as I add to this thread:
Peg City, Y'all:
Canada has a great variety of excellent brews. This beer, however, is complete shit. The label should read "May contain traces of stale raccoon semen, aged newsprint, and expired apple juice." Their secret ingredient is hopelessness:
Lookin' east down Portage Avenue:
A rare 'density' shot amidst a sea of surface area parking lots:
My house is in the foreground. I'm a pirate. And I hold stakes in the Tim Hortons / cocaine market:
Thar she be:
Sometimes things like this are needed:
This is good:
When I renovate this into my jam space the cross will have to go in lieu of a bitchin' Lou Reed flag:
For an estimated 364 days a year this becomes part of the world's longest skating rink:
To sum up the complexities and multi-faceted layers of French Canadian thought, history, and social-political culture in one sentence: half of them want to separate; the other half like making strange creatures out of wood.
Imagine my confusion when I showed up to 467 7/16 by mistake:
We need more buildings like this:
The Red River. Word:
A bridge not so much over troubled water, but more like a bridge over the idea of getting a fuckin' train:
St. Boniface, the city's French Quarter across the Red River from downtown. To the left is what's left of a Catholic Cathedral, which was allegedly burned to the ground by leprechauns. To the right is the silver dome of St. Boniface University:
Towards tha Village, yo. Word:
I think we can all agree that we need more faux Roman architecture in North American cities. Why let Las Vegas have all the tasteless, tacky fun when YOUR city could be the next to get a golden tipi?
This is, in the words of Jimmy Hoffa, "Not a pancake:"
A nice lil' gem tucked away in Little Detroit on the Prairies:
Colour. Contrast. Drink Coke:
This is my dog house. You can look it up!
"No," said the mayor upon considering the motion, "I think we should just let everything get dilapidated as fuck:"
This is the new arena for the Manitoba Moose hockey team. It is within the top 15 busiest venues in the world in terms of attendance / number of seats:
They sold me ski bindings but refused to do my taxes. Go figure:
This bridge is known to the locals with affection as "Antelope Bridge." Or rather, it will be known as this once more people see this thread:
Across the Red River:
An emerging condo district on the northeastern hub of the downtown core:
Far out:
Brought to you by your friends at the Institute of Scientology:
These might seem nifty once I'm past fifty:
Gotham:
The Bank of Montreal:
The ten story white highrise to the bottom right is the Canada Post building; they are relocating their main facility to near the airport, and the cops are about to make the downtown site their new digs:
Our obligatory revolving tower restaurant has been closed "for renovations" for a couple years now.... Wonder what's going on:
The southern hub of Winnipeg's amazing Exchange District:
The building with the gals painted on the side once held the nation's first public gathering concerning the right to vote for dames. Sorry, lasses. Broads. Skirts. Gals. Byrds. Chicks. Girlies:
More of the western Exchange:
Looking northbound on Main Street:
When I become dictator this shall become the intersection of Robocop and MacGyver:
Another building that is crazy even post - mescaline:
My favorite building in the city, the Electric Railway Chambers:
Looking into the East Exchange:
West Exchange:
Still no lemurs, as promised:
More West Exchange, yo:
I can dig it:
Lookin' south on Main:
The historic Fort Garry Hotel rests underneath 1990's revolving tower offering:
Chinatown, home to Winnipeg's ethnic Hungarian community:
Le Dome:
We like our Manitoba Tyndall Limestone in this town:
Brutalist China:
The Arlington Bridge was constructed at Winnipeg's Dominion Bridgeworks at the turn of the 20th century. Originally intended to span the Nile at Cairo, the materials were deemed ill-suited for that climate. The at the time wealthy City of Winnipeg opted to purchase the bridge, and today it spans a vast rail yard:
Lookin' south:
A study in clouds:
This shot is so beautiful it makes your mother look ugly:
The Wall of Wisdom:
More Electric Railway Chambers:
Goblins ate my baby:
This city has more Ukrainians than you can shake a stick at. I tried shaking my stick at several Ukrainians, to no avail:
Mid - fall:
Little known fact: this building is actually in WINNIPEG, CANADA!
I will leave you with a horrific image of the Public Safety Building, an accident Oprah once described as "ugly as fuckin' sin, like some post - apocalyptic monstrosity forged with the compacted ash of the burnt corpses of the world's cutest dead pets."
Thanks for lookin'. I shall one day post more pictures of this splendid city, and perhaps a few shots of my bitchin' calves as well.
There are a lot of 'hoods I did not cover in this thread so far, but be patient.... Once this mescaline wears off, I'll hit the streets, avec camera, once again....
Thanks again!
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