Winnipeg - Of Interest

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by esquire

FP bloated with staff and content?! When was the last time you picked up a paper copy of the Freep? You can barely find any content hidden among the ads.

And when a huge chunk of their building is still available for lease now that the newsroom and other departments have been decimated, you know there is not exactly a surplus of people there:

https://www.winnipegcommercialrealto...LEASE_2017.pdf

The Freep is a sliver of it’s former self, all the good writers left or got punted in a cost cutting measure and most of the content is syndicated crap.

For those who bemoan the Sun put out by a skelton Staff do you really think the Freep is much better? For the amount of content in the Freep it should be put out in tabloid form!

[Curmudgeon]

Print media is a dying industry. I don't think anything can be done to stop its decline. With a 24 hour television and internet news cycle it is increasingly irrelevant. Only newspapers with very large and/or national markets will survive.

The 2015 PAID Saturday circulation for the Free Press has declined from over 200,000 to just about 93,000 in just over a decade. That's still good enough for 4th place for the English-language papers in Canada, behind only the Globe and Mail (299,000), Toronto Star (298,000) and Vancouver Sun (102,000).

[esquire]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

The Freep is a sliver of it’s former self, all the good writers left or got punted in a cost cutting measure and most of the content is syndicated crap.

For those who bemoan the Sun put out by a skelton Staff do you really think the Freep is much better? For the amount of content in the Freep it should be put out in tabloid form!

Yes, as someone who reads print copies of both on a regular basis, the Freep is still clearly a much better newspaper. There is more content, better content and longer stories.

That said, even the Freep is a shadow of what it once was... there's no denying that. But to me the Sun is basically a source of hockey and football news and not much else. If you get a decent Brodbeck column then that's a bonus.

[Wolf13]

Originally Posted by esquire

Yes, as someone who reads print copies of both on a regular basis, the Freep is still clearly a much better newspaper. There is more content, better content and longer stories.

That said, even the Freep is a shadow of what it once was... there's no denying that. But to me the Sun is basically a source of hockey and football news and not much else. If you get a decent Brodbeck column then that's a bonus.

You could make a case that the Freep, while better presented and more eloquent, is no smarter than the Sun. It's so painfully up its own liberal ass, and they write as if they're the only voice in the city, and as self-appointed "only voice" prop up non-people like gordon sinclair all day.

Brodbeck can be annoying, but you know what you're getting, and you're getting a taxpayer vigilante... not bad in principle...

[blueandgoldguy]

Gordon Sinclair - the Kent Brockman of Newspaper columnists.

And this reporter firmly places the blame on you the viewer (for whatever I sob-story I am disseminating in my current article).

[Authentic_City]

CBC is reporting that the invasive Emerald Ash Borer has been found in Winnipeg. This is an extremely destructive pest that has wiped out native ash trees in eastern Canada and the US. It is potentially worse than the Dutch Elm disease that Winnipeg has been managing fairly successfully for several decades. This is bad news for Winnipeg, but not unexpected. Winnipeg's urban forest is under serious threat.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manito...orer-1.4438061

[LilZebra]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

For the amount of content in the Freep it should be put out in tabloid form!

Oh, I'd love to see that.

Then we could all call the Freep a "tabloid" just like the Sun in its earliest days.

Karma's a bitch.

PS: Decades ago, Free Press did have a weekly tabloid called Weekly. That was before they bought out Transcontinental

[vid]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

CBC is reporting that the invasive Emerald Ash Borer has been found in Winnipeg. This is an extremely destructive pest that has wiped out native ash trees in eastern Canada and the US. It is potentially worse than the Dutch Elm disease that Winnipeg has been managing fairly successfully for several decades. This is bad news for Winnipeg, but not unexpected. Winnipeg's urban forest is under serious threat.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manito...orer-1.4438061

How many of Winnipeg's street trees are ash? In Thunder Bay, every tree planted to replace the elms we lost, and every tree planted before 2005, was ash, so we're fucked. We're also dealing with the bronze birch borer (which does what EAB does to ash—burrows into the phloem and eats its way out, then eats thousands of leaves as an adult before laying eggs and dying) which has killed about 90% of our urban birch trees, and at the same time, all the Manitoba maple we planted are dying of old age or getting too big to stay upright (which is a problem with that species), so they're being removed, too. There is one a few blocks away from my that's slowly been spreading out and it's only a matter of time before one of the half dozen smaller trees that make up the whole organism falls down and the city removes the entire thing. It's a shame that just as our forest canopy gets mature, almost all of it is dying at the same time regardless of species.

They actually vaccinated about 80% of the ash trees on my street so hopefully it works, some of them lost 80+% of their leaves and were removed. The canopy even on health trees was only about two thirds full, it's incredibly obvious. Like their spread in North America (a contaminated shipment of car parts from China is where they're believed to have come from), they're believed to have come to the city in a shipment of auto parts from Southern Ontario, and they were first detected in an area with several car dealerships.

I'd guess that from that point they've just hitched a ride with Thunder Bayers travelling west. Duluth has had them for about 7 years now. The damage in Southern Ontario has been almost apocalyptic, they had entire forests of ash trees that are now dead.

[buzzg]

Lol @ Bob Cox whining again – this time at the province considering not putting notice in the paper. As if people are flocking to the Freep to read the permits section. This guy is out to lunch.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/lo...462958623.html

[esquire]

Originally Posted by buzzg

Lol @ Bob Cox whining again – this time at the province considering not putting notice in the paper. As if people are flocking to the Freep to read the permits section. This guy is out to lunch.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/lo...462958623.html

I actually think he's partly right. I totally get the province withdrawing the need to publish certain narrowly-focused notices that are probably quite limited in terms of impact... like the weekly litany of dissolution of limited partnerships published in the Sun's classified section, that kind of thing.

However, some of the matters that are of potentially broader interest like zoning matters, conservation matters, electoral district changes, etc. should remain in the newspapers where people are much likelier to see them.

[buzzg]

Something like an electoral district change is news, they'll cover that anyway. Province doesn't need to buy an ad for that. They have a website and social media to serve that purpose that doesn't cost extra money.

[Authentic_City]

Originally Posted by vid

How many of Winnipeg's street trees are ash? In Thunder Bay, every tree planted to replace the elms we lost, and every tree planted before 2005, was ash, so we're fucked. We're also dealing with the bronze birch borer (which does what EAB does to ash—burrows into the phloem and eats its way out, then eats thousands of leaves as an adult before laying eggs and dying) which has killed about 90% of our urban birch trees, and at the same time, all the Manitoba maple we planted are dying of old age or getting too big to stay upright (which is a problem with that species), so they're being removed, too. There is one a few blocks away from my that's slowly been spreading out and it's only a matter of time before one of the half dozen smaller trees that make up the whole organism falls down and the city removes the entire thing. It's a shame that just as our forest canopy gets mature, almost all of it is dying at the same time regardless of species.

It's a similar story in Winnipeg. I have read that 1/3 of Winnipeg's trees are Ash (350,000 trees). The largest concentrations of ash are in newer neighbourhoods planted after the outbreak of DED. Black knot wiped out shubert chokecherry trees that were also commonly planted on boulevards in newer subdivisions. Not many birch in Winnipeg, but those birch that you do see are affected by the bronze birch borer. The majority of Winnipeg's trees are Ash and Elm, so I'm not sure what we will do. The city is trying to plant more diverse species, but there are limited options with our climate and soil. Common city plantings now include maples (silver, Manitoba, freeman, sugar), basswood, burr oak, ohio buckeye, butternut and hackberry.

They actually vaccinated about 80% of the ash trees on my street so hopefully it works, some of them lost 80+% of their leaves and were removed. The canopy even on health trees was only about two thirds full, it's incredibly obvious.

Vaccinating ash trees can help, but it is expensive because it has to be done every 2 years. I doubt Winnipeg would have the budget for it.

Like their spread in North America (a contaminated shipment of car parts from China is where they're believed to have come from), they're believed to have come to the city in a shipment of auto parts from Southern Ontario, and they were first detected in an area with several car dealerships. I'd guess that from that point they've just hitched a ride with Thunder Bayers travelling west. Duluth has had them for about 7 years now. The damage in Southern Ontario has been almost apocalyptic, they had entire forests of ash trees that are now dead.

I imagine it will travel across the prairies pretty quickly. Look out Regina and Saskatoon!

[Roger Strong]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

I have read that 1/3 of Winnipeg's trees are Ash (350,000 trees). The largest concentrations of ash are in newer neighbourhoods planted after the outbreak of DED. Black knot wiped out shubert chokecherry trees that were also commonly planted on boulevards in newer subdivisions. Not many birch in Winnipeg, but those birch that you do see are affected by the bronze birch borer. The majority of Winnipeg's trees are Ash and Elm, so I'm not sure what we will do.

...St. James has been hit by aluminum budworm...

[Authentic_City]

^Ha Ha! Those metal trees on Portage Ave are actually a crafty solution to the difficulties of planting trees along a high traffic corridor. The only issue is corrosion from salt exposure, but they still seem to be in pretty decent shape after all these years.

[Roger Strong]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

^Ha Ha! Those metal trees on Portage Ave are actually a crafty solution to the difficulties of planting trees along a high traffic corridor. The only issue is corrosion from salt exposure, but they still seem to be in pretty decent shape after all these years.

They were refurbished last year. The original strings of lights were replaced with LED lighting, and they're now connected to the city's lighting power grid rather than the local business outlets.

[Authentic_City]

^Ah, that explains why they look so good!

[wags_in_the_peg]

Originally Posted by Authentic_City

^Ah, that explains why they look so good!

i agree, driving home from Iceplex a few evening last weekends and they are nice and bright and shall i say different, in a positive way! i wouldn't want them all over the city but a few blocks of them are ok.

[Biff]

Sad, sad day.....I thought we were almost a sure thing. I actually quit my job in preparation for the move. Me and Alexa....

Amazon 20 city short list

Originally Posted by FrankieFlowerpot

this morning

[esquire]

But I was led to believe that we were practically a shoo-in for this thing!

[esquire]

Here's a good article about a project's triumph over knee-jerk neighbourhood NIMBYism:

McMillan House marches on

Buyer interest strong for unique condo complex ready to break ground

By: Ryan Thorpe
Posted: 02/5/2018 3:00 AM

After a battle with a city community committee, a local development company is set to break ground on a new luxury condominium complex in Crescentwood next month.

The building is a 12-unit, four-storey, high-end complex, set to go up on vacant property at the corner of Harrow Street and McMillan Avenue.

Deals have closed on five of a dozen luxury suites planned for McMillan House heading into next month's groundbreaking. Construction on the Crescentwood building is expected to take eight to 10 months.

Breaking ground on the project was more difficult than expected for Winnipeg’s Ventura Developments.

Despite city planners giving the project their blessing, the infill development was opposed by area councillor, John Orlikow (River Heights — Fort Garry).

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/bu...472674153.html

This looks like a great project and a superb way of breathing new life into a mature neighbourhood.